towing a deuce

[BEASTMASTER]

my buddie has hauled half a dozen deuces on his 4 axel tag trl. behind his F-350 , but fri. the 13th, last week was the last time. he just bought a deuce for $1500.00 and was heading home on the bigroad,he was only doing about 45 mph, he thinks a tire blew,on the trl. he felt it sway to the left then to the right ,and then he was off the road down in a gully. just like that. here come cops and a mess of crap. the outcome, the wrecker co. wants ,you ready for this? $7200.00 for the recovery. and he says he could've driven the deuce out of the mess. but they brought in this giant wrecker with a boom on it. they said it had to be lifted out from where it was. now, they're holding the deuce and his trl. for ransome. he's hoping the ins. co pays the bill. goes to show __ __ _I_ _T_ happens. i'm going to try to get my bosses lowbed for the next trip home.. or maybe towbar it with the 5 ton. LET THE PROS HANDLE IT

 

[poppop]

This is one of the horrow stories of what can go wrong. Even so the recovery bill seems high to me. This is what I always fear the most, away from home, nobody I know or knows me, open season on unreasonable charges.

 

[mdmorgan]

so if something like that happens and you could get yourself out, fix tire or whatever and get yourself back on the road, you can't? is there some kind of law against it?

 

[stumps]

my buddie has hauled half a dozen deuces on his 4 axel tag trl. behind his F-350 , but fri. the 13th, last week was the last time. he just bought a deuce for $1500.00 and was heading home on the bigroad,he was only doing about 45 mph, he thinks a tire blew,on the trl. he felt it sway to the left then to the right ,and then he was off the road down in a gully. just like that. here come cops and a mess of crap. the outcome, the wrecker co. wants ,you ready for this? $7200.00 for the recovery. and he says he could've driven the deuce out of the mess. but they brought in this giant wrecker with a boom on it. they said it had to be lifted out from where it was. now, they're holding the deuce and his trl. for ransome. he's hoping the ins. co pays the bill. goes to show __ __ _I_ _T_ happens. i'm going to try to get my bosses lowbed for the next trip home.. or maybe towbar it with the 5 ton. LET THE PROS HANDLE IT

The heaviest dual wheeled F350 has a tow capacity of 12,500 lbs. The deuce weighs 14,000 lbs, and a trailer that can handle a deuce has to weigh at least 6,000 lbs. That's 20,000 lbs of trailer for the math challenged

Assuming your friend had the biggest F350 made, he exceeded the GCVWR of his truck by 7500 lbs!

It is not that these big pickup trucks can't pull the load it is that they can't stop, or control the load. They are so light that the trailer can literally pick them up and put them anywhere it wants.

To give you an example: I have a friend who bought one of the heaviest 1 ton diesel Dodges made. He got a swell deal because the original owner used it to haul a goose necked trailer that he used for his big Bobcats. The original owner drove a Bobcat onto the trailer's rear overhang and the weight of the Bobcat lifted the rear end of the truck off of the ground, and swung it back and forth until it jackknifed into the trailer and was very smashed up. It required extensive repairs, but now it is a nice truck... but I digress. This accident happened while the truck and trailer were parked on the road!

Your friend is lucky he is still alive. He is also just another one of the statistics that is causing the Feds to rethink the rules for trailer pulling pickup trucks. Thanks to your friend, and others like him, we may soon have to jump through the same CDL and insurance hoops as the 18 wheelers.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: It is a standard practice in the insurance industry to deny any claims for accidents that happen while an insured vehicle is operated in excess of the manufacturer's rated GCVWR. If your friend's insurance company gets wind of the circumstances of his accident, he isn't going to get squat.

-Chuck

 

[emr]

Yeesh, First very sad this happened, Second the above post could not be more correct, this is 100% driver error, the tire blew, maybe, ok it did, A tire blowing on a trailer is really absolutly NO big deal for the prepared driver doing it under the rules, and not saying, Oh i can and have done it so many times its ok i that am over loaded, Or " i can handle it," sure i can," proven wrong here.sorry , but just glad no one was hurt, but an innocent Family could have been killed, and this is just bad for the hobby period. I have done plenty of stupid things, But at this time i my life with age and experience, I just do not take silly chances. I secure every load in my pickups, I never leave things to chance, NEVER overload, this is an example I hope those who are doing this will learn from, If it is over loaded by the numbers U are only going to get away with it so many times and then bam, the deuce could have driven out ... Sorry they are not going to let a vehicle that just took that crash and let u drive it away,They are not going to and are not qualified to give it a safety check and have no reason to do it, the price is alot less than anothers life,He got off easy in my eyes, i would never let him drive it on my watch, , So it is what it is. Sorry i really do not go for this stuff, Like I said anything not on the up and up is a stab in the back to the hobby ...Randy

 

[Recovry4x4]

Beastmaster, glad no one got hurt. I'm not going to throw stones here, the lesson is learned. I can't throw stones. Every time I hook a deuce on a tow bar to the back of another deuce, I've exceeded to towed weight limit. Heck, even towing the M1008 with a spare 6.2 in the back pushes me over the legal towing weight of my deuce. I'm alot of things but I try real hard not to be a hypocrite. Good luck to you guys in the future.

 

[poppop]

I agree with Kenny in the above post. I have streched the limits many times and made it. That probably is not good policy, but has seen me through many times. I am older now and may still take the risks, but now I realize what the risks are. A skilled operater can take equipment and exceed its outer limits and succeed, but the on-forseen like a blown tire can tax even the most skilled operator beyound his limits when the capacity of the equipment is exceeded.

 

[roscoe]

Thanks for posting. Its always good to get a wakeup call on these types of things. I always double check my trailers and secure the cargo. I learned quite some time ago to always check your load and don't depend on others to do it for you. Strange things happen. I have an F350 dually and I think it would be a little lite for this load. The recovery charge seems overly high in my opinion. Glad your friend is ok.

 

[BKubu]

This is a great post...and a great lesson that WON'T be learned. We all know that most guys will still drive their trucks out.

 

[stumps]

This is a great post...and a great lesson that WON'T be learned. We all know that most guys will still drive their trucks out.

This was a different lesson: don't tow your deuce behind too small of a tow truck.

I'm fully in favor of driving a deuce home, IF, and that is a big IF, you take the time to check it over carefully, and then take it slow going home.

-Chuck

 

[m16ty]

This is a great post...and a great lesson that WON'T be learned. We all know that most guys will still drive their trucks out.

Bruce, I agree. I think most of us do stuff like this from time to time and post like this serve as a wake up call.

I'm kind of like Kenny when comes to criticizing stuff like this. Don't want to be a hypocrite. The guy knows he screwed up and everybody here knows he screwed up so lets just try and learn from this.

 

[jwaller]

this reminds me of something. oh ya thats it.

 

[stumps]

Wow! That trailer was meant to haul lawn mowers. What's a PU truck doing back there?

-Chuck

 

[scooter01922]

Ouch

 

[tm america]

i was looking at some tow capacities in a late model chevy truck .some were over 15000 depending on the motor shoot even new f150s have a tow capacity of 10000.i would look at the weight raring for your truck and see if you can find a gray area that will get you out of that big tow bill.but i personally wouldnt pull a deuce behind a deully on a trailer just knowing how top heavy the load would be and how quick things could turn from good to bad with things loaded like that.good luck hope it works out for you

 

[stumps]

i was looking at some tow capacities in a late model chevy truck .some were over 15000 depending on the motor shoot even new f150s have a tow capacity of 10000.i would look at the weight raring for your truck and see if you can find a gray area that will get you out of that big tow bill.but i personally wouldnt pull a deuce behind a deully on a trailer just knowing how top heavy the load would be and how quick things could turn from good to bad with things loaded like that.good luck hope it works out for you

I think you are misunderstanding what the numbers mean: GCVWR is the maximum combined weight of the truck and the trailer. To find the towing capacity, you have to subtract the weight of the truck from the GCVWR.

-Chuck

 

[tm america]

life is really fragile we should all use safe towing - loading practices when dealing with these trucks they are heavy and unforgiving .i am as guilty as anyone for doing some stupid stuff when towing but i will go out of my way to take the back roads when overloaded just to distance myself from possible sticky situations

 

[Westex]

Stumps has it right. Completely right.

 

[tm america]

no it was tow capacity i was looking in a 2001 chevy truck owners manual .but i agree there isnt a 1 ton truck out there with a rated tow capacity big enough to haul a deuce on a trailerunless maybe on a fifth wheel trailer.but that would be really if,y

 

[tm america]

i know how to read and know the difference between gvrw and tow capacity , and payload . if you were correct my f250 i had that was rated at 12500 would only be able to tow 6000 since the truck weighed 6500+ hmmm no it was rated to haul 12500 they are assuming you have proper brakes and tongue weight . in the manual i was looking at it broke it down to tonguw weight and everything