mr61impala
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Trailer too long for truck?
Back again. We went to the RV Supershow in Tampa yesterday and found a trailer that checks most of our boxes. Trailer specs: GVW is #7995, #UVW is #6327, dry hitch weight is #658. total length 32'9". 2019 Ram 1500 3.92 axle ratio #1780 rear axle payload #11,400 max towing capacity; all per Ram website after entering VIN#. I think the weights are OK but how about the overall length? Anyone towing a trailer this long with a Ram 1500? By the way, if you are in Florida it's worth a couple hour drive to experience the show.11KViews0likes53CommentsRe: Conclusion made: 95% of all TT's are a crapshoot
valhalla360 wrote: Looked up sales numbers (these are overall for RVs. I couldn't find travel trailer specific): Thor owns Keystone & Jayco and with other brands about 50% of the market Forest River owns Forest River and Coachmen and with other brands about 33% of the market Winnebago is about 8% of the market. REV owns Fleetwood and about 3% of the market with other brands. Gulf Stream is independent and under 1%. Add in a bit of buyers bias (people who spend far more for a supposed better brand are less likely to slam that brand), and what you basically have is a survey that largely mimics sales. I'm betting if you found the actual travel trailer sales, it would match even closer (ie: Winnebago is primarily a MH shop that does a few travel trailers. Keystone & Thor are primarily trailer shops that do a few MHs). Without compensating for sales numbers and where they are drawing the survey population from, these numbers mean a whole lot of nothing. I agree it's not scientific, it's a just poll of 3,000 RV'ers. I also believe that those with complaints are far more likely to participate. I am currently shopping and my this was my take away: Forest River represents 33% of the market and garnered fully 50% of the complaints. Thor represents a much larger market segment than Forest River but had considerably fewer complaints. Not sure if it will impact my decision but I believe the poll has value.557Views0likes0CommentsRe: Conclusion made: 95% of all TT's are a crapshoot
I found this on another RV website, don't know how to share the link but you could google 8 worst travel trailers. I know Forest River is not one brand, and that Coachmen is now a Forest River brand, but this is how it appeared. Note: Since there are a lot of different options related to the question: “Which are travel trailer brands to avoid?”, to provide a fair answer, we conducted a survey to Camping is our life – a favorite Facebook group of many RVers with more than 100,000 members. With appropriately 3,000 answers, here is what we got: What travel trailers brands to avoid in 2020: Forest River travel trailer brand: 45% Keystone travel trailer brand: 26% Jayco travel trailer brand: 15% Coachmen travel trailer brand: 5% Winnebago travel trailer brand: 3% Fleetwood travel trailer brand: 2% Gulf Stream travel trailer brand: 1% The rest 3% came to some other brands: Coleman, Thor,…557Views0likes0CommentsRe: Checked out a Vibe 26RK, Mallard M25,Grand Design Imagine
lane hog wrote: Jayco under Thor's ownership has fallen quite a bit. We owned three of them, and you couldn't have paid me to take one off the lot when we were looking back in July. Exactly. The first trailer we went to see last fall was a Jay Feather simply because of Jayco's past reputation. The more I looked and the more I read, the more apparent it became that Jayco has lost it's edge. This will be our 5th TT so I know a few things to look for, but it sure is nice to have access to so much feedback these days. Maybe when the covid induced trailer shortage works itself out we will get back to shopping!1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: 5W40 or 15W40 in 6.7 CTD?
Let me preface this by saying this is NOT a recommendation. I recently retired from UPS in the Automotive department, 9 years as a diesel mechanic and the rest of my career managing the shops. UPS has the largest privately owned fleet of vehicles in the world so cost is a huge factor, I am going to tell you something you will not believe but trust me, it's true. Around 20010, in an effort to reduce costs and after discussions with the various suppliers, UPS decided to use 10w30 exclusively in all delivery vehicles. Cummins was one of our suppliers who signed off on this decision. We have been running 10w30 in all 5.9 and 6.7L Cummins, with a 15,000 oil drain interval since that time with no ill effects. Read that again. Most 6.7L engines exceed 500K miles with only water pump, turbo, injector, EGR valve and maybe EGR cooler replacement. I know of one in particular with over 600k miles that still only consumes 2 qts of 10w30 between those 15,000 mile oil changes. The primary cause of CTD failure is injector failure, stripping the cylinder walls of lubricant. If it starts missing or smoking SHUT IT OFF until the cause is corrected. Again this is not a recommendation, just interesting results of a huge real world reality.533Views0likes0CommentsRe: Checked out a Vibe 26RK, Mallard M25,Grand Design Imagine
We have been searching for a new TT for over a year and at first we were overwhelmed with the diversity of questions we had about trailers and tow vehicles, and while you will get some fan boys, this is truly a great forum to answer your questions. You tow vehicle probably has a #1820 payload, the dry hitch weight and hitch itself will probably consume half of that. Add in your passenger's weight and you will see that you need to load the trailer with an eye towards weight in the front of the trailer. Does your truck have the 3.92 gears, if so it will tow it comfortably but if you have the 3.21 it will shift gears much more. The average 3.21 equipped Ram 1500 has a towing capacity of around #8,500 whereas the 3.92 jumps to around #11,400. I would never put a #10,000 trailer behind a half ton truck, it just means you will have a more relaxing trip towing a trailer of this weight with the deeper reduction. At first we were drawn in by the Grand Design advertising, and they do use some nicer looking materials inside. But their fit and finish was about on par with the others, and if you check you will find they have about as many dissatisfied customers as any other brand, primarily water leaks and poor dealer support as I recall. The best thing you can have is a good dealer, for example not Camping World. We have done quite a bit of research and looked at quite a few trailers. To us, some of the Forest River products look to be better thought out than many of the others and their build quality is at least comparable to as well. That may be why one of their brands finally unseated Jayco as the largest selling brand last year. Americans talk to each other and word of mouth is good advertising. In my opinion none of the trailers in this price range are significantly better than the others and a good dealer would be a primary concern.1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Looking for info on terry package details
BurbMan wrote: Fleetwood shut down in early 2009 as a result of the economy at that time. The motorized division was bought by Winnebago, the towables division just went away. I had a 2008 Terry and have tried to find anything I could but apparently all the drawings, plans, details and whatever else went into a dumpster never to be seen again. It's kind of a shame that they shut down, we bought a brand new Fleetwood Mallard 27X in 1998 and it was probably the most trouble free RV we have had to date.269Views0likes0CommentsRe: Schwintek slide system.
Blazing Zippers wrote: We have this slide system on our Outdoor RV. The slide is about 6.5 feet wide. Two years of use and no issues. A neighbor up the street has a motorhome (I won't give the name, but it rhymes with "Roachman") and he's had fits with the slide. The slide is a biggie, and I don't think there is enough mechanical advantage to move the slide safely. Just so I'm clear, the biggie slide in the roachmen motorhome you mention is equipped with the Schwintek system? Thanks all!466Views0likes0CommentsRe: Should I get a new Tow Vehicle or a Bigger Gas Tank?
They are out there! We found a new body style Ram Bighorn Crew Cab 4x4 in stock with 3.92 axles, 5.7L V-8, class 4 hitch, integrated brake controller, flip up towing mirrors, etc. The price for all this equipment is insignificant. The 3.92 gearing is an amazing towing improvement over the 3.21 axles in our previous truck. If your choice is to replace, keep looking until you find the right axle ratios. The truck retailed for $49K and we paid $37K PLUS TAX on the $14.5K difference in value between this truck and our trade in. One surprise was the empty (non towing) MPG, with the 3.92 gears it stays in 4 cylinder mode much longer. When I am running the backroads at around 65 mph for a 75 mile trip I regularly make, the VIC will climb up to 26-27 mpg and the fuel needle barely moves. I have not hand calculated it but it's impressive. Good luck with whatever you choose.260Views0likes0CommentsRe: Schwintek slide system.
wing_zealot wrote: Beyond that, I don't know what your definition of a superslide is, but my TT has a schwintek slide in it that has worked flawlessly for 6 years, and it's a pretty big slide carrying a lot of weight. The slide in question has a 7' u-dinette and a sofa, probably 12 at least feet long with a lot of storage space. This brand also offers a heavier trailer of the same floor plan, it's also taller to accommodate the conventional rack and pinion slide mechanism. There is very little difference in the price. We plan own using this trailer extensively and will go with the more heavily constructed slide system if the Schwintek would be problematic.466Views0likes0Comments
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