mrash

My wife really wants a travel trailer to some camping this summer with our two year old and our dog.

My truck is a 2013 SCREW SB 5.0 with 3.55s and 34” Duratrac tires. The GVWR is listed at 7350lbs and the combined load capacity is 1380lbs.

I will be towing a lot thru the mountains between Alberta and British Columbia, so I don’t want my truck to near it’s max. When we travel we’ll have up to 3 adults, a toddler and a dog… so about 550lbs + camping gear + 2 or 3 bikes.

The trailer I’m considering is the 7.5’ wide Coachmen Apex235BHS. This seems to be one of the lighter models with most of the features we are looking for, the more important being a set of bunk beds.

Specs:
Length – 26’-7”
Hitch Weight – 542 lbs
Base Weight – 4277 lbs
GVWR – 6500 lbs
Cargo Capacity – 2223 lbs

http://www.coachmenrv.com/products/a...oorplanid=4359

I know the larger tires (34”) will have effect on towing ability and I don’t want to be the guy creeping up hills. Do you think I’ll have any issues with towing this unit up longer mountain passes? Should I go with a smaller/lighter model to ensure hills won’t be a problem?

I also have Bilstein levelling struts installed, so my rear is only about ¾” higher than the rear. Would a weight distribution hitch help with rear end sag or would I still need airbags/larger rear blocks?

I don’t really know anyone who tows, I’ve never towed and the sales guys seem to think my truck could tow the space shuttle cross country with ease... maybe on the same tank of gas.

Any advice or opinions you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

uzikaduzi

weight wise you're looking good, i think your towing capacity is like 7700... your hitch wieght will change when you're loaded up and lets say max out the camper at 6500 pds, your tongue weight should be 10%(650pds) to 15% (975 pds) either way ford recommends WDH and so do I. Air bags don't put the weight you take off the front axle back on the front axle, it only levels it (which will feel better than no bags and no WDH) but could and likely will overload your rear axle... besides the factory hitch is only rated for 500 pds of tongue weight with out a WDH. i have an 06 f150 which doesn't have the 6 speed trans ans going up to 33.5's with 3.55's isn't fun towing. a lot of people say with the 6 speed and the 1 gear being so low, you don't have to re-gear, but it has to be putting more strain on your trans and even if you can't feel the difference, it doesn't mean it's fine.

i've had the equal-izer and reese dual cam style WDH's and i liked them, they both have integrated sway control... the equal-izer was easier to set up and was cheaper, but the dual cam seemed better once it was set up. you can go cheaper and add friction bars (the type you add to the side, not the action of the weight distribution bars on the equal-izer or the dual cam) but with that weight and length, i don't think the friction bars work as well and you have to disconnect them to back up. also sway control shouldn't be used as a band aide to hid sway, if you experience sway, it's more than likely from an improperly loaded trailer and more tongue weight normally helps. that trailer likely comes with trailer tires which were created to cheaply fill the gap between passenger tires and LT's... you run them at max pressure, they normally have a top speed of 65mph, and they generally aren't even rated for the gross weight of the trailer (which is ok since the tongue weight is never really on those tires). the reason I say that is to point out that those tires are running at their max rating for everything so making sure they are at max pressure and you're not exceeding 65 is very important to everyone's safety (besides when they explode on the road, they will tear up the wheel wells... maybe even into the camper)

mrash

Thanks, uzikaduzi.

I'm regretting going with the bigger tires now. I don't want to overload my transmission, so I may consider going back to smaller tires or a lighter trailer. I don't think I'll enjoy towing the camper if I feel like the truck is struggling trying to get to the campground.

uzikaduzi

i found a place with a good rep locally on some off road forums and they are changing mine for $1200 if nothing else is warn out. so I'm guessing that's less than you spent on tires. My dad has an expedition with the 6sd trans and he has a heavier boat (although boats are normally way easier to pull than campers because of aerodynamics) you can't even feel it shift and I doubt he's ever over 2500 rpm even on hills.

if it were me, and I really liked that camper, I'd buy it and an edge tuner or something similar that can accurately monitor trans temps... if they are staying nice and cool (<195f) towing, then skip the re-gear.

i did originally confuse the cargo capacity you listed with your payload capacity. @ 1380 pds, if you're at the full 15% of tongue weight that only leaves 430 pds to add in your truck... 300 will be taken up by you and the wife and then other stuff you bring can easily make you over payload, but, to me the sweet spot for tongue weight is 13ish% (845 pds if you're loaded to the max of the camper) and you can reality change that by how you load the camper. for me, if i'm under that I can feel the push/pull feeling (that normally leads to sway) too much for me. My camper weighs more than the one you're looking at and our truck specs are similar capacity wise(I have a little more payload capacity because it's a supercab) and I'm likely a little over payload (like 100 pds) no mountains here in TX but in the hill country (with the 3.55 gears) I slow from 65 to around just under 60 on long grades.

whatever you do, don't let an rv dealer tell you what you can pull... they will overload you. on the other had if you look at https://www.f150forum.com/f82/lets-s...g-towed-146837 the vast majority of these people are over payload and many over tow capacity.

zx12-iowa

It'll tow ok but will rev a bit to get up hills. Just the nature of the 5.0. Won't hurt any but some don't like all that noise.

mrash

Thanks again for the replies. Yeah, I think the Apex might be too close to the limit for my truck. I have no interest in travelling 'white knuckled' thru the mountains. I'd rather err on the side of caution. Plus I'm a towing newb and I'd rather a gentler learning curve that'd come with a smaller/lighter unit.

I think the 34" tires (althou they look great) might be overkill also. I'll probably replace them with something closer to the stock size. Which sucks because they only have about 1500kms.

uzikaduzi

have you looked at the r-pods? they are smaller but they do a great job at maximizing space. the rp-182g is only 2766 dry with a gross of 3862. that would pull great even with the big tires and you could get away without a WDH (although completely loaded you'd be close enough to needing one that if it were me, I'd use one)

http://www.forestriverinc.com/TravelTrailers/rpod/

Norotso

Keep your tires and look on usedcalgary for someone who is dumping there stock tire/wheel in favor of larger tires, there is always one set for sale. Then just swap out as needed. Jayco makes some nice light fiberglass TT, jayflight I believe, or a hybrid with fold outs, similar to a pop up trailer. Though that may not be a good option in bear country…

SkiSmuggs

You have the same transmission as the Max Tow models, just not the larger trans cooler. The transmission will downshift to keep from lugging even with the bigger tires, but the OEM tire size is a good idea.

smokeywren

With a quick search, I found a tire with diameter of 34.1". It has tire revs/mile of 610. Stock size tires were 275/65R18 with 648 revs/mile. 648 minus 610 = 38, divided by 648 = 5.9%.

Your effective axle ratio will change by the same percentage as the revs/mile of the tires. So your 3.55 will "feel like" 3.55 minus 5.9% = 3.34.

Your uncorrected speedo will have a speedo error of 5.9%, so an indicated 60 MPH will be almost 64 MPH on Officer Bob's radar.

Your engine RPM will decrease by 5.9% compared to the same engine RPM at the same actual speed, so 2000 engine RPM at 60 MPH per GPS with stock tires will be 1,882 RPM per GPS with the tall tires.

Comparing those numbers with my 2012 EcoBoost with 3.15 axle ratio dragging a 6,000-pound cargo trailer across the Rockies, I don't think you'll have any big problems towing a trailer that grosses 6,500 pounds. Unless you think that every EcoBoost blowing by you on any decent mountain grade is a problem.