1/2 ton tows 53 ft trailer

[Wyldfire]

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30296894/chevy-silverado-ticketed-towing-long-trailer/

[rhagfo]

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30296894/chevy-silverado-ticketed-towing-long-trailer/

Sorry that TV has 8 lugs!

[notanlines]

"Just because you can do a thing, that doesn't mean you should. That's especially true when it comes to towing a 53-foot-long trailer using a standard-issue three-quarter-ton pickup."
Even though it's a 3/4 ton, you have to admit that necessity truly is the mother of invention.

[John&Genny]

The article actually said a 3/4 ton HD Silverado, and from zooming in on the picture as much as I could, probably a 2500HD, possibly Duramax Diesel. So it certainly could pull an empty trailer, but broke every other towing law known to man :)

[JRTJH]

But, the truck sat level, he wasn't over the "calculated" axle ratings and he couldn't even tell it was back there, and he only tow it locally, two times a year, once in the spring and once to bring it back to storage and NEVER with any water in the tanks..……

Besides, the dealership salesman told him his truck could tow anything on the lot !!!!!

[66joej]

In his defence he did have the safety chains crossed as required.:D

[GeekSquadOfUn]

Must have started over beers at a local watering hole...

[flybouy]

I'm guessing the best "tow" was when the police towed that mess off of the highway. I'm also "guessing" this was a good publicity piece for C & D to sell on.

[jsmith948]

Well - I don't know. Was the trailer loaded? If so, what did it weigh?

The dolly converts the trailer from a semi-trailer to a trailer (that's why it's called a "converter dolly"). The trailer then adds very little tongue weight to the TV. Just the tongue of the dolly and the air tank, etc.

The article says he had air brakes. Did he have an onboard compressor capable of maintaining 65 to 120 psi? I don't know how he would actuate the brakes. He would have to have a truck style foot valve, a hand valve or some way to electrically actuate the service brakes when he applied the TV brakes.

He would have been better off (and perhaps more legal) with a pintle hook hitch rather than the sloppy pin arrangement he was using.

Here in the Central Valley of California, we see all manner of combinations of farm vehicles traveling down the highway. Before the advent of "cotton module builders" did away with the use of cotton trailers, it was not uncommon to see a pickup truck towing two or three cotton trailers down the road. All connected with the clevis and pin type hitches, weaving like a snake down the road. Of course, they were required to have the "slow moving vehicle triangle" on the rearmost trailer.:hide::D

[travelin texans]

Also technically he was towing a "wagon" due to the front axles on the trailer so the only weight on the truck was the southern engineered wagon tongue & air tank or whatever all is mounted on it. Gotta admire his ingenuity though!
Can't tell from the blurry photo whether it's a 2500 or 3500, but that's definitely the Duramax/Allison logo above the number.
I'm more concerned about all the folks I've seen towing 40'+ toyhaulers with their short bed 3/4 ton gassers or 1/2 tons towing 10-12k+ lb 32-35' 5th wheels.

[Ken / Claudia]

In Oregon farm owned/use trucks have a yellow license plate with a big letter F followed by numbers. To cops that means "forget it" they have to many exemptions to list that most others must follow. Farm machinery can and does run down highways and back roads. They even allow the farm workers to drive ATVs from 1 field to another on highways. 2 rules only needed, the slow moving vehicle triangle and pull over to allow traffic to pass when possible.

[TJO]

That is just Crazy!!!

[flybouy]

Just three more observations on this.
1. The truck looks like it has several inches of "squat" in the rear so either that mess that's hitches weighs more than it looks or something in the bed that's heavy.

2. I doubt someone would go to all the trouble to rig that mess up for a "one time" tow. I think he's either been doing that or planned on doing that a lot. We also don't know if he was planning on going 1 mile or 100 miles.

3. He can not possibly see around that trailer. Driving with that behind, windows up, possibly radio on, he'd have difficulty hearing an emergency vehicle behind him.

Number 3 is a personal peeve for me. 1974 I was deer hunting in WV mountains with 2 other guys. While a passenger in the car we were Brad sided by a truck. Broke my pelvis into 3 separate pieces and crushed my lower back (L1,2, &3). They scraped me off the blacktop (yes, I did extricate myself from the car and managed to walk about five feet before collapsing) and put me in the ambo for the 20 + mile ride to the nearest hospital.

The ambo rolled up on an idiot with a loaded hay wagon zig-aging down the road being pulled by a 1950's truck. For a good dozen miles we were behind this guy on mountain roads with no opportunity to pass while traveling at 10-12 m.p.h. The entire time the ambo driver was yelling on his PA for the guy to pull over. The ambo driver attempted to get police involved but back then the radio coverage wasn't great in the mountains. A coal truck coming the other way reported it to his dispatcher and the police finally waved him down. The police said he had rigged a radio to the old truck and had the static ridden a.m. station blaring "The Opry" and didn't know we were back there, for nearly an hour. Thankfully the internal bleed I had wasn't severe enough for me to "bleed out" in that hour+ delay in getting to the hospital.

So my point in this lengthy post is this, a lot of folks don't realize the potential of their actions. I hope they never have to suffer from someone's carelessness but should be held responsible for theirs.

[Blackrock]

I myself have done some crazy stuff towing farm trailers and equipment or moving mobile homes with not quite adequate tow vehicles but even I would never try towing a 53' trailer down a busy highway. I did one time tow a 30' freight trailer with a converter dolly hitched to a pintle hitch of a F550 service truck. Slow and easy with amber beacons flashing and an escort behind with beacons.