Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Couple of other things here - the longer the wheelbase on the tow vehicle the better. The Jeep is pretty short. Next, I couldn't find GCVW on the Jeep web site, but it says it can tow 5000 pounds. Our 4-horse steel stock trailer weighs 6000 pounds _empty_. The 3-horse you're talking about probably doesn't weigh much less. You're right that the Jeep isn't going to work. It might work with a really small, light 1-2 horse trailer.

 

Get a nice, big truck. Here's a story from my school of hard knocks - I had a Chevy 3500 - good-sized truck. Went and bought a huge Featherlite 4 horse with living quarters. The thing weighs 10,500# empty. So off we go down a bunch of switchbacks. The trailer puts enough downward force on the bed that the suspension can't handle it, the wheels start shimmying back and forth violently. Meanwhile, smoke is billowing out of the wheel wells of both the truck and the trailer from the brakes overheating. It wouldn't be long until I had no brakes at all, and with an automatic, we (and our horses) were about to be toast.  Through some miracle, we were near the bottom and no one was hurt. If we'd had an emergency stop, we couldn't have done it.

 

So I then decide that the problem can be cured by a new Ford. So I'm sitting there at the dealer talking about interior options, stereos and all sorts of things, and meanwhile my wife is studying the towing guide. On the way home from the dealer, she announces that a F-350 isn't going to cut it. I'm seeing dollar bills with jet engines flying out of my wallet. She then proceeds to explain that the GCVW for a F-350 is 20,000 pounds, the truck is 7-8000 pounds, trailer is 10,500, add horses, people, water, tack, etc, and now we're over, and it is unsafe. She says we need at least a F-450, and it turned out she was right. We now pull it with a F-550, and it works very nicely downhill and uphill.

 

So, the moral of the story here is to really pay attention to what something is designed to tow, and don't exceed those limits, even on short trips. You don't know when someone is going to jump out in front of you. It's really very unsafe to tow something heavier than the vehicle is rated for. Other moral is don't buy a bigger trailer than the tow vehicle can handle, unless you want to end up with truck and trailer payments at the same time.

 

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From: Ibiteraaarr@xxxxxxx [mailto:Ibiteraaarr@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 4:39 PM
To: dleblanc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] Got my facts straight?

What's my tow vehicle?  Heh, that's a good question. Originally, we were looking at a vehicle that had the power to tow but was also a practical and safe vehicle for a new family. Adam's brother is selling his '97 loaded Grand Cherokee, 5.9L engine, full time 4-wheel drive  V8. As we've looked at more and more trailers, we've both agreed that we need to really start looking at trucks. We have an older truck that can do the hauling locally no problem. Also, the ONLY time we'll be carting around all 3 horses at once, with tack is to go to local trails to ride on the weekends. I very much doubt I'll be able to do any competing for a while, my sister has been preparing her horse for CTR, so traveling to rides will actually be transporting 1 horse, 2 horses tops.
       Since we're going to be looking at trucks now, we'll probably look to see if we can find one that has a gooseneck hitch installed. The reason for the bumper pull previously is that Kristin's truck isn't fitted with a gooseneck hitch, and if we buy the Grand Cherokee to do some towing with, that would be a bumper pull as well. It's sort of up in the air right now, which sounds unusual, but we can't really select what kind of towing vehicle we need until we decide what trailer to go with.
       For everyone who's offered some help and suggestions, I've kept all of it as notes to help me out. I will be taking a friend of mine who's family has a ranch so he can help me out in evaluating the trailer as well. Many thanks to everyone!

Liz