I'm looking to get a travel trailer (a Cruiser 3100BH, 36'5" and 6,615lbs), and was wondering if anyone has ever hauled anything close to this size/weight with a 2WD long bed dakota, and how the experience was. I only need to move the trailer about 2 miles to where I'm gonna park it for the foreseeable future, so i don't need to worry about driving with it at highway speeds or in poor conditions. I just need to know if it seems even remotely plausible for that short of a drag.

EDIT: I guess it would help to know exactly what truck I have lol. I have a 1990 2WD Dakota long bed, regular cab with the 3.9 V6 and the 4 speed auto (139,xxx miles). My hitch is rated at 8,000lbs and I have a 10 ton pintle hook on it.

 

2 miles ain't bad. You could go super slow. You need to know what the tongue weight in the travel trailer is. 6k lbs is alot of weight. My 2k2 could've done it but it had custom leafsprings on it and it was a 4x4. But a 2wd... Alot of factors play Into it. How strong is your frame? Is it rusted out, is the metal where your hitch is bolted to thin and worn out or thick n strong? What's the condition of your leafsprings and shocks? Tires? Like I said tongue weight is gonna play a huge factor. 6 thousand pounds weighing directly down on the hitch.... Bad.... A we'll balanced trailer that doesn't out a huge load on the tongue.... Much safer. Is there alot of traffic on the route you will have to take it? Do you feel the truck brakes are up to stopping it? Does the trailer have brakes?

 

Oh and it's definitely possible to do it, but plausible... I can't say yes or no. I've pulled some pretty stupid loads with some of my trucks

 

that wont be 6600 lb of tongue weight, tongue weight should be 10-15% of that max..... are we talking flat ground? Those puny 9" rear brakes won't stop you very well.....
I know my 92 or my 96 could pull that much (I think I saw somewhere that my 96 which is 4wd and has 3.91s was rated for ~7200 lb or something like that.... ) that trailer should have tandem axles on it which will actually hold most of the weight, again I would be more worried about stopping.....

 

I'd think a trailer that big would have brakes on it. If it does and he can hook into his truck he should be ok.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jpape12347

I'm looking to get a travel trailer (a Cruiser 3100BH, 36'5" and 6,615lbs), and was wondering if anyone has ever hauled anything close to this size/weight with a 2WD long bed dakota, and how the experience was. I only need to move the trailer about 2 miles to where I'm gonna park it for the foreseeable future, so i don't need to worry about driving with it at highway speeds or in poor conditions. I just need to know if it seems even remotely plausible for that short of a drag.

EDIT: I guess it would help to know exactly what truck I have lol. I have a 1990 2WD Dakota long bed, regular cab with the 3.9 V6 and the 4 speed auto (139,xxx miles). My hitch is rated at 8,000lbs and I have a 10 ton pintle hook on it.

Do you have electric brake hook up on your truck? FWIW a 87 (same hp as the 90) is rated to tow 5000 with a V6 Automatic, and a 3.5 gear. And with a 3.9 gear, its rated at 5500. Keep in mind these ratings are on a new truck in good condition. Is your 28 year old truck with 139xxx. miles up to this? Who knows. Will it pull it? Probably, Heck we have all seen the commercials with the toyota pulling the space shuttle.

But, in my mind, here are the questions I would have.
1. What if a state trooper sees you and pulls you over? Assuming you do have electric brakes, your over capacity. And a early dakota, towing a 36 ft travel trailer is a obvious target.
2. What if you have a wreck? And with a overloaded rig like this, that is quite possible, even in a 2 mile run.
3. Will insurance cover you, when you are towing more then your capacity?

If it was me, I would find someone who has a full size truck to move it for me. If no one will do it, then I would pay a wrecker to move it. 2 miles is going to be a minimum charge.


One other thing I wanted to add. What you are towing makes a big difference in your trucks capacity.....
And what I mean by that is, towing a small dump trailer with gravel weighing 6600 lbs is much easier then a 36 ft. travel trailer weighing the same. Wind and sway are much worse to deal with on a travel trailer.

In short, I would never tow a 36 ft travel trailer with any 1st gen. dakota. IMO there is just not enough truck there to handle it.....

 

I agree 100% here. If anything does go wrong, your insurance company will most certainly deny coverage, as you are over weight. Officer friendly won't be very friendly either.......

You need a LOT more truck to haul that kind of weight, or to have any hope of stopping it.

 

Why not just have the vehicle flat bedded and forget the trailer?

 

If you cannot find someone to help by using their truck you can rent a pickup at home depot or some other outfit. Another thing I noticed when towing oversized stuff (I used to pull my buddy's boat with an 84 ranger when it was only a couple years old) is that its the small movements when parking it to get over little 3 inch humps at slow speed that become a problem and cause the tow vehicle to lose traction for not having the power necessary.