Trailer Tuff-Tow Unit

This is something you must have if you plan on towing a trailer of this size and tongue weight down the highway with a motor home.

The distance from the rear tires to the trailer ball on a motor home is long ways and gives the trailer tremendous leverage. What usually happens is the motor home sides just above the rear axle begin to bulge to a point where they break. Another thing that can happen is the frame breaks off at the axle. I'm told that driving down the highway is also a problem since alot of the weight is removed from the front tires and in an emergency braking situation it can cause the tires to burst. Hopefully I'll never have that experience to share with you.

Our motor home cannot handle any more than 350 lbs of trailer tongue weight according to the manufacturer so if we were going to pull this off we had to come up with a solution and the Tuff Tow Unit was the best thing we could do.

So far at some 10,000 miles or so it's been doing its job.

We've had trouble with our motor homes front over hang but when it began the trailer wasn't on it and when it is it doesn't seem to have an affect.  The people at Tuff Tow are super and very knowledgeable and to date have been just great.

There are a few other things this unit does and if you think it may be a solution for your towing troubles like it was for ours check them out at www.tufftow.com 

The only non self induced problem we've had with this unit to date

happened on the way to John Spurling's in June of 2002. The left tire came loose about 100 miles from home. The lugs we're checked for proper torque prior to take off and for some unknown reason they came loose.  The lug holes in the wheel were wallowed out and the wheel assembly itself was robo hot not to mention the tire was flat.

In the 8000 or so miles up to that point we never had that happen. We installed a new wheel assembly including new bearings at the same time, knock on wood hopefully that will be the end of it.

Purchase Date	Quantity	Part	Description	Comments	Purchased From	Cost
-	1	-	Tuff Tow Unit	Initial cost of unit not including installation	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$1,300.00
3/30/01	1	?	Wheel Shroud	Aluminum diamond pattern fender	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	N/C
3/30/01	1	?	1st Spare Tire and wheel	LH tire came loose on the way to John Spurlings for my Pre Phase 3 check ride at Rotorway 6/1/02	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$55.00
3/30/01	1	?	1st Spare hub, bearings and rear seal	Hub cracked while backing up trailer at our location after returning from a trip	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$35.00
-	-	-	-	-	shipping	$22.00
?	1	-	2nd Tire and wheel	Wheel cracked while backing up trailer at our location after returning from a trip	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$55.00
?	1	-	3rd Tire and wheel	Spare	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$55.00
?	1	-	2nd hub, bearings and rear seal	Spare	Tuff Tow\Shogun Industries	$35.00
3/7/05	=======	Mileage on Trailer with Tuff Tow Unit installed on it 11,290.1 from 6/1/02	========	Total Cost to Date	========	$1,557.00

As of March 7th 2005 we have

1,700.0 without tuff tow unit with our Suburban
11,290.0 with the tuff tow unit with our Motorhome

Total Miles to date
as best as we can figure

12,990.0

plus at least a couple of hundred miles for local trips and setting up the tuff tow unit.

END