I'm looking for info from experienced trailer drivers.
My boyfriend and I will be driving accross Canada (MTL to Vancouver) through the Rockies with his Ford Ranger (4.0L V6, 4x4, manual trans. regular cab) hauling a 14' trailer weighing approx. 3700 lbs (double axles with brakes). Our hitch has a max 5000 lbs. Do you think this is a safe setup for such a long haul and climbs/descents we'll be doing? He assures me it's fine, yet he has no trailer hauling experience... and I'm the type to do my homework...
Get a bigger tow vehicle. Seriously your Ranger lacks the weight and the wheelbase to provide positive control for it at all times plus it will struggle at times to pull it.
I seldom agree with Snoman on anything, but this time he is spot on.
You said that your hitch is rated high enough, but the trailer weight meets or exceeds the vehicle weight, and this is a dangerous situation, no matter what the situation is with the hitch.
We discussed a guy a few days ago that wanted to install a Class III hitch on his Ranger, and I told him that all he needed was a Class II because the Class II gave the hitch a greater capability than the truck has -- there is no point in putting a large (heavy duty) hitch on a light duty vehicle.
In your case, you claim there are trailer brakes, and I have to assume there is a trailer brake controller mounted inside the cab -- if there is no controller, there are no brakes on the trailer unless the trailer brake is a "surge brake". A surge brake is activated hydraulically. When the vehicle stops, the trailer keeps going and presses on the surge cylinder, which forces brake fluid into the trailer brake system and stops the trailer. A surge brake is not as good as electric brakes, but electric brakes demand a controller unit.
A problem you may encounter is that as you round a bend in the road, the weight of the trailer can push the vehicle, and this can get very ugly very fast. Your Ranger only weighs in at about 3500 pounds, give or take. Giving you the benefit of any doubt, your Ranger weighs 4000 pounds. The trailer with its load is 3750 pounds, that means the truck only weighs 250 pounds more than the load. This is dangerous in the best of circumstances, add rain or a sudden manuver and all hell is going to break loose.
Any trailer that needs brakes should never be pulled behind a Ranger. Indeed, trailer brakes should be reserved for the F250 or larger. Maybe an F150 might be okay pulling a trailer with trailer brakes, but electric brakes are the best and nothing takes the place of being very careful.
And the short wheel base can magnify the problem too. I would suggest limiting trailer to 2500 lbs for a long trip with 2000 lbs being even better. What you need and a pop up tent type camper that weighs a lot less and will have less drag towing it too.
I am going to be the desenting voice here. I pull a 17 foot fibreglass tri hull bass boat behind a 1991 Chevy two door, 2 wheel drive S-10 Blazer. She has a 7 foot beam, and was manufactured in 1978, it weighs a ton, with trailer almost 4,100 pounds when loaded and fueled up. I have also pulled all over the country including a trip from florida to Colorado and then to Alaska and back to florida a coleman pop up camper that was over all 19 feet long and weighs 3,925 pounds when loaded. I gave it to my brother in law and he pulls it behind a 89 toyota pickup with a 4 banger. It's in the driving which means realizing your pulling a trailer and not entered in the Indy 500 race. And as has been dually noted the brakes on the trailer are not an option. I also have close to a million miles driving semi, and I have never seen a tractor that weighed even close to half what the trailer and load weighed. I dont know how, given the normal view always presented here, our grandparents or parents ever towed 18-26 foot campers behind the family sedan/station wagon back in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's.
But, your semi tractor/trailer experience is hardly relevent. Your semi is in essence a 5th wheel to us civilians, and as such it is effectively a single unit rolling down the highway, and has properly modulated brakes that offset the weigh imbalance of the trailer vis a vis the tractor.
Draging the boat and tent trailer across the landscape is relevent, and these excursions being with or without trailer brakes is certaintly worth talking about. But the semi is an entirely different animal ...
Semi experience is irrelevant because the trailer towed by a semi has BRAKES that are properly modulated. The fact that you don't understand the difference tends to support what I've always thought about most semi-drivers -- think they are a lot smarter than they really are.
I have towed many boats and they tow easy compared to some TT's. Boat trailer usually have a very loang distance from hitch to axle and because of this they are well manored generally when towing them plus you can adjust easily balance with how boat is positioned on trailer. Comparing towing a boat to a TT is like comparing apples and oranges because they tow and behave differently.
They are also truely designed to tow a lot more weight than their own weight and can safely carry 30 to 40% of the towed weight on the tractor "hitch" which greatly improves it control over the load too.
I learned to drive on a '76 Olds Custom Cruiser. The only thing difference between that car and my Excursion is it could seat two more people and only had 2-wheel drive. That thing was a monster!
Yep, I once owned a 1971 Oldsmobile Custom Curser, complete with a 455 Rocket "big block" engine. It was a damn tank, as capable a tow vehicle as any modern tin half ton pickup truck...
Ours also had the 455. The curb weight on the registration was 5001 pounds. It had the electric tailgate that disappeared under the floor and the rear glass that retracted into the roof. Had to get the glass system fixed about every six months...our mechanic stocked parts just for us until we sold it.
Well you go a head and think that. If the trailer brakes are properly adjusted, there is no difference. With the advent of the so called auto adjusting slack adjusters and drivers being told to keep their fingers off them, there's a lot more not properly adjusted than you might care to know about. and some loads you might be at max not able to top the fuel tanks with out going over axle weight or the 80,000 pound limit, and the next load your light as a feather. A 53 foot trailer loaded floor to ceiling, nose till doors just barely close with andy cap fries, or potato chips or any of a hundred other products I have pulled is lucky to have 8,000 pounds in the box and none of the trailers I have pulled nor tractors I have driven from M52's to Mack B-64's to Kenworth T600's had load sensing valves on them. And besides driving them, I worked on them, ASE certified in 6 areas of medium/heavy truck repair to include brakes since 1977. Too fast on slippery roads and the trailer can push the butt end of a tractor around in half a heart beat. So stating pulling a trailer isn't driving the Indy 500 race is relevant, whether a tractor trailer, or the camping rig.
what was the weight of a 52 chevy 210 sedan, and the horsepower on it's stove bolt
6 banger, three on the tree, drum brakes all around and no power anything. My grandad pulled an 18 foot Silver Dome cira 1940 all the way from the Navy yards inWashington state where he was an electrician to New York state after the war behind a 37 Terraplane. The old silver dome got put to work on hunting trips pulled behind a 52 chevy around the Adirondacks of New York and up into Canada, and later a 63 chevy biscayne wagon, again 6 banger 3 on the tree, no power anything (thats the first car I drove) My dad remembers the terrraplane as having a flat head six in it.
I pulled a 3000 pound 17 foot travel trailer with a 2000 Ford Explorer with the 4.0L V6 engine 5 years ago. The Explorer was at the limit, both in ability to control the trailer and the ability to climb mountain passes. The Explorer is heavier than the Ranger, yet they share a lot of common components. Now that I know more, I would probably not do it again.
I'd only pull trailers behind heavy duty versions of full sized pickups, like the F250. I've seen too many accidents. Our neightbor lost his wife when he was pulling a travel trailer behind his Suburban. The trailer fish tailed while traveling down the highway and flipped both trailer and truck over pushing it through a gaurd rail.
A few month ago, I saw a overturned trailer behind a full sized chevy pickup. The truck did not get flipped , but was still attached to the hich and the rear weals were in the air. The back of the truck was mangled from contacting the trailer. This was on a perfectly straight, flat stretch of highway. Once the rig start to oscillate, your a gonner.
While your tailer is not too large or heavy, I'd instantly disqualify this pull if you don't have 4.10 gearing. If it 3. something all bets are off. The next mistake I see is people driving way to fast while towing. I'd never tow over 65mph and probably go only 55-60.
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