never towed question's

handye9 wrote:
Lots of folks will tell you "buy your second trailer first". That said, go for that 30 - 33 footer. You have enough truck to pull it. Get yourself a good weight distribution hitch and find a place to practice.

Good advice, buy what you want.

I've towed both a 25 footer and now a 35 footer, and going down the road, there's no difference. Turning corners is a little different, but other than that, they tow about the same. All you need is practice. I got into towing a trailer 11 years ago and like you, I'd never towed a trailer before.

Picked up my new 25 ft TT at the dealer a few miles away, towed it to a big empty church parking lot near home, practiced backing up for about 30 minutes, got the hang of it, drove home and backed the 8ft wide trailer into a 12 ft wide space on the side of the house with the wife on the cell phone guiding me in. One thing that helped was I hung out on this forum for about 6 months before buying or towing anything so I kinda new what to expect in my head.

We tow a 35 ft trailer now and it's been great ever since. You just need a little practice and after a couple of times out, you'll be fine. In a year, you'll be a pro.

gochiefs58 wrote:
We pulled the trigger.Heartland Wilderness 2850BH is what we decided on. picking up tomorrow from the dealer. thank you all for the advice and tips...........looking forward to camping!!!!!

Nice floor plan. Enjoy!

We pulled the trigger.Heartland Wilderness 2850BH is what we decided on. picking up tomorrow from the dealer. thank you all for the advice and tips...........looking forward to camping!!!!!

Just an observation of first time towing or towing an RV!
People tend to overthink the whole process. My reply above are things that feel natural to me but there was a time that I was new and all I could think about what might go wrong! Guess what? 99% of the things I scared myself with never happened!
If your into towing ,you will be a pro before you know it!

gochiefs58 wrote:
First off, sorry if this topic is old. I did try to find an answer to my specific question, but failed. I have never towed anything ever. I really want to take my family out camping in a TT. Im conflicted about my first puchase as far as length. Im looking at
lenghts of 30' to33'. My question is this..... is this too long to jump right in and go? I really only want to buy once, dont want to trade up to what I want as confidence grows in other words. Thoughts?

My TV is a 2011 silverado 2500 HD crew cab if that helps with putting together advice

Thanks to all

You have gotten all the good advice but Im not sure that your all your question was answered!
First off, tell your self "I can do this"! Its a confidence thing and only you can give yourself that confidence! You, like the rest of us will learn by the seat of your pants! We all had our first time and maybe caught on from traveling with parents as a kid or you take it slow until you feel you can kick it up a notch!
With out going into ammeneties of an RV, I will say Im in the "GO BIG, OR GO HOME" crowd, but I have been towing awhile so its easy for me to decide! You will make that decision as you and your wife see fit!
My background has been a truck driver pulling wide and oversize loads. I was never trained ona truck but my first trip was a 10ft wide load to St.Louis! It went off with out a hitch! Not literally!
I have pulled other trailers,personal and otherwise before that!
I will say that longer was easier for me to back up, 5th wheel was a dream to back up or pull!
Some things to keep in mind for your first time!
Pulling down the road should be easy enough! Backing up can present troubles. Make sure the way is clear to back up if you need to!
Turning corners is easy if you pay mind to where your RV tires are, I swing toward the center line when making a right turn, have your right side mirror adjust so you can see the tires on the RV, When the RV tires even with the curb or corner of the shoulder, start making the turn with your TV! The idea is not to cross into the lane of the oncoming traffic!
The same point applies when backing around a corner or into a camp site, IE, the tires should be even or just a little ahead of where you want to start your turn,This will also depend on the length of the RV, this is why I prefer a longer RV, But that's what feels best for backing to me!
Learn the good habits of pulling and backing, Don't hang your head out of an open door while backing up, Use your mirrors! practice with using the mirrors! Watch your front end while backing up into a site or at a corner!
To get into a back in site, pull along the front of the site and place the rear of your RV at the near side of the site entrance and then swing the front of TV to the opposite side, Slowly begin to back up and when the RV wheels get to or just ahead of the site entrance, begin turning slowly to follow the movement! Again watching your front end!
Hint, the camper is going to go where the RV wheels are going so center of the site will center to RV as you don't over steer or go too fast! Don't be afraid to pull ahead, more than once if need be to take another shot at it!
Don't worry if there is an audience, We've all had them!
Lots of folks like to have a spotter while backing up, I prefer to see the move through myself unless there are lots of obstacles! Just make sure the spotter is where you want them and only have one designated to give the signals and try to limit the communication to a verbal and hand signal to stop and/or pull ahead!
Dont get flustered! Tell yourself before making a move from your drive or turning a tight corner and so on that I CAN DO THIS!
Some of us on here forget that things can happen and might try to corner too fast or back up too fast and lots of times we get away with it with no damage! Its when you think you are better than average,than that's where you do damage and put peoples safety at risk!
I would be lying if I told you I never have a problem backing up not one that I let upset me anyway! We all have days where the juices just aren't flowing the right way and we mess up our backing up move!
Bottom line is no one can sit behind that wheel and show you how to do it! We all have to learn by the seat of our pants! That was advice that I learned while trying to figure out a dozer operation,and experienced retired operator give me some tips and said that I have to learn by the seat of my pants because no one else sees what you see in the seat. His main advice was to go slow and over time its gets to be more natural! Damned if he wasn't right, with in 30 minutes I began to lay down a good grade for drainage! I apply that advice to all things I have to learn on my own!
Good luck on what ever you choose to buy, if smaller suits your family, then go for it! If its larger, its ok also as long as you can enjoy it!
But first of all, what ever you get, take it toan empty lot as suggested and practice to get the feel of it.
You might even get a CDL study manual to learn some tips of backing and turning corners and thing to look out for when towing!

I should have just said "towing." By the way, my name is not Houston Remodeler. I guess we both can make mistakes, eh? :B

Houston Remodeler wrote:
Will he be making any trips into higher elevations? That affects towing capacity, big time.

How does higher elevations affect towing capacity? Your speed my go down but it doesn't affect capacity any.

ol' grouch wrote:

IndyCamp wrote:
Man, reading through this thread, I can see why people are scared/intimidated by towing a travel trailer.

It's not as scary as people make it sound.

I had never towed anything bigger than a pop up before we bought our 32-foot travel trailer. We practiced for less than an hour in a nearby empty park that had RV sites for the horse crowd. Once we felt like we had it, we went camping.

Two years later, we couldn't be happier. We have traveled thousands of miles and have had no real problems.

Don't overthink it.

This is a great hobby and something we will do as long as we are able.

That longer trailer is a lot easier to back up isn't it? A longer trailer has a larger angle of attack at the hitch. This makes it slower to go at an angle but also slower to get crooked.

Absolutely.

With my wife spotting me, I can get into any site that is equipped to handle a trailer our size.

When I tow my little utility trailer behind my lawn mower, I always jackknife it. ;)

IndyCamp wrote:
Man, reading through this thread, I can see why people are scared/intimidated by towing a travel trailer.

It's not as scary as people make it sound.

I had never towed anything bigger than a pop up before we bought our 32-foot travel trailer. We practiced for less than an hour in a nearby empty park that had RV sites for the horse crowd. Once we felt like we had it, we went camping.

Two years later, we couldn't be happier. We have traveled thousands of miles and have had no real problems.

Don't overthink it.

This is a great hobby and something we will do as long as we are able.

That longer trailer is a lot easier to back up isn't it? A longer trailer has a larger angle of attack at the hitch. This makes it slower to go at an angle but also slower to get crooked.

IndyCamp wrote:
Man, reading through this thread, I can see why people are scared/intimidated by towing a travel trailer.

It's not as scary as people make it sound.

I had never towed anything bigger than a pop up before we bought our 32-foot travel trailer. We practiced for less than an hour in a nearby empty park that had RV sites for the horse crowd. Once we felt like we had it, we went camping.

Two years later, we couldn't be happier. We have traveled thousands of miles and have had no real problems.

Don't overthink it.

This is a great hobby and something we will do as long as we are able.

Yep. I didn't tow anything bigger than a utility trailer before I got into RV'ing. Like anything, a little education and common sense takes care of everything.