The newer travel trailers are much lighter than the older ones, look at your trucks towing capacity, and stay within these p limits, and equalizer hitch will just take most of the weight off the bumper and eq
Look at your trucks tow capacity, and make sure the trailer breaks work properly. We camped at Bluegrass Festivals, for many years, with several different campers from 18 ft. bumper hitch, and a half ton PU, to 37 foot 5th wheel, and a one ton dully and commings engine. Any large gathering of campers, like Bluegrass Festivals, several hundred is typical, is a site to behold. This is made up mostly of older people, many of whom have little or no experience with anything larger than a PU truck. They back into trees, run off colverts, back into each other, and there is always several that have the 5th wheel hitch mounted wrong and break out the back glass on their PU! Just take it easy until you get the feel, it would hurt to practice turns, and backing in an open area, with niothing to hit, first!
I can't like this post enough, only difference is that I would rent the boat too!
Well, the in laws trailer is out, so that solved that quandary.
Now I just wish that I could borrow someone's trailer for a day to practice parking it.
That's my biggest worry right now. Having to back it up. And unfortunately, the rv spot I have booked isn't a pull through spot.
Now I just wish that I could borrow someone's trailer for a day to practice parking it.
That's my biggest worry right now. Having to back it up. And unfortunately, the rv spot I have booked isn't a pull through spot.
Well, luckily the further back the trailer axles are from the truck, the slower it reacts to input so that will work in your favor. My best advice is to make sure whoever is with you knows what to watch for and that you both are on the same page regarding which hand gestures to use and how to communicate distance to driver. Make small adjustments and go slow allowing the trailer to have time to react to your input and you will be just fine. Also, if the trailer isnt going where you need it to, don't be afraid to pull forward and get it all straight then try again. Don't try to force it or it will just get in your head.Well, the in laws trailer is out, so that solved that quandary.
Now I just wish that I could borrow someone's trailer for a day to practice parking it.
That's my biggest worry right now. Having to back it up. And unfortunately, the rv spot I have booked isn't a pull through spot.
I have had precisely 2 memorably bad experiences backing up a trailer.
The first was backing up a 26' gooseneck cattle trailer around the corner of a barn to a gate. It was a decent sized 90* maneuver, but perfectly doable. What I didnt account for is that there are some places you can back a gooseneck into that are pretty much impossible to pull back out of. Luckily I was unloading and the guy had a tractor. I finished unloading, unhooked the truck, and used his tractor to maneuver the trailer back out from behind the barn and then hooked back up. Lesson learned.
The second was a short horse trailer behind a long bed, extended cab early 90s F250. The trailer had one of those pivoting axles to make it "easier" to back into tight spots. It made everything backwards and extremely fast. That is the last time I remember getting terribly frustrated trying to put a trailer where I needed it. I was ready to burn that hunk of junk to the ground and cut it up for scrap by the time I finally stopped and breathed for long enough to calm down and get it done.
We use a couple cheap walkie talkies for comms when backing. Most newer trailers have a spot for an optional camera to be mounted. Not that big a deal, just a lot slower response when correcting with longer trailers.
Well, the in laws trailer is out, so that solved that quandary.
Now I just wish that I could borrow someone's trailer for a day to practice parking it.
That's my biggest worry right now. Having to back it up. And unfortunately, the rv spot I have booked isn't a pull through spot.
With regards to backing or any other maneuvers with a travel trailer, take the rig to a large empty parking lot like at a church or closed shopping mall. Place out some cones to serve as an RV site and practice backing into it. Practice backing in from both the left and right sides, just in case.
You can also use the parking lot and cones to practice making turns in both direction, especially so with regards to making right hand turns at intersections.
It might have been already said but you can look for a camper rental place that would rent you the camper, set it up and haul it out for you at the spot of your choice. I travel events out of state and find camper rentals to take care of it all.
You are likely to max out on payload before you hit the tow rating. You’re going to have to subtract the weight of your passengers (their real weights, not what’s on their drivers licenses), the weight of any luggage you keep in the truck, anything extra you have in the truck that didn’t come from the factory, plus the weight of a weight-distributing hitch (which can weigh over 100lbs and is usually required to tow a trailer that weighs more than 5,000lbs), and, last but certainly not least, the tongue weight of the trailer. The tongue weight on a properly-loaded trailer should be 10-15% off the trailer’s gross weight, so if you get a 7500lb trailer, there goes 750-1125lbs of payload. Hope you can get all the luggage in the trailer, and hope the missus and the kids don’t have a big breakfast…
You’d do well to ask on a Ram forum, because someone there will likely know what Ram’s conditions were for figuring that payload figure—e.g, were they assuming a 200lb driver with a quarter tank of gas on steel wheels and the spare tire relocated to the trailer? That’ll make a difference on how much you can safely tow…
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