What would you do? 24’ or 28’?

Seattle Lion wrote:

dirtdivaca wrote:
We’re looking at buying our first trailer and a new one. We have rented a 22’-28’ and personally I lik the smaller one since it was nimble and agile to manuever around. However, we are expecting our first child and hoping to have a 2nd one afterwards. We also have two dogs (small and medium). Our original thinking was to start small with 22’-24' TT for a few years then upgrade to 26-28’ later once kid(s) have grown. Looking at costs – it seems we would lose a bit of money and better to purchase a bigger one now. From what I've read, it sounds like TT lost 50% value after just couple years. Going to 28' TT, I worry about biting off more than we can chew for our first TT.

We have 2005 F-150 Supercrew 5.4L with 3.55 axle (not 3.73) which is rated for GCWR 14,000 and Tow Capacity is 8500 (truck’s curb weight 5281). I’m thinking as long as we stay under 5,000lb TT limit, we should be OK?

Also, when I try to view camping and park vehicle regulations, if it says maximum vehicle size 30’ or 40’ – should I be calculating the length of our truck + trailer or is that just pertaining to the TT size?

I don't think you will find many 28ft TT's that weigh in at 5,000 lbs. Our ultralight 27ft has a dry weight of 6,000 lbs. Around here the size limits for campgrounds pertain to the trailer, not the TV. Every site we visited (not all that many, but a nice sample for Washington) had the ability to handle the TV and the TT, though maybe not hitched. At some sites we had to park the TV next to the TT.