What kind of camper do you have?

Watch your turbo temp while towing and prepare for issues around the 80k mark. Just a warning. Not trying to be an ass. Sorry to see you leave the taco world.

 

I was thinking it looked a little big for a Taco. Seemed to be smashing the rear end down a bit as well.

 

Not sure what issues you are referring to? Ford changed a lot of things starting in 17 and this one is a 19. I had a 13 and had no issues but our daughter and sil have a 15 that has had throttle body issues. I understand that all past problems have been fixed. Coming from the trucking business, I will say one of the most important things, that I bet no one does, is to idle for a few minutes when stopping to let the oil cool the turbos.

 

I was referring to the throttle body issues and the issue of the exhaust manifolds cracking and taking studs with them at the 80k mark. I was unaware of any change to the 17's and newer. I just know quite a few people around here that it has happened too. The newest being a 2016. He has gone through two throttle bodies and both sides manifolds with 89k miles on it. But he does tow a fair share for his business. And I doubt he let's anything cool. He has actually seen the turbos glow in the dark. That would have been a great time to let it idle. Lol

 

Time to look into air bags.

 

or a WDH

 

It's on there

 

or a drop hitch?

 

You might need to adjust the WDH? You should be able to get it close to level. Air bags can help level the rear but they will just mask the issues you'll get with the squat (sway and less traction in front for steering etc.), without really fixing it. At least from what I've heard/read.

 

Just took this guy on its maiden voyage. 8 days through southern Utah. It's a Hiker extreme off road 5x8. It has a max coupler hitch for full articulation. It does not have trailer brakes on it. Dry weight is 1500lbs it tows like it's not there but I'm not sure if I need trailer brakes on it or not. We took it down some steep roads and trails and it did fine.

 

We have a nucamp T@G and its a tad lighter ~1300 dry weight. just did a 5100 mile road trip with it with probably 3/4" of it being gravel roads. We ended up doing probably half of it with trailer brakes (connections failed twice). Did just fine with no trailer brakes even on the steep 10-12% grade stuff by just being smart (ie not bombing down it lol). Could definitely feel the trailer more when braking though. With the brakes we still noticed the trailer but not nearly as much. We also keep our brake controller set fairly low.

So in short....not something I'd run out and add to yours unless you were going to be changing up other stuff too. Someday...sure. but no need to right away

 

And speaking of that 5100 miles...

We started in Anchorage, AK (my parents actually drove up from home to Anchorage) then up to Deadhorse, AK (Prudoe bay)


From there we drove back to Fairbanks, over to Tok, and then headed up the Taylor Highway to Chicken, AK and then to the "Top of the World Highway" into Canada (ending at Dawson City)


From there we went North.....as far as you can...all the way to the Arctic Ocean...In "Tuk"


Then back down south to back home with a little side tour to Eastern, WA and Lake Chelan. (picture not of lake chelan but one of our camp sites)



Couple minor things we will change on the camper but overall everything worked awesome. Super nice to not really have to "pack" up a ton of crap every morning. Or have to much at night. Set up and breakdown really took all of 10 minutes (or less for set up) from deciding we were ready to pack up or from arriving in camp

 

This is a bucket list trip for me. Looks like you guys had an amazing trip, great pics! I do have a non trailer related question... Did you have to worry about grizzly bears and your food with the galley in the trailer?

 

Those are just a couple lol. We had a mix of pictures on my DSLR (nothing fancy...a Canon Rebel T5I or something) and then both our cell phones. Think we had like 400 pictures just on the DSLR.

We (and pretty much everyone we saw) didnt worry about bears or animals. We had some food in the fridge in the galley but didnt keep any other food there. All the "dry" foods were in two bins in the back of the truck. We kept both the rear hatch and the truck closed when we werent there. The two visitor centers we stopped at (one in Coldfoot, AK and one in Tombstone, Yukon, Canada) when we asked about bears said it wasnt really a big issue where we were. We did have bear spray but never even came close to needing it. Same with pretty much everyone we talked to.....the bears werent used to humans so they just took off once they saw you

 

I like hearing this.

 

Im sure they are more of a problem when you get to more populated places like Denali. We were early enough that we really didnt see all that many people till the end of our trip. The Dalton highway has plenty of traffic due to the truckers. But the Dempster up to Tuk there were a few times we would go 30-60 minutes without seeing anyone else. But bears might become more of a problem later in the season?

Probably one of the nicest things about the Yukon is how many pull outs they have. And pretty much all the pull outs had bear-proof garbage cans and bathrooms (outhouses). Then around the towns it was the same bear-proof cans.

If you do go...either go early or late season. Way less people. My parents actually drove up from Seattle starting May 22nd and pretty much had nobody else on the road (tourist wise) and had no problems with campgrounds or RV parks. By the time we started running into people heading north(us heading south) campgrounds and RV resorts were getting pretty full. We stayed at Liard Hot Springs and got the Sunday afternoon only to find the campground was full. Thankfully there is another private campground (Mould Creek i believe was the name) 2km down the road that was the same price but way nicer....but it filled up too. The night before in Whitehorse we tried the state camp and it was totally full as well. The RV resort we ended up at (we wanted to stay close to town) was nearly full for big RV's (and had like 100 sites for them). Thankfully we are small enough and dont need hookups so we often just take "tent" sites.

 

That's good to hear. Grizzly bears scare the hell out of me.

 

I fully agree with you. Airbags will help level, and increase bed capacity. But they won't help steering. Something is definitely off with WDH. That is a light trailer and he should be sitting more level.

Not mine but had to move this today. ALOT heavier than the Mini Lite, and the hitch isn't set up for mine. Although I do have a helper spring.

 

^^^^^^this^^^^^^
Most people do not set up Their wdh properly.@smoker
Shane you got my number hit me up. I will run you through it.
Or I can explain on here if others wanna hear. Some people don’t wanna know.

 

I would like to hear your version. It has been yrs since I've had a travel trailer and the dealer had set up mine.
My last 2 campers were 35' or longer 5th wheels. Thinking about getting a smallish TT to pull behind the Tacoma.
Thanks