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.

 

[Fatboy2004]

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

Not sure this had anything to do with the size of the truck !

 

["EZ"]

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

Glad you were smart enough to listen. A lot of people are not. It's only a matter of time until they pay the price, because you never know when something may happen! For instance today I sold a Ram 2500 with an 8' service body to a Dealer in Myrtle Beach, SC. His driver picked the truck up and got no more than 90 miles from Atlanta where my office is and wrecked the truck. It's probably totaled.

At 70 MPH running with a whole lot of cars on I-75 a deer decided to run across the highway. The guy in the slow lane jerked the wheel to the left to miss the deer and hit my customer in the fast lane next to him. My customer then bounced off him into the guard rail and creased the whole drivers side from front to back. Including the brand new $12,000 service body.

NOW..............imagine this Ram 2500 was pulling a 40' 5th wheel trailer and his wife and 3 kids and the family dog and all their camping stuff. That 5th wheel would have dragged that truck all over the Interstate. The driver would have absolutely NO CONTROL. I guarantee the whole rig would have flipped over and probably hurt some people if not kill them. Probably hurt several other cars as well. I'm telling you most people NEVER think of what will happen if there is a situation while they are towing that will cause them to have to take evasive action. They buy their truck and their trailer with the best case scenario in mind. And then they get killed because there is no margin of error. I agree that RV and truck salesmen BOTH are to blame for a lot of the bad purchases that get made.

Congratulations for being smart enough to listen to reason.

 

[Germanrazor]

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.

I know there are some super lite 5’ers that will work with a F250 and within specs for one. I assume the guy had one that was not and knew it.

I really see this as a potential law suit if involved in a accident that is attributable to a overweight system with a halfway crafty lawyer.

 

[Skipper N Martha Bishop]

Almost everyone has a friend with towing experience and could easily ask for info on towing from them. I have pulled bass boats for a long part of my adult life and when I decided to start shopping travel trailers I wanted to stay with an F-150 pickup. I did my research and reached out to a friend for info. It was important that I stay below my max towing and in our looking at TT's at dealerships I realized right off I had to know what I needed and not depend on a salesman's info. I know everyone has to make a living but in my humble opinion a person should be knowledgeable before he or she buy's. And about those car haulers I tend to stay a nice distance from them. I also have seen a lot of trailers swaying on the road and I give them a wide distance also. Skipper.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Did you choose wisely?
Reading the threads on this forum might lead you to believe a heaver truck is the answer to safe travels. I couldn't be more conflicted. I personally feel trailer design is the big issue.

Let me explain with reference. I have posted here that you don't want to add to the back of your trailer. I have also said trailer loading was a big issue. If manufacturers built trailers the way they should be built, very few trailers could be hauled by small vehicles.

It is time you RV owners (no matter what RV type you have) got out your tape measures, and see how really safe you are!

READ THIS!!

My rigs handle side winds and gusts because design is always big on my list.

 

[AbdRahim]

My question is why are these unsafe vehicles allowed to be manufactured?

 

[Kevin D Pem]

My question is why are these unsafe vehicles allowed to be manufactured?

not enough class action lawsuits. and as the constitution states: There is not a crime unless a living soul is harmed, basically preemptive laws are illegal.

 

[Jireh Financial]

My question is why are these unsafe vehicles allowed to be manufactured?

Nothing wrong with the vehicles, its the operators and drivers. The car hauler builder would never tell the drivers to load cars only on the top and drive really fast around corners. You can't fix stupid.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Nothing wrong with the vehicles, its the operators and drivers. The car hauler builder would never tell the drivers to load cars only on the top and drive really fast around corners. You can't fix stupid.

I like this!!! Maybe this driver was going too slow!!! He tipped over the wrong direction to have been going to fast. But just maybe it had nothing to do with an accident from a trailer out of control. Maybe the location had to short of a curve and the wheels of the trailer fell in a hole causing it to go over. No matter the photo was miss used to make a point that should be considered anyhow. Critical thinking is what we are really talking about.

 

[GypsyR]

Actually I just thought it illustrated a "scary" car hauler pretty well. And right along the lines of the one I mentioned personally seeing earlier in the thread. Note that on a four car hauler this one CHOSE to load two on top and one on the bottom. That lack of common sense in a driver of such a vehicle scares me more than an inexperienced person towing a camper. Could be just me though I guess.