Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire When you try to tow a large 5th wheel with a 1/2 ton truck

I wouldn't argue with that assessment.
Here's a Ford crew cab-short bed that broke the same way :

Hate driving on the highway anymore. People don't give a about stopping distances and diesel dummy s don't give a care about anything

I have the same truck. It’s a Ram Rebel. It really ain’t made for towing, my 18’ tandem axle with a Polaris General makes it look like it is a squatted truck.

That makes a really good advertisement for whatever brand of camper tie-downs he's using.

I have a dually. I don't need no stinking equalizer hitch.

That was the rule for many years. However, later model trucks have more powerful engines and can climb hills in higher gears...too high to be used coming down.

That is my choice for hauling a 5th wheel setup.

They ride well and are safe.

Saw a Tahoe pulling a 30 foot or so bumper pull pile it up a few years back. I was coming up a big hill on I-44 near Rolla, Mo, and this joker came over the top on the other side, in the left lane, passing a line of big rigs. Soon as he cleared the lead rig, he moves rather abruptly into the right lane, and I thought, not a smooth move, buddy.

Well, that trailer went to whipping, and by the time he passed by me, he was using both lanes, and that trailer was up on two wheels. I watched in the rearview mirror as the whole thing went sideways in the road and rolled. When the SUV went into the wire divider in the median, that trailer was straight vertical. It came apart when it hit the ground, and the whole mess must have rolled four times. I called in and reported it, never heard any more about it.

Always wondered if those folks lived or not. Would have stopped, but it was a Friday evening, I was in a boom truck in the left lane in pretty heavy traffic. Trying to stop may well have caused more problems than it solved.

My '08 Dodge Cummins has a factory exhaust brake. I LOVE that thing. It really holds back on downhills when loaded. I can drop 1 gear and set the engine brake and it will hold back on almost any freeway hill, maybe 2 gears on steeper roads.
They were add-ons before the mid-'07 change when Dodge started making them a factory option. They're quite expensive if added later.

I've been stopped in traffic abrublty, looked in my rear view mirror to see if I was about to get hit and saw a Ford Ranger with a U-haul trailer go sideway and both start rolling coming toward me (and several other cars). Luckily for me, not so much them, they rolled into the median. The U-Haul stayed attached the whole time, truck stopped on its side, driver popped out of the passenger door like he was driving an Abrhams tank. I drove on.

https://www.autoblog.com/2021/03/17/pickup-dangles-off-idaho-gorge-bridge/

Guess what the speed limit is at that location.

I've had the same experience, but it was a commercial truck.

Speed limit?! You mean speed suggestion?

What scares me more is the half ton pulling the camper or cargo trailer with those itty bitty side mirrors which you know he can’t see nothing when he is changing lanes on the interstate. I wish cops would right some heavy tickets for that. It is just ridiculously dangerous. Blind lane changes ever time. Or the strap on Walmart side mirrors gives an extra blurry vibrating view. While overloaded.

I have always thought a CDL for anything over about 20' would be a good idea.


Maybe not a full on CDL but maybe some classes and certification should be in order.

I've been over that bridge many times. There's a diagonal bump at both ends. It can catch and toss a trailer. You don't feel it much in a car but in a stiffly sprung truck you sure can.

You can tell those brokeback pickups had a bunch of tongue weight, but gosh, don't you think the driver would feel something is bad wrong? The front end feeling awful light?
As for Malad Gorge, that guy was just about to the end. Good chance he was blown into a weave, didn't know what to do. Which is not leave the driveway.

As I recall the speed limit there is 80, I think towing speed is 70 but I'm not sure how well it's posted. In any case cars will be passing you at 85-90 mph.

My point exactly.