Hi all, I'm considering buying a 2 place open car trailer and wondering if I should bother? Not that I don't have faith in my old pickup, but there are limits out there and I would sure hate to mess things up by going over them.

My pickup: 92 dodge cummins 4x4 4.10 gears with a heavy duty build on the automatic.

What I'm considering: 34-36 foot 14k (either bumper pull or gooseneck) 2 place open center car trailer. I doubt I would ever really max out the trailer, but I would consistanly be putting 2 3300 pound cars on it. I figured with the 2 cars, loaded with extras like a winch spare etc... the trailer would weigh it around 11-12k. So am I just asking for problems here?! I'm used to a single place bumper pull trailer with my towing experience.

I read in the owners manual about the gvwr's and the manual is almost twice what the auto is. What gives there? Dodge just not want to cover burned up transmission or is there a real reason why it's higher?

Anyone with any real world experience toting a 2 car trailer ( or more!) around with a srw pickup?

Thanks

 

I don't think your truck would even blink at that kind of weight. As long as your struts/leaves were in good order, and tires, I don't think you'd ever have a problem. My wife used my truck to tow a 6-horse trailer all over the country back in the day. That's at least 6000lb's of horses, plus tack/saddles/feed/hay etc etc, plus the weight of the trailer. Call it 15000 lbs? Never had a problem, apart from the headlight switch burning up one time. Mine's a dually w. an auto, but I don't think a SRW looses that much payload.

 

Go with a gooseneck, you'll be happy you did. Weight for your truck should be no problem, get a trans temp gauge too.

 

I think you'll be pushing the limits. I hope you don't mind going slow.

 

the limits of what? i would consider airbags just my two cents.

 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I hate bumper pulls! Goosenecks tow far FAR better IMO.

 

hey-Hey!!!,
It seems tow capacity is based on two things( to ignore brakes); vehicle ability to tolerate delivering the required power and the vehicle ability to maintain a given speed on a set grade. I don't know how these are calculated, but the former seems a bit more accessable. Watch temperature gages, and be willing to slow down should yeild a realistic number v. being deterined by power capability.
cheers,
Douglas

 

Well I was thinking brakes and the cooling system.

 

Go with the gooseneck, make sure your tires are within their limits, make sure you have functioning trailer brakes.

 

You just have to use common sense while towing. Tires, both on the truck/trailer are in good working order. Towing at a speed that is acceptable for the driving conditions. The truck can handle it, but must be taken into consideration that it has limits too.

 

35 years ago I was taught the 2/3 rule for towing safely. The truck or tractor should be capable of handling 2/3 of the total combination gross vehicle weight. As an example most of the tractor trailer tractors are capable of handling 50,000 pounds of the total combination gross vehicle load of 70,000. This of course applies to a 5th wheel being able to load your truck or tractor to nearly its gross vehicle's weight. Years ago when I was in the learning phase I had a 4 ton crawler tractor on a 20 foot tilt trailer with about 3000 pounds hanging on the trailer ball attached to the rear of the frame and it was absolutely no picnic to drive above 45 MPH due to the down force that gets applied to the hitch when the trailer starts rocking up and down.

 

Common sense is a good thing. I would of course go through the entire pickup and make sure everything was in proper, working order first. Then upgrade things like the atf cooler, trans pan and address the weak links.

I wouldn't even consider doing something like this with a half ton or really anything less than a real pickup. That to me starts at the 3/4 ton and goes up from there. I don't have any real intution to tow 5 cars at once, but going all the way accross the state just to get one car gets really old at times.

My pickup with the gearing would limit me to about 60-65 which in my mind would be perfect for this kind of setup. Anything above that speed milage starts hurting really quick.

I'm considering a bumper pull only because I could load a small camper (old school alaskan pop up) or a regular topper shell in the bed and have a place to rest on the road. I have no real experience with towing a 5th wheel or gooseneck, but loading the weight directly over the wheels seems like a good idea to me. That and it seems like I could make good use of the extra area above the hitch.

 

I tow around 10,000 with mine all the time depending on how much junk the wife picks up along the way. I have had no problem towing coast to coast, mountians, desert or flat lands. Just watch your EGTs and leave plenty of stopping distance and make sure the truck is in top notch condition and it will handle it fine.

 

I've pulled maybe 9-10k on my tired, slippery auto with way to much power pumping through it. You can hear it pushing through the torque converter (or watch it if you have a tach). Make sure to throw it out of OD on the hills. Having a good built auto helps, epecially with a large cooler, but what I hear is the Torque Converter being upgraded is one of the best things to do. An efficient torque converter makes better power to the wheels, and less heat to ruin your tranny with.

 

Lots of variables in your question:
1./ your sig: "New Pickup 92 W250 strait off the ranch and Needing A LOT of work! " What kind of work?
2./ Are you considering buying the car hauler for a one-time thing, occasional hauling, full-time endeavor?
3./ Gooseneck would be preferable, and if you pull that hauler all day long, a dually will feel better than a SRW.
4./ Can't remember what a SRW rates for as total combined weight is concerned, but DOT does. So, if you get on the highway or even state roads you might be in for some trouble if you're over the limit: it ain't cheap.
5./ If your truck is stock with some miles on the auto tranny, you might end up pretty slow on long steep hills.
6./ 4.10 gears can be a blessing or a curse while towing, I still don't know.

Weigh your options, try it out and be careful.