Can my truck pull this?

[RIDE-RED 350r]

I know that in NY, they go by unladen trailer weight as the line between a trailer that must have brakes and those that do not. When a trailer has an unladen weight of 1,000 lbs or more, it must have brakes in NY. Under 1,000 lbs, brakes are not required.

My Four Winns I mentioned before does not have brakes on the trailer, and it is the Four Winns trailer that came with the boat from the dealer. I just got home from a 10 day camping trip in the Adirondacks. With my '78, I towed my boat loaded with some gear, and also had the bed of the truck loaded with firewood, full coolers, and the heaviest Rubbermaid totes we take with us for the trip. My truck has the type of helper springs that come up against rubber stops when the truck is loaded down. It was on the helpers, but she did just fine.. No ill handling from too light of a front end and stopping power was quite fair albeit more distance and defensive driving is required. I probably had 600-800 lbs in the bed, and 3500lbs gross trailer weight.

I have to wholeheartedly agree with Tuscon about weight distributing hitches. I have a 27' camper and use them all the time when we haul the camper with the '06 Z-71 ext cab. And he is right, they do not simply and plainly raise the rear of the towing vehicle back up... they distribute tongue weight forward to the rest of the truck chassis, and back to the trailer axles. End result being a much more stable rig in every way to run down the highway when properly adjusted/set up.

I hauled the camper a short distance (about 5 miles) recently with my K-10 (SWB). I hooked up, and was about to mount the torsion bars when I noticed the camper was slightly nose-up. I checked the rear springs and found that the helper were engaged and the truck didn't sit terribly low in the rear. I decided to go without the bars for the quick trip. It carried the weight just fine, and had adequate power to get it all moving. BUT, the problem I had and the reason I would not haul the camper long distance with the '78 was that camper being somewhat long and about 4500 lbs empty, in curves I could feel it wanting to sway and yank the rear of the truck around more than I was comfortable with. Granted, my truck is a short bed, reg cab, lifted 4" and has 35" tires..so not the best setup to tow heavier/longer trailers. Beside that, the old truck exceeded my expectations for toughness once again.

I cannot even come close to hauling the camper without the torsion bars with the '06... She flattens right out, and bad.

Looking at your pontoon trailer and going by the pics, I am not sure that you would be able to use torsion bars due to the design of the trailer tongue. You need an A-frame type tongue, like campers have. And on that A-frame, there needs to be open space to mount the torsion bar keepers, and clear space for the bars themselves along side the A-frame.

But again, I do not see that rig being heavy enough to need torsion bars.. And it is very possible that it (the trailer) is light enough empty that brakes are not required (at least in NY)

Couple of pics of my helper springs. Not sure what brand or if still available. They came on the truck when I bought it.