Towing With a Rollback ?

[HoofinSoot]

Hey Guys !!



I'm looking to add a rollback to my "fleet", and was wondering about doing *dual-duty* with it to tow my 28' enclosed car trailer. Trailer, car, gear, loaded, would be around 10-11k#, with about a 1000# tongue weight (give or take). I've seen a number of rollbacks with stingers that have receivers mounted on the stinger, and that's the route I was thinking - - using the stinger as the hitch point ???? Just curious how feasible (and SAFE) this is compared to the conventional frame-mounted receiver ??



THANKS !!



Casey Marks.

 

[IWeiny]

I have a stupid question?

What is a rollback?

 

[HoofinSoot]

Sorry the pic is of a GM ... ... .



Basically, a flatbed wrecker, where the bed "rolls back" ... ...

 

[IWeiny]

Thanks

You learn somethin' new every day.

 

[Eric_77]

If you install hitch on the stinger ( I assume that is the wheel lift mech. ???) you have it quite a distance out from normal location of a pickup ( I assume you will get a long cab/chassis setup with about 16-18' rollback???) you are talking a lot of levarge and the formula I had worked up for my use with a 10 slide in and a Class V hitch with a 2' extension would only handle 750lbs the stinger assembly is going to be way less than that maybe a equalizer hitch will help but I doubt you can put the assembly on the stinger.

 

[HoofinSoot]

Thanks for the input so far.



Eric - what was the formula that you used ?

 

[Eric_77]

I didn't, it was the Lance dealer that figured it for me. There is an actual formula but he just had a table that if you had a hitch rated at x then at 12" it dropped to this and then at 24" it dropped this much more etc. unsure if it is straight linear formula or some sort of logarithm or exponential.

 

[ronco]

I would think the stinger is capable of handling three thousand pounds easily. Think about how much a vehicle front end will weigh, and that's what the stinger has to handle. I would pin the stinger in place while towing so the hydraulics don't leak down and lower the tongue on the ground. The downside, as I see it, would be aligning the stinger with the tongue of the trailer and the overall length of the whole rig riding down the road. Also, the stinger probably cannot be pinned while towing because of the height in that position. The stingers on most rollbacks will raise up three feet off the ground easily. You cannot tow any trailer that I know of with the tongue three feet off the ground. HTH





Ronco

 

[Lurch]

Another negative to dramaticaly extending the hitch point is the increased leverage the trailer will have against the truck. Potential for some very ugly sway problems.



Lurch

 

[ronco]

Lurch, that brings up another important point. Without a received hitch, you will not run a load leveling drawbar nor manual sway control!

 

[lmills]

The guy that impounded our trailer when it was stolen hooked right up to our 32' travel trailer with his. I think he pulled it about 65 miles.