Sold my old rig and starting over -- Need advice!

[itsjustjer]

We had a 2003 Suburban 1500 and a 2006 Fleetwood Niagara Highwall Popup for a couple years. I just recently sold both of them. The popup wasn't enough space because we seemed to always have the kids' cousins come along with us. We got rid of the Suburban because it kept giving us problem after problem.

My wife and I have 3 young kids and currently trying for our 4th and final. We live in Indiana and most of the time we're going to be taking weekend trips close to home, about 200-300 miles at most. However, we are really interested in starting a yearly tradition of taking the camper to Disney World's Fort Wilderness which is about 1000 miles away and takes us through the Smoky Mountains.

My wife stays home with the kids and she drives a minivan. Right now I'm driving an old Pontiac Grand Am to and from work.

Now that you're familiar with our situation, I need some help as I've just been going back and forth and it's driving me insane!

I just really need someone I can talk this out with to make the best decision that meets our needs.

I could trade the minivan for a Suburban 2500 and then we could use our everyday family vehicle as our tow vehicle. It's nice because we'd have plenty of room for the kids and even the cousins (right now we're no where near this, but I'm using 1000 lbs as the weight of occupants because kids grow).

The problem is the terrible gas mileage compared to the minivan. This part is kind of hard to calculate or anticipate. There are times when my wife doesn't leave the house all day, so the van doesn't get driven. Then there are times when we take a 2 hour drive to the grandparent's house.

Also something I've been considering is towing must be harder on certain parts of the vehicle, right? Does towing significantly shorten the life of the vehicle? Are we going to experience issues much sooner than if we weren't using it to tow?

The reason for the 2500 would be so we could have a bigger camper. If we go this route and just suck it up regarding the increase gas consumption, is it beyond the realm of possibility to find a camper with a layout that gives us a "kids room" quad bunk type of setup that we could safely tow?

The other option I've been considering is to leave the minivan alone. I'd sell the old Grand Am and just buy a truck that seats 6. My oldest is a lot older than her siblings, but still technically too young to "safely" ride in the front seat at 9 years old, so I'm not even sure if this is a viable option. It would not really be a comfortable ride, but it would definitely open up the possibility of bigger campers and even fifth wheels. It would be my daily driver, so again gas would suck, but there's not really anyway around it. I just don't really have any need for a truck other than towing the camper so it feels a little frivolous to make that purchase.

I've also kicked around the idea of a motorhome, but it's pretty rare for them to have as much sleeping capacity as a travel trailer or fifth wheel, so I haven't really explored that option too much.

Sorry for the rambling, but I'm just kind of burning myself out thinking about this. I want to come up with a good plan that makes the most sense.

[KD4UPL]

1000 pound hitch limit is not the payload, it is the hitch limit. The integrated, nonreplaceable hitch is limited to 1000 pounds of tounge weight. It's stupid but that's the way it is. Otherwise, a 2500 Sub is an excellent vehicle.
My suggedtion is get rid of the mini van and get a real van, like a Chevy 3500 passenger van. It will have plenty of tow rating, plenty of seating, and be decent on mileage empty. If you look hard enough you can even find one with a Duramax.

[agesilaus]

1000 pound hitch limit? Is that the payload, if so then the 6 people in the vehicle plus luggage would seriously cut into that. The 'burbs (and I had one for years) are no good any more for towing. Not since the real 2500 went away, what was that a 8.1L?

[carringb]

Expedition Max (formerly called the "EL") would be my suggestion as well. Mileage and towing power will be better than the Suburban 2500. You would have less payload available, but in reality, the Suburban 2500's 1,000# hitch limit puts you effectively in the same territory for a travel trailer anyways. You will have to be diligent when you trailer shop, and skip out on the monster full-wall slide or triple slide units. You'll also have to skip out on the high-trim Expeditions, since those 124-way heated cooled butt groping seats are heavy. And you would definitely need the Max-tow option.

BTW - 2015 was the last year for the Suburban 2500. They replaced with a Suburban 3500, which is a one ton, but it only has a 3,000# tow rating.

[agesilaus]

The minimal amount of towing you plan to do should not affect the lifespan of any vehicle designed for towing. The idea of a caravan is something to think about if the wife is OK with the idea of driving 2000 miles by herself with 4 screaming kids in the car with her. If so I'd get a 1/2 ton truck, set up for max towing, as the tow vehicle. That's for a reasonable sized travel trailer no 38 ft long behemoths.

If you want to tow big then a HD 1 ton truck would be the way to go, huge travel trailers or fifth wheels. Forget about 3/4 ton trucks no matter what they make no sense. When I say truck I mean one from the three US manufacturers. A one ton is slightly more costly than a 3/4 ton and will be a more capable tow vehicle. You can expect about 17 mpg on the HD truck and maybe the low 20's for a 1/2 ton when not towing. When towing that can drop way down on a gas engine, possibly all the way to 6 mpg. And if you want a really big fifth wheel, over 35 ft then you will be looking at a dual rear wheel truck.

Frankly we did not start camping with the kids until they could all walk on their own, at least for a fair distance. Probably 5 or so. We recall the hike in he$l out in the Smokies when it was 90 degrees and the young kid staged a sit down strike and had to be carried back. And we ran out of water too. This was out to some knob and there was a fair amount of up and down on the trail and no shade. We had three kids.

However Disney should be safe. I have never seen a bunk house with 4 beds tho. Maybe dual stack them in a bed when they are small.

[Lessmore]

IdaD wrote:
Also consider that running a minivan as a secondary vehicle on a 2000 mile trip would only run you an extra couple hundred bucks in fuel, which isn't all that much to add to a trip to Disney for a family of 6. That would open you up to HD pickups and then the world is your oyster on trailer/FW floorplans, and I think you'd find towing a large bunkhouse on a long trip more relaxing with a more capable tow vehicle. Just something to consider.

That's what we did, back in the 1990's. We pulled our trailer with our tow vehicle and on something like a 2000 mile trip or less, would run our small station wagon also, to carry the kids. We traveled in a mini convoy of sorts and communicated when we needed to, with small, handheld radios (had a range I think of 3-5 miles, much more range now). *

It worked fine with two vehicles and as you say wasn't a huge extra cost in fuel. Also we could pack a few more things with two vehicles.

* The 2 Way radios are available at places like Cabela's and not too costly...under $ 100 have around 30 mile + ranges and some have weather radio channels. BTW, this was before the days of commonplace use of cell phones, which may make the 2 ways obsolete for this purpose. Anyway that is what we did, 20 odd years ago.

[IdaD]

Going from 2 bunks to 3 bunks limits your options. Going from 3 to 4 limits them further. That said there are some options that might work. My sister and her family has a lightweight quad bunkhouse that they pull with a 3.5 Expedition EL and it does pretty well. There is a trade-off - the queen bed is in a slide that pops out the back and it's obviously a lightly built camper and the interior space is limited with no side slides and the shorter length (I think its an Aerolite or something like that - there are other manufacturers with similar rear slide bunkhouse floorplans).

If you want a more standard type of TT bunkhouse I think you're going to struggle pretty mightily unless you step up to a HD SUV or pickup. Problem being on the SUV side of things your options are limited and getting increasingly old. Our pickup technically seats 6 but I wouldn't want to put any of our kids in that front center spot for very long, certainly not a trip that's 1000 miles each way. But for the shorter legs it might work. Also consider that running a minivan as a secondary vehicle on a 2000 mile trip would only run you an extra couple hundred bucks in fuel, which isn't all that much to add to a trip to Disney for a family of 6. That would open you up to HD pickups and then the world is your oyster on trailer/FW floorplans, and I think you'd find towing a large bunkhouse on a long trip more relaxing with a more capable tow vehicle. Just something to consider.

I'm not real knowledgeable about what options you might have on the motorhome side of things.

[bob213]

You asked for opinions so I hope I don't offend you with mine. I would keep the van so your wife can economically shuttle the kids. At approx. $234,000 without college to raise a child to age 17, I would call my family "complete" and nix the fourth child.(That's the part that I was worried about) ;)...sorry. Then I would buy a 2500 truck so you can tow a big enough trailer to make 5 of you comfortable. JMO. Whatever way you go buy enough tow vehicle so you are all safe!