towing a 5 ton

[drjconley]

when towing a 5 ton with another 5 ton do you have to connect both the service and emergency air lines? what do the two different air lines run? if you are towing a 5 ton with questionable brakes, if the towed vehicles air line fails, will both the towing and towed rig loose air assisted brakes? has anyone intentionally not hooked up a five ton air brakes because of fears of loosing air pressure?

thanks,
jim

 

[MilitaryRestoration]

your service line, when you push on the brakes in the pulling truck, makes the towed truck's brakes come on and your emergency line, keeps the towed truck tanks filled. I just towed a m818 with a m818 and hooked the lines up and had no problem, of course check them before headed out onto main roads and constantly watched the air pressure on the trip, but what is it that you are questioning on the 'towed' trucks brakes? and yes if you had a bad leak in the towed truck that could = no brakes period due to losing complete air pressure, but just depends

 

[dm22630]

If you hear the low air buzzer come on......downshift, downshift, downshift & roll to a stop. It does not take long to stop unless you are going down a big hill.

 

[MilitaryRestoration]

 

[LanceRobson]

Wow! Lots of scary thoughts from reading this thread!

No 5 ton truck has enough braking power to stop another "no brakes" 5 ton in anything resembling a panic stop. It's worse with lightly loaded trucks and no ABS.

Troubleshoot the towed vehicles brakes before towing it at more than a motor pool relocation speed. Nothing involved in this tow is worth killing someone else, or dying for.

No matter how good you think you are at controlling things, Murphey is always looking for ways to get into the picture.

I sure don't know why you asked this but, I'm glad you did. That means that the little warning buzzer in the back of your brain cell is telling you that this is, maybe, not so good of an idea. Heed it. If you wouldn't put your kids in the towed vehicle for the trip, you've no business making the trip.

Lance

 

[sirmrtow]

put it on a lowboy or call a towing service cya always

 

[drjconley]

Thanks for the replies, i liked the comment about not towing anything i wouldnt put my kids in the truck with me during the tow. I did tow a vehicle last month that i thought the exact thing, I left the kids at home, and i had no fun during the tow. Everything turned out well, but it was a little scarry. I wont do that again.
jim

 

[CUCVFAN]

No 5 ton truck has enough braking power to stop another "no brakes" 5 ton in anything resembling a panic stop. It's worse with lightly loaded trucks and no ABS.

Let's be realistic, no 5-ton truck fully loaded (on-road load == 20,000lbs == roughly the weight of an empty 5-ton) has enough brakes to stop in any reasonable distance in anything resembling a panic stop. Granted, having the load in the bed is differrent than having it pushing you, but let's be real about the brakes on these trucks. They'll stop the truck, but the driver must also be very careful and alert at all times, especially when loaded.

In a panic stop with a loaded 5-ton, you'll probably kill somebody or demolish something.

 

[BKubu]

I'll echo the comments about getting it shipped. I've said that previously, but it does not seem like a popular suggestion. I almost always get my trucks shipped. More money...but fewer hassles and no worries.

 

[Armada]

I have no comment at this time for fear of being fired upon.

I'll just say run it.

 

[hvann]

I have been thinking about towing a sprage equipped truck. If you use the air of the towing truck to air up the truck that is being towed, it seems that you have a set up for a problem. After doing my tests on my M813 I have found that the sprage is engaged in the reverse position while the transmission is in reverse and there is air on the system. When you have air on the system and the transmission is in any other position other than reverse the sprage is in the forward position.
So if towing with air on the truck and you go to push it backwards you could be doing damage to the sprage. It would not be any different than letting the truck roll backwards while in a forward gear or letting it roll forward while in the reverse gear.
I would say to be safe you should disconnect the air line to the transmission while towing. It was my findings that the sprage goes to a neutral position when there is no air getting to it.

Van

 

[Sephirothq]

put the transfer case and the transmission in neutral??
or just drop the front driveshaft?

 

[mtk]

I'll echo the comments about getting it shipped. I've said that previously, but it does not seem like a popular suggestion. I almost always get my trucks shipped. More money...but fewer hassles and no worries.

What is the going rate for getting a 5 ton shipped anywhere?

 

[BEASTMASTER]

get the thing shipped and YOU won't have to worry about anything.

 

[fabiodriven]

I don't see what the big deal is about towing. I've been on hundreds of convoys with 818's and we were towing at least one in a day. That's what the towbar is made for. I personally drove over miles of washboard (unpaved desert road) on countless occasions and even a HUGE road crossing at full bore. I was told the towed vehicle got quite a bit of air. I never saw any mishaps, and believe me- most of our trucks were not in the condition of state side vehicles. They get beat up real fast when war breaks out.

 

[badgmc56]

I agree about getting it shipped. There is a member on here that might be able to help you. His screen name is stanleycr1. His company shipped my deuce from North Carolina to Connecticut and I could not drive it home for that price by the time you figured fuel , tolls, food and hotel.

 

[stampy]

Here is a dumb question. Could you put a n/c 24v solenoid air valve in the gladhand that feeds the towed truck air system so if you blew out an airline on the towed vehicle you could shut off the air from the cab?

 

[vinny-socom1]

I have to ask here.. a duce does not have the service air line..but its OK to tow bar it and not the 5ton?? duce cargo is around 13,000lbs a 818 is 19,000lbs that doesn't sound correct here.. I agree its not the safest thing but I would do it and have done it with no problems. Not sure I follow the train of thought on this.

818 can pull a trailer up to 55,000lbs correct?? why not a 5ton at only 19,000lbs? granted the trailer brakes help but I would have to believe the truck does most of the work right.

Vinny

 

[LanceRobson]

The original post posed the possibility of towing without interconnecting the brakes. That's where the discussion progressed from.

I don't remember what the speed limit is for towing that load with out interconnecting the brakes but it should be in the M809 truck -10 and it was low, maybe 15 MPH?

I'm not very familiar with the trailer brake system on an M818 but I think it has a tractor protection valve to protect the tractor from a sudden air pressure loss. If not, I'd think one could be added to any truck? Maybe someone with more experience could chime in.

Regarding towing a sprag equipped truck and backing up; the TMs for the tow bars state in the safety warnings to NEVER back up with a tow bar. That's due to the pipe sections being designed to take a load in tension, not compression. They can bend or break very easily.

Another issue is pintle, shackle point and tow bar strength. The towing limits also reflect the ability of the tow bar, bumper shackles, frame, frame extension (if any) pintle and pintle mounts etc to handle a particular load. Above the "no brakes" rated loads, speeds etc. there is a stated requirement for a braked load. The equipment simply is not safe or legal to operate over those limits.

I'm not sure whether "they way I've done it" or "what we did in theater" are the point. Tactical necessity can cause you to do some pretty wild things. I've recovered M1A1 tanks with HEMTTs when no M88s were available. It's a 5 MPH job but can be done.

I think that we have an obligation to discuss safe, legal ways of doing things and avoid or take-off any site discussion of illegal and unsafe practices.

Lance

 

[AaronHorrocks]

818 can pull a trailer up to 55,000lbs correct?? why not a 5ton at only 19,000lbs? granted the trailer brakes help but I would have to believe the truck does most of the work right.

Vinny

That's my thinking too. I towed a 5,500 pound trailer with NO BRAKES and it wasn't a problem. I noticed it was there, and I could feel it but it wasn't a big deal. Now three times that weight, in the 15,000 to 19,000 range of another 5 ton would be signif, but totally do-able. as long as it's all level!