Pulling a borrowed HILO

I just joined the Forum to try to get more information about pulling a HiLo. We are experienced campers with a history of TT's, pop-ups, and Class B's (vans), but never before a HILo. Our friends (and best camping buddies) have two HiLo's, a 26' in the south, and a 21' in the west. They have persuaded us to pull the 26' to the Canadian Rockies to meet them in less than a month. We have a 2003 Chevy Silverado Truck, a 1500 V-8, 4x4 with extended cab. Our friends have an equalizer system and sway bars, but we will need to install electric brakes for the truck. We have never pulled this unit and we are going to pull out of here in under three weeks to drive almost 3,000 miles..just for starters. HELP! Is our truck heavy enough? Anything special we need to know about towing? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. lizzie (in North Carolina)

While I'm not an expert in such matters - I think you would be fine with your rig.

If I'm not mistaken - the 03 Silverado has an 8300lb capacity...more with quadrasteer.

Keep in mind however, that although Hi-Lo's are low profile and tow very nicely - they are NOT super light weight trailers.

In my case, sway bars are a necessity.

Also, I would get a qualified person to make sure that the hitch is properly adjusted for the height of the 4x4.

Have a safe and fun trip. It sounds great.

towing a borrowed hi-lo

The first thing I would check is the tow rating of the truck GVWR ,the wieght of the trailer & the wieght of all of the supplies.
Since it's a borrowed trailer,I would try to find a public scale to get an accurate measurement.


Because of the distance you will be traveling,
I would inspect the wheel bearings,races& repack them,The age of the tires is in question, I would replace them including the spare.
Also,remember the refrigerator will need to be on 12v when towing and will pull up to 13amps.Check the charge lead, I had to change it on my Toyota See other area's in this forum.You don't want to run down your house batteries.

LES 1997 21ft. towlite

towing a borrowed hi-lo

I forgot to tell you to take jumper cables , so you can jumper the house batteries off your truck if the house batteries go dead, to raise or lower the top of the hi-lo.
I would use an equalizer and sway control. HAVE A FUN TRIP! LES

liizzie, we took our 25' Hi-Lo out from KS down to Santa Fe, N.M. and then
up through Colorado last summer. We had a Ford F-150 4x4 with a 5.4 V8.
Tow rated @ 8,200. It did OK but was working pretty good up some of the
mountain passes. We met another camper in Santa Fe who had a similar
set-up, 25' trailer and a brand new F-150, and he asked me about our towing.
He was a little dismayed too that the F-150 seemed to struggle a little more
than he expected. He was from Houston and said that when he got home he
might look into trading for a F-250. You'll be OK for a one-time deal but
definitely use a weight distribution hitch. During the trip my wife commented
more than once "we need a bigger truck"! We traded our F-150 in on a
F-250 in September, primarily because where we live we'll probably be going
that direction alot.

Thanks to everyone for the reassuring messages. I think we are feeling confident enough to pull the 26 footer. We will not be camping in it however, our friends will pull the smaller rig (21') and we will swap when camping. We are shorter and are accustomed to the smaller size of our Class B. We will be leaving NC on May 21, hope to be in Park City on the 25th. Then, the four of use will head for the Canadian Rockies. If you see us wave! lizzie