Newby needs advice

OK. 1st off thank you for your service. The truck is spilt milk. You'll only lose buy trading. Depending on its miles you may swing a favorable deal at the dealer you bought it from. If not, then study what camper you buy. You don't want to dance too close to you gvwr or payload caps. Where as it may feel fine it only takes one oh s#@t moment to ruin it all. There are several nice roomy ultra lites out there. But shop carefully as they are sometimes way overpriced and may not save that many lbs. Best of luck to you.

mapdog wrote:
Okay, now we are getting somewhere with the advise. Sorry that this question has been asked so many times but it's about to get real for me. People are saying get a good hitch. What are you specifically talking about? I Googled and it came up with receivers. My truck has the factory tow package with trailer brake.

The hitch everyone is talking about is called a weight distributing hitch. It will go into your receiver and a good one will transfer some weight from your rear axle to the front while leveling the truck. I have the Equal-I-Zer brand and am happy with it.

I've been a Toyota fan all my life but I think I might buy the truck you have if I could...

profdant139 wrote:
Wait one minute, folks. Here we have TWO career military veterans, asking questions in good faith. There are a lot of rude responses to those questions above, and I think some apologies may be in order. Why mock his truck and ridicule his choices?

I think it is true that this truck will be the limiting factor and that it will not be easy to full-time in a trailer that is suited to that truck. But there is no reason to be dismissive or hostile, especially since their career choice (to serve the country and to protect us) is why they did not get rich and can't now afford a monster truck. I am grateful to them and hope that their dreams come true.

Questions can be answered in a respectful and civil way. And believe it or not, comments that are phrased pleasantly are often given more weight than those that are mean-spirited.

Sorry for the rant, but this thread really hit my hot button. (And no, I am not a veteran -- that is one of the biggest gaps in my resume, and it is too late now to fix it.)

Salute, mi amigo! Well said.

LS

Wait one minute, folks. Here we have TWO career military veterans, asking questions in good faith. There are a lot of rude responses to those questions above, and I think some apologies may be in order. Why mock his truck and ridicule his choices?

I think it is true that this truck will be the limiting factor and that it will not be easy to full-time in a trailer that is suited to that truck. But there is no reason to be dismissive or hostile, especially since their career choice (to serve the country and to protect us) is why they did not get rich and can't now afford a monster truck. I am grateful to them and hope that their dreams come true.

Questions can be answered in a respectful and civil way. And believe it or not, comments that are phrased pleasantly are often given more weight than those that are mean-spirited.

Sorry for the rant, but this thread really hit my hot button. (And no, I am not a veteran -- that is one of the biggest gaps in my resume, and it is too late now to fix it.)

Get a grasp on the weights on what you can pull and how it all works. Most everything you read so far is true to some point. My experiance is the closer you are to the limits the less enjoyable to tow will be. I pulled at the max for 5 years and when I upgraded the truck it was night and day difference. I think the best hitches are the pro pride and hensley. If it was not for that hitch I would of sold the trailer and got something smaller after the first few tows (I really did not know what I was doing at the time so some adjustments May of made it better). You will run out of payload long before what you can tow and I and many others have fell victim the same way thinking it's all about the tow number Good luck and enjoy.

I have seen folks live in smaller trailers. They spend a lot of time outside. Personally I could not do it in a small trailer but hey it is what it is. If your wife is excited and you are too then it will work for a while. Go for it and look and learn while on the road. Go to real RV parks and check out what others use. you will learn and they will help.

Happy trails
We went from an Apache pop up to our current 40' travel trailer. It was a wonderful trip.

Okay, now we are getting somewhere with the advise. Sorry that this question has been asked so many times but it's about to get real for me. People are saying get a good hitch. What are you specifically talking about? I Googled and it came up with receivers. My truck has the factory tow package with trailer brake.

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service to our country.

Here's the post from Perrysburg Dodgeboy, he has the same truck as you and seems satisfied.

Hershey is a great show. Enjoy.

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Reputation of the manufacturer and dealer along with a floor plan that is workable coupled with a trailer that your vehicle will tow are your concerns. That is a tall order. Don't let the excitement of the RV show, the pressure of "show prices" and fast talking salespeople cloud your judgement. Finding the right combination outlined above may take a year or more.

Well said. We spent nearly 2 years looking at brochures & visiting dealers before we bought our current TT. And the comment about RV show "excitement" & dealer pressure is right on the money. They just want to get you in THEIR trailer whether it fits your needs or not. And yes, choose manufacturer carefully.

Getting the right combination for your needs is all about doing the homework - floorpan, capacities of trailer & tow vehicle. Yes, it will be expensive, so with that in mind it's worth doing right the first time.

Once you've got the trailer and tow vehicle, the due diligence is not over. Our 28' TT is just under 6,000 lbs. loaded for a trip. I invested in a tongue weight scale because payload for the Sequoia is not all that high.

Weekends are one thing: when getting ready for an extended trip, a lot of stuff gets ejected from our trailer until the numbers are right. Since you mentioned full-timing you have a lot of work ahead of you. Good luck and be safe out there.

mapdog wrote:
Payload on the truck is 1113, Towing is 7750. I was looking at something about 28 feet long with 1 pullout and a weight around GVWR about 6000. What is everyone saying, that is too small to live in?

I hate to say it, but I agree with others that your payload capacity is realistically too light for that trailer. If you are just going a short distance and leaving your trailer parked, you can probably get by, but there is no way I would set out on a major cross country trip.

It is kind of late now, because you'd lose lots of money to trade, but there are lots of !/2 ton trucks with much heavier payload ratings that would handle it easily.