Need ideas thoughts on bunkhouse for family of 4

We have an Outdoors Creekside 27DBHS and like it. The Creekside 27BHS has a tub. We have owned two Outdoors trailers. The first was a shorter 23BHS and we have liked both of them.

Buy what you want and enjoy! You've got a really rare tow vehicle, be aware that the Suburban HD is now fleet only and starts at an eye watering $81k, so when it wears out it's likely you'll need to go another direction (unless you've been very fortunate in life, I've been blessed and there's no way I could afford that)

afidel wrote:
You're not towing anything near 9k lb with an SUV unless it's a 2500/3500 Suburban.

What SUV do you have and what is its payload capacity?

EDIT: Rte 1985, your response came in while I was typing my response.

Ah, yes, that's exactly the question I had when I read your posting,

My wife and got back into trailering this summer. We had a Honda CRV and a Ford Focus. Neither vehicle could possibly tow, so we had a clean slate. We decided to replace the Focus with a tow vehicle that could double as my daily driver (mileage that wouldn't be really bad).

We settled on a Ford F-150, with the twin turbo v6, which will tow about 12,000 lbs. It's as much truck as we wanted to tolerate (cost, mileage, etc.), and we chose a trailer that would be compatible with it.

We went with a Jayco 26bh bunkhouse, no slides, and dry weight around 4900 lbs. I'm real comfortable with our total package. Ample power, ample wheelbase, and the trailer doesn't weigh too much more than the truck.

Forgive me if you already know this, but on your trailer quest, floor plan, overall size, amenities, and brand preference are important, but topping the list by a wide margin is correctly sizing your tow vehicle to your travel trailer's loaded weight and tongue weight.

When we went looking for our tow vehicle, and opted for the F-150, we carefully chose the engine, transmission, and final gear ratio. The 3.5L V6 puts out 375 hp, and 470 ft. lbs. of torque, through a 10 speed transmission (with factory cooler), and a final gear ratio of 3.55. What a rig. Most of the time, we can just select "tow mode" for the transmission, set the cruise control at 62 mph, and it loafs along at 1900 rpm in 8th gear.

The math: fully loaded maybe we're creeping up on 7000 lbs., and we're "rated" for 12,000. That might seem very conservative, but when you factor in trailer weight vs. truck weight for handling and braking, we think it's about right.

You'll get some useful information from this site if you provide your:
--make, model, and year of your tow vehicle
--engine specs
--transmission cooler?
--tow rating provided by the manufacturer
--rear end gear ration
--transmission / auto?...how many gears
--wheelbase
--weight of vehicle

I will not be surprised if others have more to add to the list.

Our truck and trailer package cost about 55k. A mountain of goodies from Amazon that included a Briggs and Stratton generator at $630 and replacing the POS battery charger (that come with a lot of trailers) for about $200, plus towels, leveling equipment, etc., probably came to around 2.5k.

Moral of the story: Let's get your tow vehicle capabilities squared away so you can effectively pick the right trailer.

We will be towing with a 2005 2500 suburban. 8.1 big block. Just shy 2700 lb payload capacity driver not included. Plan on either using a propride or Hensley hitch. Will mainly be traveling flatter midwest roads with maybe 1 trip a year around the smokeys.

You should take the guesswork out of it. Take your suv to a cat scale all loaded with people and all the gear you would normally pack for a trip. Deduct that weight amount from the gross weight rating and see how much tongue weight you can hang off your hitch. Don't forget you will using a WD hitch @ approx 70# depending on model, adds to the hitch weight.
SUV usage is limited by it's payload capacity and getting a true real weight is important because you need it as a starting point.
As an example, my Jayco advertised dry TW is 455#. All loaded up and rolling down the road i'm in the 950# range as per my Sherline scale.
Will your suv be able to handle that much weight without exceeding your GVWR and your hitch rating . My trailer is at 27 ft with no slide and no bunks. Im about 6200-6300 # . My TT is aluminum not filon which adds about 800# of weight, maybe more, filon is heavy .

You're not towing anything near 9k lb with an SUV unless it's a 2500/3500 Suburban.

What SUV do you have and what is its payload capacity?