Posted by Ben on May 02, 02 at 09:50:12:
In Reply to: Re: towing bobcat with c1500 ??? posted by skip on May 02, 02 at 07:50:05:
Stupidest and most dangerous thing I've EVER done towing was trusting my business partner (physicists and math PhD...book smart but dumb @ss in common sense). We were partners in a Windgenerators and retrofitting a bunch of windmills in Tehachapi mountains (near Edwards AFB in south Cal). Trailer was single axle 6'x10' bed. He had 5 gearboxes and many, many boxes of stuff that turned out to be filled with metal parts. Total trailer weight must have been over 10,000lbs.
Had borrowed my dad's Chevy C10 pickup (I now own it).
I was up on the towers taking readings off of the electronics and installing the new 48" dia disc brake.
Came down and found the truck all hooked. Checked the setup and headed down the hill (about 50%-60% and some parts close to 70%-80%). About 3 miles total straight line distance.
By about 300 feet it was clear the trailer out weighed the capacity of the truck and the brakes were NOT holding. There were 3 of us in the truck and partner was in station wagon following.
Took every bit of towing, offroading, trucking experience I had at the time. By the time we made it to the bottom our pants were almost in need of changing. Trucks brakes were bellowing visiable smoke, sizzling sound from pads on red hot rotors. Drove mostly along the shoulder with the trailer wheel up against the hills, parking brake set to increase the rear drums reach, tranny in low, windows opened (it was winter and snow was on the ground...great help for cooling the brakes) with our jacket outside to increase drag (funny how you do anything when you think you are going to die).
Dropped the trailer at the bottom and headed out to the highway to get air to cool down the brake and rotate the bearings so they wouldn't seize.
My point is that bobcats come in many different sizes. I've seen some very small to very large. Make sure you are within your vehicles capacity. Others lives maybe at stake.