Tandem towing

[gonefshn]

Being from Devils Lake you see these every weekend. I used to do the same. Originally with a 1/2 ton, 28ft. fifth wheel, and 19' Pro-V. Later went to a 3/4 ton, 32' fifth wheel, and 20' Lund. Could easily pull it at 65-70. You really didn't know the boat was there. The one thing I found when doing it was a 1/2 ton is way too light. When you'd get on a road that was worn things would sometimes start swaying since you have 3 items with different wheel tracks. The half ton truck's suspension just didn't cut it. When I went to a 3/4 ton it was night and day. Way more solid and felt much safer. As for backing up, you don't. You make sure you don't get yourself in a spot where you'd need to. Even semi drivers who tow triples don't back them up on a regular basis. But after having done it for years, it's really not a big deal and easier than you'd think. Especially in the more rural states like ND, SD, & MT where I usually went. Not sure I'd want to deal with it in the traffic of bigger cities though.

 

[Migrator Man]

If I had to guess I would say this set up was somewhere in the 9-10k pound range. He looked to have it under control and wasn’t going 70mph. Probably around 60 if I had to guess..

Well he was still under the towing capacity of around 11k so no too shocking to me. Just don’t drive 70 and you are fine

 

[Vollmers]

You may be onto something Ahab. I don't typically see it on my way home from DL on Sundays until I get to 83 & then I always see a few between Wilton & Bismarck.

Must be more of a western thing. I don't really see it in the east.

 

[LBrandt]

5th wheel and bumper pull are two different breeds of cat when you start pulling tandem.

 

[Skeeter]

5th wheel and bumper pull are two different breeds of cat when you start pulling tandem.

5th wheel puts your weight slightly ahead of the rear axel. Bumper pull is obviously all behind the axel. I’d sooner sandpaper my ass and sit in turpentine than pull tandem with a bumper pull. That’s asking for death. ]https://youtu.be/6mW_gzdh6to

 

[risingsun]

5th wheel puts your weight slightly ahead of the rear axel. Bumper pull is obviously all behind the axel. I’d sooner sandpaper my ass and sit in turpentine than pull tandem with a bumper pull. That’s asking for death. ]https://youtu.be/6mW_gzdh6to

Ouchie wow aawww that's a little abrasive.

 

[johnr]

PUlled a 28 ft TT and a 17 ft boat with my F150 for 4 seasons, through the breaks, and up to the lake. Never an issue, always had a blast. Purchased my F250 to increase the size of the camper to a 5th wheel, and now have a 20ft boat behind that.
Love getting my load to the lake in one vehicle. However now we added a jet ski, and are driving 2 vehicles to the lake.

That last hill coming out of the breaks was a real SOB for that F150, thought i would blow that little 5.4 up at some point, but she kept a going

 

[Captain Ahab]

those folks are the ones pulling double off the bumper/receiver hitch. Toss in a long weekend of partying with a Sunday morning Bloody-Mary, a touch of remaining hangover, then hook up the works for a lazy 75MPH Sunday afternoon pull home with a 25-30MPH cross-wind like today.

What could go wrong?

Was this [MENTION=395]johnr[/MENTION]? Ha ha

 

[Traxion]

I must treat my truck like a princess and drive like a candy ass, because I see no way my 1/2 ton truck could EVER pull tandem. In my mind I have to run the living hell out of it with a 26' bumper pull camper OR my 19' Pro V to keep it in the 65 mph range. Hills or wind just eat you up, flat ground it's OK but not optimum. That and it runs air temp plus 110 degrees to get to trans temp, so an 80 degree day and you're pushing 190 degrees trans temp. Hot days are almost a no go just based on that, I don't like temps near 200 degrees. All this talk makes me cringe to think about buying a used truck LOL!

 

[SDMF]

I must treat my truck like a princess and drive like a candy ass, because I see no way my 1/2 ton truck could EVER pull tandem. In my mind I have to run the living hell out of it with a 26' bumper pull camper OR my 19' Pro V to keep it in the 65 mph range. Hills or wind just eat you up, flat ground it's OK but not optimum. That and it runs air temp plus 110 degrees to get to trans temp, so an 80 degree day and you're pushing 190 degrees trans temp. Hot days are almost a no go just based on that, I don't like temps near 200 degrees. All this talk makes me cringe to think about buying a used truck LOL!

Agreed. I much prefer to have "more than I need" and let things lope along using 50% or less of their potential.

Current camper is 38.5', ~9K# and I never once felt "under-trucked" just dropping it on the ball of my F250 6.7L. Set the cruise 72-73MPH for 353Mi. ~20MPH side wind for 150 Mi, headwind for 90Mi, quartering tailwind for 90Mi. Locked out 6th gear for the portion w/the headwind.

I wouldn't have wanted any part of a 2nd rig behind the 38'er though.

 

[Rowdie]

I'm glad I only have to pull my 26' TT camper about 10 miles round trip. I only have a 1/2 ton F150. It struggles with my 620 on hills. I only pull it 60 miles one way a few times a year. But tandem.... with those two... no way.

 

[JMF]

I must treat my truck like a princess and drive like a candy ass, because I see no way my 1/2 ton truck could EVER pull tandem. In my mind I have to run the living hell out of it with a 26' bumper pull camper OR my 19' Pro V to keep it in the 65 mph range. Hills or wind just eat you up, flat ground it's OK but not optimum. That and it runs air temp plus 110 degrees to get to trans temp, so an 80 degree day and you're pushing 190 degrees trans temp. Hot days are almost a no go just based on that, I don't like temps near 200 degrees. All this talk makes me cringe to think about buying a used truck LOL!

My 3.5 ecoboost runs 190-195 degrees in the winter while empty. Hook up 10K pounds of stock trailer and it will hold at around 210 at 70mph. This is with the auxiliary oil cooler.

 

[SLE]

5th wheel puts your weight slightly ahead of the rear axel. Bumper pull is obviously all behind the axel. I’d sooner sandpaper my ass and sit in turpentine than pull tandem with a bumper pull. That’s asking for death. ]https://youtu.be/6mW_gzdh6to

There's some serious fallacies with this video. First is the location of the trailer tires being in the middle of the trailer versus further back as you see on any bumper pull or fifth wheel camper. The second issue is the fact the the tow vehicle is not actually pulling on the trailer and is attached via a wire/cable with a conveyor below. The dynamics of that and the tow vehicle actually "pulling" the trailer are vastly different.

I did the bumper pull/boat thing for several years. Have enough tow vehicle, a good weight distribution hitch, make sure the trailers tow level, brakes on both the boat and the camper, and a camper that's 50%ish heavier than the boat and it'll tow fine. I did this with 2 different bumper pull campers and 2 different boats without issue. When I upgraded boats to a boat that weighed 5k lbs on the trailer and the camper was only 7k lbs, things were definitely more squirrely and you had to pay more attention but was still doable if you kept your speed in check. I was nearly 85 ft long from tip to tail which is 10ft over the legal limit. I did go to a fifth-wheel after that, and then to bigger boats, and bigger fither's, and quit doing the double tow all together. When you start getting into 20/21 ft boats behind 35+ ft fifth-wheels, the fifth-wheel frames are marginal to begin without adding the additional stress of 600+ lbs of tongue weight and 5k-7k lbs pushing the rear frame of the fifther is asking for some issues IMHO. As far as I'm aware, there are no fifth-wheel manufactures or subsequent frame manufactures that will warranty issues that result from adding a hitch and double towing. Heck most will void warranty with even the addition of a Gooseneck adapter (which I've also done without issue). Once my campers got larger and more expensive, i felt the risk outweighed the benefit. To each there own though, it completely doable. I have an quittance that pulls a 38ft fith-wheel and a 25 ft pontoon in tandem. talk about a train!