First thing is to search the forums and get a good understanding of what your truck can actually tow without exceeding the vehicle gross weight rating. You don’t wat to exceed this. Every truck is different due to various options that the manufacture added and what you may have added. Write Dow the weight data that is on the pilar one the drivers side door. Lots of valuable information.
Last year the wife and I took an 8 week, 10,000 mile cross country trip. If you ar planning to stay in the National Parks, plan ahead to make reservations. They fill up very fast. On that note, don’t limit yourself to staying in the parks. There are many campgrounds around the parks that are within a 1/2 hour drive to the park. We only had one reservation for the whole trip and that was at the Grand Canyon because we wanted to take the train to the park and spend a couple of nights at one of the hotels. We went to 6 National Parks and 3 National Monuments and had no trouble finding a campground to accommodate my Excursion and 33’ trailer.
We planned the trip in January and we left in the middle of June and returned in late August.. Don’t know what your time frame is and how long you want to be away. Go to a good book store (Barnes and noble) and pick up a copy of the guide to our national parks. This book explains what to see, do not do in every national park in the country. Great resource for info. If you belong to AAA go there and tell the what you want to do and see and they will map out a route for you and give you tour books for every state you will drive in.
One last important this is, Don’t forget tow vehicle maintenance!! I had the oil changed 3 times during the trip and don’t rush to get someplace. It’s a lot of driving. I tried to limit myself to no more than 400 miles a day and we always left after 9am so that the work rush hour traffic was minimal..
Bill
