Choosing our first travel trailer! Big family

GrandpaKip wrote:

camp-n-family wrote:
A model like our Keystone Bullet 31bhpr would fit the bill. There are several brands that have the same floor plan but I found the Keystone to be the lightest by a large margin and the quality was better than most.

It has a bunk room in back with king sized futon on the bottom and 2 single bunks above and decent storage. Outdoor kitchen with a sink (most nowadays don’t seem to have sinks anymore) and a 2nd entry door directly to the bathroom. A nice feature so the kids don’t track all the dirt through the trailer.

It’s 34’ tongue to bumper and only 6400lbs dry. 8k gvwr. I wouldn’t tow it with less than a 3/4t truck or van.

That leaves only 1600# for cargo and I’ll bet the “dry weight” is higher than advertised. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that trailer with about 1000# cargo. With your family, it will most likely be at max or over. That’s not a particularly good scenario.

1k of cargo still leaves 500lbs of payload. What’s the problem? Our trailer is stickered delivered from the factory at 6420lbs. (Might be 6240 as I always get the numbers mixed but it’s in storage and can’t be bothered to look. I went with the higher worst case scenario). It has plenty of payload left. Loaded for 2 week trips with our family of 4 and 2 dogs we regularly scale at 7600lbs with full fresh water and we don’t pack light. I scale it every trip as there is a granary around the corner. That still leaves another 400lbs. It also came with heavy axles (4.5k I believe) and D rated 15” tires unlike most TTs with axles rated less than gvwr that rely on the tongue weight to be carried by the TV so a little over won’t hurt anything.

As for the outdoor kitchen it comes down to personal preference but we won’t own another trailer without one. Absolutely love ours and do 95% of our cooking with it. Even in the rain as the large door overhead covers you. Having the second fridge and freezer, even though it’s only electric, is really handy. Another thing good with this layout is that the fridge and bathroom are both accessible even with the slides in.

Towed it with a half ton for the first 2 years. Plenty of power, not enough payload for tongue weight and all the passengers op has which is why I suggest nothing less than a 3/4 ton.