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pulling a tt in the snow

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High winds in Wyoming

19.5 Tire discussion

For you guys that pull your travel trailers in the snow. Everything else being equal, do you find it easier to pull a bumper pull or a 5th wheel in the snow ? Or is there any difference ?
 
I have pulled our 40' 5ver weighing at 16k+ and my 16' bumper pull work trailer weighing at 6.5k, I'd rather pull the 5ver any day in the snow
 
Best advice from the entire article:

Ideally, you should stay off the road if any snow or ice are present.

Absolutely!

Trailer brakes and slick roads don’t play well with each other.

I carry two pairs of drag chains for whatever trailer I’m towing in winter. They are the diamond kind so that there is always a link on the ground to keep the tires from locking up. I also drop the air pressure, like on the truck, to aid in traction.

Hunting and skiing with a trailer means I get into snow/ice on occasion. Go slow, chain up, and simply avoid it if you can.
 
Best advice from the entire article:

Ideally, you should stay off the road if any snow or ice are present.

For quite a few years we left NW Washington for Arizona between Christmas and New Years towing the 29' 5th wheel with the 2001.5 Ram. 2 or 3 times we left I-5 and took Highway 38 out to Reedsport on 101 and South to just North of the San Francisco Bay area before heading back inland. I always had one extra day planned in the trip South, as it took an extra day if I diverted to the coast because of snow in the higher elevations in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

The end of September 2019 towing the TT with the 2015 RAM we were one day ahead of Snow in Montana, Idaho and Utah each night. Passed up on a planned stay in Blackfoot, Id where DW had lived in the early 1960's and pushed on into Utah. The next morning Blackfoot was snowed in so to speak.
 
Having dragged many a trailer in the snow my advice stay off the road. When you realize you are in trouble it’s too late and life has gotten very expensive. A 5th wheel setup will give you the best towing. It makes the truck think it’s carrying a load in the bed where the truck was designed to do so. A bumper hitch even with equalizer hitch wants to take weight off the front steering wheels. Also never tow in 4 wheel drive. If you do when you get stuck you are really stuck. I learned this the hard way delivering Randy Travis’s 18k lbs boat and trailer to a boat show in Chicago. Normally a 1.5 day trip took almost 5 days. Weather was crazy that trip.
4608C164-9025-4111-B764-E2AA896A4A9C.jpeg
 
Also never tow in 4 wheel drive.

While I understand your theory behind that I have to say I disagree 100% with that statement.

Tow in 4wd if the roads are slick! It will give you better steering, braking, and acceleration.

4wd doesn't make you invincible on the snow, but it sure does have a time and place and towing on slick roads in one of those places.

It wouldn't be hard at all to get stuck in 2wd and have 4wd not be able to get you out, so what's the point then.
 
Exactly, @AH64ID

Seems silly to not take advantage of all that wonderful weight of the CTD over the front axle.

Then again....there’s still people around my area that “brag” about how little they use 4WD in their 4WD’s :D
 
I found towing in 4 wheel it was too easy to over power the front wheels. When you do you loose all steering. Also in 4 wheel one wheel locks ( when applying the brakes) they are all connected so they all want to lock. In two wheel when the road is slick let her coast use the engine to hold her back allow the front wheels to just turn you maintain control. I’m not saying you can’t get so stuck in 2 wheel that you can’t get out but if you do and 4 wheel is in your back pocket waiting you at least have a fighting chance. I watched many rigs wreck on that trip in 99. I made it without a scratch. There were many times I couldn’t give her any throttle going uphill nor could I touch the brakes going downhill. The wheels just spun or locked up. Was one hell of a trip. Deepest snow, some places well over 6’, I ever saw. I’ll never make a trip out there in the winter again. If I don’t need ice to keep my drink cold I Don’t Want to be THERE!
 
On the flip side in 4wd if one axle wants to lock up while braking it must lock up the other axle too, meaning it is more likely to prevent tire lockup than induce it. I played with this very thing in my TJ this morning. I could get my tires to lock up much easier in 2wd than 4wd. That was playing on empty side roads, not in traffic, etc.

If the front wheels were overpowered then the hitch was removing too much weight from the axle, which is the trailers fault and not 4wd. You shouldn't loose steering thou, you have to power thru it and keep the front wheels pulling not coasting, it feels unnatural but it takes power to correct that not 2wd.

Tire technology has also come a LONG ways since 1999, not to mention vehicle technology if that applies.
 
When we snowmobiled we used 4 wheel drive all the time to get up the mountain passes, and into and out of the parking lots. I had 4 studder snow tires for the 1993 and the 2001.5.

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Thanks for the replies. It was actually just an academic question for me. My wife's cousins daughters family is driving back today from seattle to the san francisco area. They are pulling a tt with a truck, thats all I know. "Truck is probably gas". I dont know if the tt is a bumper pull or a 5th. Just looking forward to hearing how the trip goes. BTW, last night and today its colder here in seattle than it is in frostbite falls in mn, anchorage and fairbanks ak. And about the same temp as in Nome.
 
Thanks for the replies. It was actually just an academic question for me. My wife's cousins daughters family is driving back today from seattle to the san francisco area. They are pulling a tt with a truck, thats all I know. "Truck is probably gas". I dont know if the tt is a bumper pull or a 5th. Just looking forward to hearing how the trip goes. BTW, last night and today its colder here in seattle than it is in frostbite falls in mn, anchorage and fairbanks ak. And about the same temp as in Nome.

Safe travels to them.

I'm willing to bet it's a bumper pull as I don't know anyhow who refers to a 5th wheel as a TT.
 
Thanks for the replies. It was actually just an academic question for me. My wife's cousins daughters family is driving back today from seattle to the san francisco area. They are pulling a tt with a truck, thats all I know. "Truck is probably gas". I dont know if the tt is a bumper pull or a 5th. Just looking forward to hearing how the trip goes. BTW, last night and today its colder here in seattle than it is in frostbite falls in mn, anchorage and fairbanks ak. And about the same temp as in Nome.

https://tripcheck.com/

I-5 at Siskiyou Pass is a mess. They will be required to have chains for the trailer to travel through the area. There are 3 or 4 other high point before one even gets that far. They should wait for better weather.
 
https://tripcheck.com/

I-5 at Siskiyou Pass is a mess. They will be required to have chains for the trailer to travel through the area. There are 3 or 4 other high point before one even gets that far. They should wait for better weather.

Chains are currently required on Siskiyou Pass. They will have to chain the truck and trailer to continue south.

Forecast doesn't look awesome all week, but today is the "best"... but it is a disaster there right now.
 
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