Flat towing

upnover

Grumpy, decrepit Old Man
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Mar 20, 2005
Location
Morganton NC
As many know, Leslie and I bought an RV late last year. I have used it once to pull my Jeep on a trailer, to Harlan. It did very good! I have made a promise to Leslie that we would go somewhere without the Jeep(the rock Crawler Jeep that is). I have a 95 Grand that I am having some work done to, to get it road ready. Part of what I am going to do is set it up so I can flat tow it. Not just for the 4WD but as a way to get around when we go somewhere.
So my questions are:
How much difference will there be in braking? The trailer I pulled had brakes on both axles. The Jeep is in the neighborhood of around 3800 pounds.
Lights. Should I wire into the Jeep lights, or get some of those magnet lights for going down the road?
Pulling wise, how does it compare in towing, flat vs trailer?
I have only flat towed once, a CJ-5, with a Big Buick Station Wagon. But the weight of the camper is nearly 4 times the weight of the Jeep.

All insight is welcomed
 
My dad has brakes that work the jeep too. Uses a cable under the driver seat and some electronics. I'll find out more and get back to u.
 
Brakes are the big concern. i would look into a braking system to work with the jeep if possible.

As for lights, the mag mounts are good for occasional use, but can fall off and leave marks on the paint. I would wire into the jeep lights.

Pulling will be about the same or maybe easier, but backing up is almost impossible.
 
You want the tow bar to be level, or slightly lower on the tow-rig end. It probably is not much of an issue with a big RV, but with a pickup truck under braking, the towbar can lift the rear end up if the bar is pointing up from the Jeep.
For lighting, it is best to have some lights on the towed rig, but I'm not sure its absolutley necessary (ie by law). I think if the tow-rig tail/brake lights can be seen past the towed Jeep, you don't need lights, maybe thats only during daylight hours. I had some magnetic lights I used behind the CJ at night, I would get slack during daytime tows.
 
You want the tow bar to be level, or slightly lower on the tow-rig end. It probably is not much of an issue with a big RV, but with a pickup truck under braking, the towbar can lift the rear end up if the bar is pointing up from the Jeep.
For lighting, it is best to have some lights on the towed rig, but I'm not sure its absolutley necessary (ie by law). I think if the tow-rig tail/brake lights can be seen past the towed Jeep, you don't need lights, maybe thats only during daylight hours. I had some magnetic lights I used behind the CJ at night, I would get slack during daytime tows.
Let me correct this, the camper end is to be a few inches higher than the vehicle(jeep) end. Under a panic stop the jeep does not pole vault over the tow bar and damage the camper. The Jeep should not lift the back end of a motorhome. I drill into the tailight buckets and install 1157 sockets and wire it like a trailer staying away from the OEM wiring, this keeps the computer safe and is a stand alone system. Use the ribbon wire (trailer wire) and it is pretty simple. I have done three of my vehicles like this and several more with no issues. Go to the Blue Ox web site and make sure that your vehicle is able to be towed all four down! Assume nothing, you didn't say if it was auto or not. Some vehicles cannot be towed over 55mph or for more than two hours without stopping and idling for five minutes! I have been flat towing for 16 years and have seen some major screw ups with thousands of $$$ damage! I know of one that parked for the night and took the key out of the ignition and forgot to replace it the next morning. Blew both tires and ground the tires, wheels, rotor, and the lower a arms till the coils were gone! My Half Brother that has 25 years flat towing! Have fun!
 
I second the towbar height argument. Motorhome end of the tow bar should definitely be higher than the towed vehicle to avoid the trailing vehicle from coming up and over on a hard brake. You can check some of the motorhome forums (I use rvforum.net) and I think this will be very standard set up for MH's anyway. Not sure about pulling behind a car or pick-up, may be other logic there.
I tow an 03 wrangler 4 down with a blue ox set up behind an older fleetwood gasser MH (36 ft, gas ford 460, tag axle, basic older doggy MH). I don't even know the jeep is there. Much better than something on a trailer with 1 exception that was mentioned. Impossible to back up. Creates some interesting gambles at the fuel stops sometimes but very doable with a little caution and thinking ahead.
I use something called a tow-v-aire brake system. Google this if interested. It's sold by an older gent out of Florida and was about $700 5 years ago when I got mine. Very easy to set up and basically is a small air compressor that sits on the passenger floorboards of the toad, and is wired to the front of the jeep then powered off the MH batts/alt through a 7-pin type plug. The brake light switch on the MH (when applied) triggers a solenoid on the air compressor to open and trigger a piston linked to the brake pedal of the jeep. The compressor pumps up to around 25 psi and just holds there pumping up once in awhile when needed. Works awesome. I have a cut off switch on the MH dash (in line from that brake light switch/trigger) to disable the solenoid trigger when I am in a parking lot or campground or slow traffic etc when I don'twant the brakes to trigger. The only downside is it is NOT a gradual system, meaning the braking piston just applies or not, no slow increase in pressure. However, this is braking a power brake system on a vehicle without the engine running so does enough to assist the stop but no where near like when the motor is running and the vac booster is in action. Just something to keep in mind. There are other related kind of systems but this one was reasonably priced (a few years ago) and seemed the more reliable than some other motion activated ones that had all kinds of bells and whistles. It also has a break away switch that activates full brakes on the toad if it comes loose, much like trailer braking systems without the small 6V batt pack, it uses the Jeep battery to activate the solenoid in a break away situation. If your MH has air brakes, then you have even more options.
For lights, I made a light bar that I pop into my 2in receiver on the jeep (sits level with the hitch in my case) and I basically wired the jeep like a trailer with a tongue end flat 4-wire on the front under the base plate and a normal looking flat 4-wire on the back (just an extension cord basically to wire the light bar to the MH trailer plug), then when i tow, I pop the light bar into the receiver and plug it in. I just mounted 2 trailer lights to an aluminum piece of conduit mounted with a bracket to an extra 2in receiver head I had laying around. I made some aluminum plates for the lights to mount on the end of the conduit bar. 80% of the weight of this is the hitch head i used. Upon arrival for camping, I just unplug, pull the pin and shove it under the MH and out of sight/out of mind. No screwing with the factory lights although that works nicely too, just be careful drilling the plastic for the bulbs. I did that style lights on a honda accord a few years ago and it worked great too. I was terrified when I drilled them that i would crack it or something then it gets $$$ fast.
I have pulled the wrangler all over the eastern US with no problems. Would never consider a trailer or dolly. If your MH is a normal gasser (like my fleetwood), you will likely have a 3500 lb tow rating. Not that it can't tow more or even do it safely, but god forbid you are in a wreck, you will likely get a big ticket and possibly a lawsuit if over weight on what the vehicle is rated for. No way to haul a 3200 lb wrangler (in my case) on any kind of trailer and not be overweight. You see it all the time, but a lawsuit waiting to happen. I purposely went with a gutless wranger (4cyl,no AC) as light as possible and still a jeep. Not much of a 4x4 but my purpose was to make it a toad. If you have a 5K tow rating or more then all is good no matter what you do probably.
Just my set up, not better or worse than others. I have thought about this alot over the last several years so I thought I'd lend my thoughts anyway. Good luck!!
 
I agree with Benmack, I don't have the braking on the toad though. Backing up is definitely out. I flat tow a 09 Saturn, no limits on speed or distance. I have two drive shaft disconnect's if anybody needs one and a blue ox plate for a Toyota.
 
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