You are going to have strange handling traits with a TT because the rear axle will be so far from the hitch point. If you can, I would go scale the empty truck and then load it with the car and trailer and scale to see how bad your weight distribution is.

 

Get a gooseneck trailer and put a truck camper on it and then the car behind it. The camper would be about 8' long or so and then the car would be small enought that you could get by with a fairly short trailer.

 

I dont remember where I saw it but there was a picture floating around with a newer Dodge one ton dually pulling a large tag trailer and there was a Smart car in the box of the truck. Looked like a cool idea and I think he had some kind of platform so the car cleared the wheel wells.

 

How do you mean strange? I'm planning to start with a chassis like this (w/o the lift).



If I didn't already have that truck on hand and could afford it, I'd probably be better off to buy this and continue to mod it. It already has the Cummins in it.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MakeTrack=true

Interesting idea Nirion. At this point, I think I want a bit more camper than just a pickup camper but I guess I could load a 35' TT plus a car on a 50' gooseneck.

Freddy, I'll do some looking around to see what kind of Smart car that might have been. Something like this perhaps?



Hard to justify $10K for one of those to get 50MPG when I can get nearly the same economy out of a Golf for less than $2K. I can build a lot of truck to haul the extra size for the $8K difference. Interesting idea though.


Those are the kind of ideas that make me think and improve the project. Thanks guys - keep them coming.

 

Might want to look for a single axle Freightliner and put an air ride cab and sleeper on it. You can put a nice rollback on it and pull a TT. Being a large truck to begin with, it will tow a TT behind it without much sway.

maybe this with a sleeper....

 

Nice looking rig but I want to keep the length down to something that can be driven around town when not pulling the TT. Thanks for the idea though. Those are the things that help me refine my plan and decide what I want and what I have to have.

I did some measuring yesterday and I think that a ramp up over the top of the sleeper will work just fine w/o stretching the frame. The other issue with most of those nice looking rigs it $$$$$$$ that I don't have. I somewhat have to keep this in the DIY price range.

I did some checking and my 3500HD chassis is running a 4.63 rear gear with 225/70R 19.5 tires. The 6.5TD tachs out around 2500rpm in OD at 65mph. What ratio should I look for to maintain towing capacity but to optimize economy when running empty assuming a 1st gen 12valve and single OD?