Quote:
Originally Posted by cpaharley2008
I think this was the set up used by Lucy and Desi in the movie "Long,Long Trailer" where they buy an Airstream 25' and tow with a ford convertible. They had this setup because of the heavy tongue weight.
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The system shown is completely different than the one used in "The Long, Long Trailer."
The dolly used in the movie was a Watson Dolly. It used a pair of eight inch wheels on a swivel post and a separate tow bar that attached at two pivot points to the top of the dolly frame. All of the tongue weight was supported on a spring and shock absorber inside the swivel post. They also made a version with two swivel posts and four
tires.
I installed a Watson Dolly on a trailer I owned from 1973 to 1984. It worked great. The only problem I had was that you couldn't lower the tongue to level the trailer. If the tongue was high you had to put blocks under the main wheels to level the trailer. The owner's manual also cautioned that your hitch drawbar had to have no play (it couldn't wiggle in the receiver) and you had to use a sway control bar (friction type). It also had a bulldog type coupler to avoid slop in the connection from coupler to ball.
We towed from Illinois to Maine, Maine to California, several trips from Maine to Colorado and a trip from Maine to Texas as well as many local area camping trips in Illinois and Maine. We even took it off-roading a lot in Maine, towed behind a FJ-55 Land Cruiser. When we
sold it the new owner took it to Alaska from Maine.
We never had any problem with bearing or tire failure. I think I replaced the
tires once in the whole time we had it and repacked the bearings every couple of years.
I don't think a Watson Dolly (even if you could buy one today) would work with our smaller
fiberglass campers because they sit too close to the ground. Maybe it would work on a larger
Bigfoot.
I only saw one other Watson Dolly and it was mounted on a large Airstream. The owner told me the dolly was designed specifically for Airstreams.
Well, enough of my rambling. Back to your normally scheduled program.