How am I going to pull my boat now?

[Chad Flaugher]

Okay, so I bought a giant cab over camper for my truck. The camper hangs out of the back of my 8' bed by about 2'. How am I going to pull my boat now? I have researched some hitch extensions of sorts, but I'm not sold on anything as of yet... The boat and trailer with gear weigh in around 3500 lbs. The truck is a 1996 Chevy K3500 1 ton. I can have pictures up Saturday, but for now I can tell you that I have a standard 2" heavy duty receiver on the truck as of now. Ideas greatly appreciated as always!

 

[smokeonthewater]

You are gonna need a much stronger hitch and extension made specifically for towing with a camper...

Look into a Reese Titan setup

https://www.etrailer.com/question-6616.html

 

[Need A Vacation]

You may need to go with the Torklift superhitch system designed for what your setup. http://www.torklift.com/index.php/products/towing/superhitch-supertruss

Maybe head over to RV.net forum and members in the truck camper section there may be able to help also!

Good luck!

 

[Blind Date]

RV forum is a good place or contact the manufacturer of your camper and see what they say.

 

[MTboatguy]

There is no reason to not use an extension to tow your boat, my buddy who owns the RV shop has been installing them for years now with no problems at all, as long as they are set up correctly, they actually have a pretty good weight rating for most of them.

 

[alldodge]

Okay, so I bought a giant cab over camper for my truck. The camper hangs out of the back of my 8' bed by about 2'. How am I going to pull my boat now? I have researched some hitch extensions of sorts, but I'm not sold on anything as of yet... The boat and trailer with gear weigh in around 3500 lbs. The truck is a 1996 Chevy K3500 1 ton. I can have pictures up Saturday, but for now I can tell you that I have a standard 2" heavy duty receiver on the truck as of now. Ideas greatly appreciated as always!

If it's a class IV your good, if its a class III then I would suggest upgrading

I'm in the minority (no change here) but I would go for extending the boat trailer tongue before going for a hitch extension. Those extensions put a lot more torque (putting a long lever on hitch) on the frame and your 96 truck frame may not handle those loads.

I would cut my trailer tongue and slide a solid steel bar inside to extend it by the two feet, could even have it pinned like a receiver for removal. Don't see much in a minus, but the plus is it would be easier to back up the trailer

 

[MTboatguy]

Don't see much in a minus, but the plus is it would be easier to back up the trailer

Except the ball mount is going to be under the overhang of the camper, not only is it going to be very difficult to hook up, the bouncing around of the boat trailer is most likely going to cause damage to the skirt on the camper and the underside of the floor! The only way to do this correctly, is have your hitch checked out to make sure it can handle what you are doing and then install an extension bar that is rated at least twice of what you are going to be towing, there are extension bars out there rated for over 14 thousand pounds. Where I am located in NW Montana, it is the norm to seem an extended set up, they are using them all over the country with very few failures.

There was a swing hitch set up for trucks for a few years that attached to the rear axle of the truck and it did not do well because of the damage it cause on the tow vehicle, this would be the same principal you are suggesting by extending the boat trailer, the pivot point would be under the camper over hang.

The trailer hitch extension bar system came out in the 60's and has been a very reliable system for close to 50 years now.

By the way, I do hope your truck is a 4x4? With the added weight of the camper, you could have difficulty in pulling a 3500 pound set up, up the launch ramp without a 4x4 and 4 low being available.

 

[smokeonthewater]

The minus comes when he pulls the front of the truck up a steep approach like into a driveway and the tongue rips into the camper and when he has to crawl under the camper each time he hooks and unhooks.

 

[alldodge]

Told ya, I told ya I was in the minority

Agree with most your post but will also mention, while the bar can handle up to 14K the hitch and truck frame may not. Most campers also have a skirt below the door which can be reduced, but I would not pull a load off an extension unless I had my insurance company sign off on it. Going up a steep incline if on a two foot extension or a trailer with an extension something is going to happen and no one will like it.

I'm the odd man out so the majority is going the other way, just my opinion and like other things we all have one. All ya'll have fun now and play nice :fencing:

 

[MTboatguy]

Insurance companies all over America signed off on the extension set up, back when they came out, like I said, my buddy owns S&S campers out of Montana and they have never had a claim come back on them. We are playing nice, but many of us do have experience in this area, I had a 12 footer on my truck for years and that is the way I towed my boat and never had a problem. Now I tow a 28 foot 5th wheel, with the boat hooked up to the back of the 5 wheel, which of course is legal where I live.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Yep as stated above a class III hitch won't cut it.... The Titan I mentioned is a class IV 2 1/2" reciever and bolts to the frame MUCH more securely and in more places than a class III

 

[alldodge]

As a non-legal expert I'll offer this; I make a steel bar capable of handling a 14K load off the end of a trailer hitch. If tested later it can be proven that the bar does handle 14K load, I'm off the legal hook so to speak. If the steel bar applies enough load to tear the hitch off my truck the first question will be what is the manufactures rating. Was it designed to handle a two foot extension

These and other question can not be answered by anyone hear. Also civil suites are done in private and we as individuals will not know the outcome,

 

[MTboatguy]

As a non-legal expert I'll offer this; I make a steel bar capable of handling a 14K load off the end of a trailer hitch. If tested later it can be proven that the bar does handle 14K load, I'm off the legal hook so to speak. If the steel bar applies enough load to tear the hitch off my truck the first question will be what is the manufactures rating. Was it designed to handle a two foot extension

These and other question can not be answered by anyone hear. Also civil suites are done in private and we as individuals will not know the outcome,

All I can say is wow! Thousands of people all over this country have used these extensions for 50 years now, they have been proven safe and I think you are going overboard in your assessment, of the technology. If they were bad technology, with the amount of campers in this county, we would have heard about it by now.

So now when it goes back to the original poster, either you use an extension bar and get it set up correctly, get a smaller camper, or take a second vehicle with you to tow your boat.

And really you don't know if the question can be answered by someone posting here. Really when it comes down to it, it is up to the guy that bought a camper that creates a situation for him towing his boat.

Just to add, where I live, civil suits are not done in private, every week, we have listings in the news of the civil suits file that week, just finished watching the weekly report on it. Nothing filed in a court of law is private, unless a judge orders it to be private. When it comes to products suits, it is never private if the public at large could be affected.

 

[Chad Flaugher]

I'll have the camper in the truck shortly. Yes, it is a 4x4, I have no worries about what the truck can pull or carry, or both. Also, due to it's height, I already run a drop in my hitches for all of my trailers. I'm wondering if I couldn't split the difference? 8" or 12" extension, with the boat hooking up just barely under the camper? Thanks for the feedback. I'll be measuring things up shortly, and I'll post results!

 

[smokeonthewater]

You DON'T want to couple under the camper.... In addition to what I mentioned above it will also limit your ability to turn without the boat getting into the camper.

 

[MTboatguy]

There is just nothing good having the pivot point under the camper and any reputable shop would not install it that way. These systems have been around for decades, it is prudent to go with something an engineer designed. The people that sell these systems, do this for a living and have been very successful for many years now.

 

[bruceb58]

There also systems like my Dad had which actually has 3 receivers on the truck. This assembly slides in once you put your camper on and has a huge bar that contains the one receiver that you put your hitch into. Very robust.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Yep plenty of purpose built systems available.... No need to mickeymouse anything.

 

[Chad Flaugher]

Yeah, it's going to take 24" for sure. I'm looking at the [h=2]Torklift (E1524) SuperTruss 24" Hitch Extension.[/h]

 

[MTboatguy]

Yeah, it's going to take 24" for sure. I'm looking at the [h=2]Torklift (E1524) SuperTruss 24" Hitch Extension.[/h]

Nothing wrong with that system Chad, nice heavy duty set up that has a very good history of being reliable, it is a bit more costly than some of them, but with that cost comes extra piece of mind knowing the system is not going to let you down in the long run.