Travel trailer ideas from experienced owners?
02-22-2017, 09:05 PM
#11
I bought a 16 Forrest river heritage glen 24rb last year for me the wife and daughter. We really enjoyed it and are waiting for this next season. My floor plan has one dinette slide and a Murphy bed. The Murphy bed was the selling point for us as it gives the little one some floor space to play if we have to be inside and gives me some extra foot room vs having a bed room. Jayco make the exact same floor plan and in retrospect I would have went that route because I think they are a higher quality unit.
02-22-2017, 10:17 PM
#12
Mine:
That's a 2011 Forest river Flagstaff classic superlite. 831RLBSS
It's only set up for two though really. The second bed pulls out of the couch and has an air mattress. You'll probably want something with a little separate area for your daughter to call her own cubby.
Haven't towed it with the 2016 EB yet, but it has better specs than the truck you see it hooked up to in those pics so I'm not worried at all.
Not sure if you're new to towing or not, but make sure you get a good, quality, weight distributing hitch and take your time to follow the directions and take the time to read the directions and set it up properly.
I use a Husky centerline HD, but equal-i-zer and any other number of good hitches are out there.
A quality, properly set up WDH is the difference between a safe and relaxing tow and a white knuckled "never again" nightmare....
If you do buy, I recommend you pop a few extra bucks for at least one Maxair vent:
There's only one in this pic, but I have three on mine:
There's one on the rear main area vent, the bathroom vent and the forward bedroom vent. Great little things! You can leave the trailer roof vents open while moving without having to worry about the vent cover ripping off. Trailer is fresh and cool when you pull in, not hot and stuffy. Also lets you leave them open in the rain so you get good ventilation while all three of you are cooped up in there breathing out moisture. It's also nice when you're sleeping at night, have the vent open and if it starts raining you don't wake up to splatters on your face.
I also keep a tube of Dicor sealant on hand. It;s what they use to seal the roof seams and components. Lets you pop up and seal a leak if you get caught away from home with a leak. It'll suck getting up there int eh rain, but it will suck more if a wall or roof panel gets water logged. I check the Dicor every spring as well. Check your roof membrane out very closely if you buy used. Most trailer structural problem start with a roof/membrane leak.
That's a 2011 Forest river Flagstaff classic superlite. 831RLBSS
It's only set up for two though really. The second bed pulls out of the couch and has an air mattress. You'll probably want something with a little separate area for your daughter to call her own cubby.
Haven't towed it with the 2016 EB yet, but it has better specs than the truck you see it hooked up to in those pics so I'm not worried at all.
Not sure if you're new to towing or not, but make sure you get a good, quality, weight distributing hitch and take your time to follow the directions and take the time to read the directions and set it up properly.
I use a Husky centerline HD, but equal-i-zer and any other number of good hitches are out there.
A quality, properly set up WDH is the difference between a safe and relaxing tow and a white knuckled "never again" nightmare....
If you do buy, I recommend you pop a few extra bucks for at least one Maxair vent:
There's only one in this pic, but I have three on mine:
There's one on the rear main area vent, the bathroom vent and the forward bedroom vent. Great little things! You can leave the trailer roof vents open while moving without having to worry about the vent cover ripping off. Trailer is fresh and cool when you pull in, not hot and stuffy. Also lets you leave them open in the rain so you get good ventilation while all three of you are cooped up in there breathing out moisture. It's also nice when you're sleeping at night, have the vent open and if it starts raining you don't wake up to splatters on your face.
I also keep a tube of Dicor sealant on hand. It;s what they use to seal the roof seams and components. Lets you pop up and seal a leak if you get caught away from home with a leak. It'll suck getting up there int eh rain, but it will suck more if a wall or roof panel gets water logged. I check the Dicor every spring as well. Check your roof membrane out very closely if you buy used. Most trailer structural problem start with a roof/membrane leak.
02-22-2017, 10:22 PM
#13
If you can, check out Coleman/Dutchman trailers too. I have a 274BH that tows exceptionally well with a 145"WB truck. It has a full bath, twin large bunks, a queen in the front, dinette that can be a bed and a futon. Fully loaded its about 6400# wet, thats with a full FWT. I towed it with a 1470# payload F150 up the Colorado Rockies.
02-22-2017, 11:14 PM
#14
Found a used 2005 jayflight 2700bh with a dry weight of 4950 and gwvr of 7500. That puts it right at the edge of my trucks 7600 gwvr though. Although would I really be carrying over a ton of water and all supplies. I dunno that's probably too close.
I have towed, very light stuff mostly. Except one time I was incredibly stupid with my 07 150 and towed a huge mud bogger with huge tires and heavy trailer for a fair. Weighed over 14,000 and pushed my *** all over the place. The old 5.4 pulled it great, just couldn't control it. It was only 10 miles but very dumb to do. My uncles 350 broke down, we were drinking, and had to get there.
Thanks all for the advice. Going to bed. I'm going to post some more tomorrow.
BTW I have 2.7 ecoboost, 3.55 gears so no max tow. I'm getting ready to install class 4 hitch, 7/4 pin, and brake controller.
I have towed, very light stuff mostly. Except one time I was incredibly stupid with my 07 150 and towed a huge mud bogger with huge tires and heavy trailer for a fair. Weighed over 14,000 and pushed my *** all over the place. The old 5.4 pulled it great, just couldn't control it. It was only 10 miles but very dumb to do. My uncles 350 broke down, we were drinking, and had to get there.
Thanks all for the advice. Going to bed. I'm going to post some more tomorrow.
BTW I have 2.7 ecoboost, 3.55 gears so no max tow. I'm getting ready to install class 4 hitch, 7/4 pin, and brake controller.
02-23-2017, 11:53 AM
#16
Grumpy Old Man
The problem with renting a trailer is you will need a good weight-distributing hitch, and most smaller rental RV trailers do not come with a good WD hitch. The towing experience is a lot better with a good WD hitch than without one. So if you rent one without a good WD hitch, ignore the towing experience and worry about the camping experience. When you buy a trailer and hook it up with a Blue Ox SwayPro or Equal-I-Zer hitch, the towing experience will be much better.
As to single vs. tandem axles on the trailer, the single axle will have limited payload capacity and can be easily overloaded if you don't pay close attention to what you haul in the trailer. My 19' (box) TT has tandem axles and it tows great with a good WD hitch, plus it has enough payload capacity to haul our normal camping stuff in the trailer without overloading the trailer.
We towed a 25' RV trailer with one super-slide for over 10 years and over 100,000 miles all over the USA. Just two old folks and our dog, but we never felt the least bit crowded with the slide out. Then we downsized to a 19' RV trailer with no slide. We noticed immediately that there wasn't enough room in the trailer for two people to be moving about at the same time, and the dog has to stay under the table. If DW is in the center kitchen, then I have to stay on the bed or seated in the dinette or in the bathroom. So we really miss the slide that gave us enough room for both of us to move around at the same time.
Grandson visited last week. He has a small (15BH) Dutchmen/Coleman RV bunkhouse trailer with single axle and no slide. Nice little trailer if you need the bunk beds and need to tow it with a half-ton pickup without being overloaded. DW wouldn't like it because there is no walk-around bed, and no large closet, and the same problem as ours without much moving around space on the floor. But being only 15' long box, you cannot expect it to have much room in it. On his, the dinette converts to a queen-size bed, so it can have a decent bed plus the two bunks. But he doesn't mind converting the dinette to a bed, then crawling around on the bed to make it up, and they keep their clothes in suitcases/duffle bags in the back of the pickup under a camper shell. Here's the floorplan of the Coleman 15BH.
The bunk beds in that 15BH are big enough for adults to sleep comfortably. When they came thru here, there was one adult and one teenager in the bunk beds, and grandson spread out on the big front bed.
I cannot get the img operand to work, so click on the link to see the floorplan. http://www.dutchmen.com/media/10326/cm_15bh.jpg
As to single vs. tandem axles on the trailer, the single axle will have limited payload capacity and can be easily overloaded if you don't pay close attention to what you haul in the trailer. My 19' (box) TT has tandem axles and it tows great with a good WD hitch, plus it has enough payload capacity to haul our normal camping stuff in the trailer without overloading the trailer.
We towed a 25' RV trailer with one super-slide for over 10 years and over 100,000 miles all over the USA. Just two old folks and our dog, but we never felt the least bit crowded with the slide out. Then we downsized to a 19' RV trailer with no slide. We noticed immediately that there wasn't enough room in the trailer for two people to be moving about at the same time, and the dog has to stay under the table. If DW is in the center kitchen, then I have to stay on the bed or seated in the dinette or in the bathroom. So we really miss the slide that gave us enough room for both of us to move around at the same time.
Grandson visited last week. He has a small (15BH) Dutchmen/Coleman RV bunkhouse trailer with single axle and no slide. Nice little trailer if you need the bunk beds and need to tow it with a half-ton pickup without being overloaded. DW wouldn't like it because there is no walk-around bed, and no large closet, and the same problem as ours without much moving around space on the floor. But being only 15' long box, you cannot expect it to have much room in it. On his, the dinette converts to a queen-size bed, so it can have a decent bed plus the two bunks. But he doesn't mind converting the dinette to a bed, then crawling around on the bed to make it up, and they keep their clothes in suitcases/duffle bags in the back of the pickup under a camper shell. Here's the floorplan of the Coleman 15BH.
The bunk beds in that 15BH are big enough for adults to sleep comfortably. When they came thru here, there was one adult and one teenager in the bunk beds, and grandson spread out on the big front bed.
I cannot get the img operand to work, so click on the link to see the floorplan. http://www.dutchmen.com/media/10326/cm_15bh.jpg
Last edited by smokeywren; 05-24-2018 at 11:16 AM.
02-23-2017, 12:30 PM
#17
OP has a 2.7 so has to keep it light. Those Colemans are a good buy for what you get. Mine cost me 11K in like new condition used, it sells for 17K new and was 2 years old. It would be too much trailer though for the 2.7 EB without the max tow options. The one Smokey posted is a good option too.
02-23-2017, 12:49 PM
#18
from the sport trac website, where I used to frequent before I got the f-150.
http://www.mysporttrac.com/shared/ms...10_10:56:43_AM
tandem, length, frontal area, longer the better for stability
towed the TT for over 20,000 miles since 2003.
tow this same TT with my '13 STX 5.0 2WD w/o issue. get 15 mpg
excerpt from 2013:
I tow a 27ft lightweight starcraft w/ my '02 2wd w/ 170,000 on it w/o issues... keep what you get under the max weight (5250#, i think) , and get the trailer as long as you can ,as a long tongue aids in towing stability, IMO... You'll know it's back there, and you won't set any speed records, and you'll get 10-11 mpg.... Slideouts add 700-1000 lbs... The frontal area is important, minimize it if you can.. You'll also want equalizer bars and anti-sway control, and a tranny cooler.. Change out your fluids before towing... One big improvement to mine was switching to LT tires, as the sidewalls are much stiffer and make towing in crosswinds almost a non-issue... do a search on towing, (www.mysportrac.com) and you'll find a lot of info on the subject..
http://www.mysporttrac.com/shared/ms...10_10:56:43_AM
tandem, length, frontal area, longer the better for stability
towed the TT for over 20,000 miles since 2003.
tow this same TT with my '13 STX 5.0 2WD w/o issue. get 15 mpg
excerpt from 2013:
I tow a 27ft lightweight starcraft w/ my '02 2wd w/ 170,000 on it w/o issues... keep what you get under the max weight (5250#, i think) , and get the trailer as long as you can ,as a long tongue aids in towing stability, IMO... You'll know it's back there, and you won't set any speed records, and you'll get 10-11 mpg.... Slideouts add 700-1000 lbs... The frontal area is important, minimize it if you can.. You'll also want equalizer bars and anti-sway control, and a tranny cooler.. Change out your fluids before towing... One big improvement to mine was switching to LT tires, as the sidewalls are much stiffer and make towing in crosswinds almost a non-issue... do a search on towing, (www.mysportrac.com) and you'll find a lot of info on the subject..
Last edited by STanner; 02-23-2017 at 01:02 PM.
02-23-2017, 01:25 PM
#19
STanner is that uwv or gwvr?
Yeah guys I have every intention on WDH and transmission cooler upgrade as I have a couple months to get ready. I would also like to add a set of leaf Springs just if anything for payload purposes.
I'll look into those trailers when off work. Once again thanks.
Yeah guys I have every intention on WDH and transmission cooler upgrade as I have a couple months to get ready. I would also like to add a set of leaf Springs just if anything for payload purposes.
I'll look into those trailers when off work. Once again thanks.
02-23-2017, 01:30 PM
#20
weight
the trailer weighs in around 5500# wet, as that was the limit with my sport trac. dry weight on the TT is 4083#. the 5.0 doesn't know it's back there. quite happy. my TT is 7.5 ft wide and only 9' tall- low wind resistance. tandems also keep the TT from bouncing all of your stuff out of the cabinets- they handle potholes better