On Wed, August 10, 2005 11:33 pm, Don said:
>
> 2000 Dodge towing guide reads as such........
I see on your site that you have a U-Haul hitch. Have you checked the
sticker on that yet? I have a U-Haul hitch on my '95, and the hitch says
it won't handle more than 5000 lbs, even with weight distribution. It was
added by the previous owner, and he seems to have been pretty cheap, so he
probably didn't spring for a heavy-duty hitch.
> axle ratio........... Max Trailer Wt
> 3.55 4,800
> 3.92 6,100
> 4.10 Doesn't list it
Not too shabby. I'm sure the 4.10 gears would allow you to comfortably
pull even more than that. The 4.7 is so rev-happy that it really likes
the lower gears.
However, I'm not sure if there are there any legal / insurance / liability
ramifications of exceeding the numbers that Chrysler has printed in black
and white. You'd probably know better than I would. I'm pretty sure our
insurance company would void our coverage if they even suspected that we
were one ounce over the published weight rating. Never mind that the
truck has been upgraded to be much more capable than stock, if we told
them we had modified it they'd just cancel us twice as fast ("modification
is futile, comply with factory specifications or you will be
assimilated"). Maybe we just have the biggest jerks in the industry.
At any rate, the trailer you're looking at is only 4700 lbs dry. Even
loaded it should be under 6100, so I'd say you don't have anything to
worry about with either 3.92 or 4.10 gears.
> One thing that I will need is a http://www.equalizerhitch.com/
Looks nice. Is that the one that costs something like $4000, or am I
thinking of something different?
We haven't experienced any of the sway problems that Ed reported. I'm not
sure why. The only thing I've noticed with the semi trucks is that when
one is passing us, there's some kind of weird vacuum effect that tends to
pull our whole rig *toward* the semi. I don't really feel anything, I
just suddenly notice that we're a whole lot closer to the white line than
we were a few seconds ago. As long as I keep an eye on the mirror to see
who's passing, it's not a problem.
For sway control, all we have is a regular weight distribution setup with
an add-on friction sway control. Basically this: http://tinyurl.com/4ym8z
plus this: http://tinyurl.com/7ozna
For an upgraded sway control, I've heard good things about this setup:
http://tinyurl.com/8zudd
-- Jason Bleazard http://drazaelb.blogspot.com Burlington, Ontario his: '95 Dakota Sport 4x4, 3.9 V6, 5spd, Reg. Cab, white hers: '01 Dakota Sport 4x4, 4.7 V8, Auto, Quad Cab, black
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 05 2008 - 19:13:05 EST