3rd gen + travel trailer

At Naccalula Falls in Gadsden AL this weekend. This is our 7th outing in the trailer and we're still really enjoying it. We hiked down behind the falls.... wow.... pretty amazing.

 

Nice pics and good info, everybody.

We're picking up our first camper (other than an old pop-up we had about 15 years ago) on the 23rd. We've been looking at campers for more than a year and looked at just about everything in the 4000# and under range, and finally decided on the one she really liked 6 months ago- a Forest River Surveyor Legend 19MBDLE. About 4100# dry, less than 5000# fully loaded. 23'7" long.

No tuning or gearing mods to the truck. I do have the Andersen hitch, and I'm going to have to watch my weights VERY closely. My payload is very limited, and so is my front axle capacity, but we should be OK- just might have to move some stuff around.

I'm mildly apprehensive about getting everything correct. But I did drive semis for 15 years or so- I just haven't pulled anything bigger than a 10' utility trailer since about 2009.

Planning on several trips within an hour of home before we head to the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula to you non-Michiganders) in the fall.

 

Sounds like you have a good plan.... close trips to get the hang of things then venture out.

Wife and I learned a lot from watching YT vids. Black tank management, sewer hoses, setting up your WD hitch and so on. There's a lot to it all but nothing hard about it. The more your learn up front will make your life easier.

Our first adventure was only 13 miles away. Lol.

 

I think we kept You Tube in business over the last year between vids for the Tacoma, campers, and weight distribution hitches.

Our first trip is 90 minutes from where we pick up the camper.....but only 10 minutes from home.

 

I resemble that comment, LOL.

Once more piece of advice.... embrace the set up proceedure and you'll enjoy the overall experience more. I think the folks that end up not using thier trailer don't embrace the work. I actually enjoy the set up and tear down experience and this makes me look forward to the next trip..... not dread it.

 

We’re leaving tomorrow for our third trip in our new 22’ R-Pod. Each trip has been dry camping within an hour drive over some mountainous terrain. At the end of the month a five hour trip is scheduled. I’m about 4400 lbs (estimated) with 30 gl fresh water. A couple steep grades taxes the truck by it made it. A big plus was adding sumo springs (blue) to the truck. That stopped the porpoising on the highway. Take your time dumping your holding tanks if you haven’t done it before.
Enjoy and have fun!

 

We've had our trailer for a year and currently on our 9th outing at Tim Ford Fairview near Winchester TN. We're still really enjoying it. We take our bikes and enjoy hiking, biking, kicking back in the zero gravity chairs and learning to cook on the Blackstone.

We pulled in and were set up/hooked up in less than 45 min yesterday so this gets to be pretty easy.

 

This is our 10th outing with the travel trailer and our first that's more than 2 hours from home. We made the 5.5hr drive down I59 to I65 then to Dauphin Island. This was my first time pulling the camper on extended periods of interstate. I was surprised how much we were being blown around on the interstate. I did notice a few days later that the sway control bolt on my ReCurve R3 WDH wasn't as tight as it could have been so I'm hoping that will help some on the way home tomorrow. We pulled across a CAT scale South of Birmingham:

2720 Steer Axle (2940 GAWR)
2840 Drive Axle (3280 GAWR)
3740 Trailer Axle (4000 GAWR)
9300 Gross Weight

We stayed one night at South Montgomery RV Park and we were impressed with the park(pic below). Clean bathrooms, nice pull through sites and we didn't even unhook from the truck which was something that I underappreciated prior to this one night quick stay. Was just over $50/night with Veteran discount.



The next day we drove another 2.5 hours to Dauphin Island and stayed two nights at Pelican Nest for just under $100 for both nights(with Veteran discount). Sites were pretty close together but the overall experience was good. We ended up on a site that was pretty wide and I angled the camper to try to gain a little more exposure to the ocean that we couldn't see, LOL(pic below). In hindsight, I wish I would have backed in straight. We caught a nice sunset and walk on the beach at the West Beach(pic below), checked out the Sea Lab and Ft Gaines.





After two nights on Dauphin Island we were fortunate enough to be able to get the truck and camper on the ferry across Mobile Bay which saved us well over an hour and a half of driving over to Ft Morgan.



More to come.....

 

Glad you had a good excursion!

Yes if the WDH is not set properly then wind and semis are a big problem. Did you notice a marked improvement after adjusting it? Another thing that will escalate wind movement is the balance of the TT, too much weight either end or not enough weight over the axle will enable the TT to pivot on the axle too easily if blown and especially from the semi push/pull.

 

I'll find out in the morning. We're heading North toward home around 6am. I have only added 2.5 (instead of 5 gal of water) in the black tank(which is in the rear) so that may help. Thanks for the advise Mark.

 

Where is your water heater? Mine is drivers side at the very rear. On mine it’s a 30 second job to empty it so I always used to do that (50lb extra weight directly over the bumper isn’t ideal) along with emptying all tanks. I was about 700lb heavier than you so every bit counted.
We had all of our clothes in cubes in the over bed storage in the front of the TT and would move them onto the couch directly over the axle to try and balance things and lighten the tongue. Oh the joys of running at max limits

Another thing that amplifies sway/movement and makes it feel worse is the truck tire pressures, do you increase them for towing?

Safe travels

 

We made it home. My WH is also in the rear and I drained it (thanks to your recommendation). The sway on the way home was better. I run 36-37psi in the SL truck tires and 70-75psi on the trailer. I suspect I'd be better off with some XL tires with higher pressure but I do appreciate the nicer ride of the SL tires when not towing. Pros and cons of all this stuff. I do appreciate your recommendations..... lots of things I haven't thought about.

We've been very happy with this camper but I'm considering looking into a similar tandem axle trailer and may consider a slide out. A different WDH may help instead. We have a ReCurve R3 that has built in sway control by way of what seems to be like a clamping brake pad around the hitch.

Mark, I also believe that your DCLB will be a little less affected by sway.

 

Out of interest do you know the easy way to empty and fill the water heater? Simply open the low point drain and then flip open the pressure relief valve on the WH. No need to take the rod out and then no water ingress issues between the wh cowling and TT body.

We very nearly got the 23RSS (I think) vista cruiser instead of ours. I prefer the aerodynamics of the Vista for sure. Weight was about the same, maxing out the taco payload for sure!

I have to say I was very happy with the Cooper AT3 4s on our last 8k mile towing trip. Mpg improved and ride was very good. I only increased psi by 5psi vs the 10 on the oem Goodyears. They’ve been excellent in wet, snow and ice. I highly recommend them.

I also highly recommend the Anderson WDH but you already know that

 

Yep, remove the cap and pull the PRV. Was super easy.... just never thought of it. Now I just gotta remember to refill before I turn heat on.

I think our mild sway issue has been realized due to adding bikes to the rear of the camper. I'm going to remove the bikes for our next trip next month and see the difference.

It looks like the max PSI on the Toyo's is 44lbs so 36-37lbs is likely a little low. I'll try that after I try removing the bikes.

 

Get yourself a weight distrubtion hitch. You'll never look back. Even better towing experience.
I towed with mine for a year before getting one. About 4000 lb dry weight.

 

I have the Camco ReCurve R3. (listed as the 3rd item)

I think my issue may be the bikes that I added to the rear of the camper. Things were better on our way home today after tightening up the WDH Sway Control and also draining the WH(in the rear) and going with a little less water in the black tank. I'm going take the next trip with the bikes in a different location or leave them at home.

The only time I have towed mine without a WDH is with a borrowed DuraMax.... which pulled it like it was nothing..... but still only got 12mpg, LOL.

 

Sounds like you got the best set up then. Rest is luck and hopefully no big head winds lol.

 

This isn't the best picture, but it does show the view of Lake Michigan from the couch of our Surveyor Legend 19MDBLE. This is from last fall at Wilderness State Park near Mackinaw City, MI. Very few people and maybe 200 feet from the water. Awesome. Will be back in September.



Our camper has a GVWR of 4870 lbs. Our Tacoma has a very limited payload- with the 2 of us in the cab, the Andersen WDH and a full tank of gas, we only have 500 lbs of payload left; we are at 5100 lbs. But we were able to get our setup to work. Our loadout for this trip scaled out (in lbs) at:

Actual (MAX)
Front axle 2680 (2940)
Rear axle 2920 (3280)
Truck gross 5600 (5600)
Camper axle 4200 (4400)
Camper gross 4700 (4870)
Combined gross 9800 (11300)
Tongue weight 500 (640)
Tongue% 10.64%

We don't carry any water in our tanks (our water heater is in the front). I tried putting the Tacoma spare tire on the rear rack of the camper to get a little wiggle room with the truck payload, but it had an adverse effect on the handling.

I may end up going slightly over the truck gross (1%-2%) in some situations, which I don't like to do, but realistically if I go 30 or 40 pounds over the truck gross, I will be back under gross in short order due to fuel consumption. I'm in the 10-11 MPG range when pulling the camper.

 

Sounds nice.

Makes sense about the spare tire on the back of the camper causing issues. I believe placing two bikes on the rear of our camper caused us some minor trailer sway.

I have gotten 14mpg on a flat hwy between Ft Morgan and Gulf Shores Alabama going 45mph. I averaged around 11mpg on this last 760 mile trip.

 

Honestly, I can't help but wonder if the Anderson is better.