Can you have your cake and eat it too?

[Dennis58]

Hi everyone

New forum member here with a odd ball can you have your cake and eat it too question? I'm about 3 years out from retirement and in the planning stages of putting together a rig that can meet all my needs.

Some background on me I have owned a couple Class A RV's over the years for both full time and part time use as well as tent camping in my younger years. My next camping adventures will combine ATV's on a occasional basis and several trips to the South/Mid West.

I'm drawn to TC's for their simplicity and compactness but the truck payload weight limits gets eaten up quickly going up in size than adding cargo. I'm not looking to drag 30' plus foot of equipment behind my truck so trailers, 5'ers and Toy Haulers are a non starter with me. Everything seems to start in the 27' range for entry level RV's that seem to me anyway to be cheaply built.

So I said if you can't find it just build it. How about a custom built 22' (floor length) trailer with a 5th wheel hookup. I can place a 10-11' TC on the front and have 11' left on the back for a ATV or Side by Side or Golf Cart. I know the Rock Crawler guys do this with 40' equipment trailers so it should be doable.

I'm not talking something thrown together but a well thought out project that is custom built around a TC I choose. The smaller footprint trailer still gives me access to a lot of campgrounds and I have more flexibility for dry camping.

My tow vehicle is a 2019 Silverado Dully Duramax.

What are your thought on that setup?

Thanks
Dennis

[Dennis58]

Jaycocreek

Thanks for the pictures, the mini me picture I posted is a Lance 992 and is 96" across the back and the trailer he custom made appears to be the same 96".


Not sure what the Wolf Creek you posted is but I'm assuming the same so that gooseneck trailer must be a std 102".


The real differance between the two is the under bed wheels vice outer wheels and fenders. The outer wheels and fenders give the trailer a lower profile. I like the low profile. Still rolling this marble around my brain letting it collect moss. The open deck area of your picture is about what I'm thinking with a hydrulic dovetail.

If nothing else it's fun thinking up a plan for all this because if I can scratch it out on paper and show visuals my local trailer guy can build it.


Dennis

[mountainkowboy]

Kayteg1 wrote:

Sounds like you missed the part about CA "weigh fee" that you have to pay with truck registration.
9900lb trailer with SuperDuty calls for 20,000lb stickers.
Somebody might come with current cost, but is is about $600 a year.
Doesn't Alabama charge for driving on their roads?

Yup, in Komifornia you pay fee's on the tags for the weight that your truck is able handle or tow. Trailer tags are relatively cheap.

[jaycocreek]

Dennis58 wrote:
Jaycocreek, do you have a picture of your neighbors setup?

Finally got some pictures of it...

As you can see on this gooseneck trailer it can be loaded with the existing TC jacks..

[Dennis58]

I confirmed today that a trailer tag is a tag and nothing more, doesn't matter if it is a 18' car hauler or 30' gooseneck trailer. BTW, horse trailers are exempt from needing a tag.

[BradW]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Sounds like you missed the part about CA "weigh fee" that you have to pay with truck registration.
9900lb trailer with SuperDuty calls for 20,000lb stickers.
Somebody might come with current cost, but is is about $600 a year.
Doesn't Alabama charge for driving on their roads?

We good.........don't need no California tax law thinking around here.

[mkirsch]

The Jeeps are for getting into the back country. You park your redneck toy hauler in the camping area of the offroad park, which is designed for redneck toy haulers, because that's what people with redneck toy haulers do.

Don't get hung up on the goosneck *MUST* be 25%. That is not a limit, just a typical weight due to axle and load placement. Goosenecks do *NOT* need a specific amount of pin weight for a stable tow. It could be as low as 0%, and your only limits are that of the pin rating for the hitch and how much payload you're comfortable putting in your truck.

[discovery4us]

Kayteg1 wrote:

discovery4us wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Than with RV you don't pay all the taxes commercial trailers cost.

CA the trailer would be PTI tags which are only $50 for five years, or $10 a year. One reason many of the off roaders go this route.

Also provides a nice deck up off the desert dirt.

It is hard to find a nice goose neck flatbed,new or used,at a decent price. If I already had the trailer I wouldn't hesitate to go this route.

Sounds like you missed the part about CA "weigh fee" that you have to pay with truck registration.
9900lb trailer with SuperDuty calls for 20,000lb stickers.
Somebody might come with current cost, but is is about $600 a year.
Doesn't Alabama charge for driving on their roads?

I agree with the CA truck weight fee and you are right it will be north of $500. Trailer is separate and as long as the weight tag is 10,000 lbs. or less only $10 a year. Truck and trailer are registered separate. Go to any trophy shop and they will make a plate stating trailer is 9,999 lbs. GVWR and CA DMV will charge you PTI.
Thanksgiving weekend we saw two goosenecks with TC and Jeeps on the trailers. Nice setups with lots of storage for BBQ, ice chests, tool boxes, extra water tanks, and really anything else they wanted. Both trailers were every bit of 40' so it negated the benefit of the TC size and getting into the back country but it allowed them to safely haul heavy jeeps at a much lower cost than a conventional TH. Plus I don't know of a TH that the jeeps would have fit in.

[Marcela]

In Kansas the truck tags have to cover the weight of the truck and trailer.

I'm sure CA is a good comparison to AL..........

[Dennis58]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Doesn't Alabama charge for driving on their roads?

Guess I will find out when I put tags on my new truck, as for the trailer nothing different between a 22' gooseneck and 18' bumper pull.

Tags for my 2003 2500HD were $13.00 last year and my 18' car trailer was $16.00.

[trail-explorer]

Kayteg1 wrote:

Than with RV you don't pay all the taxes commercial trailers cost.

I've never heard of a utilitytrailer getting charged as a "commercial" vehicle

[Kayteg1]

discovery4us wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Than with RV you don't pay all the taxes commercial trailers cost.

CA the trailer would be PTI tags which are only $50 for five years, or $10 a year. One reason many of the off roaders go this route.

Also provides a nice deck up off the desert dirt.

It is hard to find a nice goose neck flatbed,new or used,at a decent price. If I already had the trailer I wouldn't hesitate to go this route.

Sounds like you missed the part about CA "weigh fee" that you have to pay with truck registration.
9900lb trailer with SuperDuty calls for 20,000lb stickers.
Somebody might come with current cost, but is is about $600 a year.
Doesn't Alabama charge for driving on their roads?

[GeoBoy]

I know you said no TT but Northwoods has the Desert Fox line that is rugged and well made.

[Dennis58]

The internet is a wonderful tool for researching and YouTube still amazes me on the content out there and the people who take the time to upload their stuff.


As I stated before not really interested in a TT and I haven't run across any 25' 5'er Toy Haulers as they all seem to be in the 27' plus range.


While I haven't touched anything yet to compare quality and from what I'm seeing on the internet and listening to what people have to say about different brands and types of RV's leads me to the TC for overall build quality.

When I look at a lower end Toy Hauler they just seem cheaply built and very bare bones on the inside. TT in the 18-25 ft class the same.

Just my opinion from the computer screen.

[mountainkowboy]

Dennis58 wrote:
TC on a Gooseneck

Check out the above link, that is a mini me version of what I had in mind.

The owner of that already had the TC, didn't want a TT and could not find a 25' 5'er. Wanted to get to where he was going, drop the trailer and have his truck to use.

That's what I was going to try with the S&S, I was going to use an older 5th wheel frame and mount the TC pertinently to it and pull it behind my Ranger. Turned out that the S&S was just to heavy for it to work...I would have been at or over the ability of the truck.

[Dennis58]

Kayteg1 wrote:

Add CDL required and if in CA, annual >$600 weight fee.
Just becouse you can do it - doesn't mean you want to do it.
The low-boy goosneck in last link is nice, but did you check how much they are selling for?
It might come that from whole combo - most of the value is in trailer.
That beside the fact that low-boys have limited length, so getting one that fits TC and Jeep might be in question.

This is not CA, here in Alabama a trailer is a trailer as far as putting a tag on it. No different than a farm trailer used to haul hay.

A 22' 14,000 lb. GVW Gooseneck trailer off the lot here is $5,800 so a custom made should be doable for $10K. A 10 year old good used high quality TC with slides can be had for $15-20K so were talking about a $30Kish project.