behing19
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TT with Wood Rot on Slide - Need Fix!!
Hi, My wife and I just bought a 2005 Fleetwood 23-foot Travel trailer with a rear slide out for the bed. We noticed it has a little bit of wet/soft wood on the farthest end of the bed slide. It's dry and solid throughout the rest of the wood and nothing inside has shown any signs of leaking (we've had a ton of rain over the last week). My question is, does anybody know of a solution to fixing this without ripping the slide apart? Even if it's temporary and lasts for 6 months, I could at least buy some time. I have heard some use a marine type of epoxy to harden the wood, but wanted to put this out to the forum before I chose a solution to the problem. Any advice is fully appreciated. Below are pictures from under the slide.5.4KViews0likes11CommentsRe: 5th Wheel Towing w/ 2001 F150 7700
Old-Biscuit wrote: I owned a 2001 F150 7700 I towed a 19" 5th wheel with it. I really knew it was back there and on 6% grades I had to run it HARD to maintain 50 MPH. Several camping trips per year but NIT something I would want to do FT unless you FT by staying for months before traveling. That year/model F150 better suited to TTs Thank you! That was exactly what we were looking for. I think we are going to go with a TT and the only reason we were going back and forth was the previous owner used it to tow a 25 foot fifth wheel, but they only did it a couple times a year. Your real world experience is very helpful for us.709Views0likes0CommentsRe: 5th Wheel Towing w/ 2001 F150 7700
Okay, to get specific, there is a 22-foot says it weights 4870 we have considered. I think this is pushing our abilities a bit, but from what others have said, it would be fine. Just trying to cover all our bases here and make sure we are towing safely. Don't want to be limited to only flat states and don't want to be out there putting our lives or other's lives in danger because we bought something too big for us.709Views0likes0CommentsRe: 5th Wheel Towing w/ 2001 F150 7700
Okay. Let me clarify a couple things. We were full timing last year in a Class A, but had issues and decided truck and TT or 5er would work better for us, so full timing isn't new to us. While we are trying to make a decision between TT and 5er very soon, it's not because there is one or the other we want to buy tomorrow (unless the perfect one or near perfect one was available). It's more because we have a cap on the bed and if we decide for sure to go 5er, that has to go and we need to get the rails for a hitch installed, too. In addition, while the truck is older, we got luck and were able to buy it from the original owner who ordered it from the factory when it was new. He also did all the necessary maintenance on it and basically treated it like it was a member of his family. My biggest concern is the 5ers with more space are heavier and I don't want to push it on our weight. My wife loves the stairs to the bed, however. Personally, I could care less about that part of it, but that's just me. The 5ers I see that seem like we could handle seem very crowded and small. Seems like we'd get more room with a 25 or 27 foot tt.709Views0likes0Comments5th Wheel Towing w/ 2001 F150 7700
Hi all, My wife and I keep going back and forth between a smaller 5th wheel or a TT. We want to make sure we make the right decision as we will be full timing. It's the battle between space and towing safety. If my number are correct, we can handle a 27-foot TT (bumper pull) with a dry weight of less than 5K (assuming we have less than 2K of stuff to go into the TT). We are minimalists so we may have much less. I also believe we can handle up to a 25-foot Fifth Wheel (previous owner pulled one, but only a few times a year) with a weight under 5K. I believe we have a payload of about 2,300 as the truck weighs in at just under 5500 with people, gas and stuff. Ideally, we don't want to push our limits, but we also don't want to limit ourselves when it comes to our options. If anybody has experience with pulling a fifth wheel with a 1/2 ton truck or with a truck like ours, any advice would be helpful. We are trying to make a decision within the next day or so and either get a 5th wheel hitch ready to go or order a good TT hitch with sway bars. Thank you for the help in advance.3.6KViews0likes13CommentsRe: Mountain Towing Experiences with 1/2 ton & TT
time2roll wrote: I have a similar 2001 F150 5.4L SuperCrew with now 190,000 miles. We go up and down the mountains all the time with a 7880 GVWR trailer. I did change the gears from 3.55 to 4.10 ratio. We are slow at times but never an issue of keeping up with traffic. Been over the Rockies, through Death Valley, Siskiyou pass to OR. Hardest climb was Nine Mile Canyon Road out of Pearsonville off CA395. Nine miles of 10 percent grade in 115F heat. Just avoid Ebbett's and Sonora passes in CA and you will be fine. Headed to Glacier this Summer. Keep the trailer GVWR within your tow rating for best results. Awesome advice. We have the 3.73 ratio. Would it make a difference if it was changed to 4.10 or is that even possible? If so, what type of difference would it make?1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Mountain Towing Experiences with 1/2 ton & TT
Thank you all for your advice. I forgot to mention the truck is the 5.4L and 3.73. It came with brake controls from the previous owner as they used it for a 5th wheel, but never did any mountain towing. We don't really want to avoid the mountains as we love them, but we also want to make sure we are safe. Last year we had a 1999 Fleetwood Flair Class A and tacked the mountains in New York and some in Pennsylvania, so it won't be our first trip through the mountains. However, we ran into some problems with our Class A last fall and ended up selling it. I think some of the mechanical issues we had just have us a bit on edge wanting to make sure we are doing things correctly this time around. We have no issue going slower and in the Class A we would get behind a semi and pace ourselves with them if we were at all worried. We also learned pretty quickly how to properly brake on the way down the hill to maintain speed and keep from burning through the brakes. Again, thank you all for your advice. Does anybody have any type of resource that shows the grades through the mountains or anything that might help us avoid the worst climbs when we plan out our trip?282Views0likes0CommentsMountain Towing Experiences with 1/2 ton & TT
Hey all, My wife and I have a 2001 Ford F150 with the 7700# option for better towing. We purchased it from the only owner it has ever had who used it occasionally to pull a 27-foot 5th wheel. We plan to use the truck to pull a travel trailer, which we have not bought yet. We will be full timing and moving about 1-2 times per month. We only plan to travel around 150 miles each time we move, at most....some of this will depend on where our next campground is and there may be an overnight in between if we have to go further to get to our next campground. My questions and concerns come with mountain towing. We have discussed the possibility of going out west, which, from my understanding means we cannot avoid towing through the mountains to get to California, Oregon, Washington and will also deal with some mountains/hills in many states out west. We have also discussed avoiding mountains alltogether with an east coast trip or a trip from Florida to Wisconsin/Michigan and back. The travel trailers we are looking at are all under 4,500 pounds try (many closer to 3500) and will be between 21 and 24 feet long. The truck is supposed to have a maximum towing capacity of 8,900 pounds, which we don't want to push close to at all. IN my rough estimations, with a full tank of gas in the truck, full tank of water in the TT, our stuff, us and our dogs, we will still be well under the 80% mark of our towing capacity. Does anybody have experience with a similar type of set up and mountain towing? Does anybody know which routes are the best/worst for towing in the mountains throughout the west and the east? I know somebody is going to chime in and tell us to upgrade our truck. That isn't an option and won't happen, so please keep that in mind. Thank you for all your help!7.7KViews0likes31Comments
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