Community Forums

tinkerreknit · 06-24-2016, 05:44 PM

Thank goodness, I haven't been faced with a breakdown of my TV while towing. But I was wondering how a wrecker would respond. I seem to remember somewhere seeing a wrecker pulling a TV with a 5th wheel hooked up. Weight concerns, frame integrity, and the 5er nose dipping into the truck side rails, etc. seem like problems to me.
So what happens if a 5er combo breaks down and you call a wrecker?

Walt Bennett · 06-24-2016, 06:22 PM

That's how it's done. The front of your truck is only lifted about 10" at most and it works fine (as long as it's the right sized wrecker!).

MnTom · 06-24-2016, 07:05 PM

I had to get towed and all that was done was pull the driveshaft and use a wheel lift. The wrecker driver just lifted the front end high enough to not be a problem. If the front of the trailer is going to hit with only 10 inches of front end lift you are going to hit a lot of places as you enter or leave.

Big earl · 06-24-2016, 08:11 PM

We were coming back from a weekend of camping and luckily was about 30 miles from home, when my truck a 2007 Ram CTD lost power. We were pulling a 30' TT. We had a wrecker service come out and he hooked on to the front of our truck towed it to our house and backed it my drive. So it can be done

SlowpokeSlim · 06-25-2016, 07:34 AM

Yup,

Used to do it all the time when I drove wreckers for a living. Piece of cake. Need at least a medium duty wrecker though. I normally drove heavies. Used to get calls from other light duty drivers when they would respond to a call for a "tow", and the caller neglected to inform them that that pickup truck they want towed had a TT or a 5th wheel hanging off the back end.

Hook it with a wheel lift from the front end, and pull the whole thing down the road. Pulling the driveline on a pickup is much easier than pulling the axles on some of the class A diesel pushers running around. Some of those can be a real pain in the *ss.

donnandon · 06-25-2016, 10:40 AM

In our case, we belong to Good Sams Roadside Assistance. When our truck broke down towing our 40' 5th wheel, they sent two trucks...one flatbed to take the truck to a dealer, and a pickup to tow the trailer to a RV park.

I think if we had just called a tow service ourselves, then they would have sent one truck as noted above.