looking to purchase first TT

[coloradocarol]

I just bought a 2003 Chevy Tahoe with quite a lot of miles,130,000, (due to need for paying cash). I got it so I can finally finance a travel trailer. Have been looking at TTs under 27 feet long. The Tahoe can tow up to 8000 lbs., but since its fairly old, I suspect I should not max it out. I plan to travel mostly by myself with dogs, but also want room to occasionally take a family member or a friend. Been considering Rockwood Ultra Lites, the Winnebago Minnie or Micro Minnie, and others in that range. Since I wont have a family or spouse with me, I can deal with smaller tanks, etc. Anyone have a suggestion about whether I should stick to the lites, considering the age of the Tahoe? Do you think I would be pushing it to get a Winnebago Mini? Is it any harder to learn to tow 27 feet than towing 22 feet? Would love some help from the pros. I have never towed anything, so have a big learning curve on all of this. BTW, my plan is to be a workkamper at least part of the year, so I do have to live in it for 3-4 months so going with the super small TTs would not work.

Oh, one final question. A dual axle seems much more stable and safe to me, but a lot of the small TTs have a single axle. Are the single axles safe as long as you have a good towing system?

[keymastr]

Always use the trailer GROSS weight since nobody camps in an empty trailer. Also, most of them are several hundred pounds heavier than the brochure dry weight when delivered. My brand new empty trailer was almost 600 pounds heavier than the listed dry weight. The trailers 1500 pound cargo rating quickly fell to a little over 800 before a pillow or loaf of bread was put inside.

The same is true of tow vehicles. Yours should have a sticker on the drivers door sill that talks about tire pressure and cargo weight for that truck, not one like it in a brochure. And every pound of weight other than the driver,(150 pounds), and a tank of gas that you put in the vehicle counts against that number. Yours is probably around 1400 pounds so if you have a 200 pound driver and 2 150 pound passengers then you have 1050 pounds left for tongue weight, the weight of the hitch itself, dogs, coolers and anything else you take in the tow vehicle with you.

A reasonable percentage of tongue weight is 13%. You can go a little lower but when you get close to 10% the trailer becomes much less stable. At 12 or 13% a 7000 pound trailer will have a tongue weight of 900 pounds plus 85 pounds for the hitch and the 350 pounds for the driver and 2 passengers and you have about 200 pounds left before it has reached the absolute maximum it was designed to tow 130,000 miles ago.

Will it do it? Without question. Will it be safe? In the hands of an experienced driver who knows what to expect when towing, yes. For a first time tow driver, probably not the best idea anyone ever had.

I would try to keep the gross trailer weight to 5000 pounds or less and not put any weight other than passengers in the tow vehicle.

[Downwindtracke1]

A TT used in Colorado is going to be different than one used in the mid west. You have mountains. Mountains have up and downs. So look where the advice is coming from. Not that they are wrong just not for you.

[coloradocarol]

Thank you to all who have already replied to my post! I truly appreciate the feedback and will take all tips into careful consideration. Totally green here, and am pretty nervous about doing all of this and stepping WAY out of my comfort zone!!

[APT]

If you have 5.3L and 3.73 axle and HD trans cooler, then 6k dry was really pushing comfortable limit when that was new 15 years ago. If you flush all the fluids and the vehicle is in top shape and the OEM round tube receiver was replaced, then 5k dry seems reasonable.

[theoldwizard1]

rbpru wrote:
My standard advise is to find the TT size you think you want and rent one for a week or so.

rbpru wrote:
We ended up with a 3 year old used TT.

Two pieces of EXCELLENT advice ! New TT lose about 50% of their value in the first 2-3 years.

[kerrlakeRoo]

23' to 25' for someone starting out is about as large as I would suggest if you havent towed before. And yes I would go with a liteweight , maybe not ultralight but at least something on the lighter side.
Do you want an outside kitchen? many rear bath units in that range offer it.
Do you want an island bed? or a slide out sofa/murphy bed?
Will your workkamping keep you in hotter climes in the summers or colder in the winters? If the former look for larger AC 15K if possible, and if the latter, enclosed underbelly, which actually helps with both.
There are quite a few tt's in the 6000-7000 loaded weight class that can meet the above mentioned items you may want.
Wander a few RV dealers, Go over what you are looking at doing and see what they recommend, and if practical, come back here and tell us what they suggested. If a salesman tries to sell you something obviously too heavy or outside what you could reasonably handle, there are folks here who can spot those tactics usually. And if your cheat radar starts beeping, listen to it.
Your about to embark on something few do, your buying a new home, and deciding to travel all in one fell swoop, relish it.

[theoldwizard1]

Smaller and lighter is always better. Personally, with your tow vehicle I would want to try and stay below 6000 lbs fully loaded.

Slide-outs give you a lot more room, if they don't exceed your weight limit.

You might not be planning on it now, but you are much better off buying two 6V golf cart batteries in case you need to do some boondocking. Also, a small (1000W-1500W) pure sine wave inverter to watch TV and charge electronic items. A small electric heater is great when you it is chilly and you do have power.

Personally, I like floor plans that have a Murphy bed. You can have real living room. Check into upgrading your mattresses at a bedding store.

If you are planning on parking in one location for awhile, start shopping now for a small 120V freezer. FREEZER ONLY, no fridge, unless you have room to install a full size residential refrigerator/freezer.

[rbpru]

My standard advise is to find the TT size you think you want and rent one for a week or so.

The wife and I did that and discovered that the 25 ft. TT size was fine but the 200 HP motor in my F-150 was far to small.

You will discover a lot, before you spend the big bucks, and a trip to the CAT scales will give you a better understanding of the weight load on your truck.

We ended up with a 3 year old used TT.

Good luck

[JnJnKatiebug]

You can see pictures in my profile of what we tow with our Tahoe but it is a 2016. Some on here will tell you nothing but a popup trailer with an SUV but our trailer is 30 foot hitch to bumper and around 7,000 ready to pull out the driveway. The secret is the hitch. We use a Husky Centerline which is a knock off of an equalizer. (Picture of hitch in profile also) It is a one handed pleasant drive. With your higher mileage you may suffer on power. I repeat, get a good hitch.