Any of you tow your personal vehicle with the bobtail?

I put a generic reese reciever hitch on my fld 120. Just had to drill 6 holes on the bottom of the flange and it fits perfectly. I flat tow my 95 gmc 1500 behind it when ever I have to take the rig to get it fixed. I use a towbar I got at tractor supply and bolted it to the front bumper.Then I went to napa and got some trailer wire and a trailer plug and used some old import truck tail lights I had and bungee them to the rear bumper and ran the wire up to the fifth wheel where I zip tie the green trailer cord to then plug in the wire I bought so I have turn signals and brake lights. Sorry, no pics yet. I may have a chance to get some tommorow. Since you have a 4x4 you may get away with leaving the transfer case in neutral. I leave my gmc idleing in neutral so the trans has oil pressure. I have towed it as far as 120 miles and no problems. It trails and turns just fine. Good luck, Rob

 

i had a semi truck delivered not long ago, the guy had a towbar on his S10 and some frame that bolted into the truck frame, looked like a half-dozen bolts that just grabbed the back of the C-channel of the frame. didn't use a pintle, 5th wheel, any of that. Had some light hookup too I didn't get a good look at. took him 10 minutes to unhook and threw the apparatus in the back of the pickup and went on his way to grab another truck somewhere else. I could look up the transit companies name if you wanted to call them for info.

 

This is what I did almost 8 years ago...there are some changes in the works, just gathering some stuff together and then need a long weekend with decent weather.

 

I've got one that clamps to the real cross member and I use it to tow my pickup if I have to drive a truck somewhere. Did this a few months back, got a new truck delivered here instead of Indiana and drove it down there. The unit easily clamps on and off.

 

That's special. You need a device that piggys onto the 5th wheel to do the tow correctly or even better ride the vehicle up there.

As far as Im concerned the bobtail IS the personal vehicle, Ive run around 10 states with one paying fuel with my own cash now and then.

 

That is the original cross member. Only thing I did was use a torch to cut a square hole for the 2" receiver tube to slip through, welded the tube into place, then (because I like to over-build everything I touch) I welded on some angle iron to make sure it would never fail. A pair of 10K D-rings bolted...then welded (again, I prefer to over-build rather than take chances with "adequate") into place to attach safety chains and spliced in a 6-round plug for the tail/turn/brake lights.

I am actually planning to redo it this summer...going to add a 2-1/2" receiver below the cross member, but I'll have to fabricate a new light box, too...still working out the details of that in my head. Putting an 8" drop in the 2-1/2" receiver will drop the ball about 3" to help with the drawbar angle, which I've never really been happy with. Also adding a gooseneck ball and air-to-electric brake controller and changing from 6-round to 7-round. Menards had a 17K rated 2" drop hitch that if flipped will put the ball at the same height as the ball in the bed of my pickup. I figure if I cut slots in the receiver tube and weld that into place facing forward, then reinforce it and box it in with angle iron and steel plate, there's no reason why it wouldn't safely handle the 30K the ball is rated for. If I ever hang up the keys to do something else for a living, this will be my toy hauler to pull the horses around....maybe graft another cab onto the back of mine to make a quad-cab...hell, the frame is long enough to put a small sleeper behind that (or a 3rd cab?), pull a drive axle out from under it, and who knows...

I like one-of-a-kind stuff...especially when I'm the one that built it. Wife doesn't understand it...says "why don't you just BUY it?" Nah....then it'd look just like everybody else's and it wouldn't suit my needs as well.