Double deck car hauler - on a pickup

I was headed up I-75 to Atown yesterday and encountered something I'd never seen before. Three Dodge 3500 dually pickups towing DOUBLE DECKER car trailers. Like...they were 3/4 scale versions of the Semi-type car haulers. Each one had 6 full size cars on it. Hell, one of them had a new 4dr F250 on the front top position, basically over the bed of the tow vehicle. 

I mean, I've seen the long slope trailers with 3-4 cars on them all the time, but 6 cars? on a double deck? It may be within the crazy-high load limits that big duallys have now, but Lord it looked like a bad idea. Of course, they were cruising at probably 60-65mph and didn't look to be hurting...

Just for reference, the next full sized semi I saw with a car trailer only had 7 cars on it....

Amazing what today's pickups are capable of.

EDIT: Google image search results

DOUBLE NINJA EDIT:

Ok, so looking at the specs on the trailer above from the mfg website, it lists a GVWR of 25,900lbs, and a trailer weight of 14,000 lbs. So..what do you think that steel trailer weighs? 3,000 lbs? so 14k-3k = 11k available for load.  11k/6 cars = 1833lbs per car average. Do you think any of those cars in the picture weighs BELOW 2000lbs??!!   What am I missing here.

The Ford website says 34k gooseneck rating. 

That would leave 3.2k/car using your math. 

There is also a 42.8k rating, but not sure I understand that one. 

If they were Fords I would say maybe they were F450 or bigger trucks with pickup beds put on them. That's pretty common for guys who live somewhere where they can't park commercial vehicles at their houses overnight. I'm not sure if Dodge has a similar option, though. 

I still think thats pretty insane

Looks like a suicide setup to me. I'd drive that across a parking lot, but not on a public road.

 

You are not crazy, the trailer is definitely overloaded. 25,900 lbs GVWR minus the 14,000 lbs the trailer weights itself leaves only 11,900 lbs for cars. Divided by 6 is 1,983 lbs. So no way it can legally carry 6 cars, unless they are all Minis, MG Midgets or similar. Wonder how they get past the DOT, since they would have to go through weigh stations in most states.

The ones I saw were definitely Dodge 3500s - I checked specifically. Photo above is off the trailer maker's website, as is the 25,900 GVW. I did see that number specifically on a couple different trailer manufacturer's sites as GVWR, so I suspect that's driven by some regulation instead of an actual capability.  I haven't checked the Dodge..er RAM, I guess... site for a rating on the 3500s.

But even so, how many of the cars in that particular are under 3200lbs? Maybe the Camaro? The F250 I saw on one sure as HECK wasn't!

It's one of the few times I was uncomfortable being in the lane next to a vehicle. I wasn't driving but I sure wanted to change lanes and move away from it.

In reply to oldopelguy :

You should still be able to get pickup bed length cab-chassis in a 4500/5500 series flavor from FCA...

Always remember gvwc has to stay under 26k to maintain a non commercial drivers license. So while it’s stated under 26k it doesn’t mean it can’t actually haul more than stated.

I seem to recall a conversation yrs ago that the overweight penalty is still way less of a headache then upgrading to a cdl.

In the picture above, truck weighs 10k, they can still have another 16k before cdl. I’m pretty sure that hauler can hold 25k worth, just not at a non cdl  level...

These were late model 3500 duallies with full bed. I don't remember if they were 2 or 4 door, but looked 2 wheel drive. RAM website lists max tow capability of 31,210 lbs for a diesel 3500. So let's just take that number.  So if the trailer weighs 3000 lbs (which I think is low,) we have a max towed cargo of 28,210, or 4700 per car for 6 cars. That's doable. But man, it still seems like a bad idea. And you couldn't do it on the trailer I listed specs for above.

Ranger50 said:

Always remember gvwc has to stay under 26k to maintain a non commercial drivers license. So while it’s stated under 26k it doesn’t mean it can’t actually haul more than stated.

I seem to recall a conversation yrs ago that the overweight penalty is still way less of a headache then upgrading to a cdl.

In the picture above, truck weighs 10k, they can still have another 16k before cdl. I’m pretty sure that hauler can hold 25k worth, just not at a non cdl  level...

Yeah, I thought that was why they were all showing 25,9 but couldn't remember for sure. I'd bet you're right about the trailers too.

In reply to ultraclyde :

The trailer manufacturer lists the weight of the empty trailer at 14,000 lbs, a bit over 3,000 lbs.

A Ford F250 crew cab with 4wd weighs 8000 pounds alone. I see these kinds of rigs relatively often here in Michigan. They're always hauling used or wrecked cars and pickups.

In reply to ultraclyde :

That Camaro is at least 3400, and I'm sure it's the lightest thing on the trailer. 

I've seen a few of these rigs around too. As amazing as the current crop of 1 tons are, I wonder how sketchy they really are to drive? I think I'm actually less scared of this than I am of the flat towed salvage auction wrecks, which are often being towed by another obviously wrecked car

81cpcamaro said:

In reply to ultraclyde :

The trailer manufacturer lists the weight of the empty trailer at 14,000 lbs, a bit over 3,000 lbs.

That was my first interpretation of that too, but I was trying to be generous. With the RAM 3500 that would mean averaging 2868 lbs per vehicle for 6. No way that's possible with modern cars.

Playing around on the Dodge site it looks like I could get aRam 5500 that will pull a 29,500 lb trailer for $45,000.  That’s cheaper than I expected.  As long as there aren’t a lot of hills it’s probably not that bad a ride even a little overloaded.  I wouldn’t do it often as I would guess it eats brakes faster than a heavier chassis would but for local trips it could work.  I’m curious what the do for air to run the trailer brakes and suspension. 

I'm not sure I'd be scared of that, tbh. 

I wonder if the trucks have airbrakes fitted.

Doesn’t look like a bad load to me. 

The 4 cars on the back are almost perfectly balanced over the 2 axles. They counterbalance each other, and put almost no weight in the truck. 

The upper front car is centered over the truck axle. 

The only issue is brakes, and there are brakes on all 4 axles. 

Duallies are really stable. 

Id drive it.

Bear in mind a trailer with a 25900 gvwr can technically carry more weight than that because you’re sharing some of that weight with the pickup pulling it.  Whatever your tongue weight is can be added to that 25900 and so long as you’re not exceeding the tire or axle ratings of either truck or trailer you’re legal.  Those guys are probably running legal because they’re likely highly scrutinized by law enforcement. 

New ram rear axle capacity is 9750 for a regular cab drw.  Assuming truck weighs approximately 8,000 pounds(what my 2016 cummins crew cab 4x4 weighs) and a laughable 50/50 empty axle distribution with no load for basic maths and zero assumptions that some tongue weight may transfer to the truck’s front axle, you can put 5,750 on tongue weight on the gooseneck plus the 25900 giving you 31650 available trailer weight.  We know with the cummins up front it is not 50/50

In reply to Patrick :

I thought the 26k GVWR was the combined limit, though. Like, truck plus trailer must be equal to or less than that. 

ultraclyde said:

Ok, so looking at the specs on the trailer above from the mfg website, it lists a GVWR of 25,900lbs, and a trailer weight of 14,000 lbs. So..what do you think that steel trailer weighs? 3,000 lbs? so 14k-3k = 11k available for load.  11k/6 cars = 1833lbs per car average.

1833 pounds your trailer weight guess was wrong by per car the trailer can accommodate...I'm not quite sure what to do with that.

That’s only to keep you out of CDL territory, and then even there are different combos.  Truck gvwr plus trailer gvwr 26001+ = cdl, with some other caveats.  The new dually is likely 14000 so a trailer 10001+ is cdl.  These guys running 25900 trailers all are required to have a cdl.  You must choose your rig carefully, which is why i stayed single wheel truck.  At 11700 truck gvwr i can legally pull a 14k trailer, but a dually with 14000 would have put me in cdl territory with my silly little 12500 gvwr 14’ trailer.  These guys are pros and beyond the numbers to not have a cdl game, they may be playing other numbers games but I never researched those 

gcwr is north of 39000 on a newish ram dually, leaving slightly over 31000 trailer capacity in the most tow friendly configuration.  

Speaking of numbers games, ever notice how many trailers are rated 9990? 

Furious_E said:

In reply to Patrick :

I thought the 26k GVWR was the combined limit, though. Like, truck plus trailer must be equal to or less than that. 

That's GCVWR, or gross combined vehicle weight rating. I spent about 30 seconds on Dodge's garbage website trying to find that number for a Ram 3500, then went to the Ford site. Looks like the top GCVWR for an F-350 with DRW is 40,000 lbs. I would imagine the Dodge is similar.

In reply to Patrick :

That's cause most regular drivers licenses let you tow a trailer up to 10,000 lbs GWR. So trailer makers use the 9990 rating to make it easy for people.

81cpcamaro said:

In reply to Patrick :

That's cause most regular drivers licenses let you tow a trailer up to 10,000 lbs GWR. So trailer makers use the 9990 rating to make it easy for people.

Yeah, my trailer is rated 9995 even though it'd comfortably do more than that.