Triple towing

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Mickey G

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I see people towing a small boat behind their 5th wheel.
Has anyone or does anyone see a problem towing a pontoon boat behind their 5th wheel?
 
Some states don?t let you triple tow at all, other states let you, but have overall length restrictions. I can understand the temptation to triple tow at times, but I wouldnt do it personally, and I really hate passing somebody who is doing it. But to answer your question, Pontoons are usual pretty long and depending on your tow vehicle and fiver length I doubt it?s legal in almost any state. Not that there are many tape measure police out there, but if you get into an accident while towing illegally, there are a gang of lawyers that will be very happy. Also, I have a pontoon and because of it?s wide surface area and they they to sit up pretty high on the trailer they are affected much more in the wind than a low-slung fishing boat. So attaching a ?sail? to another ?sail? (the fiver) in much of any kind of crosswind is a scary thought to me. Just my opinion of course.
 
If I pulled a pontoon far it would be on a bunk trailer. I have a new 24 ft regular style trailer that is used to put in at a boat ramp a 1/2 mile away with my truck only.  I dont know how long your pontoon is but I have a 30' FW and a 12 ft utility trailer and I'm at 63 ft with short bed truck. Many states are 65' limit.  Some states require an additional lic endorsement.  I have never seen a pontoon but often see power boats and bet that many of them are over. My trailer can haul a 24' boat but is probably 28' to 29' long.  If I put it behind my FW I'd be 76' long.
 
    Everyone's mentioned concerns are valid points.

    This is my opinion only.... I think that the weight of the 5er should be considered in the equation! The heavier the 5er, the more stable the overall rig will be when towing doubles. "You don't want the tail, wagging the dog"!  But, then the limits of the tow vehicle come into play.

    And as others have mentioned...the legalities. Here in Wyoming, we can go 85 feet. But....our neighbors aren't so generous. So....for us to go hunting ( with a utility trailer with our Ranger and gear,) or our boat out of state we exceeded the overall length in most states. So....for "those" out-of-state trips we had to get a small MH as our camp and tow vehicle.

    If you could "blow up" our avatar without too much distortion, you'd see our Wyoming rig!
 
We double tow a 14.5 ft boat behind our 5th wheel withnout any problems but with a pontoon boat you have a new set of problems beside the hitch weight and stress on the trailer and it's the ability to move the boat around if you have to disconnect to get out of a tight situation, I've been doing it for a long time and it will happen.

Denny
 
One further wrinkle: you have to mount a receiver hitch on the back of the 5W, and it may not have much frame back there to do it. Some trailer mfgrs specifically disallow adding a hitch at the back because the trailer frame and its cross-members are not designed for the stress of pulling a heavy weight.
 
In Ca you would probably need a Commercial license to pull that setup. It would be just like a Tractor pulling a set of doubles.  Not sure I would be willing to go through that much work for an occasional tow.
 
SargeW said:
In Ca you would probably need a Commercial license to pull that setup. It would be just like a Tractor pulling a set of doubles.  Not sure I would be willing to go through that much work for an occasional tow.
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Yes, it all depends on your state laws and I thik there was a recent post from a Cali resident o this issue. I ran into this video about Texas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UBGRpuIMEIIt doesn't apply to out of state people but Cali may be similar. In Mich it only required a 10 question test.

Also a very important part was mentioned by Gary. If your rig is under warr they may void it if modified. My old bessy has a large box frame that worked well with heavy reinforcement but some frames are just not intended to have all of that added. I have seen some that I believe would need reinforcement through their entire length before I would put a hitch on the back. Some brands will come equipped from the factory. I just looked at new Winnebago that had a hitch installed iirc.
 
Memtb said:
Here in Wyoming, we can go 85 feet. But....
Click to expand...

I'm a commercial driver here in Wyoming, our state actually has no overall length limit but... the trailer(s) are limited to 81 feet from the front bulkhead to the rear most portion of the back trailer.  This essentially limits length by limiting the trailer(s) length.  The tankers I typically drag around have an overall length of 105' to 112' including the truck and we travel without oversize permit.

Having cleared that up...

Can you tow doubles (it's doubles not triples)?  Yes in some states you can but should you?  The answer to that is probably NO!!  Your rig is NOT designed for this kind of service and you probably have little if any experience doing it.  Doubles can be a hand full to deal with in wind or inclement weather not to mention you're playing test pilot by over loading your tow vehicle (assuming it's not an MDT).

Regarding the "Tape Measure Police" believe me they are out there and if they see you and believe that you are doing something unsafe they WILL make contact with you.  By the way, if you tow doubles in Texas and get caught the DPS will make you break the set no if's, and's or but's.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
One further wrinkle: you have to mount a receiver hitch on the back of the 5W, and it may not have much frame back there to do it. Some trailer mfgrs specifically disallow adding a hitch at the back because the trailer frame and its cross-members are not designed for the stress of pulling a heavy weight.
Click to expand...


      Gary, To comment on your comment! ;)  When I suggested a "heavier" 5er, I probably should have also stated " that generally, the heavier 5ers have "beefer" frames. Ours could easily tow 5K. Many 5ers out there today would be "stressed" with a few bikes or small generator, hanging off the rear!  :(
 
"Heavier" in this case needs to refer to the construction quality, not the actual weight.

So called "lite" trailers, as well as the less expensive brands, use mostly thin cross members between medium duty side rails, with only a couple strong cross-members to give the box some rigidity. The cross members are designed primarily to support a plywood floor, not to resist sideways pulling of a hitch and a hefty second trailer. A rig with a sturdier frame will weigh more, but weight alone does not indicate the trailer chassis is strong. That is probably more driven by the price class than the length or weight of the trailer.
 
Arch Hoagland said:
I wonder how that would handle in an full on panic stop.
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Just as long as you have enough braking capacity it makes no difference at all, when you are pulling a trailer behind a 5th wheel not a TT it's very stable.

For the ones that have never pulled doubles with a 5th wheel because of the tail swing the second trailer tracks out further than the first trailer and in the wind the only thing I notice is more wind resistance in a side wind.
Denny
 
Foto-n-T said:
I'm a commercial driver here in Wyoming, our state actually has no overall length limit but... the trailer(s) are limited to 81 feet from the front bulkhead to the rear most portion of the back trailer.  This essentially limits length by limiting the trailer(s) length.  The tankers I typically drag around have an overall length of 105' to 112' including the truck and we travel without oversize permit.

Having cleared that up...

Can you tow doubles (it's doubles not triples)?  Yes in some states you can but should you?  The answer to that is probably NO!!  Your rig is NOT designed for this kind of service and you probably have little if any experience doing it.  Doubles can be a hand full to deal with in wind or inclement weather not to mention you're playing test pilot by over loading your tow vehicle (assuming it's not an MDT).

Regarding the "Tape Measure Police" believe me they are out there and if they see you and believe that you are doing something unsafe they WILL make contact with you.  By the way, if you tow doubles in Texas and get caught the DPS will make you break the set no if's, and's or but's.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the excellent info Joe. I have seen it many times before, but I give those folks a wide berth. It would scare me to death to be in front of someone pulling like that and be in some 4-5% grades. It always seems the "double tows" that I have seen, the guy is usually in a 3/4 ton truck.
 
Arch Hoagland said:
I wonder how that would handle in an full on panic stop.
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        Arch, For a little extra " feel good", though it would cost a bit, would to put brakes on the boat trailer with a "surge-brake" on trailer tongue. My boat trailer is set-up this way.
 
Much very good advise.  Here is another tow laws site.

http://www.hitchemup.com/statetowinglaws.htm

One other HUGE consideration is the GCWR, or Gross COMBINED Weight rating of your tow vehicle.  This the total weight of the rig, all three pieces.  With many camper set ups, especially if the camper is close to the max limit for the truck, you are also close to the GCWR with just the truck and FW.  Unless your tow vehicle is a Medium Duty Truck (MDT), you will be well above GCWR.
 
Arch Hoagland said:
I wonder how that would handle in an full on panic stop.
Click to expand...
Having towed RV and agriculture doubles I've found doubles stop me in a shorter distance than a single tow.....exception being the 5er was a triaxle.
Case in point is a one ton srw/28' 5th wheel trailer/tandem axle cargo trailer in the rear.
Truck 6k fawr....7000 rawr = 13k lbs of braking.
Tandem axle 5th wheel trailer with 5200 lb axles = 10400 lbs braking.
Tandem axle cargo with two 3500 lb axles = 7k braking.
...or 30400 lbs of braking performance for the combination.

Towing rv doubles has been around since the late '50s that I've seen. Lots of new folks to the towing world or don't travel into other states that do.
This part of my world (OK/TX/AR/KS/MO)  has lots of large COE lakes so doubles  in the summer months is a way of life in this area.

Even lots of triple (three trailers) in the summer such as a one ton DRW/5th wheel trailer/ski boat trailer/PWC trailer bringing up the rear.

 
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