Show us what you tow.

Had to use machined spacers to offset the Tacoma rim offset. A few other places were only willing to put on heavier axle and/or lift, but not the Tacoma rims.

Was pleasantly surprised that towing mileage is fairly similar. I was expecting a fair hit due to the extra 6”

 

so made it home safely last week, discovered that with a headwind, the trailer empty has enough wind resistance that I barely touched the brakes and only used 4th downhills as steep as 8%, at highway speeds (90ish km/h). Have yet to tow with a load, which will put me in the range of your trailer weight. Just ordered a weight distribution hitch, as I weighed the tongue weight and had over 400 pounds empty, and with a few sheep in there up to 600 if they moved forward of the axels. Empty it barely moved on the highway, even in some pretty strong crosswinds. I took out all the horse dividers and bulkhead wall, and replaced it with a lighter gate panel which is all I need to keep the sheep from doing laps back there.

 

Spring or torsion axle? I have contemplated swapping to a torsion or adding shocks to my camper. Thing sways back and forth like hell with the springs. Has SOA, that probably doesnt help.

 

Torsion axle with shocks. I used to run 62'ish... with it lifted now up to a whopping 65... but seems more stable when I occasionally have to speed up.
I do use an Andersen WDH (weight distribution hitch) more for sway and bounce reduction... can't honestly say how much it helps with the sway, but very limited testing running with and without on moderately rough roads seems to help a moderate amount with the bounce.

SOA???

 

SOA = Spring over Axle.

I have the WDH with chains, but it has the shitty brake type sway control, that your supposed to bolt or weld to the frame of the trailer. Just havent dropped the money for one of the bar type WDH's, been too cheap. Dont really get any sway, just the trailer rocking side to side. Figure shocks could help and probably a proper WDH. Really want to go all torsion axle, but wife says i need to stop spending $'s

 

Play the “safety” card. Usually trumps dollars when getting pushback.

 

got a WDH for the horse trailer but discovered it's way too low. This is a Curt. Have the Tru-track Curt on order, should solve the clearance problem.

 

22ft Jayco Jayflight SLX

4400lbs dry

Did our second 3 week trip this summer, this time towing the trailer, family of four, 2 kayaks, and 2 e-bikes through the Eastern Sierras.

Started at Whitney Portal campground in order to summit Mt. Whitney, before heading through 4 more campgrounds working our way up to Lake Tahoe and back down to Rock Creek Lake

 

Summer of 2020 we did 3500 miles (3 weeks) with the Jayco from San Diego, through Zion, Yellowstone, Couer d'Alene, Washington, Oregon and the Eastern Sierras

Still had 33s back then, but didn't yet have the Kings. I had a Falcon Sport Tow Haul Suspension kit and I still have my stock rims/tires, so I put those on for the trip

 

Wow, that's quite a trip! Beautiful pics. How did the truck handle that load in that terrain?

 

This 2019 Keystone Passport just followed me home. The truck is still squatting a bit (as expected) even after recently adding the OME EL095R leaf packs. Even though we're ~800 lbs under the GCVWR (not positive of accurate tongue weight at this point), I feel like this is my comfort limit. Just finished a 750 mile RT up into NE Washington state and she did it but it was about all she could do! Still, stoked to have a TT...

 

what model TT?

 

It's the Ultra-lite 195RB. I believe it's 21+ feet LOA and dry weight is ~3400+ lbs dry weight. I'm not home at the moment so I don't have all the real numbers...

 

5 x 10 suretrac all aluminum trailer

 

Posted in the "other" thread, but not sure who watches what. This is what we tow/camp in/lived out of for 7 weeks this year while our offices were closed:

 

Curious too how it did with that load towing up those inclines.

 

Old 2 horse with 2 young horses. Pulls good but takes a while to get out of 4th gear.

 

It's not great, but the taco has taken that camper all over the West.

I'm scheduled to re-gear to 5.29s in early November, which should help out quite a bit.

The worst experience I've had was getting it to where you are seeing it in that photo, at Whitney Portal Campground. Was fine going up the slow grade from Lone Pine toward where the road makes a right up to the first (and only switchback) to climb to 8500 feet where the campground and trailhead for Whitney are located.

Right as we approached that bend we saw a sign that said "trailers not recommended" and a turn off into some sort of camp area. My wife exclaimed "trailers aren't recommended" and "is that the campground?". I knew it wasn't, but it caused me to let up on the gas just enough to lose our momentum and as the road bent to the right to begin the climb, the taco slowed and I had to keep downshifting until I was in 1st and pretty quickly we were doing like maybe 2mph. I was waiting for the Tacoma to gasp and just quit. There was nothing there.

Tried to act like everything was fine for my wife's benefit, but was thinking to myself "where the hell are we going to camp tonight?". We had reservations at the portal campground and I was scheduled to climb Whitney with a few buddies in about 24 hours!

I crept along, knowing that the further I went, the longer I would have to back this thing up to get down. I zig-zagged slightly, hoping to get any advantage at all. For just a moment the grade lessened slightly and I took my shot to rev 1st gear up to 4500-5000 rpms and kept it there the entire way up to the portal campground. The floor boards were hot by the time we got there.

Almost burned up the trailer brakes getting down too :E