My 85 Regal has a GVWR of 14500#. My son-in-law is considering buying it. He wants to be able to pull a horse trailer, probably around 5000# total. I've got a 454 with the standard T400 tranny but also a Gear Vendors on it. Towing would not be in mountains. Some foothills perhaps but not the Rockies or anything like that. The question is, 'Can he do it safely?' They didn't publish a GCVWR back then. Hope someone out there has some advice. It's a P-something chasis with independent front suspension and airbags and an extra spring in the rear with airbags there, too. Not a tag.

How long is the coach?

Wheelbase?

Disk or drum brakes in rear?

What is the loaded tongue weight of the trailer?

Will he be using an Equal I Zer sway control and load distributing hitch?

Trailer has brakes, I would presume. They should be able to be independently actuated, separate from the MH, as well as in concert with.

I would install a Panhard bar and tow with as little weight in the back of the MH as possible. Empty tanks, etc.

As for engine and trans, you can pull a house. Just have a big trans cooler and change fluid yearly. Good fan clutch, etc. The GV makes it even better as long as there is no engine braking in OD.

Bill, the Regal is 28' long, 196" wheelbase, disc brakes front and rear, tongue weight 400#. Rear axle weight rating is a little over 9600#. Normally, I have 8600# on it. Our question is whether the chasis is built to haul an additional 6000#. The hitch is strong enough and the engine and tran are too, but is the chasis strong enough?

The main concern I'd have would be the visibility of the horse trailer, since they tend to be much narrower than a travel trailer. Additionally, I'd be wary of doing it also because of the rear overhang and the danger of jacknifing, especially with that light tongue weight.

I travel extensively in the midwest (horse country), and I've NEVER seen a motorhome of any make pulling a horse trailer. I don't know if there's a rational reason for that; other than many horse trailers have at least rudimentary living quarters, so a pickup or SUV is all that's needed.

Forty years ago people successfully towed 5000# trailers with passenger cars. Then pickups became the thing, & more than one half-ton was beefed up with heavier springs & H.D. shocks to tow heavy trailers (been there, done that). A 3/4 ton was better, of course, but the chassis was still lighter than a P-30 something truck/M.H. chassis.

Weight-wise, the strength of the hitch attachment is the critical element. The chassis itself should be strong enough.

The question of visibility can be solved with a back-up cam, but the rear overhang is a factor to be careful with. The long rear overhangs on '60s & '70s era large cars were factors in their demise, & the rise of pickups as tow vehicles. An equalizing hitch & a good sway control are critical in any event.

I, too, don't recall seeing a motor home towing a horse trailer, but I've seen a number hauling car trailers of equivalent size & weight. Most of those, however, were tagging along behind big diesel pushers.

IMHO, as to safety, proper equipment is the sine qua non, plus driver care & competence. The vehicle should be strong enough to handle the job.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Additionally, I'd be wary of doing it also because of the rear overhang and the danger of jacknifing, especially with that light tongue weight.

Yes. That is why I mentioned the Panhard bar, the Equal I Zer sway control hitch, and the independant brake control. These all are intended to address the concern of tail wagging, which is foreplay to jacknifing. There is nothing like being able to touch the trailer brakes to stop a tail wag or worse. A lot of towing safety is to address and control small problems before they become bigger problems.



Doug, I noticed you went from 5000# to 6000#.


The Pee chassis was made pretty much unchanged until its terrmination in 2005, so a look at figures for later models can be informative. The 2005 P chassis had GCVRs ranging from 19k to 22k, with GVWRs from 15k to 18k. From this we can infer that about 4000 lbs can be towed. On the strength of those figures, no one would be likely to say it is OK to tow more than that. You would have to make appropriate mods and choices.


With that 400# tongue weight, how does the trailer handle behind what vehicle?

The rule of thumb for tongue weight on travel trailers was a minimum of 10% of the gross trailer weight, 15% ideal, 20% max.

That doesn't seem to apply to boat trailers. I've seen some pretty big boats on trailers with tongue weights light enough for the owner to horse it around by hand. Then again, I've seen the negative results of more out-of-control boat trailers than travel trailers.

The heavier the tongue weight, the more weight can be transferred to the tow vehicle chassis by an equalizing hitch, & the more stable the tow (up to a point).

A lot of trailers are towed successfully with less-than- ideal setups, but the further one strays from the ideal, the easier it is to get in trouble, & the more care one must exercise.

(Thread drift) - FWIW, I've seen four bad travel trailer wrecks. Perhaps not coincidentally, the tow vehicles were, respectively, a Blazer, a Bronco, an International Scout, & whatever the Dodge short wheelbase 4x4 was. That at least tells you to forget about towing with a high-centered short-wheelbase vehicle.

Most horse trailers that I have seen and I have seen plenty, are pulled with a pickup. Some horse trailers do have living quarters, some do not and those are usually pulled with a pickup and truck camper.

Horse trailers are pulled by pickups because horse owners own pickups. It is mandatory.

Aside from that, a gooseneck or fifth wheel pulled by a pickup is the best way to tow a horse trailer or travel trailer, for that matter. When I went from a TT to a fiver, I was greatly impressed by the superior handling, and that was with the same pickup.

From 1990 through 1995 I towed a 5,000# auto on an "auto transport" (4-wheel tandem trailer) behind my '86 Regal P30 34' w/tag axle, 454/turbo400. Never had a problem towing, either power or "tail wag". I did take care balancing the tongue weight, however.

Gunner, what was the tongue weight on that trailer?

How much tag air did it take to level the coach?

Gunner, what was the tongue weight on that trailer?

I didn't measure it. With the trailer hooked up ( and a settling block beneath the rear of the trailer) I drove on then inched forward until the trailer
"tilted" forward and settled on the hitch - that was it. I put cleats down so I was always in the same position fore and aft, but always visually watched the coach when I loaded. I would guess about 200 lbs tongue weight (???). The empty trailer had minimal tongue weight; I could move it by hand.

Bags: I don't recall. I did not change the pressure when I was towing. I used the same pressure (70 lbs???) all the time. I DID have electric trailer brakes and an exhaust brake on the Chevy engine.

Yeah, unscientific, but it worked very well.

quote:

Originally posted by Gunner: I towed a 5,000# auto on an "auto transport" (4-wheel tandem trailer)
I would guess about 200 lbs tongue weight (???). The empty trailer had minimal tongue weight; I could move it by hand.


Yeah, unscientific, but it worked very well.

Well, that kinda fits in with my own unscientific observations with boat and car trailers. I have always felt that a tandem axle trailer could get by with less tongue weight than a single axle. Perhaps because of the disinclination to "hobby horse" or because of the inherent stability of a pair of axles both trying to resist any turning forces.