Has anyone exer actually broken or bent their bumper towing with it?? Is mine just doing really well?? My trailer weight 2200 pounds with 250 punds of tound weight, and i have made 6 60 mile round trip tows with it and i dont see any problems yet with mine, so is it a fluke?? Or is it just happening slowly and i will notice it later??

 

you mean using the ball on the bumper?

if so NEVER tow with that thing..lol

 

Yea even though it works get a reciever hitch!!!!

 

Even if it looks like its working right.....dont use it....that ball could rip right out of your bumper and you will loose whatever your towing, dont look for just a bent bumper....

Get a class 3 reese

And a shackle like High roller...because thats how it goes down....

 

yes i mean a ball on the bumper. As i stated in a previous post i really dont have much choice right now, i have to my stuff to gigs, and if i dont than i dont make rent, or eat or anything and the 130 bucks for a reciever right not amount to almost amonths worth of food, so still not too much choice in the matter. at least not right now. in a few months maybe. But like i said its doing fine so far. I check the bolts regularly, and check the bumper every time for flexing and bending and so far nada. i was just wondering if anyone had ever actually tried towing with it or if everyone is going off of advise not too. even the ford guys said i should be fine. The people i talked to said they actually test the bumpers with 25% more than they rate them at just to be safe. He could have been wrong thats one of the reasons i posted this message here.

 

Both of my grandpa's, dad, uncles, and brother in law have always used a bumper to tow. Never lost a trailer in the 26 years i've been here. And most of the trailers were over 6k. Granted the bumper looked like crap after 5-10 years but they still held. Our society has became lawyer-fied hence the sissy-fied towing limits etc, or vice-versa can't decide.

 

Losing a trailer? Maybe you and your kin ought to think in broader terms, such as the possibility of having a trailer break away and striking another vehicle, injuring or killing someone in the process.

If you're going to be towing, then do it right. Hitches are cheap and easy to install.

 

Twenty years did they have hitches and if so how widely were they used? I don't recall any up till recently, in the rural area I grew up in anyways. Honestly try to recall how many run away you've personally seen. I've only seen one and that was due to high of speed and it was the hitch on the trailer that broke.

 

Bumpers back then were strong as **** now they are just damn near for looks

 

If thats the case i've only personaly seen about 10-20 auto wrecks in my life that so that means there are not 100's of wrecks everyday just cause I have not seen them?

 

The class 2 reciever hitch installation guides i have seen all bolt right into the same 2 bolt holes on the frame as the bumper, and the bumper looks pretty well built, its 1/4 inch of steel all the way through (except at the ball hole its reinforced). I'm still more incline to believe that its safer than some guys are letting on, im gonna get my trailer down to the bumper limiter and put the rest of my crap in the bed of my truck, but i have never seen a run-away, and i also have seen tons of bumper hitches pulling crap. My friend who owned a ranger to tow his travel trailer, used a bumber hitch in colorado he said the biggest thing with towing with the bumper is the tongue weight. He said that is what will kill my bumper, not the weight behind it. But like i said i can get about 400 pounds in cable cases and put them in the bed of the truck and get my trailer weight down to 1800 pounds and if i can figure out the best pack for it i can get it probobly down to between 170 to 200 pounds it will just take some trial and error. Dont get em wrong guys, im gonna get a reciever hitch when i can afford it, i want to use my ramp and dolly especially on those cases, but in the mean time i just dont have too much choice, but it is cool to hear about people that have bumper towed successfully, and even those who have had issues so i can learn why theres failed. Thanks guys

 

you are just outside the limits of the bumper rating and should be OK
if you do not make any panic stops you should be fine
and yes I have seen many a broke down towing set up on the side of the highway
half of them had a pulled off bumper still partly connected to the truck and the trailer

 

Hey, you sound like me!!!

I've seen one trailer incident. The moron had the load way to far back in the trailer, over weight, and going too fast with no trailer brakes and no safety chains (Darwin at work...). He claims "a deer ran out in front of him". In the process of slamming on the brakes, the trailer spun the truck around 180 degrees. The trailer broke off and continued down the road about a 1/4 mile before going off into the woods. The truck after it was spun around proceeded backwards into a tree at about 40mph. Luckily it was the middle of the night and nobody else was on the normally busy road.

So yes, be smart when towing, it can geat head of you quick if you aren't smart. Look up what the towing capacity and toungue weight is for your truck. It should be in the manual. Stay within that and you should be fine.

 

frame mounted hitches have been around since the 1940's(maybe even earlier)....

 

What does the GCWR, GVWR, and GAWR have to do with how much i can tow and haul?? i have my trailer weight down to 1784 pounds with 150 pounds of tongue weight or 2004 pounds with 120 pounds of tongue weight. Im probobly gonna go with the lighter trailer with a bit more tongue weight. I bough the manual to my truck from ford and it says im rated to tow 2,000 pounds, but not to exceed the GCWR which it lists in the manual as 4800 pounds, and the label inside the right door of my truck says the GVWR is 4060 pounds, and my GAWR is 2750 pounds so how does all these numbers relate to how much i can tow and put in the bed of my truck at the same time??

 

you are crazy. the bumper is not rated that much and all i think about when i see a ball mounted on the bumper is 'what an idiot!!'

hitch, safety chains and anything over 2500lbs on a ranger i think trailer brakes are a good thing to have.

 

definently wouldnt trust the bumper.Personally im thinking of getting a hitch but i wasnt sure how much i could really tow with a 2wd ranger.What are the hitches rated for.And can a how much weight can the ranger handle?

 

Here's a question...
What would I have to do to tow a car on a flat bed with a 2.5l ranger? Car is about 3600-ish lbs or so?

 

You would be fine except that number 2.5 jumped out....

-TJ