Very sweet trailer.

I would recommend the brake controller. Hate for you to Get wagged and end up on top of the viper.

Had a family friend end up on top of our 16ft trailer.

 

A correction

I originall posted that the dealership said I had a type 3 hitch. My mistake it's acutally a type 4 (type 4 is in fact the OEM Hitch that comes with the tow pack, it's what I got) and it gives me the wieght rating of 6700 lbs with a tounge weight of 700 as per the sticker on the hitch itself.

Don't want to put out bad numbers so I thought I'de post. Hope this info helps someone else.

Matt

 

Get the electronic brake controller. If your truck is like mine it's pre-wired for it. All you have to do is get the harness adapter from the dealer ($20 or so) and wire it up, and you're in business.

If you were towing a trailer with surge brakes I'd tell you not to bother, but you'll want the controller and the brakes.

 

OK, I think I Will get this controller can you tell me more about this harness adapter though.

Thanks in advance
Matt

 

http://www.wjjeeps.com/trailer_6.jpg

It was something like this. Talk to your local dodge dealer, they should be able to get it for $15-20 or so, makes the connection easy. Tekonsha makes the brake controller I use, which is the same one in Jamie's van and Gary's box van. It's a good little simple unit.

I would find an RV store and talk to them about it. You don't need anything fancy, just a basic POD or something like that - inertia is fine (what we're all using for the race cars).

Talk to your new buddy too, see what he's using and recommends.

 

Nowhere near as expensive as a Viper, but this is what I tow:




And the reason it looks like my truck is sagging is because there's a lot of stuff in the bed - tool boxes, 7 spare wheel/tires (rally tires, they weigh about as much as my 35s on my ram), 10x20' easy up, tarp, fuel jugs, spare control arms, axles, brake rotors, floor jack, jack stands, light pods, luggage, etc.


The reason it's not sagging more is that I bought a set of Helwig helper assist springs. They don't lift it at all, but prevent it from sagging as much.

And with all of that and the mountain pass, I still got about 9-10mpg, which is, sadly, about what a Powerstroke would get.

 

Cool I'll try to post a picture of my dakota in action before I have to give the trailer back.

Also weather is looking good for the next 48 hrs. Planning on leaving Monday morning at around 4 am, resting about 12-24hrs in MO then driving back Tuesday at around 4 am. So...looking good.

Matt

 

Made it home this morning. The Viper now sits in my garage next to the Vette.
The Dakota is resting proudly in the driveway.

The Dakota performed flawlessly. It did not cough, wheez, complain not one single bit
at any time. It didn't consume any oil or transmission fluid either.

I originally thought the terrain would be flat all the way down but I would have to say
about 30% of the trip was very hilly even had to go over some small mountain type passes.
Still the truck performed fantastic.

I usally get about 21-22 highway driving with no load. Dragging the
trailer only (1900 lbs) on the way down I averaged 16 miles mpg.
Towing the viper and trailer back to Indi (5300lbs) I averaged
13.5 mpg. Mind you there was a lot of cliffs along the way. Oh
and my speed varied from about 55 to 65mph the entire trip.

The trailer set up was nice. This trailer was solid and I want
one for myself for keeps. Using 1.5x8 boards that I took with me,
the car rolled onto the trailer with ease. The virper never
scraped. Using ratcheting straps the Viper never shifted and held it's place rock
solid on the trailer bed.

I have to apologize to everyone that I never got the brake
controller. Found out the brakes on the trailer weren't even
working. Don't know if the fault was at my
end or at the trailer end, but I tell you I never had any problems
stopping. Never felt like I was being pushed by my
load either. I never came close to loosing any kind of control. It was
a great trip and felt absolutely safe. I'll take a little credit for my driving skill too.

My son who went with me took a few pictures of the
entire rig and I will post them when he figures out how to
retrieve them form his cell phone.

The only negative thing I have to coment about is that
the back end did squat down after loading the viper. It wasn't
sitting on its *** either but lets just say the back end almost
looked as though it wasn't a 4x4 anymore. The front was still good
but the back could have used some helper spring for looks.

Anyway I am glad I asked the questions that
I asked, and I am glad I asked them here.

Thanks to all again
Matt

 

Horay beer!

I mean, congrats!

Towing a trailer is a LOT easier when the trailer is loaded front-heavy, as it sounds yours might have been. It really helps to prevent sway having a fair amount of weight on the tongue.

I know I can do better burnouts far easier with an empty trailer hooked to the back of my truck than I can without any sort of load at all, but I generally try to avoid such shenanigans. [&:]

Helwig sells clamp on assist springs, which are wht I've got on mine, that don't raise the height at all but rather just help to keep from squatting as much. They were fairly inexpensive too, <$100 for the set of 1500 lb springs. If you're going to be doing a lot of towing, I'd recommend getting some, and playing with the trailer balance a little. Don't move the car too far back or you'll wag all over the road. That's the one thing you can't do with the U-haul trailer I've rented in the past - it just clamps the front tire to the front edge of the trailer.

Oh, and do an emergency stop without trailer brakes, then one with them. That's when you'll really notice the difference.

Side note - after I got back from the above pictured haul, which included something along the lines of 20km of 6 or 8% downgrade, we noticed that only 1/2 of the brakes on the trailer were working.