Hey guys, i'm new to the RV world. My girlfriend and I are traveling nurses and we are headed to San Deigo for our next assignment and then up to alaska for some contract work. We have decided we wanted to try something different and live in an RV. We will be traveling to our destination of work, parking the trailer for 3 months at a time at an RV park and then heading out after the 3 months to our next contract. We are both 6' tall and we have a 40lb dog with us. We want to spend less than 20K on the trailer. We are located in northern california. Any suggestions? We need to find something in the next week. We will be using this trailer exclusively as our home for the next year or 1.5 years. I dont want a 5th wheel as i need the bed of my truck for my motorcycle. I'll be pulling this with a 2014 F150 3.5L ecoboost. One local place has directed me towards this unit. Do you guys have any experience or any suggestions for us? Only requirements i have is big enough for us to be fairly comfortable in (we understand we are living in a trailer though...) and it must have a shower. http://www.demartinirv.com/vehicles/detail/186http://www.demartinirv.com/vehicles/detail/186Thanks for any help, i really appreciate it! Dan

F 150 with a bike in the bed? Depending on the bikes weight you likely have no weight room left for any trailer.

Couldn't get the clicky to work for me, so did a paste. Is the one the dealer is recommending the Surveyor? They do make a good trailer. Actually the 264 is my favorite floorplan of all, but it is too heavy for our F150 with an 8000# max. Before you get too involved, triple check the towing capacity of your vehicle...you may be in the same boat. Remember that you need about 1000# wiggle room and having that trailer and a bike in the back may have you overweight before you pack the potato chips.You mentioned Alaska and I would think you'd want something in a 4-seasons trailer. I'm not too familiar with them, but others have mentioned several brands and believe they're manufactured on the west coast. Someone will likely give you better direction, but I'm not at all sure the Surveyor is going to work well in AK. Sounds like an interesting year coming up. Best to you and enjoy!

donn0128 wrote:F 150 with a bike in the bed? Depending on the bikes weight you likely have no weight room left for any trailer.My motorcycle weighs 400lbs. Yeah, so my vehicle is the 3.5 3.3` electronic lock axle. 7200# GVWR package. What weight category does this put me for the size of the trailer i can tow?

On the Airstream forum there are several 25ft Airstreams from the early 1990s. All around $20 to $25 grand. That is about as long as you want to pull with your truck.

What is the gross weigh of the trailer?What can it tow. with the 145 WB it looks like a max of 2000 lbshttp://www.fordf150.net/2014/2014-f150-tech-specs.pdfSEE page 4

Newbie looking to live on the road for a year! suggestions?

Huntindog
Explorer
Dec 20, 2014
You really need to lose the bike to have a chance of making this work. I am guessing that you need it so you have separate means of transportation while working.
Would having the bike shipped from location to location work? It might be the best option. No idea on what it would cost.
tomkaren13
Explorer
Dec 20, 2014
danv1317 wrote:
This sure was a fast learning experience. We plan to only do this for 1 year and we literally just bought this F150 like 2 weeks ago. But i just didn't plan on using it to tow a trailer at that time.

Kinda sucks. I dont think i'll find a trailer for 2400lbs anywhere. Will a weight distribution hitch help at all???

My opinion is a 1/2 ton truck can tow a TT of up to 6000 pounds. We have had two different 30' TT weighting less the that. Our truck towed them just fine They are out there. Weight Dist Hitch is necessary.And needs to be set up properly.

Since you will be doing Alaska in the Summer that will say you don't need a 4 season TT. Tho those are very nice.
Oldcoyote
Explorer
Dec 20, 2014
It is a very long trip to Alaska. Will you be up there in the summer? Winter would be brutal in a camper.
MitchF150
Explorer III
Dec 16, 2014
Dan, you are asking a lot from a standard tow package F150 where you are giving up #500 of GVWR compared to a Max Tow package...

While you have a #9000 tow rating, that assumes you don't put anything in the truck besides yourself... So, right there, anything else you add to the truck takes away from that "tow rating"..

It's been a very heated discussion over the years on this site if you can run over or under your trucks GVW ratings and payload.... ;)

There are some that think if you go #100 over, you are a danger to your family and every other family out on the road..

There are some that think you can be over, but as long as you aren't over your axle/tire ratings you are fine..

Therein lies the rub to this whole "rving" thing.. ;)

What ratings do you believe?? Well, you just have to believe in what you believe and rely on your own experience and common sense and go from there.. :)

Reading posts from the "interweb" will only confuse you more if you don't have a clue either way, so not much to say there...

IMO, you are taking on a very tall challenge and not giving yourself much wiggle room to be essentially "full timing" for over a year and traveling all over the US, including Alaska!

The bike is going to be your biggest weight penalty. Sure, you can get a Toy Hauler trailer, but those are pretty heavy before you put anything in it, due to it needed to be a much HD setup to handle the "toys"..

With what I've towed and traveled with from coast to coast over the years in my younger days when none of this "weight" stuff came into play at all and all I was doing was moving equipment trailers from site to site using an E250 Van and overloaded trailers and getting paid $15/hour to do it I learned a lot with what you can get away with and what you can't! ;)

I never had an accident or anything, but there was some wild rides for sure!

Anyway, what you have in mind sounds good on paper, but is gonna be hard to make happen in this day and age...

I wish you the best and hope you are able to find a workable solution!

Mitch
krobbe
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
Maybe check to see if a small toy hauler like this http://www.keystonerv.com/carbon/ in the model 22 would work. It'll move 400lbs of motorcycle back to the trailer axles with maybe 800 to 900lbs tongue weight. I'm really just guessing here. It'll be close if not slightly over your payload.
MarkTwain
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
Danv1317,
Another "alternative", is the Aspen trailers from www.trailmasterinc.com. 800-398-9090. There are primarily designed for towing with motorcycles like a the big Hondas or Harley motorcycle. Their big "classic" model sells for about $4K. Look for their weights on the internet address.
beemerphile1
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
A WDH doesn't change the numbers (ratings).
krobbe
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
A WDH will move a little weight back to the trailer axles. It's primary purpose is to restore weight up to the front axle for steering stability. But, the weight of the WDH counts against the payload.
MarkTwain
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
danv1317 wrote:
This sure was a fast learning experience. We plan to only do this for 1 year and we literally just bought this F150 like 2 weeks ago. But i just didn't plan on using it to tow a trailer at that time.

Kinda sucks. I dont think i'll find a trailer for 2400lbs anywhere. Will a weight distribution hitch help at all???

Take a look a the Lance line of trailers. For a little more money you can buy a new trailer. They also have resale. They have trailers as short as 17' up to about 25' ( just guessing from memory. Well constructed rigs.
danv1317
Explorer
Dec 16, 2014
This sure was a fast learning experience. We plan to only do this for 1 year and we literally just bought this F150 like 2 weeks ago. But i just didn't plan on using it to tow a trailer at that time.

Kinda sucks. I dont think i'll find a trailer for 2400lbs anywhere. Will a weight distribution hitch help at all???