Bunks vs Bunk House

A couple of thoughts.
Do your storage options change based on the size of the vehicle? Maybe free at home for shorter trailer?

If you're the type who constantly swaps out vehicles I would go with the shorter one as you'll probably swap it out for a larger one down the line.

If you hold on to your vehicles until they are literally worn out, then get the larger one because as the kids grow they might want more room or maybe want to bring a friend.

Sit in the bathroom and close the door and pretend to wipe. Is there enough room? I'm serious on this one, it will matter down the road after the newness wears off.

150 ? a 34/35 ft TT might be pushing things as far as the trucks payload, rear axle and tire ratings. Look at the gross weights of trailers, not the dry weights. That floorplan hitch weight is really around 1000# not 650 dry as listed.

DW might be giving good advice.
A shorter TT will be easier to find sites to fit into as well as refueling. It will be easier on the truck too.

We started looking at one with 2 full size bunks for the kids, and it had a seperate outside door to the bathroom. We ended up with 4 smaller bunks.

What changed our mind was The amount of outside storage on the 4 bunk one, and having a door for the bunk room. When I started packing the trailer in my head, and thinking where to load chairs, grill, stove etc, we felt the 2 bunk one didn't have enough outside storage. We were upgrading from a popup, and we did not want to have to load outdoor items inside the camper.

We are really happy with the choice.

Consider that your F150 with a max tow rating of #8000 assumes you don't have any passengers or load anything else in the truck....

#6000 DRY trailer can be speculative as to what that all includes in that weight, but assume it means that probably not how much it really weighs when you buy it and add a few items to it..

What's the GVWR of that trailer? If it's much over #8000, then you might not like that F150's towing performance, but that's pretty speculative too..

Not saying you can't tow it... Just saying that it'll be a pretty much maxed out load..

When I was a kid, Mom, Dad, me and my little sister camped in a little 14' 1963 Shasta trailer... :) That was a step up from the Army Surplus tent we used before that! Or the little 8' cabover camper we had.. (this was back in the early 70's)

We did move up to a 26' "bunk house" 1977 Taurus travel trailer and that was "Glamping" for sure! ha, ha!

Anyway, enough of my memories... Today is today and you gotta do what you gotta do.. I'd go for something in the GVWR of no more than #7000 on the TT. But, that's just me..

Good luck!

Mitch

Like the others I think you will run out of truck cargo capacity before you run out of towing capacity.

Look at the max cargo weight on the door jamb sticker. My 5000 lb dry weight h has a loaded tongue weight of 750 lbs. That is about half of the cargo capacity of my F-150.

Add in adults, kids, toys etc and carrying capacity goes rather quickly.

We have a double bunk layouit with three kids and through three seasons it has served us well. Our kids are now 8,9 & 11. We like the separate bunk room, but all I have seen are heavier. Id go double bunks. Are you sure about your tow rating? seems low to me for a 150. What is payload on the yellow door sticker? Just curious.

Thank you all for the advice. I need to take a good look at the trucks towing capacity. We have the RV show in Florida in January and I think I will be looking at double bunks. That will make my wife happy.

TampaAppFan wrote:
I need to take a good look at the trucks towing capacity. We have the RV show in Florida in January and I think I will be looking at double bunks. That will make my wife happy.

You'll run out of payload capacity long before you get anywhere near that so-called 8000 lb tow rating. Fortunately there are plenty of shorter, lighter bunk bed models suitable for a family of four, the KZ Connect C231BH which features exceptionally wide bunk beds being an example. With a GVWR of 6000 lbs, easily towable with your F150. :B

No one here can answer that question for you. Only you can provide the real time info to figure out the answer. It's purely a math questions.

You need to look at the "payload" rating for your truck, it is on the yellow sticker on the door. It will say something like "Gross weight of occupants and cargo should not exceed __________ lbs." That is the number you need to start with to determine how big a TT you can tow. Once you have that number, you calculate all other loads in the truck like how much you the wife and kids weigh, how much you may be carrying in the truck bed (toolbox, firewood, etc.), plus the loaded tongue weight of the trailer and you get your answer.

See "this" for more info.

The separate bunk is nice in the mornings when we wake up before the kids and same in the evening if they go to bed earlier. There is more storage in general with a separate bunk room as they have cabinets for there clothes and other misc stuff. Like others said you will be close to the max with your current rig.