Alert Observing VERY dangerous travel trailer towing

[Neal]

I realize the driver / rv owner is responsible but I'm going to put half the blame on RV sales people.

During today's journey no less than 3 times I watched travel trailers being pulled by far too small of a tow vehicle. One was a toyota forerunner, the other was a honda pilot (maybe) and the other was a small pickup. All of which were pulling travel trailers FAR too large for their capability. It was very windy heading east on I-90 and I saw the wig/wagging of the trailers as the tow vehicles fought to maintain control. We've seen far too many accidents as a result of this. Today was shocking!

Why do I blame RV sales people? When I was shopping for a boat about 10 years ago I had a Honda Pilot. I think the towing capacity was around 4500 lbs but if you put four people in the vehicle it drops to around 3500lbs if I recall. What people don't realize is you can't just go on towing capacity at the highest level, there is a tongue weight part of the equation which IS covered in the owners manual of the towing vehicle. The boat salesman tried to sell me a bigger boat. The 22 footer I ended up buying, not from the dealer, was enough and a struggle even for my Chevy Colorado which has a 7K towing capacity. Again, it's all about tongue weight. The salesman tried to talk me into a larger boat which was significantly heavier and the concern was stopping power. As the trailer has its own brakes he tried to tell me all was fine. On top of that the swaying concerns as mentioned above.

With the surge in RVers and probably the surge in dealerships trying to push anything out of the lot they can, I'm seeing a very dangerous situation going on. Please BEWARE and know the limits of your tow vehicle and do not, I say again, DO NOT, listen to a "car salesman" that does not have YOUR interests or safety in mind.

 

["EZ"]

I totally agree. And it amazes me that on many of the FB RV pages that these idiots will argue with you all day long that they've been pulling their 49' fifth wheel with their Honda CRV for 20 years and have never had an issue. I'm amazed at the stupidity that's out there. SO then when a newbie comes to the room to ask a serious question about what size truck do they need, they get so confused because of all the outspoken idiots that swear it can be done with their half ton pickup. I just want to scream. ?

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Reminds me of a sign that hung in an auto parts store in my home town when I was a kid; “Ve get so soon old undt so late smart!”

TJ

 

[GypsyR]

You know those car haulers you see everywhere? The ones with a trailer that carries two to five cars, pulled by a one ton dually pickup? Yesterday one blew past me doing at least 60 in a 45, a common problem on this road. What got me was that he had a double decker five car hauler. Two cars and a pickup ON TOP. And nothing on the bottom rack. My jaw literally dropped. I wanted to follow him just to see how things went around a curve or two.
So it's not just campers.

 

[Neal]

Those things always get my attention, I would never want to drive one. I saw one yesterday with 9 vehicles on board, 5 up top. They seem so fragile and wobbly. No thanks!

 

[AbdRahim]

Exactly my experience, when I bought my trailer. The guy tried to sell me a 29 ft 7000 lb trailer to pull with my expedition. Oh you can pul 9000 lbs, he said. Technically true, practically foolish in my estimation.

 

[L884593]

I wrote about my experience, in another thread, with my F150 purchase last year. The salesmen was adamant i was good towing up to #13,000--13Klbs. We had a big trip to Yellowstone/Tetons planned out and after talking to several of you, on this very forum, i realized i may have made a huge mistake. My wife/i took a 'test' trip to Florida, from our east Texas home, to test the towing travel. We had gone no further than about 90 miles my wife says "you're gonna need a bigger boat"!HAHA. Tail wagging the dog. We never would've made it in the Wyoming mountains/let alone Teton pass. LESSON LEARNED-i talked to a LOT of you on this forum, did the research, some seasoned engineers where i work and realized either the TT goes or the truck--we bought a bigger/stronger(diesel) truck that is exactly what was required for our trailer--slightly more but better than less. THANK YOU to a lot of you who put it out there honestly about payload capacities, towing, and most importantly safety.
P.S> recently my wife/I were so bored we stopped into a RV shop down south just to look; the salesman was putting on the big sales pitch and told me the 5th wheeler we were looking at was perfect for the F250 6.7 we were driving. He wanted a sale--and eitherr didn't know or care it was about #1500 over the F250's GCVW. BE CAREFUL FOLKS

 

[Germanrazor]

The sales rep I dealt with said he has customers all the time getting TT in the size we bought and slightly heavier using a 1/2 ton 150 with EcoBoost. Yes, I have watched YT to see people do it……but the more I thought about it, I went Super Duty instead.
Those 1 ton car haulers I stay away from! They are super scary!

 

[GypsyR]

"Those 1 ton car haulers I stay away from! They are super scary!"
Why whatever do you mean?

 

[RKins]

I camped next to a couple from Canada that had a 43ft 5er and were towing it with a f250. He knew it was overloaded but said he couldn't afford a 1 ton in Canada. He said someday he'll have to bite the bullet though.