Moonshine
11-15-2004, 07:59 PM
Well, the good news is that if you ever need to tow a 7,500+ lb. trailer with the Class III hitch on your Gen II L. in the rain, it can be done.
The bad news is that it'll scare the beejeezus outa' you, and you'll be lucky to keep the whole rig out of the ditch.
I needed to do some driveway repairs, so I took today off to work on it. Of course, I scheduled the vacation day before all the rain and nastiness set in. Anyway, I went to the local sand and gravel place to rent one of their trailers and get a load of road base. The trailers are tandem axle, 12' x 6', with 3' high sides and tailgate. They have a battery powered hydraulic lift so you can dump the load in the box. I hooked up to the trailer, and they loaded 2 cubic yards of road base. Of course, since it's been raining the road base was completely saturated. I'd no more than pulled out of their lot when I realized the load was heavy. Not heavy, not even HEAVY, but HEAVY. I've towed 4,000 lb. trailers with the L before, and they were a pice of cake. Nothing like this. I quickly discovered that with every little bump, curve, or undulation in the road surface the trailer would lurch, and every lurch would shove the rear of the L sideways, hard. Then you had to play the throttle and steering just right to avoid a jacknife. I stayed on the service road the whole way home (12 miles), and never exceeded 25 MPH, but it was still a white knuckle drive the entire way.
As I pulled into the gate I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the hard part was over. Not! I made it about 20 yards down the driveway before the right side trailer tires hit a soft spot, and sunk to the axle. OK, I'll just dump the load here, and with the trailer empty I can probably yank it out. Nope, the battery for the hydraulic lift gave out with maybe 1/5 of the load out. And the battery box and all the electrical connections were padlocked shut. OK, try to jack up the right side of the trailer with a Hi-Lift, pack some road base under the tires, and give a yank. No dice. OK, unhook the truck, get it out of the way, and go fetch the neighbors tractor and the biggest chain he's got. That worked (thank god for John Deere), and the trailer was out of the muck. Then all I had to do was remove the rest of the load, one shovel full at a time. A few hours later it was empty, and the return trip with an empty trailer was uneventful. After unhooking, I asked the gravel guy what he figured the trailer weighed with 2 yards of waterlogged road base in it. He scratched his head, said "Oh, 7,500 lbs. easy. No, that's probably light. Wouldn't suprise me a bit if it went over 8,000." Holy crap Batman!! Next time I'll ask for an approximate weight before I hook up.
The bad news is that it'll scare the beejeezus outa' you, and you'll be lucky to keep the whole rig out of the ditch.
I needed to do some driveway repairs, so I took today off to work on it. Of course, I scheduled the vacation day before all the rain and nastiness set in. Anyway, I went to the local sand and gravel place to rent one of their trailers and get a load of road base. The trailers are tandem axle, 12' x 6', with 3' high sides and tailgate. They have a battery powered hydraulic lift so you can dump the load in the box. I hooked up to the trailer, and they loaded 2 cubic yards of road base. Of course, since it's been raining the road base was completely saturated. I'd no more than pulled out of their lot when I realized the load was heavy. Not heavy, not even HEAVY, but HEAVY. I've towed 4,000 lb. trailers with the L before, and they were a pice of cake. Nothing like this. I quickly discovered that with every little bump, curve, or undulation in the road surface the trailer would lurch, and every lurch would shove the rear of the L sideways, hard. Then you had to play the throttle and steering just right to avoid a jacknife. I stayed on the service road the whole way home (12 miles), and never exceeded 25 MPH, but it was still a white knuckle drive the entire way.
As I pulled into the gate I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the hard part was over. Not! I made it about 20 yards down the driveway before the right side trailer tires hit a soft spot, and sunk to the axle. OK, I'll just dump the load here, and with the trailer empty I can probably yank it out. Nope, the battery for the hydraulic lift gave out with maybe 1/5 of the load out. And the battery box and all the electrical connections were padlocked shut. OK, try to jack up the right side of the trailer with a Hi-Lift, pack some road base under the tires, and give a yank. No dice. OK, unhook the truck, get it out of the way, and go fetch the neighbors tractor and the biggest chain he's got. That worked (thank god for John Deere), and the trailer was out of the muck. Then all I had to do was remove the rest of the load, one shovel full at a time. A few hours later it was empty, and the return trip with an empty trailer was uneventful. After unhooking, I asked the gravel guy what he figured the trailer weighed with 2 yards of waterlogged road base in it. He scratched his head, said "Oh, 7,500 lbs. easy. No, that's probably light. Wouldn't suprise me a bit if it went over 8,000." Holy crap Batman!! Next time I'll ask for an approximate weight before I hook up.