Vexing towing problem

[James150]

I'm looking for suggestions for a vexing towing problem

I have a 1995 Ford F350 Single rear wheel, 4X2 7.3 Diesel that I use to tow my 1996 Holiday Rambler 32 camper trailer. Trailer weighs about 12,500 loaded.

The truck is 2 wheel drive with about 150,000 miles, new tires and runs great. I am taking my trailer to my new home site in the mountains of SE Arizona where the builder has excavated a place for it with electric and water hookups so I can live there while they build my house.

My problem is access, getting my heavy big trailer up a narrow, steep gravel road (1/4 mile) that is a bit rutted with a few small washouts and then up my short (160? but very, very steep soft gravel driveway.

The drive is the steepest one I have ever seen. When you first turn into it and go up you cannot see anything over the hood but the sky. After a few white knuckle seconds (with tires slightly slipping) you pop up into the yard where we are building the house.

I plan to re-grade the drive and make it concrete once the house is done but for now it is staying gravel. The driveway is so steep that the standard rear-unload concrete trucks had to back up in order not to spill their load when they poured the foundation.

The other problem is that there is no place to turn around my trailer except at the top of my driveway where I need to park it. No margin for error along the way up if I were to lose traction or get stuck. I can't imagine that backing back down is a good option either.

My plan all along was to get the trailer up to the house site and live in it. The problem dawned on me when I saw that the excavator with the backhoe and skid steer parked their smaller double axel trailers at the bottom of the first hill and driven their equipment up to the site rather than tow it up and parking it. If they don't think itｴs a good idea to drive up, how am I ever going to get my camper up there?

When I saw that I figured out that my 2 X 4 truck probably would not make it up the road and drive with the trailer. I thought I might add a 4 X 4 truck in front of my truck and chain the two together but I'm not sure even that would be enough traction and it would be really tight space-wise up at the top.

So, I'm looking for suggestions, a Chinook helicopter probably could get the trailer up there but I don't have any available.

Thoughts?

Jim

 

[capt_met]

let a dozer tow it up and park it. another problem is the tow vehicle being lighter than the tow. on steep hills this can cause quick problems. or maybe winch the trailer up the hill.

 

[56FordGuy]

is the excavator still there? See if they would help you pull your truck/ trailer combo with it. Tracked equipment should do pretty well.

 

[Fixemall]

I'm thinking you should talk with the workers, they might be happy to get your trailer up there. They probably left theirs down due to space considerations and the fact that they want to respect your privacy, seeing how you said there was already a spot where you will be living in.

 

[Sutol]

Pity you aint got a towball on the front or you could have pushed it up

 

[RobertN]

Find a wrecker with a winch. Have them tug you to the top.

Is it a 5th wheel? At least with a 5th wheel you can jack-knife it to manuever. Either way, you dont have to get it on one try. It may be easiest to get it up there, start the manuever, then disconnect and move the truck to make the final positioning easier.

 

[micwzzrd]

If you have towed much out west, then the first thing is the down hill you have too worry about. Very LONG grades 12 maybe 15 miles at over 6%. I use a exhaust brake know. The back of Sincks canyon. Switch back for about 6 miles,
use 4 low lock dullie from about 5000ft up to just over 8500ft on gravel. What ever you chose be safe.

 

[ultrarunner]

I know a guy that got the bolt on duals for his pickup just to negotiate the drive to his property... it worked for a couple years till he found a good deal on a 4wd.

The Duals with a load in the bed was all he needed.

For one time I would pay the cost to have the camper set in place.

 

[flusher]

Take a hint from the railroad-- if the load/grade is too large, add another engine to the tow:thumbsup:.

 

[slowzuki]

Everyone with a small dozer here has a ball welded on the top of the front blade to set mini-homes into bad lots. They can drag houses up/down some amazing slopes.