I have a 04 Chevy crew cab dually diesel that will be pulling a 45' flat bed trailer hauling 2 cars and a 4 wheeler. This trailer is a ball hitch tongue. The truck has plenty of power to pull this but I am not comfortable pulling it any faster than 60. For you guys that have experience pulling a big trailer, have you found that this is about max speed for something this big? Is it something as far as loading cars that needs to be addressed? Where should the weight be? Might it need sway bars to help. I don't mind the 60 mph but it would be nice to feel more comfortable with it behind you. Any help would be great.

 

What is your tongue weight versus loaded trailer weight? You generally want 10 to 15% tongue weight. Being outside that range can cause instability. That size trailer generally should have a load equalizing hitch to keep the tow vehicle more level. With that big a trailer on just a standard ball hitch, the front end of the truck can get very light so it wanders too. A lot of the stock car guys in my area have trailers that size and they haul at go-to-jail speeds all the time. so it is possible with the right setup.

 

Is that 45 footer a tow behind? , or is it a goose neck pulling from the bed? If it is a tow behind, your front axle is gonna be light! 5th wheel type bed hitches are preferable with big trailers (28 ft +) cause they put the load right over the rear axle and there's not as much front axle lift. Overall length is shorter too.

As for speed, if the weight is distrubuted properly you should be able to run the speed limit, or 5 mph over very comfortably.

A lot of guys run 80 mph with heavy loads...but I'd take it easy towing a load that heavy. It will eat up some road stopping it, even with trailer brakes.

 

Is it really a 45 ft. tag-along (bumper area hitch) or a ball style gooseneck in the bed? I don't think I have heard of a tag along that long before.

I second what the guys say about tongue weight and would recommend both a spring bar load levelling hitch but also a sway control. The Koni Service trailer is a tag-along 24 ft. enclosed shop essentially and we have both the load leveller and sway control on it and I would want it for about anything about that size or bigger. We have a long wheelbase 4x2 Super Duty and I tow as fast as I have power for. I have pretty limited patience for towing slowly, especially when someone else is paying for the fuel so 80-85 a lot with it. To the point that I wonder what the (non) speed rating on ST trailer tires is.

 

we tow an enclosed 28footer with a dodge 2500 cd. Normaly 65-80mph with no probs what so ever, its a tag as well. If the trailer is a tag even though i never heard of one being that long before then def get some load equalizing bars on there, it helps as well as some sway control on something that long

 

We used to pull an enclosed 42' double tall trailer with our 1 tonne dually diesel from Ottawa to Daytona (15,000 miles) doing 140 kph (~86 mph) the whole way. We have done this trip three times now there and back without probs, although we do have a VERY large tranny cooler, and a boost upgrade