Hitting the road again . . . HELP!

[BroncoBev]

I have been RVing full time for 7 years. First I had two fifth wheels, then a 36' gas Class A, and now I'm going back on the road after a short break in a 2005 Keystone Springdale 26' TT with one slide. I'm going to be towing it with a 2005 Toyota Sequoia V8 iForce 4WD. I removed the third row seats from the Sequoia and the only thing I will be carrying in the Sequoia is a cooler and two dog kennels. I am removing the heavy 350 to 400 lb. fold-out sofa and the two chairs. I may remove the dinette too and replace it with a small lightweight table and chairs. I'm putting in two wire kennels for my dogs where the chairs were and a lightweight (Sauder) desk to replace the sofa as I work on the road. The heavy mattress that's in there now is being replaced with a high quality air mattress and pillow topper. I will carry a modest amount of personal items - clothing, limited books, a little fishing gear, etc. Nothing I put in there will equal the weight of that monster pull out sofa! So I'm feeling relatively comfortable with what I'm towing it with. I know I'll have issues on steep inclines, but I had issues on steep inclines with my 5th wheels which I towed with a Ford F350 diesel pickup and with my Class A as well. I know I'm not super-powered but I don't think I'm grossly underpowered either.

The weight is listed as 5920 pounds. My maximum towing capacity is 6500 pounds. With the furniture out of the TT and very little weight added I'm guessing I'll be at about 5,800 pounds max, if that. I have sway bars and all the safety equipment.

Would love to hear your take on what I'm doing here. I don't want to destroy my SUV as I love it - but I really am ready to hit the road but not ready to trade trucks yet. I've met a lot of people who tow TT's with Sequoia's and they report having no problems at all. And they haven't cut down their weight as I'm going to do.

[Hannibal]

Glad you're back in what works for you. Wishing you many happy trips with your new RV!

[BroncoBev]

I wanted to update by saying that the Toyota was GROSSLY under powered and the short wheel base made it an accident waiting to happen. I traded it in for a 2014 Chevy Silverado and towed it for one year before I traded it in on another RV. I am not a trailer gal - that was the most trouble to hook up, and the most uncomfortable towing experience I could ever imagine. I will stick with power RV's from now on! Hopefully I have my last RV now . . .

[gmw_photos]

I would get actual weights of the trailer from a scale, like a CAT scale, so that you can work through a setup procedure that is based on facts, rather than just guessing at numbers that may or may not be accurate.
First thing I would be watching for is whether the tow vehicle has adequate rear axle payload capacity for the setup.

[donn0128]

Sounds like an awful lot of work to make do? I can understand getting stuff out that you may not use to make room for what you want, but honestly unless your TV is capable of hauling your trailers GVWR your just defeating yourself before you begin.

[BroncoBev]

I just found the specs on the 2005 Keystone - it says the dry weight is only 4880 - so I feel even better now. It seems the dealer had the wrong info. This dry weight figure came from the Keystone website. I will definitely weigh it once I have everything removed and the new stuff in. Before I put any personal items in. Then I'll weight it again when I have the personal items in and I'm ready to hit the road.

[Tachdriver]

Opinions aside, when you get done making the changes I would re-weigh your trailer to get read-world weights, that should be the information that you need.

After that you can go from there.