Check out my awesome tow rig!

[divorced]

Not really. I hope this thing pulls all right, I've never pulled a camper trailer before. It's a 1972 Holiday Rambler 27' that I need to haul about 90 miles with no weigh distribution, sway control, or trailer brakes. Then I need to haul a 1994 36' camper about 45 miles with the same truck.

The truck has about 400 pounds of tools in the bed in these pics, but will be empty when I pull the campers.

 

[greg mgm]

You shouldnt have too much trouble towing those trailers. Stopping them might be interesting!! Ive towed a lot, so just remember to "brake early".

 

[divorced]

Stopping them might be interesting!!

yep, this is my biggest concern. I'll just drive slow and look far ahead.

 

[Kamots]

Ive been towing stuff most of my life. And all i can say is this....your putting everyones life in danger, doing what your saying your going to do. I hope you at least have some experience with towing loads.

 

[MEK5]

Yeah,just take your time and wear your thick skin that day for the others that are in a hurry!!!

 

[1-ton]

You might want to crank up the trailor hitch jack stand a little higher because it looks kind of close to the ground. Without load leveling bars, it may smack the street if you hit a bumb.

 

[Russell]

Do yourself, and everyone else on the road a favour, and take a few hours to install a brake controller onto that truck!

You'd probally fine if you were only going a few miles, at a reasonably low rate of speed, but on the open highway anything can happen, and you'll need the ability to panic brake.

Momentum type brake controllers (Timed controllers are junk, don't waste your money) are a few hundred bucks up here, and can be moved from vehicle to vehicle fairly easily. Well worth the cost and effort, and the costs are relatively little in comparison to a major fatality accident if you can't get stopped fast enough in a panic situation...

Installing them is easy! You just need some heavier gauge wire off the distribution block / battery to an inline circuit breaker on the firewall, to the brake controller unit, then from the brake control unit back to your 7 pin connector, a ground wire to the brake control unit, and a wire to the brake switch.

Also need to run another heavy gauge wire from the distribution block to another breaker, to the 7 pin connector to provide a power wire for keeping the trailer's battery charged. The rest of the wires on the 7 pin connector are already out back, including signal lights, tail / running lights, and reverse lights, and the frame rail for a ground wire.

You should be alright without the torsion weight distribution bars, just lift that leg up a bit higher than it is in the pic, and slow down for any obvious bumps so you don't bottom anything out.

 

[divorced]

You might want to crank up the trailor hitch jack stand a little higher because it looks kind of close to the ground. Without load leveling bars, it may smack the street if you hit a bumb.

Yep, I'll be sure it's up all the way before I tow it on the road. We just moved the trailer around the campground so far. I can't remeber if it was up all the way in the pic or not, but it had 6"-8" of clearance.

Do yourself, and everyone else on the road a favour, and take a few hours to install a brake controller onto that truck!

I wish it were that easy, and I would love to have trailer brakes. This camper has been in the same place for over 20 years. It has been used every weekend during camping season, but it was set up as a more permanent type thing and someone removed all the wiring from the trailer. I need to buy a cheap light kit and screw the lights to the back of the trailer and string the wire through the windows to the front to connect to the truck. I doubt the brakes would even work anymore... I wish my 1 ton was done already...

I hope you at least have some experience with towing loads.

Yes, quite a bit of experience, just never with a camper. I'll use this opportunity to do some more pic whorin' . These are just a few I found right away, but I have many more on a cd somewhere. The red Chevy with the regular cab and long bed only has a 4.3 None of these had trailer brakes. One pic, the one with the 80,000 pound truck, is of what I do for a living for the past 9 years. There wasn't much room to back in at that place... you can see I'm more than half way across the street

 

[Russell]

Well, so long as you've done your due dilligence, thats all you can do I suppose. Makes a guy wonder why anyone would have removed all the wiring. Seems a bit silly to me!

Anyways, if you've driven the Semi, I'm sure you already know this, but if you need to see behind you a bit better, you can sway over onto the shoulder a bit, and when you sway back into your lane, look into your driver's side mirror, and you'll have a better view of what is going on behind you as the trailer follows you back in.

I hauled a similar length camper almost every summer with my 3/4 ton, except I had brakes, torsion bars, and a camper special rear suspension until I took it apart. Biggest thing is just taking her easy

 

[cbbr]

That's always my favorite thing when following a truck. I really hate non-cracked windshields.

If you have handled everything else pictured, you should have no problem at all.

 

[MattK]

i dunno anything about towing but the two rig looks great!

 

[Russell]

That's always my favorite thing when following a truck. I really hate non-cracked windshields.

If you're getting stones in the windsheild, and the trucker can't see you without doing the sway thinger, you're too close anyways!