Towing Boat Behind Camper

[jarsong]

First off I have an 11. 5 Lance camper. I have had a "Towbar/Step" made for it that fits into the hitch and am looking for some input from you all on load ratings... . It started off as a step because of the Cheesy little step that came with the camper was more trouble than what it was worth. So I thought as long as I am making a step it might as well be the foundation of a towbar. It's 53" long from the end of the hitch and goes into the hitch receiver just like any other. The piece that goes into the hitch is solid 2" and then it overlaps about 12" with a 2" thick wall tube steel that goes the 53" with a ball mount on the end. They welded the two together (Tube steel under solid) and then welded gussetts (I think thats the word I'm looking for) on both sides to tie them together. One set of saftey chain loops to hook the 53" piece to the truck and another out back for the trailer. It's really a piece of art... Anyway, When I jump on it as hard as I can over and over very little flex can be detected in the bar but a little more in the hitch itself. Even then it's seems very minor. I'm thinking about a 3-4K boat out back to try to slow down the truck on hills... (Yea Right). So here's the questions. What weights do you tow behind your 11' camper? How long is your towbars? Doing some STRESS math I came up with a tounge load of about 225#@ 53" to equal the 500#@ 9" or so the hitch is rated for (Non-Weight Distribution). Any help or insight is welcome. Thanks!

 

[Archive]

Jarsong... I am not all that great with the physics of this, but I can tell you with a 53" extension, even solid, you would be on the ragged edge.



I know a person that had a 30 inch extension for his camper, hauled my 18ft flatbed with two fourwheelers on it, and some extra fuel. Off he went to alaska. By the time he got back here, the extension had a visiable bow to it. It was solid, also.



Before you go too far, I think you should call an expert... my recommendation is Tork Lift .



These guys know their stuff!

 

[jarsong]

Interesting... .

I was actually thinking I should has more slack in the tow bar so it wasn't so "rigid". I figured Rigid things tend to snap instead of bending gracefully. I think you have given some good advice that I'll take. It would still be interesting to know the tensile strenght of my setup without a wreck... If I was only smarter.....

 

[Archive]

Jarsong... they can tell you the max tongue weight with that extension... they do this for a living. When I need something to be relied on, I call them. I didn't surf their site, but it may have it on there somewhere. I know after seeing the bowed extension, I was even more impressed with the torklift setup.

 

[BV]

Towing with slide-in

The neighbor does this and his extension bolts to the bottom of the camper to help take any vertical and horizontal movement out of it. I believe the camper mount was optional from the dealer. It's an Elkhorn if that matters.

 

[jarsong]

Thank you all for the help. Some time back I thought of this and looked under the back of the camper. You could see where all the stuff attaches to the rear step. But after looking closer on how the rear step attaches to the camper I thought I better not on this old of a camper. (11 years) I checked the price of the TorkLift and it, well, is pretty expensive. We have people we go camping with that have pretty close the same setup and they pull around 3000# and have been doing it for years. I'll just be adding another 1K and 100-150 tounge load. I might continue to do some "stress Test" but I need to figure out how to get more weight on me (150#) without falling over jumping for 4 hours... .

 

[dewdo]

My son has a 11' camper with a 48" un-supported extension bar and pulls a 5,000 lb boat with it and has been doing it for about three years. It does flex a bit. I don't know how much longer it will last though before he loses the boat



I have a 11. 5" camper and a 48" extension and pull a 1,500 lb boat. Under the camper is a heavy support bracket with pre-drilled hoes where I have suspended a chain to allow the bar to rest on. So far no problems. Maybe I had better make a long safety chain.



Dewdo in the other Washington

 

[Power Wagon]

I am moving this thread to Towing and Hauling, where it's more on-topic.



Thanks, everyone!



Mark

 

[Eric_77]

When i was looking at slide-ins in spoke with the dealer about what we would use it for. He said with the 11' model and a 3500# boat he would definitely put a Class V hitch on it that would be a 2 1/4 (2 1/2?) reciever I think you would really be pushing.



P. S. you would be looking at 993 Ft/LBS of torque at 53" versus the 169 Ft/lbs at 9" that is major difference

 

[jarsong]

Hey, Thanks for the replies! I would never do anything to harm anyone so whatever I end up with will be tested to the max and then some.



Thanks Power Wagon for getting me in the right bucket... I guess I've never scrolled down that far...



Eric_77, Yikes, I guess I'm over a little... . 900+ft lbs is a lot. The question is what's the strengh capabilities of our welded hitches??400-500ft lbs without weight distribution?? And on weight distribution hitches, at max 1000lbs isn't the force put on the receiver tube still 1000lbs? It's just sharing more of the load with the front hitch bolts by preloading the hitch tube backwards, in effect pulling the front of the hitch down way more and less on the back.



dewdo, Is your sons 2X2 solid or tube?



What I'm trying to really determine is What's the weak spot? My Bar or the hitch? The local welding shop that build the bar showed me on the hitch where the hitches were cracking on the older ones. I remember a recall to that effect. One thing of note. He mentioned he had seen the bottom "Roll" of the frame torn off in an accident before, but the Class IV hitch held together. He also mentioned he's hasn't seen one hitch yet have a catastrophic failure (Even the cracked ones on recall) even though he's seen people do some dumb things... . Pretty good statistics. Thanks again folks for all the information!!

Jarrett

 

[frijole]

Tow extension

jarsong-- 25 years ago we had a 12 ft slide in camper, and towed a 18 ft trihull that weighed 3200 lbs dry. We used an extension rear bumper, that mounted on square tube, 2 sizes, and it telescoped in and out. The forward most part of the assy had vertical plates welded to the square tube, and that's what bolted to the frame of the truck, in the normal bumper mounting holes. It would set normal to the rear of the truck w/o the camper, and would extend out and form a rear step to the camper with it in the bed. We then extended the tongue on the boat trailer, 'cause when I turned the truck 90* to the boat trailer, the camper would knock the front of the boat outa the "V" notch and goof things up real good. After the modifications, we hauled the camper and boat all over creation, never had a problem, and never had any stress cracks, or bends. I will note though, the rear bumper was a bit "springy", as it was out there four feet. Talk to a good welding shop, they may be able to help you. Hope I helped some... .

 

[dewdo]

Jarsong:

My son's as well as my extension are solid. I think the braces under the camper are strong enough on the Arctic Fox to support another piece of a 2" reciever to slide the extension through. I might try that next.



I was planning on having another reciever welded or bolted on the front to facilitate launching my boat, and will have them weld on the 2" piece to the camper brace while they are at it.



Dewdo in the other Washington

 

[JRG]

EXTENSION

I WELDED UP MY OWN EXTENSION. 11. 5 FLEETWOOD W/BUMPER SO I BOLTED PIECE OF OVERSIZE TUBE TO THE BUMPER FOR IT TO SLIDE THROUGH. TOW 4000+LB LOAD BUT THAT DOESENT MATTER, WHAT MATTERS IS THE TONGE WEIGHT. MINE 100-150LBS. ONE THING I DID DO WAS TO "PLUG WELD" WHERE MY SOLID TUBE SLIDES INTO MY THICK WALL. BEEN TOLD WITHOUT BUMPER SUPPORT MUST USE CLASS V, BUT NOT SURE IF THATS TO GET YOU TO BUY MORE. KEEP IN MIND IF YOUR HITCH IS RATED FOR 10,000LB AND YOUR WIEGHT IS HORISONAL, YOUR HITCH DOESENT CARE IF YOUR EXTENSION IS 4IN OR 4FT. IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF YOU HAD 4-500LBS OF TONGE WEIGHT.



JRG