M989A1 Heavy Expanded Mobility Ammunition Trailer towing question

[surfhacker]

For anyone finding this thread from the internet, I just bought one and towed it home on back roads with a F350. The previous owner caged the brakes out, and I towed it back 300+ miles. No brakes, just rolling chassis. I never went over 40 mph, and found that I had to take hill declines at 20-25 mph to feel safe.

If I had to do it again, I'd have put sand bags for weight in the back of the pickup bed. I had nothing, and starting from a stop pointing up hill meant burning out a few times. Otherwise, I'd recommend doing it in a dually (mine wasnt).

Final word. Don't do highways. Even with 40 mph minimum posted speeds, you can't go downhill safely at 40 mph.

 

[MarkM]

Not to say you "can't" do it but is the risk worth the reward. It's not safe to haul that kind of weight without brakes with a one ton. That's a lot of iron to come up on you if you need to stop fast. I'm just saying.

Mark

 

[98G]

For anyone finding this thread from the internet, I just bought one and towed it home on back roads with a F350. The previous owner caged the brakes out, and I towed it back 300+ miles. No brakes, just rolling chassis. I never went over 40 mph, and found that I had to take hill declines at 20-25 mph to feel safe.

If I had to do it again, I'd have put sand bags for weight in the back of the pickup bed. I had nothing, and starting from a stop pointing up hill meant burning out a few times. Otherwise, I'd recommend doing it in a dually (mine wasnt).

Final word. Don't do highways. Even with 40 mph minimum posted speeds, you can't go downhill safely at 40 mph.

Don't consider it. Not with a 1ton dually either. Not even with 4000lbs in the bed.

Had someone unexpectedly slowed or stopped in front of you, you'd have splattered them. Any emergency maneuvering and that trailer would have pushed you sideways and broke your rear wheels loose.

These M989A1 trailers are simply far too heavy to move with a pickup truck. And this is greatly exacerbated by the fact that there's no tongue weight.

I'll tow an M105 without any hesitation. I'll even tow a loaded M1082 with my 1ton (in other words I'm reckless and not averse to risk). But the M989A1 is orders of magnitude more dangerous because of the lack of tongue weight. Don't even consider it.

I can't emphasize this enough. The M989A1 should not be towed with a pickup truck under any circumstances.

I can and have flat towed an LMTV with a pickup truck (NOT RECOMMENDED). But just a little bit of playing around with an M989A1 convinced me not to consider that.