Flat Tow PW

[yellowranger1]

I havent been on here in a good long while, life/work etc... Long story short, our camping situation has morphed over the past few years and now I'm looking into flat towing the PW. I found another thread on here from a several years ago, but looks like it was in the wrong section, figured I'd start a new one here in the towing section.

The motorhome is built on a Ram 5500 chassis, so I have no doubts that it'll drag the weight behind it - I daily drive a 5500 for work and regularly tow a 35-40k pintle trailer, so seems like the motorhome is rated conservatively @ 10k. I'm guessing the low tow rating is intended to keep tongue weight down since the receiver is so far behind the axle, but I figure tongue weight shouldn't be an issue with flat towing. How about the side loads when cornering though? PW's are pretty hefty beasts. My main concern is how the truck would track behind the motorhome. I've never flat towed, is the "tracking" of the toad really pronounced, or not a big concern with the modern towbar setups? I will be getting one of those portable supplemental braking kits, as well so we can use it in another vehicle down the line. My truck is on 37's, Thuren 1/2" springs up front and stock 2500 springs and Thuren track bar in the rear.

Thanks for any feedback and input

[RustyPW]

I flat towed a Grand Cherokee behind a diesel Class A motorhome that had a 10,000 lbs tow capacity. I used a Blue Ox 10,000 lbs tow bar, and a Patriot brake system. Never knew the GC was back there.

Your tow bar should be close to level. No more than 4" higher or 4" lower. With your set up on the PW. Think that will be hard to do because of the height of the PW. That's one of the reasons I never towed my PW. If you have an electric power steering pump. That's another can of worms.

[Bill2014]

It is super rare to find a PW toad setup. You will need something custom for sure...

I did find this on the net though:

https://hdrams.com/forum/index.php?thre ... ild.13798/

Cheers:

[yellowranger1]

Thanks for the input guys,

RustyPW - I'm looking at using mostly blueox components as well, glad someone else on here has had positive experiences with them. I was also told by the rep at etrailer to check the height difference, they recommended a high/low adapter to account for that and keep the bar as close to level as you mentioned.

Bill2014 - Thanks for posting that link, I'd seen that a while ago but was thinking that was on here and was going in circles trying to find it. Looks like theres plenty of bracket options for standard 2500s, and only 1 option for the PW from blueox thats on backorder. Hopefully I can get a hold of that as it should keep custom work down.

It may be a month or two before I get all of the parts together and set up, but I'll be sure to post up on here when its done.

[yellowranger1]

So I gathered all of the parts for this from etrailer and went with the Blue Ox components they recommended as well as the patriot brake kit. The only thing that wasn't readily available was the baseplate kit. I was hoping to get all of this together before a trip up to the Sequoias, but etrailer showed a month + eta on the baseplates, I called Blue Ox directly and they said at least 2-3 months - bummer. I sent some pics over to a friend that runs an off road fabrication shop in Simi Valley, Ca called The Fab Lab, and he whipped up some baseplates next day! I got them bolted up, and took it for a spin, and it felt fine. Definitely tows differently than a normal trailer, you can feel the weight back there when switching lanes or going over some of the nasty bumps in the slow lanes, but overall tows well and it was nice not having to pack up the motorhome and worry about parking that thing when we wanted to head out somewhere.

- Eddie

Will post some pics from my phone shortly

[yellowranger1]

Need to get some longer safety cables, and final mount the breakaway box, other than that it’s ready for more trips

[RustyPW]

Need to get some longer safety cables, and final mount the breakaway box, other than that it’s ready for more trips

[Mule007]

[yellowranger1]

Not sure why it only posted 1 pic, here’s a couple of the bracket

[yellowranger1]

Mounted on the truck

[RustyPW]

Mounted on the truck