Warn tire carrier towing question!

[jzak]

Hey Guys,

So i've got a warning label on my Warn spare tire carrier. It says not to tow anything with the receiver tube. It should only be used for vehicle recovery.

Can someone explain to me why this is? It seems like the pulling force needed to get a CJ5 out of the mud, is much more then what you would use when towing a trailer.

Thanks!

Josh

 

[Techlight]

Lots of views and no replies on this one...

I'd suggest calling WARN, especially considering you probably paid around 400 bucks or so for the bumper ...they may have very specific reasons for the no tow requirement, then again they may just be trying to cover their legal hoops.

I'd be interested to know what they say if you do call them...

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Liability, Liability, Liability. They want none of it. If you tow with their hitch and there’s a crash they want to be able to say that they told you not to. A short wheelbase CJ is squirrely at best towing anything but a pup tent on wheels anyway.

 

[jzak]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I was also thinking it was some Warn liability BS.

I ran into this with Warn before on an issue I had with mounting a high lift jack to my carrier. When I emailed them, they explained to me how the jack would be too heavy and would break the carrier. Then they tried to get me to buy a Warn hi-lift mounting bracket. Somehow the Warn mounting bracket cancels out gravity, making the hi-lift jack weight nothing.

Gotta love big corporate culture!

 

[HackFabrication]

Gotta love big corporate culture!

More like tort lawyers extracting huge settlements because a lot of Americans lack common sense.

 

[Hedgehog]

This does seem odd. If they don't want you to tow with the bumper, why have the receiver hitch at all. Recovery points are there to recover your vehicle and others anyway. By including a receiver in the bumper they are implying that the bumper is tow rated. ..... Yes, I know there are many accessories designed for use in a receiver, bike racks, adder carriers, steps and lots of other stuff. If the bumper has a receiver it should be tow/load rated.

 

[jzak]

This does seem odd. If they don't want you to tow with the bumper, why have the receiver hitch at all. Recovery points are there to recover your vehicle and others anyway. By including a receiver in the bumper they are implying that the bumper is tow rated. ..... Yes, I know there are many accessories designed for use in a receiver, bike racks, adder carriers, steps and lots of other stuff. If the bumper has a receiver it should be tow/load rated.

Excellent point. I attached some pics of the warning label below. It really doesn't make much sense. My front warn bumper has two recovery points. As you said, You would think if they were worried about getting sued, they would of ditched the tow receiver all together, and just installed a couple recovery points.

 

[Hedgehog]

Now that's a warning lable ... "Serious Injury or Death May Occur!" It doesn't get more direct than that.

 

[jzak]

Now that's a warning lable ... "Serious Injury or Death May Occur!" It doesn't get more direct than that.

It reminds me of those heavy industry warning labels. Where they show a stick figure being crushed under a carbine harvester, or a hand being severed by a steel press.

 

[CJAKE7]

I believe earlier in this post it was referred to Americans not using common sense. All I hear in this post is Americans using common sense.

STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!

Americans are not allow to use common sense, it is politically incorrect!

 

[jzak]

I believe earlier in this post it was referred to Americans not using common sense. All I hear in this post is Americans using common sense.

STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!

Americans are not allow to use common sense, it is politically incorrect!

True, but not sure all Americans have common sense. Just most do. You know the last words of a dead redneck is? "Hey, Watch This!"

 

[IOPort51]

Liability, Liability, Liability. They want none of it. If you tow with their hitch and there’s a crash they want to be able to say that they told you not to. A short wheelbase CJ is squirrely at best towing anything but a pup tent on wheels anyway.

I think I can agree with this. especially the last sentence. kind of like suing a gun manufacturer for making it possible for someone to shoot you. We need someone to take care of us and keep us from hurting ourselves.

I for one am a firm believer in natural selection.

call Uhaul and ask if they will rent you a trailer to pull behind a CJ.

 

[jzak]

I think I can agree with this. especially the last sentence. kind of like suing a gun manufacturer for making it possible for someone to shoot you. We need someone to take care of us and keep us from hurting ourselves.

I for one am a firm believer in natural selection.

call Uhaul and ask if they will rent you a trailer to pull behind a CJ.

Good one IO! We need to stop stupid people from breeding!

I wasn't really looking to tow something right now. I was just hoping that if a towing need came up, I could use it.

I also know that CJ5 's with their short wheelbase, are the worst vehicles for towing.

 

[Hedgehog]

I always sort of wondered about this short wheel base thing. Granted this will be an entirely different beast, but have you ever looked at the older 18 wheelers. A very short cab/wheelbase with a long trialer. Sure the 5th wheel is located over the drivers. But in more modern trucks many of them have an actual car type hitch behind the truck. Those have longer cabs, but the geometry is similar to our CJ's.

MY friend Larry had my '80 CJ5 before I bought it from him. He had a pop-up that he put far to much weight in. I remember him complaining about the trailer wabbling the whole Jeep all over the road and scaring him almost to death. We started to expariment with weight distribution in the trailer and found a tongue weight that made towing a breeze. Not to much, not to little and things were fine, he got so he could balance the load without much thought by occasionally lifting on the trailer tongue. Towing, even with considerably weight in the trailer is possible with a jeep as long as you pay attention.

 

[jzak]

I always sort of wondered about this short wheel base thing. Granted this will be an entirely different beast, but have you ever looked at the older 18 wheelers. A very short cab/wheelbase with a long trialer. Sure the 5th wheel is located over the drivers. But in more modern trucks many of them have an actual car type hitch behind the truck. Those have longer cabs, but the geometry is similar to our CJ's.

MY friend Larry had my '80 CJ5 before I bought it from him. He had a pop-up that he put far to much weight in. I remember him complaining about the trailer wabbling the whole Jeep all over the road and scaring him almost to death. We started to expariment with weight distribution in the trailer and found a tongue weight that made towing a breeze. Not to much, not to little and things were fine, he got so he could balance the load without much thought by occasionally lifting on the trailer tongue. Towing, even with considerably weight in the trailer is possible with a jeep as long as you pay attention.

Thanks for the feedback! I've been told by others that towing even a small pop-up camper with a CJ5 is suicide. That the CJ5 is just not designed for it, but from what you're telling me, it sounds like it's a weight distribution problem. If you distribute it right, you should be fine. That's great to know! Thanks!

 

[Hedgehog]

But as others have said be careful.

CJ5 's have towed trailers for the entire life of the CJ line. we've all seen howetzers being towed, the military has a Jeep trailer and then there were farm Jeeps that towed any number of different pieces of farm equipement. Of course they weren't going 65 mph. Where I lived farmers regularly towed hay down the road and in the early '80 there were quite a few Jeeps with post hole drilling equipement on the back towing small trailers. I always thought they were a darned handy looking rig for planting trees and drilling for construction sites. Short relatively nimble and tough enough. You never see them around here anymore though.

 

[jzak]

Very True!

 

[Petescj]

Good thread. Id like to know if that receiver is square tube all the way through the bumper and welded on the backside. The warning label is for liability of course. The sad thing is there are people out there that have the intelligence level that make these labels necessary.

 

[Hedgehog]

I imagine to make the hitch truly towable there needs to be a set of braces going from the hitch to the frame somewhere in front of the gas tank like the original Jeep tow hitch had as an accessory. That would keep the bumper from folding or bending in the middle.

 

[jzak]

Good thread. Id like to know if that receiver is square tube all the way through the bumper and welded on the backside. The warning label is for liability of course. The sad thing is there are people out there that have the intelligence level that make these labels necessary.

Great question! I got down there with a flash light, and the receiver is a solid metal tube that goes all the way to the back of the bumper, and it looks like it's welded there.

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