never towed question's

Man, reading through this thread, I can see why people are scared/intimidated by towing a travel trailer.

It's not as scary as people make it sound.

I had never towed anything bigger than a pop up before we bought our 32-foot travel trailer. We practiced for less than an hour in a nearby empty park that had RV sites for the horse crowd. Once we felt like we had it, we went camping.

Two years later, we couldn't be happier. We have traveled thousands of miles and have had no real problems.

Don't overthink it.

This is a great hobby and something we will do as long as we are able.

I am the original owner of the TT in my sig. It weighs right at 6,000 lbs. fully-loaded. I originally towed it with a '99 Suburban 2500 with the 7.4L engine. It was a great setup.

I finally replaced the 'Burb with the truck in my signature last year. After having the trailer for a long time, I am ready for a new rig (either a TT or 5er). My priorities are:

A walk around bed--no more crawling over my wife (or vice versa) at night.

A heat register in the bathroom--it gets cold in there at night.

Nice seating to lounge around or to watch TV. The dinette seats are not comfortable sitting in for a long period of time.

An oven that can be electronically lit. No more squatting down to get the pilot light lit.

My TT has served me well, but there are some things I want in my next rig.

I am still on my first one that I have owned but not towed as I use to take my parents 14 footer out. While mine is only 20 it is what I could afford and what my TV would handle at the time. If you have the means to get the right TT first I say do it. There is no harm in driving a little slow either to be on the safe side. We usually leave a little before some of our friends as they like to haul but at 75-80 while I don't mind the 55-6 ish (if I stay below 60 I get better MPG). My advice is spend some time in the TT you want and make sure you have room for everything or a place to put things like toys for the kids, the dog create ect. Think about dishes pots and pans ect. as well as all the things that you think you will need and then add a few you don't because they will end up in there any way.

Just for consideration if you are not using camp grounds and are going boon docking larger places are usually not tree covered. You know the area where you go better then most.

Welcome and Happy Camping

If your truck is not equipped with extendable review mirrors, get yourself a good set of tow mirrors. My opinion, McKesh are the best!

We started with a pup. We then moved to a pu with ac and potta potty. Then we realized we hated being inside a pup during rainy day with a dog.plus going to the bathroom with. 3 and 6 got old. We moved to a 28bhs.length 31 foot. Me and y wife where new to towing. Due to various reason my wife ended up towing more than me the first 500 miles. We share towing and learn.

donn0128 wrote:
Start with something smaller say 25 feet. Longer can get unmanageable in a hurry for a beginner. Besides shorter trailers tend to be more family friendly. Buy used to help keep costs down.

I disagree whole heartedly. My 2nd was a 32 footer and always wished I had bought it first. The length was a non issue.

OP - if you decide to rent, check out rvshare.com. You can search for something in your area. If you decide to use it, let me know - have been tellng people about it and wonder if anyone ever uses it and what their experience was.

I have a 25 foot TT and backing up a 12 ft UHaul trailer is a lot harder than backing mine into a camping spot or beside my house. I personally would not be worried about going larger.

Not sure how big your family is, but realize how much time will be spent inside. Other things to consider is where you will keep it when not in use. Backing up gets easier with experience, although not that hard if you take it slow.

Sounds like you have a lot of childhood experience so now is the time to share that with your family. Good luck and keep the board informed!

Yep. If you are backing up alone and your hand is at the bottom of the wheel, "Left" = left. But if you have a spotter at the back of the rig looking backward into the slot, hand at the top of the wheel. They'll yell/radio "left" and from there perspective, it'll go left.

I might have over looked it but have you ever backed anything up? I would recommend that you go to a big parking lot and practice backing into a spot. Remember to turn the wheel opposite that you want the back of the trailer to go.

APT wrote:
The OP has a 3/4 ton gas truck with 1400+ pound receiver rating and at least 2700 pounds of payload. He has GM's 6.0L with 6-spd trans. It would be difficult to exceed anything but GCWR with an 8000 pound dry TT. I would shop 10k-ish GVWR TTs.

Houston Remodeler wrote:
This reminds me of those who go to the bathroom before the weigh in at a Weight Watchers meeting.

Y'all do know what happens when you assume, right? You make a "donkey" out of you and me.

We don't know how many kids he has, what everyone weighs, and whether or not they'll be bringing along their lead brick collection :B

He has two dogs; that adds to the weight. And they might ride in a nice large steel hunting kennel.

He might have a drop-in liner, extra fuel tank, bed-mounted toolbox or topper, bicycles, generator, go kart, moon rover...

Will the kids grow up to be large? I found a height/weight chart and projected my kids, who will be teenagers soon, at the 95th percentile of weight for the amount of time that I expected to keep the tow vehicle/TT. I asked myself, would I still be able to safely haul everyone around in a few years?

Will he be making any trips into higher elevations? That affects towing capacity, big time.

Will he find it best to run his tongue weight at 15%? What does his hitch weigh? Is any cargo aft of the rear axle, and what does it weigh?

Does he have any custom bumpers, roll bars, or grille work? Winch? Light bar? Roof-mounted kayaks? Front hitch-mounted generator?

My vehicle has almost the same towing capacity and about 2/3rd the payload capacity of his, yet I'm having to be very, very careful. It is certainly conceivable that he goes over weight. Now I know that running over weight is controversial here; Some say there's no concern being over a few hundred (thousand?) pounds; Some add a safety margin and won't even go over that. But if you listen to him, he's cautious like me. We're both new at this, and we want our first inexperienced trips to go well. I suggest, based on my research, that he starts out under his weight ratings, including a 20% safety margin, and when he gets more comfortable, then push the limit.

So gochiefs58, you have to ask yourself: Should I take the advice of some people on an internet forum to pay little attention to my weights because my truck ought to be capable of a lot of trailer? Or will I sleep better at night having taken an few hours or so to double-check all the weights and figures before I dive in, as many experts even recommend?

Your call.