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Good Sam Roadside Assistance

How Easy Is It To Haul a 28 Foot Travel Trailer?

by Anonymous

My mother is in a nursing home and she has a travel trailer parked at a camping park. How do I go about tearing down the trailer area and making it ready for hauling? How hard is it to haul down the road? Do I need to take it somewhere and get it inspected? It has been sitting in the campground for about 10 years.

I have a 1/2 ton Dodge Ram with a hitch setup and a towing package, but have never used it other than hauling a small boat and trailer. Thank you.

ANSWER: Thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

I am very sorry to hear about your mom. Let's see if I can address some of your questions.

As far as disconnecting the Travel Trailer from the utilities at the RV Park, since I cannot see the travel trailer I cannot tell you if some modifications have been made to the trailer connections to make them more permanent. My suggestion to you is to get with someone at the RV Park and have them look at the connections for electric, water, sewer, etc. and let you know how to unhook those properly.

Just because you are unhooked from the utilities does not mean that the Travel Trailer is ready to tow. The first concern will be the tires on the travel trailer. It is not advisable to tow any Travel Trailer that has tires that are over 6 years old.

If you attempt to tow it with old tires you stand a good chance of having a blow out which could cause an accident or damage to the travel trailer.

Your next concern is going to be lighting on the trailer (Do the brake lights, marker lights, etc. work?); the trailer hitch should be inspected for rust and overall condition to
make sure it can be towed safely.

Another concern is the overall weight of the Travel Trailer. Has it been overloaded with furniture, storage, etc. to the point that it exceeds the weight limitations of the Travel Trailer itself? If the trailer is equipped with brakes are they functional.

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Your 1/2 ton Dodge Ram should be able to tow this trailer, but I cannot tell you for sure because I do not know the full weight of the trailer. You should read the article RV and Trailer Weight Demystified for more information on towing and weight concerns.

You will also have to check on the license for the Travel Trailer to make sure that it will be legal to tow.

Unfortunately not being able to see the trailer I am limited on what advice I can give. As I said at the beginning your best bet is to get an experienced person to go with you and look at the Travel Trailer have them walk you through what you need to do setup this trailer for safe towing.

Hope this helps.

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RVing Al

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