Looking at the wheels, that looked overloaded to start with! Just because you can tow something that big on flat ground doesn't mean you can tow it up-hill without going to a 1T dually (if not bigger) If you are having trouble going up hill, you don't unhook the trailer. You drop the ramp and unload the toy hauler!
If you are going up a road like that, you better have someone ahead of you running cover and don't let off the gas. It take a lot of momentum to get a huge Toy Hauler up a hill like that. You can't do that climb at low speeds.
To clarify a couple mistatements in this video - here are a couple observations from watching the Original video in its entirety: - The owner states that he unhooked the RV with the intent of Rehooking at a different angle, in hopes of getting better traction. - The owner states that he DID chock the RV wheels, as well as engaged the Breakaway Brakes on the RV.
I thought the same thing. What he should have done before he unhitched was pull the breakaway cable and it would have applied all the brakes until the battery went dead. Would have given him time to block the wheels.
Glad you’re shining the light on how tough these frames are made . Really sad how’s these “full timers” were trying to get all there RU-vid views from spreading false info about good companies that have proven themselves over the years . Pretty sick what people will do for content. Thanks for sharing 👍🏽
I was a bit surprised it came out in one piece but slowly and carefully it did! I'm not going to bash anyone ,I've been all over our 2019 Grand Lodge , well under it. But the frame is well built and beefy! But its setup on a permanent location now . Looking at that toy hauler with 3 axles ,that's a big heavy trailer even with out a toy in it.
Wow! That is so scarey. He Dead a great job of getting that Rv out of there. People need to think more be for doing something like this. Thank you for the video!
A couple of things. SRW for a three axle toy hauler and what was in the garage? Anybody run that thing over a scale? It looked like a short bed also because the pin box looked really long. I would be having that inspected for damage at the spring mounts but also at the pin box because of all the tugging and pulling. The bad angles they were pulling on it. I’ve had mine in some tight, steep rocky places and that’s why I’ve now installed a 12,000 lbs winch on the front. Slow, steady pulls, not rough jerks.
Hi J.D. Tragic for them for sure. Another tragedy that you might want to do a video on…. Fire 🔥. Friends of ours (and my son’s co-worker) took their travel trailer from IL to the Grand Canyon on a two week vacation (I’m not sure if they are back yet). They had went with another couple who also had taken their camper. Along the way somewhere in UT, a passing by car on the interstate flagged them over to let them know that their camper was on fire 🔥. They got stopped, quickly unhitched out of fear of the LP tank exploding. Luckily for them they were going through a larger city with a full time fire department because they quickly came and put out the fire. They were able to salvage some clothes, medicine, cash and some other things. They spent the rest of their vacation pulling a U-Haul trailer with their belongings and staying in hotels after going to Walmart and buying some new clothes. The camper was a total loss. They believe that the freon in the refrigerator had somehow bursted and being flammable had set the trailer ablaze. This is all I know for now. A tragedy for them for sure. Thankfully they are ok due to the efforts of the passerby. Might be a talking point for you.
That looks exactly like my truck & Sidewinder pin box, which is not equipped to tow a triple axle toy hauler of that size and weight, which looks to be well over 40 feet and over the 16K pounds my set up is rated to tow. Know your limits and stay within them!
Wow. That it was largely intact after sliding in and getting towed out does make me think the toy hauler is tougher than opinion might suggest. I don’t know if I would completely trust it traveling after that event. Good towing companies inherently understand physics and mechanical stress better than some engineers.
If the owner had the opportunity once the RV was un coupled and started to skid backwards could you pull the break away switch to lock the trailers brakes? Just a thought to stop the slide.
Wow, wow, wow! Armchair quarterbacking this video! Loosing traction on your tow vehicle going uphill on gravel is a scary moment! Now if I'm pulling my trailer loaded with my tractor or horse trailer loaded with horses, I would have unloaded the tractor (horses), and then proceed up the hill with the trailer. So, did the owner of the 5er have the back loaded with toys? Not sure if I would have unhooked my truck from the 5er in this situation and would probably have called for assistance to help get my rig up the hill. I agree with many comments already posted, and for me I shy away from steep inclines such as this on gravel.
Who pulls a triple axle with a single rear wheel? What was that V6 jeep going to do? People need to chock wheels if they have to unhook for an emergency.
What a mess! That would really stink to be that owner. I must say though, you hit the nail on the head. The frame is 7-8 years old. RVs were dramatically higher quality back then. As an owner of 9 campers over the years, the last two I have had were half the quality of the older units. 7-8 years ago, I wouldn't have cringed at LCI products on one of my units.
I think that TV underwent a lot of "tweeks" that will show up with subsequent usage. You know, the slide-outs bind, cabinet drawers don't open or shut correctly, walls start coming loose from the frame, etc, etc, etc. At the end of the day, that owner will probably wish the camper just continued on down the hill and wound up in a thousand pieces. And yes, if the owner repairs the obvious damage and trades it in, then the new owner is going to have a few surprises in store. That is the case with any used equipment, whether it be a camper, or a car, or a tractor, etc.
That RV had no business being put into that situation. I blame the owner for bad judgment to try and negotiate that steep dirt road and then realizing that it can't make decide to unhitch on an unlevel surface,not using wheel chokes and getting into a precarious situation in the first place.
I don't think they should have hooked the truck up until it came up and the front come back down. Also I think that is a lot of damage to hide. Haul it straight to young farts.
I am pretty new to towing but my ? Is about the emergency brake that connects to the truck in case it were to detach from truck in a situation like this if they didn’t have chalks could they have pulled that so the brakes would stop the rv from rolling? If so how easy is it to replace that switch so you could unlock brakes again when ready?
need a 3 ton to pull that toy hauler if going off road, maybe 4 ton if it has a toy in it. And most definitely has to be a dually truck. Glad they were able to get him rescued and yeah, that's alot of frame torque
It's a Mega cab and I think they have a 5 ft bed. With a short bed you risk the trailer hitting the cab of the truck in a turn if you don't put a longer hitch box on the camper. Longer hitch box puts more stress on the frame.
Any fool that unhooks without chocking their wheels deserve to get what they get. An RV was NEVER designed to go off roading like that. It is common sense not to go anywhere an RV shouldnt go. A toy hauler is for taking your ORV and using THAT for off roading. NOT the RV. Jeeze!
Trailers over 10k lbs should have a park break. I have personally forgotten one stop block and didn't feel when the trailer turned it to crumbs. The personal trailer industry needs to be safer. ABS and park brake.
Nah, I would have just let it crash down the rest of the hill. Take the insurance and get a new one. There is too much damage to this unit to make it worth trying to fix.
And what? Just leave it there at the bottom of the hill to pollute and trash up the environment? A lot of jurisdictions will impose daily fines on you until you figure out how to get it recovered if you do something like that.
@avalanche3084 and I'm ok with that, especially since i don't know you or ever claimed to be smart. You can recover the trailer at the bottom, take it apart in pieces and dispose of it correctly.
If that's what he was towing that toy hauler with, that was the first mistake. Prime example to the guys that say, "I've been towing my 20k triple axle with my F250/2500/SRW F350/SRW 3500 for years! Never had a problem, it's fine!!!!" It's always fine.....until it's not... The Lippert situation is a difficult one. There may be/have been some manufacturing problems, however, I can't say they're all Lippert's fault. If you buy a used RV, you have NO IDEA what that thing has gone through. As a manufacturer, I wouldn't warranty it to anything beyond possibly the first owner, during the warranty period, because I as the manufacturer wouldn't have ANY IDEA what happened to that thing over the years it was on the road. It would be nice if there was a clear-cut way to tell if it was a manufacturing problem or an owner/use/abuse problem...
