towing 2 trailers (train)

what is everybodys opinion on towing 2 trailers (train)
i want to pull my 17 foot camper with my 14 foot fishing boat behind.
is this hard to do or to control on the road?

 

braking and control are gonna be a problem

 

the camper is a tandem with brakes. i seen people do it on the highway, just wondering if this is safe

 

it may be illegal..I know here in NJ its illegal to tow certain things on a highway

 

have you seen a tacoma do it? I think thats asking a little too much from the truck

 

As long as you can stop. I think there are lengths requirements you have to look into. I have a thirty three foot dovetail. It has a ball hitch on the end. I have pulled it loaded with hay plus a lowboy with a tractor on it on the last trip out of a field. Nobody stopped me.

 

a 14 foot boat on a boat trailer is really not that heavy. i can move it around by hand. i just thought it would be nice to go camping and bring the boat along to go fishing.

 

I think it will be fine. You will not be able to back well. If you try to launch the boat from behind the camper, please upload the picks under the fail thread.

 

Check your local laws.
Personally, I think it's a major accident waiting to happen.

Scroll down to bottom - you'll see provinces there.
http://www.towingworld.com/articles/TowingLaws.htm
Not sure if that's helpful or not.

 

This screams "bad idea" to me.

 

Some states you will have to have a special license to do this.


Tandem Towing laws by state:

http://www.towingworld.com/articles/TowingLaws.htm

 

It will be fairly difficult to control.

1. You will absolutely have to have a w/d hitch with dual cam or dual friction sway control. Even then, any little bit of sway in the camper will be magnified in the boat.

2. Even if the camper has brakes, a 14 foot boat will not, so there would be no way to manually energize brakes that are not there to get the boat back under control if it were to get squirley.

3. Even if the boat had brakes, you would still not be able to engage the boat brakes independant of the camper brakes, so your braking control is still going to be a problem.

It is also likely illegal, but the other members already covered that with links to the laws.

Your camper also could not likely withstand doing this. A 17 foot camper is generally marketed as a lightweight unit, and as such the frame is not load bearing. Probably light guage steel, not fully boxed, and not rated to withstand pulling something else. And even if there is a receiver marketed for your camper, or even already installed, it is marketed with the intent of being used for a hitch mounted bike rack.

There are foaldable boats that are marketed for camping, and can me mounted to the side of an RV, or you could put a ladder rack on your truck and get some kayaks or a canoe, but what you are planning is most certainly going to damage both your boat, and your camper, and likely will hurt you or someone else on the road.

Tow safe, and tow one at a time.

 

thanks for the advice. i guess it's a no no

 

Better safe, than sorry

 

I wouldn't try it... You MIGHT be okay in calm wind conditions, but if there were any gusts/wind at all, you'd have no control over the boat and would probably lose control of the camper.

 

The Redneck in me says DO ITTTTT,


but the citizen in me say don't... It's not worth taking someone else out with the boat

 

dont take everyone elses opinion to heart. i say hook it up drive it around and see how it responds. thats gonna be your best bet. a small time investment but its gonna give you your best answer.

my boss had 8 kids and he has his camper and bass boat that he pulls behind his excursion.

 

Legal in Arizona

 

Yep, I've seen it a couple of times up on the reservation in the white mountains.... A lot of truck bed trailers pulling boats