Hi all. I am about to close a deal on a purchase of a 2001 Viper GTS. It's gorgeous.. "2,400" babied miles on the odo, saphire blue pearl with silver racing stripes.

I live in Indianapolis and the Viper is in Springfield MO, a distance of about 450 miles between the two.

If my truck can handle it, I would like to tow the Viper on my own using my 2000 Dakota Club Truck. It has the 4.7 ltr Magnum V8 engine, 3.55 Differential, automatic tranie and it came equiped with the trailer tow package. (I don't know what size/class hitch it is though, cause I'm not sure how to tell the difference). The Viper iitself whieghs 3400 lbs. I would like to rent one of the UHaul flat bed car trailers I assume those thing weigh about 1000 lbs or so. So I guess the total weight of my load will be about 4500-4600 lbs.

Would my truck be able to handle it. My truck has 25,000 original miles, runs like new and is in excellent condition.

Yes, I do plan on going to the Dodge dealer and also consulting with Uhaul to find out further info, but they will be closed untill Monday. I was wondering if someone here could offer advise from similar expiriance.

Thanks giganticaly as always,
Matt

 

no problem. you need a class3 hitch and a load distributor is recommended. personally i suggest that you drive the viper home. towing can be tricky and you obviously don't have any experience at it. a heavy load is not a great idea to learn with. It would be a crying shame should something happen to your precious car. i towed a Chevy cavalier about 400 miles with my old ranger and on the one trip there were 3-4 times i thought i would break it. not to mention that i had to stop every hour and adjust straps. cars are meant to be driven, even pretty ones

 

My first real experience towing was jumping in my 86 Ram (lifted!) and putting a rally car on a flatbed then driving 1400 miles in 24 hours or so, straight. Highway is easy.

First of all, if you've got a receiver hitch with the tow package, you've got what you need. The U-Haul flatbed that my sister rented for moving to Arizona had just a few wires for lights but no wiring harness plug - each individual wire clamped onto the back of the truck. It was weird, and I hope they've got a solution.

If there is a wiring harness plug, you may need a 7 to 4 wire adapter.

The U-Haul trailer iirc is closer to 2000 lbs. They are surprisingly heavy if we're talking about the same flatbeds. They've got surge brakes which means you won't need a trailer brake controller. A load leveling hitch is nice, but totally not needed.

The current setup I tow is a 1900 pound tilt bed beaver tail with a ~3500 pound WRX wagon rally car, and I don't have a load leveling hitch. It would be nice, but it's infrequent enough to make it hard to justify the cost. I bought a set of Helwig overload helper springs though, but that's more because i had several hundred pounds of fuel, tires, easy-ups, spare parts, and tires in the bed as well.

You will probably need a 2 5/16" ball. The last time I looked into renting a trailer from Ryder they didn't allow their trailers to be towed behind customer vehicles, for liability reasons. I'm not sure if U-haul does or not.

Make sure you get the Viper added to your insurance before leaving though, and see if you can't verify coverage while it is being towed.


Oh, and as far as your truck goes, the load should be in the 5500 pound range which is probably around the top of the range for a 4.7 liter with 3.55 gears, but if you absolutely keep it out of OD and take it easy you should be fine. I haven't spent much time in that area but it's relatively flat, right? You should be ok. Keep your speeds reasonable, if the trailer starts swaying back and forth you need to slow down and try to move weight forward onto the tongue if at all possible. With the way the U-Haul trailers are built though it might not be an issue.

 

Great advise guys! Thanks tremendously!

I am going to reconsider all my options after reading both your posts.

Actually, I did tow a triumph TR spider (3000 lbs triumph wieght plus the wieght of the flat bed 2000 LBS) on a Uhaul Flat bed from NY to Indi (about 800 Mies) years ago but I used a Uhaul provided truck as well (medium size moving truck as I was hauling furniture also) . They hooked it all up for me and all I had to do was drive the Spider onto the flat bed and off I went. I didn't have to worry about right size truck, right trailer or hooking it up. UHaul took care of those details. The trip went fine.

I needed to know if my Dak could handle the work. From both of your kind responses, it seems that the Dak is up to the challange. However, do I want to risk something going wrong with my new purchase? Defitnately going to have to think things over carefully.

Again thanks for posting. It helped.
Matt

 

There's always a chance of something going wrong - towing or not. I've had a couple of flats on trailers, wiring harness that got destroyed by a sidewalk/driveway lip and the tongue jack (ok that was a buddy, not me), and various other little things. Personally if the weather is nice I'd much rather take a bus or train down and drive back and enjoy the new car, but towing behind the Dakota would be fine too.

 

Since you guys were kind enough to help with good advice, I think it merits sharing good news with you guys.

I JUST BOUGHT THE VIPER !! :0)

I won't actually pick it up for another few days as I have to go flying but upon my return... yeah Baby!

Thanks Again
Matt
Oh By the way, I'm keeping the Vette to :0)

Still haven't decided on the transport issue yet though

 

Hey buddy, we're in the same boat, I've got an 04 DAK 4x4 V8 with the 4.7 in her. You have to factor in that SINCE we have dual axels for 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive, our gross weight is more, thus we cant haul as much weight as lets say a 4x2 dak. Ive done a lil research and our big boys are towing weight rated @ just over 3 tons, about 6,010 lbs. Now like I said I dont know a whole lot about towing or what those numbers actually mean in real life, but it might just be me, if you can afford to buy a viper with mileage like that wouldnt it be worth it to have a professional, covered, load safe transportation company bring it to you for a couple grand? not only would it be ur frist haul, but **** ur risking, in my opinion the greatest cars ever made. good luck, congratulations again. sweet ride, would kill for one myself.

 

Factory combined weight is underrated to provide a buffer. I know my quad cab is rated to tow about 6000 lbs but it could safely tow probably 7-8000, especially across flat terrain.

 

Uhaul will rent car trailers for your own vehicle.

BUT before you even go rent one, get an electric brake controller and 7 pin trailer plug set up. This might also be a requirement for the renting company to rent the trailer.

 

Most rental trailers have surge brakes because most truck owners don't have electric brake controllers.