Travel trailers lessons learned

[nwslopoke]

What's the towing capacity of your Ram? In my experience, the listed capacity is way more than the practical capacity without overworking your pickup. No fun crawling up a grade with the transmission overheating.

It's listed as 10,000lbs and has factory tow package.

 

[nwslopoke]

Rent before you buy!!! You will quickly find out how your tow rig handles different trailers and whether you are going to get enough use out of a trailer to justify buying one over renting one. It will also let you know real quickly whether you like towing a long, heavy trailer if you don't have much towing experience, towing isn't for everyone and that is OK. Owning a travel trailer is the equivalent of spending lots of money on something that was manufactured as cheaply as possible and only built to last long enough to make it off the sales lot. If you don't have a covered place to store a travel trailer it will quickly deteriorate and depreciate before your eyes.

Maintaining a travel trailer is like maintaining a second home but built like crap and fixing one problem exposes two more. If you don't like maitaining your current home then you better be prepared for the additional expense of having someone else maintain and winterize your camper. Also have to have a plan in place to deal with rodents as a warm dry place that sees minimal use is very attractive.

Excuse me. None of the brochures mentions any of that. It's all pictures of smiles and great escapes to the wild.

 

[Eustace28]

RV.net and read up on the forums. Tow rating is one thing, but you may never get there with gross vehicle weight rating and rear axel weight rating. I love my dodges and have two but the 1500's aren't know for their towing capacity.

 

[parallax]

We used to have a 35' toyhauler 5th wheel personally it was stressful taking trips, it was just too big. It was hard to find a fuel station that we could easily get into. Hard to find parking sometimes. Our current trailer is a 22' toyhauler and it's a delight to travel. We are able to park just about anywhere finding suitable fuel stops is much easier and it's works for size. It's a trade off. Big is great when you get where you are going , , but small is great for the trip