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dubob · 10-21-2014, 08:29 AM

The Maiden Voyage of the TC on a trailer has been accomplished without incident. I hooked up the trailer and then the boat and headed south. We made a stop at Cabela’s in Lehi, UT and I took this picture of the triple-tow set-up. A few miles down the road in Nephi, UT, we stopped for fuel and food at the Flying J truck stop and I put the whole shebang on their CAT scale.

I had previously weighed the truck alone and came up with a front AW of 3600 lbs and a rear AW of 2800 lbs for a truck empty weight of 6400 lbs. This 6400 lbs does NOT include a driver or any passengers but the fuel tank was nearly full. My factory figures are GVWR 9200 lbs, GAWR (front) 4200 lbs, and GAWR (rear) 6084 lbs. So, I have 3,284 lbs of capacity left on the rear axle, but only 2,800 lbs of capacity left on the payload. Shouldn’t be a problem.

I had also weighed the truck and trailer together when I picked up the trailer from the builder. The front AW stayed the same at 3,600 lbs. The rear AW went to 3,240 lbs giving me a king pin weight of 440 lbs. Oops! This could be a problem. The trailer axles with the camper loaded came in at 6,840 lbs. Adding the king pin weight takes the trailer and camper to 7,280 lbs and the trailer has a GVWR of 10,000 lbs. So I’m going down the highway at 13, 885 lbs (this weight includes me at 205lbs).

The CAT scale weights for the triple-tow set-up came in at 3660 on the front, 3380.on the rear, and 10,000 even on the camper, trailer, and boat package. That comes to a grand total of 17,040 lbs. Add to that another 385 lbs for me, my bride, and our pooch and the total is 17,425 lbs moving down the highway. The trucks GCWR is 18,500 lbs, so no problem there. And adding some storage boxes and weight to the front end of the trailer increased the king pin weight to 580 lbs. Better, but still not there yet; I need to have 15% to 25% of the total TC trailer weight in the king pin. Do I modify the trailer to allow moving the TC forward or do I add a 100 gallon (835 lbs) water tank to the front of the trailer to put more weight on the pin? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Driver's side boxes

Passenger's side boxes

Front boxes

How did the truck perform? Very well thank you very much. The mileage for the 767 mile trip turned out to be 8.87 at an average highway speed of 60 mph. The 6.0L engine did a good job of pulling hills with no indication of overheating on either the engine or the transmission. Air temps were mostly in the 60s and 70s. The transmission temp hit the low 190s a couple of times but mostly ran below 170. All in all, a very good first run. Sadly, now it’s time to winterize and store and get down to some serious duck hunting. And some super fall fishing locally. Life is good.

Jaxom · 02-15-2015, 11:21 PM

That looks pretty tall. Have you measured it at the air conditioner? Or whatever might be taller?

Nice looking rig.

dubob · 02-16-2015, 07:23 AM

I have not measured the height, but when it was on the truck, it was 12' 0". It may be an inch or 3 taller on the trailer.

84prerunner · 03-02-2015, 12:30 AM

What was your reason for this setup rather then putting the TC in the bed or getting a travel trailer? Im also surprised by your weight, id expect a higher GCWR. I am at about the same weight with a single trailer and TC in the bed.

dubob · 03-02-2015, 09:07 PM

I started with it in the bed of a one ton dually/diesel. But taking it off and putting it back on when I went fishing or to Skeet shoots was a royal PITA. And I always took it off because breaking camp every time I launched/retrieved the boat or had to run to town for something was more of a PITA to me than taking it off and putting it back on.

I would love to have an 18 to 24 foot fiver with the same quality as my Lance 992 but they don't exist near as I can tell. And pulling a boat behind a bumper pull trailer is just plain stupid.

So the best choice for me was putting the TC on a goose neck trailer, haul it like a fiver, and pull my boat safely (and legally out west) behind the trailer. Got rid of that POS diesel, downsized to a 3/4 ton, and love the new setup camp with ease I now enjoy.

Need I say more?