Towing Batwing behind a truck

[Soundguy]

i've towed a jd 1517 batwing before.. as has been said.. it's heavy. i've also moved it on a flatbed. works fine.

that 7.3IDI old ford 350 diesel will pull it fine.. it just won't get there fast... like rick said. if your trailer is up to it. hopefully it is a gn or 5th wheel.

 

[RobertN]

Will it fit in the cave? A Batwing, must go in the Batcave, Mr Wayne?

I have a batwing. My trailer is long enough to carry tractor and batwing.

Anybody have any experience roading your batwing?

 

[Davidsan]

i've towed a jd 1517 batwing before.. as has been said.. it's heavy. i've also moved it on a flatbed. works fine.

that 7.3IDI old ford 350 diesel will pull it fine.. it just won't get there fast... like rick said. if your trailer is up to it. hopefully it is a gn or 5th wheel.

I may try it with the truck and trailer at some point. It's a 20k dual tandem GN at 27+5 dove so I think the Batwing will fit with the tractor on the trailer. I guess you are right, the truck probably would pull it. My father said I should go for it. The 7.3 IDI is SLOW now with the tractor and an 8 FT pickup cutter. I can only imagine how difficult it would be with a few more thousand pounds. I'm asking alot out of 185 hp truck.

 

[joshuabardwell]

All good pointers! I have a drop forged ball mount on order rated at 10000#. My receiver on the truck should be up for the job but I'll do my own inspection to make sure.

I apologize to any who have heard me say this before, but it's my latest soapbox, and I aim to make sure everybody possible is educated. Ahem...

I was recently very surprised to learn that my truck required a weight-distributing system to achieve its maximum receiver weight rating. Without a WD system, my truck's receiver is only rated for 3500# gross trailer weight / 350 lbs tongue weight. With a WD system, it goes up to 12k# GTW / 1.2k# TW. In another thread on TBN, I learned that this rating is relatively conservative, and many receivers on the road today are good for up to 5000# / 500# without a WD system. Newer trucks are sometimes even better specced and can do 10k / 1k. I have looked on etrailer.com, and the biggest I have ever seen is one rated for 15k# / 1.5k# without a WD system.

The moral of the story, though, is that you may be very surprised to learn that your big, powerful truck's towing ability is being hamstrung by the fact that you don't have a WD system. If you're like me, you saw that 12k tow rating and assumed that the factory hitch was good to go. Why wouldn't it be? They say the dang truck can tow 12k? But there is this little asterisk and little text down at the bottom of the page that says, "Oh yeah. If you don't have a WD system, you can only tow this much smaller number," and if you miss that, you could end up in a world of pain.

My impression, from my limited research, is that many factory receivers today are rated between 500-1000 lbs tongue weight without a WD system. That drop forged ball mount you bought is rated for 10k# gross trailer weight. It is almost certainly rated for 1000 lbs tongue weight. So if what an earlier commenter said about a batwing having 1500 lbs or more on the tongue is true, you may not have the specs to do it.

I'm not trying to sow fear and discontent. I just hate to think of people exceeding their towing system's capacities without knowing it, and getting themselves into trouble.

 

[Mace Canute]

Will it fit in the cave? A Batwing, must go in the Batcave, Mr Wayne?

For sure! And I bet if Davidsan listens to this he will never get it out of his head whenever he is towing it!

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I just hate to think of people exceeding their towing system's capacities without knowing it, and getting themselves into trouble.

Yeah, a lot of people don't seem to know about the requirement for a WD system (or they just ignore it).

 

[wcampbell47]

I don't have any experience myself but see this practice in Texas quite often.

 

[Ken45101]

I was recently very surprised to learn that my truck required a weight-distributing system to achieve its maximum receiver weight rating. Without a WD system, my truck's receiver is only rated for 3500# gross trailer weight / 350 lbs tongue weight. With a WD system, it goes up to 12k# GTW / 1.2k# TW.

The other option for heavy towing is a gooseneck trailer and hitch. No "weight distributing" system required.

A gooseneck or 5th wheel is much better for heavy towing. I've towed around 14000# with my C3500, easy job. I wouldn't even want to consider that kind of towing on a rear receiver hitch.

I consider the advertised max towing as for a gooseneck, not a rear receiver.

Ken

 

[foreman Etexas]

I dont think it would be any different then the big round balers that get pulled around. I have seen a cple guys with the tractor on a lowboy GN and the batwing hooked to tractor but shredder on road. My GN has a receiver hitch mount on rear and will be pulling my baler like this. I think if you deside to haul it with tractor on trailer,you may need to back on,and its not fun getting shredder all the way to front straight at first. How far your going to be pulling it and the road traveled would be what I had to deside what way I would go at it.

 

[RoyJackson]

Just a interesting tid bit. I am a commercial pilot with airline transport license. The limiting factor many times on takeoff and landing weights carried is tire speed limits. We run out of tires before we run out of runway or power due to speed limits.

The tires on my airplane that I am currently flying are 18 ply.

Chris

The old Navy F-4 Phantom II main gear tires were 26 ply and carried 485 PSI for shipboard use. When the plies started showing, they were pulled from service and most of them were sold to agricultural users.
IIRC, these tires were good for 5 or 6 carrier takeoffs and landings.