DECJ

My Jeep Wrangler TJ is just about set up for flat towing behind my Dodge 3500 and one essential item remains ... getting a hitch extension bar to accommodate towing when our Outfitter Apex 8 slide-in truck camper is on board.

Since I am essentially a towing novice, is there any rule of thumb as to how long a hitch extension should be to adequately deal with the rear overhang of a camper, but without it being longer than it needs to be? Without some words of wisdom in this regard, it seems like I should be in the ballpark if I dropped a plumb bob down from the center of the rear wall of the camper and then laterally measured straight back from the opening of the factory receiver back to the plumb bob line. Does that seem like a reasonable approach to take?

By the way, here are a couple of shots of my rear overhang:

CTD NUT

What I would deem reasonable would be to at least get the hitch ball out from under the camper. That is the way I had my extension set up and it worked fine. The extension worked out to about 4' or so with my set up. I would highly recommend ditching the factory receiver and going with either a Torklift of a Reese Tow Beast - both of which were designed to operate with extensions. I know you are only flat towing so tongue weight is non-existent but the side loading from turning and emergency manuvering will cause greatly increased side loads at the receiver - and the OEM receiver is woefully inadequate, anyway.

DECJ

That's pretty much what I am aiming for (especially when the additional ball hitch length gets factored in).

With a 4 ft extension, I completely agree that a SuperHitch or Tow Beast set up would be absolutely called for, but since I expect I will likely be in the 14" to 18" area (or maybe even less, when you add in the additional length of a ball hitch), I think I should be OK from a side-loading perspective. I also have a Road Armor aftermarket rear bumper that I use for the two rear anchor points for my camper tie downs, and I would probably have to ditch that with the way it bolts into the rear frame if I even tried to go with either the SuperHitch or Tow Beast set ups.

Anyway, I am going to put the camper back on the truck later today and make the necessary measurements to see exactly how long of an extension I will be looking at getting.

Fueling around

On the farm we often had to flat tow the pickup. Our tow bar was around 4' long to reach the hitch under the truck box overhang.

edit (finish post then send?)
I would rather have a longer bar on the toad than a hitch extension. You just have to watch the turning radius.

supr

I have no expereience with this, but putting a 4' bar in a receiver hitch & then hanging a 4500lb jeep off of that,even just towing, seems asking for trouble.
I think any kind of emergenct move sould be a castrophy very quickly, not only for you, but anyone else nearby.

DECJ

I mocked-up a hitch extension using 2x2 lumber in my truck receiver and the way it has worked out, the ball center will be 5" rearward of the back wall of my camper. This is going to require a 22" to 24" custom fabricated hitch extension using 2x2 square steel stock inserted into the custom hitch receiver tube and welding that together. I will also be going with grade 70 side chains along with forged turnbuckles to handle the side loads. Then I will need to go with something between a 7" to 9" riser ball mount to get the tow bar level on my Jeep (as as my modified Jeep has an effective 5"+ lift plus 35" tires).

DECJ

Here are a couple of pics of my custom fabricated hitch extension and related hardware (which still needs to be painted or powder coated):





The lower section goes into the factory receiver hitch, which has a piece of solid 2x2 steel welded inside of it. The longer upper section was welded on top to get some more lift to make a readily available riser ball mount come out to the correct height for flat-towing my lifted Jeep. Had it not been done that way, the riser ball mount would have had to be another 2-1/2" taller. The side chains tie into the two beefy D-ring tabs on my rear Road Armor bumper

And here are three shots of this set-up installed on my truck:







The hitch extension ended up being 25-3/4" long (truck receiver pin to hitch extension pin). The Reese riser ball mount added another 10" (hitch extension/ball mount pin to ball center).

The center of the ball on the riser ball mount is approximately 11" to 12" rearward of the back wall of my camper, which will give me plenty of swing clearance. Despite this, we can still put the scissor stairs on the rear of our camper with the hitch extension in place, as long as we either remove the riser ball mount, or alternatively just temporarily reverse it downwards into a drop ball mount configuration.

As previously discussed, I am only flat-towing a Jeep Wrangler TJ (and never intend to tow any form of trailer with my camper on board), so I essentially have zero tongue weight. Based on that, I believe my hitch extension set-up will safely get the job done, such that a Reese Tow Beast or Torklift SuperHitch set up would be overkill for my application IMO.

Don

GSP

I still have my good old frame/step bumper hitch extentions that I used when I had my cabover camper. That would be the stongest safest way to go

TonyB

I have the superhitch. 28" extension on mine. Just buy the next standard length.

Tony

catnfool

can you hook the chains to pull "up" instead of down, or is that your only option for bumper hooks?

nice bumpers, btw

catnfool

just read the 4500# jeep part; I see no problems with your set-up.

DECJ

The photos may not show it that well, but the side chains & turnbuckles are pretty much level between the hitch extension plate and the D-ring tabs on the rear bumper ... so they are pulling laterally and neither up nor down.

Thanks

CrazyCooter

Looks good! I would have gone for a bed extension though.

Should work fine since there isn't any tounge weight to speak of.

My buddy uses a similar setup, puts 250# tounge on a 4' extension and it is always a problem since we drive off road to get to our desert camping spots.

Clayten

Looks good I would have put a step on the hitch to get in the camper.

JohnX

Overkill. I dig the setup, but for reference I have been towing my jeep on a trailer (tongue weight) for 6,000 miles plus now. 22" extension, single bar, no chains, etc. Not a single issue with handling. I check the bar all the time, no signs of fatigue or wear.

I do drive calmly and watch out for dips, but I think your setup is awesome, you should have zero problems.