Bumper hitch towing a water ski

Hey all,

My friend wants to use my truck to bring a jet ski to the lake on sunday. I'm getting a class III hitch, but it's in the mail . He says that his ski + trailer is ~ 900 lb. Would this be possible to tow on the ball hitch on the bumper of my Tacoma? I've seen mixed opinions on this around the internet.

 

Yes. But I wouldn't. Nor would I let someone else use my truck...especially towing. But that's just me

 

I wouldnt....do you even have trailer light wiring?.

 

Nope. The hitch and lighting wiring and transmission cooler are all arriving just in time to be 2 days late .

 

There are a few select people I would allow to borrow my truck. My father, did so much for me that he can use anything I own. And my best friend.

I would not allow any of them to use it for towing. If you dont have a vehicle capable of towing a load that small, what are the chances that you are capable of backing up a trailer and keeping it from dropping into the water?

 

My friend used to have a truck and has towed things before. He had to get rid of it for wifey reasons. Trusting him is not the issue here.

 

So, 2 1/2 weeks ago, you were looking for your 1st Tacoma with a stipulation that it had to be under 100,000 miles, so, you must have JUST bought a pretty high dollar truck and now you're considering loaning it to a friend to do an iffy towing situation? Are you nuts? Grow some balls and tell him no. Besides that, the ball will probably be too high and you don't have the wiring convertor. Your truck has separate brake and turn signals. The trailer does not.

 

I take your point. I'll tell him to go rent out a truck.

 

Smart move. That way if he drowns the truck in the lake, it's on his insurance. I've seen videos of what people do at boat ramps.

 

are you comfortable with towing/driving it, op? personally I wouldn't see a problem with the weight, just be very careful around corners, a bad curb can def do some damage on your bumper, but personally i'd let him, if he's my friend and I trust him, but i'm prob more careless about my material possessions, just feel like they're out there to be used and shared

 

2nd and 3rd gen Tacoma bumpers are tow rated to 3500lbs.

 

Well you can't tow a trailer without lights so....

 

I don't disagree with safety regarding the lights......however I've done it plenty of times before, because my trailer lights didn't work, and fortunately nothing bad happened, but my rationale was that if it's a single trailer, all activity with your taillights people behind you would still be able to see, so same result. Just my experience.

 

Backing jet ski's are tuff hard to see behind a truck my son let someone back a ski down a ramp with his truck and trailer jackknifed damaging the truck and trailer , he learned his lesson

 

When we first got our waverunner I towed it with the bumper hitch for the first year. I think it was rated at 1500 pounds and the jetski & trailer was 1200+ ish. I had to get a special ball mount that was very long and it was too high to make the trailer level so I eventually got a Curt hitch and it worked much better. also bought the 4 pin wire harness. so the bumper mount works but not perfect.

 

In Montana a trailer doesn't need lights if it doesn't block the tow vehicle lights.

I would still pass. I'd loan it to my best friend if the class III hitch was in without issue though.

 

I know of a situation where a guy was hauling a POS trailer with no lights. Everyone suddenly stopped. The car behind rearended the trailer. The cop wrote a ticket to the guy with the trailer and he got blamed for the accident. I don't know if the insurance companies saw it that way, but that's how it was at the scene.