Hitch extension

hbc2

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2007
Location
Siler City North Carolina
I bought a slide in truck camper that extends two feet past the bed. I have heard of pepole towing their rig behind with some type of hitch extension. Has anyone had any experience with this?
 
my only question is bumper pull trialer = i wouldnt for tounge weight reasons.

but tow bar mabye get away with it.
 
Sounds like a bad idea to me, unless you have and exceptionally light rig and trailer. Even then it's sketchy. You are giving the trailer an extra two feet of leverage to use against the truck. With the trailer two feet farther back any sway you encounter will have a much greater effect on the tow vehicle due to that extra leverage. Then since you have added a large load in the bed you have also raised the tow rigs center of gravity by quite a bit, plus shifted the weight balance significantly from the front steering axle to the rear. At the end of the day it all depends on just what you're towing with as to whether it would be safe or not, but you do have several factors working against you in that situation.
 
I have been in and around Denver Colorado for last two weeks with work and have seen more truck campers than ever. Most of the ones I have seen have also been pulling a rig or horse trailer.

It seems the torq lift (bruiser posted) is the way to go.
 
Not sure of your tow rig?
I did this with my 1999 RAM 2500HD, and my dad's Jayco 9.5'
Now I Have a 2004 Lance 920, 9.5 foot long.
I tow with my new to me 2005 Dodge RAM 3500 Single rear wheel.
I bought a 2.5" reciever (Hidden hitch makes it I think) that bolts right on unde the factory 2" reciever hitch. Now there are 2 reciever hitches at the back of my truck,
I made my own extension similar to the one I saw made by Torquelift. Basically it has 2 bars, 1 2" and 1 2.5" that come back about 1.5' then I put a 2" reciever mounted extreemly rigidly to those.
My set up was much more cost effective than torque lift, and I am confident that it is probably more secure. Factory hitch rated up to 10,000 weight distributing and new hitch rated at 16,000, weight distributing. (Though I know the extension doesn't equal the sum of those I know I have plenty of safety factor towing my 5500 to 6000 lb Jeep and trailer.
My GCVW is just at 17,000 lbs.
I also made my camper tie downs mount to this beefier hitch, not the bed, and used Large capacity turn-buckles to help support the hitch extension from side loads. I have pulled a 24' travel trailer behind it using a weitht distributing hitch and it towed Beutifully.
I tow my Jeep and 16' trailer behind it without use of a weight distribuitng hitch and it tows very nicely. I have added Firestone Airbags, Made my own overload spring spacers, and added a Helwig rear sway bar to the Truck and It will roll right down the highway and handles beutifully. Yeah, I have some time and money in it but what part of our hobby doesn't.
 
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