re-entering camping - what would you buy?

I am checking things out up here in Yellowknife and drove the Ingraham Trail in the truck. Thats the Ice Road Truckers road out of YK, but of course they keep going.....

Frost heaving is still an issue and the road does bob around quite a bit. Five kilometer stretch being rebuilt and there were some good holes. Talking to the campground manager, he said one camper coming in ripped off their scissor jacks on that hole. I see the need to get the TT to the camp site and then leave it there for awhile. That beings aid, some real monster TT, 5th wheels were heading up that way. So I have taken the road north, next time I am up, I will take the road south. I am told it is completely different experience.

Well, I was looking for a specific TT. Now I am glad I asked this forum because I am now looking for a much lighter TT, not worrying so much about the bed as long as I can modify it, have slide outs, large holding tanks, and will make sure I get a weight distribution hitch and sway bars.

I am 6'-2" and was concerned about the 74" queen as well. To my surprise it has not been an issue. Make sure you have room to fit an 80" queen in place if you decide you need it later and that will open many more campers as options. Also, some people will slide the head end of the mattress back a few inches and fill the void with pool noodles, the sheets can go right over the noodles. Gains you a few inches and the pillows sit on top of this area anyway.

Instead of telling you what you can tow, I'm gonna show you how to correctly figure this out. This way a salesman won't sell you something you really can't tow.

You need to know more about your trucks capabilities than just my truck can tow x lbs. (I learned this the hard way). Most TV are limited by their payload. To find out your TVs true towing capacities then you need to go weigh it. Load the tv up with all occupants, pets, and cargo that will be in it when towing plus a full tank of fuel and then go weigh it at a local scale (www.catscale.com ). Weigh each axle on a separate scale pad so it will give you a breakdown of front and rear axle weights individually and a total weight. Take the total weight and subtract it from your Trucks gvwr to get your available payload. Take the scaled Truck weight and subtract it from your Truck gcwr to get your adjusted towng capacity.

Next understand you will never tow an unloaded or dry trailer. Those numbers are somewhat irrelevant. You can either add the amount of weight of cargo you will tow to the dry weight (this is heavier than you think as most add 1000-2000 lb of gear) or simply use the tt gvwr to do your calculations. Being that this is your first tt, using the tt gvwr is the safer route for you. Next understand that the tt loaded tongue weight needs to be subtracted from your available payload. The loaded tongue weight is typically 13-15% of the loaded tt weight. For your purposes go wiith 13-15% of the tt gvwr. Remember you will need a good wdh, preferrably one with integrated sway control like the equal-i-zer or reese dual cam.

Once you have done all that then it is time to look at floorplans. Think about your usage, you will want larger sized fresh, grey and black tanks for boondocking.
(You might also want to think about a generator or solar battery charhing system for boondocking). In the tt think about where people will sleep, whee you will put things (ie moms clothes in thus closet, dishes in that cabinet, kids toys in that drawer etc), act out daily usage in the tt with doors closed (ie kids playing with toy trucks, mom cooking, dad walking to bathroom, and don't forget to account for tripping over dogs). Hope this helps you find the right solution for you. Happy hunting.

I have the 2011 1500 Silverado Crew Cab, Short Bed, 4x4, 5.3, 3.42 rear end and tow the TT in my signature below. Weighs just over 4000lbs loaded and ready to go camping.

Unless you have the 3.73 or the 4.10 rear end, your going to be crawling up hills with anywhere near that much weight. Mine pulls my 4000lbs fine. If it's a monsterously long hill like Jelico in Tn or something along those lines, it pulls it but it's screaming at 5000+ rpms the whole time. If it was even 6000lbs, I'd be trading in for a 2500 with the 3.73 or 4.10. Also expect 9-10 mpg on flat trips and 8-9 mpg on hilly trips where you are running the higher rpms up the hills.

Lots of mountains in your area so if you're planning on towing through them I'd forget that 9600 lb. tow rating and opt for something a couple of thousand under that.
Good luck / Skip

This is good advice!!! I like the idea of putting a real queen mattress over plywood, as that really allows us to have a larger selection of TT. Wife really wants a slide out for sanity reasons.......

Back to the drawing board........ going to these RV retailers is an adventure in itself. I am amazed at how far these things have come. I think I need to go back with tape measure in hand, and if the bed can be modified, look at them more closely......

If you intend to camp off the grid be mindful of the parasitic loads placed on your battery. A problem I discovered with my Dometic refrigerator is that it has a heater in the door to prevent condensation in humid weather, and this heater cannot be turned off. Obviously any feature with "heater" in its name is going to cost you! This heater more than doubles the electrical load on the battery when operating on propane. So look for a built in switch called "climate" or something like that to turn off the heater and save the battery. If you end up with a refrigerator like mine you can install your own switch fairly easily.

many manufacturers make trailers with double bunks over double bunks and quite a few of them have 60x80 main beds, but from my own experiance you will find it much more comfortable with a slide out on a rainy day or on extended trips.For that reason I would go with something like the 289BHS over the 278BH.

a thought for your bed...we have a queen short bed. we replaced the mattress and put a plywood extension on the platform, we now have a standard size queen bed in the trailer. just another way to open up options, as long as there is some room at the foot of the bed.