ImDownWithDisney 342 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 After work today I had to hop on I-75 to pick up the wife in ATL. I ran into a terrible thunderstorm for a while.As it was letting up I came up on a 1/2 ton Tahoe pulling a TT about 30' long. They were in the middle lane and were using up all of it while fighting sway from passers. The weight distribution was obviously way off, as the Tahoe was hunkered way down in the rear. They were also only using 1 friction sway controller, which is about useless when wet. The tail was wagging the dog.The worst thing was there were 5 kids bikes on the roof....the TV was full of kids and a lady that was absolutely white knuckleing the steering wheel. I felt bad for them as I went by. If that were my family I would have felt pretty bad about putting them on the road with that set up. Vacation isn't worth dieing for.They needed less trailer, a better hitch, or a bigger TV at the least. I hope they made it safely to their destination.Be smart, folks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 :rollercoaster: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LONE-STAR 370 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 I have seen that same set up before. Tahoe pulling 30' camper. Tahoe saging bad in the rear. No sway control and no weight distribution hitch. They were all over the road. I did not like passing them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
photogal06...Sommer 10 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 Gosh, I hope they made it safely to where they were headed! That is scary. We were in a similar situation with our trailer, except we had a great hitch, sway bar and weight distribution system. Still, our trailer was a bit too big for our Expedition for us to feel really safe when towing it. We ended up selling both and getting something totally different (Class C) instead. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
doodlebug....Cherie 461 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 That does sound scary. Hope they made it wherever they were going safely! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ftwildernessguy 778 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 Most likely it was overloaded, too, making a bad situation even worse. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 That poor woman! I hope they got home safely too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy and Grandma 739 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 It was probably another unfortunate case of the salesman saying, "You can tow it with that, no problem". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
4mickey2 41 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 some salesmen do that.. but, i gotta tell ya-with the truck campers (we buy the biggest ones available-lol) they say straight up if you don't have a dually-you aren't leaving with this! i have an uncle that can pretty much pull anything with anything. not cool... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nicki aka Rebelstand 272 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 We had a salesman that didn't know what Gross Vehicle Capacity was. He new what GVRW was but not the all important GVCW. He tried to get my husband to tow a 8,000 pound trailer (unloaded) with an F150. DH ran the GVCW and said "Nope". We went to another dealer. The salesman was an RVer so he understood the safety issues. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DwnSth 0 Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 Well, towing our 21 ft Aerolite with a Tahoe is about as much as I'd ever what to go with that vehicle. Actually thinking about switching our tow vehicle back to our old '98 Expedition. Tahoe is a great driving vehicle but just not great for towing. Handles the Aerolite OK but definitly know you're towing by the gas mileage and the RPM's. No way I'd consider anyhting longer than 24 ft or heavier than a bit over 5K lbs. Not sure if all have it but ours has air suspension which brings the rear up nicely. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DisneyMaMaLizabeth 2 Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Coming down the first of June, we hit the tropical storm that came thru FL. My parents were pulling their 28' with their Expedition and I was a nervous wreck behind them. They had everything tow wise correct, but in those circumstances it made it worse. That is one of the reasons we personally switched to a fifth wheel. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023 Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Just reading this freaks me out. It is sooooooo not worth taking the risk doing something like this. All they would have had to do is take this setup out for one test run to realize this was a bad idea.When we replaced our TT and truck last year after our accident (caused by another idiot driver, not our setup), Brian insisted we take a couple of test runs out before we took it on a real road trip. Even though it was the same camper and a bigger truck, he wanted to make sure that he had the setup correct.Good thing we did! New truck was different enough from the last that he ended up adjusting things at least twice before we finally headed to the Fort a couple of months later. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikeymouse1 25 Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 It's bad enough in with my 19' in some storms even with a WD and swaybar we stop and ride it out of the road somewhere. Not going to risk my family to save time Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023 Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 The night we hit the road last year was probably the windiest weather I've ever driven anything in. Even with a good truck and sway control, the wind was blowing us all over the place.It was windy enough that even the tractor trailers were driving slowly.As much as we wanted to get to the Fort as quickly as possible, I slowed waaaaaay down. Actually put us a couple of hours behind schedule, but we got there in one piece! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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