Newbie: 1/2 Towable Cross Country Trip Suggestions

kellem wrote:
Apex Nano 208BHS pay more attention to GVWR of trailer vs dry weight as most of the trailers your truck can safely pull will more than likely have lower CCC and weigh in closer to that GVWR.
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I believe wet weight loaded is more important than the GVWR, assuming that your weights are otherwise in line.
bumpy

If you're going to need internet to work, you may need to check out whatever RV Park you'll be staying at for good service. Out of the 156 parks we've stayed at over the past few years, I think 3 had good enough internet you could work with. A little exaggeration, but seriously most RV parks have crappy internet.

Atticus818 wrote:
thing is probably too big for our truck and as a newbie completely terrifies me to tow.

Andrew, herein lies the issue. Lack of experience. If you had towing experience, you'd realize that 8000lbs and 32' long is not alot different on the road than 6000lbs and 26' long.
Driving and backing into tight areas, longer trailer may be more of a challenge.
Tongue weight is not an issue AT ALL, within reason. A 1200lb tongue weight with the right wdh will feel like a 500lb tongue weight on a small trailer.
As far as actual camper model with 2 "work stations", idk, never seen a normal camper that would have suitable space for 1 good work station, even including the kitchen table.
Although if I was a camper company, I would make the "executive" line or some **** that offers, hot rod wifi router, 2 big huge desks (that double as bunks or a bar or whatever) with real office chairs, pullout for keyboard or standing work station, anchors for monitors, big battery and inverter setup so you can run the 'puters all day, separate rooms for each work area and sell the chit out of them to those who are using the Rona as an excuse to not go to their office and using as an advantage to vacation instead.

Truck?
Get ALL the fluids changed/flushed. New Thermostat. Get the spark plugs out of it and replaced before they weld themselves completely in. Maybe new shocks. New tires if it has original 27k mile tires and hit the road. It's a good truck and it'll pull all day long up any hill with 8klbs. Not the "best" rig power wise compared to new rigs but I've run the wheels off of many Ford 5.4s and a trip X country and back with a travel trailer wont hurt it one bit.

You don’t have any wiggle room with that trailer...Grand Design Imagine 2670MK...you will be over loaded and wet, and 1580 pounds of payload isn’t that much. Look at lighter trailers. “Dry” weights are useless weights. Stop thinking so much about “Pulling” and start thinking of what your truck can carry.

This will give you good, unbiased information about towing. Clicky
Basically, what you are missing is the tongue weight when the trailer is fully loaded. For a ball park number use 12% of the Gross Vehicle Weight of the trailer. That will get you approximately the "real" tongue weight of the trailer as it is going down the road.
Doing the math backwards, you should be looking for approximately 6200 lbs trailer (empty weight), which will end up being about 7300 lbs loaded weight, and 875 lbs tongue weight.

670 lbs is the dry hitch weight, can't go by it.
By the time you load that 32 ft trailer with a GVWR around 8500 your looking at a 1000 lb tounge.

For ease of mind and preservation of tow vehicle I'd look at shorter and lighter and pay more attention to GVWR of trailer vs dry weight as most of the trailers your truck can safely pull will more than likely have lower CCC and weigh in closer to that GVWR.

If you buy new have the dealer throw in a WDH.

Enjoy the adventure and stay safe.

That's a bit to much trailer for your 1/2 ton. You should be looking for a trailer in the 5000 to 6000 gvwr, not 8500, thats for a 3/4 ton truck. 6000 gvwr trailer will have a 700 lb tongue weight, which is as big as you should go. Find a trailer in that weight range that has the floor plan that will work for the two of you. Good luck.

Thanks for the prompt reply. :)

I looked at the payload capacity, and it is listed as 1580 LBS. The Grand Design was a hitch weight of 670 LBS.

So does this math imply that towing that trailer would be safe?
1580 - 700 (Passengers and cargo) - 700 (hitch weight) leaves ~ 100 LBS of wiggle room?

I guess I am trying to distinguish if its safe to pull, vs just being technically pullable, given the size of that trailer.

The specs listed are generic, need to look at the weight label from the factory, usually located in driver door flange to see what payload your F-150 has. That should give you a starting point, ultimately going to some scales loaded with all the passengers and stuff you intend to have when towing will account for actual remaining payload. Most will run out of payload well before truck's trailer towing capacity is exceeded.

Virtually every brand will have floorplans to accommodate your needs, might have to remove or reorient some of the furniture to have two separate work stations. Grand Design is a quality manufacturer known for backing their products under warranty, try a smaller, lighter floorplan. And finally, possibly consider a slightly used unit, maybe a couple of years old to save considerable money off new. Saves the hassle since most have had all their warranty issues resolved.

What is the F-150's payload limit and max trailer weight rating?