Tag hitch to gooseneck insert

[neetchracer]

Originally Posted by Bottomland4x4

Where would you find the towing capacity for my renegade? I've heard 30k and I've heard 40k? I figure with the single rear axle it would be 30k?

I have a NRC GN toter and have not found anything concrete on towing capacity. Here's the way I look at it, you should be able to tow whatever your axle and tire ratings are as long as you follow federal bridge laws. The short story is, 20K max on the rear axle, probably 13880# on the front axle(axle ratings should be on the drivers door jam), plus whatever the trailer axles are rated for. The Bridge Formula gets a little more complicated, but what I said is the basic rule. The biggest thing that's irritating about federal laws is that a single drive axle can only carry 20K(34K for tandems).....even though my rear axle is rated for 22+K and I have 28+K capacity in the tires. A recreational motorhome will probably never get weighed, but a race rig might. I'm at 19500# on my rear axle before I add the second car(and have a plan to change that a bit if needed). My buddy with a motorhome style conversion is at 21500# with his tag stacker and two medium weight door cars. He has no good options though.

Your probably at a disadvantage using a GN trailer due to more tongue weight being engineered into a GN trailer than a TAG, on an already fairly heavy motorhome rear axle.

[Bottomland4x4]

I am looking at a 30 foot hydraulic dove gooseneck trailer, the axles are about 4 feet closer to the front of the trailer as compared to a normal 25+5 dovetail trailer. This should put more weight on the trailer axles and the trailer will follow closer. If you compare it to a deckover pintle trailer the axles are about the same place. On the pintle trailers I've looked at, big tex,and gator, the axles are closer to the front, to help with tongue weight I assume.

I really need to weigh my motorhome and see where I am at without the trailer and full of water. I really wish I had the dual tandems, but this motorhome had everything else I was looking for, and I'm pretty picky. Lol!

[hot rod]

Originally Posted by Bottomland4x4

On a side note, I wonder what is the maximum tow capacity of my renegade?

That maybe should have been your first question instead of a side note? I know they tow some pretty big stackers with those rigs. Should be a data tag on the truck with the gcvw, and I would think the mfg would be able to tell you what they rate the hitch at.

Good theory on the raised bumper pull hitch. A gooseneck trailer is just a bumper pull with the hitch up high. Really nice job building the hitch. Nice piece. My only question is should the chains go to something other than the hitch itself? Like to the chassis? Right now they would do the job if the ball failed, but if anything else broke the chains wouldn't do anything.

[Bottomland4x4]

Originally Posted by hot rod

That maybe should have been your first question instead of a side note? I know they tow some pretty big stackers with those rigs. Should be a data tag on the truck with the gcvw, and I would think the mfg would be able to tell you what they rate the hitch at.

Good theory on the raised bumper pull hitch. A gooseneck trailer is just a bumper pull with the hitch up high. Really nice job building the hitch. Nice piece. My only question is should the chains go to something other than the hitch itself? Like to the chassis? Right now they would do the job if the ball failed, but if anything else broke the chains wouldn't do anything.

I will have to look for the data tag, I have noticed some dealers rate the same hitch 40,000 and some are 30,000. I only pull around 18-20k so I should be ok.

The safety chains are hooked to the hitch, it would take some really long chains to hook on the main hitch. I think they will be ok. My hitch uses both pins in the insert, most of the stacker hitches only use one!

[Bottomland4x4]

Here is a pic, it was snowing the day we left. This was about 17,000 lbs counting truck, trailer, and atv. 1600 mile round trip with no issues. Fuel mileage was rough, only averaged 6.40 round trip. We did have really bad headwinds both directions, but I thought that was pretty bad. Averaged speed limit or a couple under, ton of traffic.