Trailer Dolly

[gharper]

I don't think a motorized trailer dolly would work well on the gravel particularly if the ground is soft or there is a slope.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

You have a receiver mounted to your front, permanent, all you will see is the square tube. Insert a special female stinger and a male ball stinger on the trailer, hook up and push. May work, just an idea.

I really can't see that working, and if fact see lots of potential for a catastrophe. When using a front receiver for hooking to a trailer, it is still always done on the trailer hitch, where you have some tongue weight. Some boaters do this.

[Ian G]

I have a front hitch on my 4Runner, use it to mount a bike rack but it would be something to consider if you think it would work in your situation. A quick internet search found Curt makes one for a Tundra CURT Manufacturing - CURT Front Mount Hitch #31198

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

Would that be similar to what you see on cars that are towed behind a motorhome? Are they permanently attached or is it removable?

No, Jim is suggesting a conventional front-mounted hitch receiver, which is the same as the hitch receiver on the rear of the tow vehicle, but designed to semi-permanently mount to the front of the vehicle... not a towbar. The problem with this is linking the tow (pusher) vehicle to the trailer while allowing vertical motion between them - while the idea is novel, it would be problematic.

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Insert a special female stinger and a male ball stinger on the trailer, hook up and push. May work, just an idea.

I assume this means a coupler mounted on a 2" square tube inserted into the tug's front receiver like the photo below, but ignore the framework on the table which would be the receiver frame on the front of the truck instead).

The problem with this is that because this is not the way a hitch is normally used (as Jim Bennett explained) the coupler's height would be determined by the tug, while the height of the ball on the trailer would be determined by the trailer, and in anything but a perfectly flat world the two would change and disagree. I certainly wouldn't want the trailer supporting the tug or the tug pulling up on the trailer.

A towbar, as used to flat-tow a car behind a motorhome, would actually work, although this would be backwards to the normal use in some ways. Brackets for these systems are available from various manufacturers for many models of vehicles, including most which are used as travel trailer tow vehicles (owners of really big motorhomes routinely tow even full-sized pickups and SUVs behind them); the trailer would take the place of the motorhome. These tow systems can be quite complex and expensive, but for this purpose a really simple A-frame towbar (such as this one at Princess Auto) should be fine, and would couple to a normal ball on a ball mount on the Escape. I wouldn't have thought of this without this discussion, and it's an interesting possibility. I would just be concerned that trying to steer the trailer with the tug this way would lead to very high side forces (on both tug and Escape) and might be difficult. If the ball centre is not at the height of the Escape bike rack receiver, I would share baglo's concern about twisting that receiver.

Originally Posted by Ian G

A quick internet search found Curt makes one for a Tundra CURT Manufacturing - CURT Front Mount Hitch #31198

Yes, and so does Cequent (as a Draw-Tite): Product 650151. eTrailer sells both: 2015 Toyota Tundra Front Mount Hitch

[Brian B-P]

I suppose one option might be to combine the front-mounted receiver and towbar ideas:

• install a front receiver on the push/tow vehicle (truck)
• put a ball mount with ball in the front receiver of the truck
• attach brackets to the Escape under the bumper at the frame rails
• build a long version of an A-frame towbar (needs to be longer than normal because the Escape frame rails are much further apart than the brackets normally used with these towbars)
• to position the trailer: pin the towbar onto the trailer, couple it onto the truck, and push

The towbar would pivot up and down at the brackets on the Escape, which it would need to do because the front jack would control the trailer's attitude. The length of the towbar would make it easier for the tug to turn the trailer. The Escape bike rack receiver would not be involved at all. Although I think this would likely work, it seems like this should be tried first by someone who is interested in this sort of thing, likes understanding how mechanical things work, and is familiar with the fabrication options. It wouldn't be unreasonably expensive - except possibly for the front receiver - but it would take design thought... and it might not work well in the steering aspect.

In this scheme, the "towbar" (or maybe we should call it a "pushframe") would act like a tongue, but on the rear and hinged so it wouldn't carry any weight.

[NW Cat Owner]

Hey gang, could use some help here. I've been emailing with a fellow at the Purple Line mover company with an eye towards getting one of their movers to get our trailer around the gravel in our parking area. Dirk looked at the installation video and said he could do it. Dang it, he'd have to purchase a few new tools to do so. He was so upset over that fact. HA!

Anyway, I have some photos from a factory tour of the underside of the 5.0TA as it was on a hoist. But not the 21', which is what we're getting. Is the underside of those two trailers pretty much the same in terms of where the tanks are and all that?

I'd like to send the guy photos so he could tell me if there would be anything in the way of installing their movers. ETI just said it looked like a great device, but they don't install after-market stuff like this, so I didn't get into details about them regarding the underside of the trailer.

Of course I can ask ETI if there are any differences, but I'm hoping someone on this forum knows so I don't have to bug 'em yet again about something.

Thanks much folks!

[cpaharley2008]

The 21 and the 5.0 are identical from the door back, in the 21 your black tank is inside under the bed in the forward section and the water heater is under the street side bed foot. Otherwise the tanks for fresh and gray are same.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

Anyway, I have some photos from a factory tour of the underside of the 5.0TA as it was on a hoist. But not the 21', which is what we're getting. Is the underside of those two trailers pretty much the same in terms of where the tanks are and all that?

Yes, the rear of the 5.0TA is based on the 21'. Although the suspensions (axles) are different, they're in the same place, their mounting hardware doesn't extend beyond the tires (so they shouldn't matter to the movers in any Escape model) and I don't think they change the tank configuration. The bathrooms are in different places, so the black tanks are differently placed, but the black tanks are on top of the floor so it doesn't matter... except for drain piping. Water heaters are above the floor (in all models) so they don't matter, either. The drain piping is the only potentially relevant (to the movers) difference that I can think of.

I'm pretty sure all drain piping is ahead of the axles, so if that's a problem with a potential mover mounting ahead of the leading axle (on the street side), behind the trailing axle is the alternative; however, I'm thinking that there are two things to check into:

1. The Escape body is not just flat on the bottom: outboard of the frame rails it drops down before curving up to become the sides. This may get in the way of the movers, which attach to the frame but extend outboard of it to reach the tires.
2. The frame (of all Escape models) steps up 4 inches behind the wheels, so if the movers are mounted to the rear of the trailing axle's tires, the frame there could be too high.

I think that ideally the movers would be in front of the axles, so they drive the front tires. This way you can lower the tongue (lower than the level position, as low as your jack and caster wheel allow) to transfer load from the trailing axle to the leading axle so that the movers have more traction and (more importantly) the non-driven tire can slip sideways more easily when turning.

[NW Cat Owner]

Thanks Brian for this information. I forwarded it to Purple Line, along with my photos of the underside of the 5.0TA and heard back from them. Turns out they've installed this system on some other Escape trailers (I verified it was the fiberglass Escape) and their owners were very happy with it.

Thanks everyone for your input to this thread. We believe we've found something that will move our trailer through our gravel parking area so we can park it with the hitch is away from the street and the door towards our house. We'll purchase it closer to when we get our trailer as I'm quickly running out of room to stash things for The Trailer that I'm buying ahead of time.

I greatly appreciate the person that first posted about this device. :thanx:

Oh, the guy at the company said they do sell a dual wheel caster for the hitch, but it has plastic wheels and it's been untested on a tandem axle on gravel, so they can't guarantee it would work.

Plastic wheels?!?!? I thought that sounded kind of strange. But, again, clueless about stuff like that.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

I forwarded it to Purple Line, along with my photos of the underside of the 5.0TA and heard back from them. Turns out they've installed this system on some other Escape trailers (I verified it was the fiberglass Escape) and their owners were very happy with it.

That sounds promising!

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

Oh, the guy at the company said they do sell a dual wheel caster for the hitch, but it has plastic wheels and it's been untested on a tandem axle on gravel, so they can't guarantee it would work.

Plastic wheels?!?!? I thought that sounded kind of strange. But, again, clueless about stuff like that.

Yes, most caster wheels are hard plastic; the material and the (small) size makes them hard to roll over gravel. I think the idea for gravel is to get wheels with a larger overall tire diameter, and with pneumatic (inflated rubber) tires rather than anything hard. Dollies usually use pneumatic tires of a decent size so they don't get hung up on small stones or driveway cracks, but typical jack wheels (e.g. jack wheels at eTrailer) are hard and smaller.