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Camping anyone?


chops1sc

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So my wife and I decided we want to get a camper. I asked my dad for some advice since we always had one when I was growing up. He says "why don't y'all look at ours since it's too big for just your mom and I". I'm like, ok let me look around and see what's out there first. He says "we are going to give you this one". I'm like WHAT! So yeah, I'm going to look at it tomorrow and we're going to see about getting a fifth wheel hitch installed on my truck!

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Half tone trucks are mostly light duty when it comes to towing.  Be careful of not only the towing capacity but more importantly braking ability and suspension.  Also if you have a short bed get a sliding hitch.  

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Well I'm not too sure that will be necessary. Depending on the weight of the camper, my truck might be fine. He does have a sliding hitch, all I have to get is a set of rails mounted in the bed (he wants to keep his mounted). The max trailering capacity is 6100lbs according to the manual. And the camper has a max weight of 5800lbs. I don't think we would ever get it that heavy. I'm going to look at the specs after work today.

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I looked up the RPO codes and found out that my truck has the HD Trailering package which puts my maximum trailer weight at 9,600lbs and the GCWR at 15,000lbs. The GVWR is 6,800lbs and the camper is 5,810lbs, so my total weight at 12,610lbs plus gear. So I have 2,390lbs left to play with. The manual states that the short box trucks should not use a 5th wheel but the standard box is fine. With the sliding hitch and hitch extension (on the camper). I think it will be fine pulling this camper. I can monitor the tranny temps on the dash.

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GVWR is 6800lbs, how much does the truck weight by itself? I don't want to come off like a jerk for pushing this point on weight, but if your in an accident and your overweight on any of those your gonna be in for it.

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I understand, and appreciate your concern. I had planned on taking it to a weighing station once I got the hitch installed. I'll take the truck by there first and see how heavy it is.

 

Trust me, no one has doubted the ability of this truck more than me, lol! The more I dig for info and the more people I talk to that say it will be fine leads me to believe them.

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There is no doubt it will pull it just fine, but legally is the question. In my younger (dumber) days I pulled a 11,000lb skid steer with a '98 5.2L Dodge Dakota! It pulled it, but no where near legally!

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I picked up a Tekonsha brake control. That will be fun to install, lol!

 

 

It should be a piece of cake.  Look in your glove box and you should have a pig tail.  Unless it comes only with some sort of option.  I have always seen them in the glove box however.  My current GM vehicle come with a brake controller from GM.

 

Looks like from this article GM quite supplying the pigtail.  The below link may however be helpful to you.

 

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-tb-0007-2007-2009-GM-Full-Size-Truck-Brake-Control.aspx

Edited by LFairbanks
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I ended up buying a hitch rail kit from etrailer.com. Everywhere I looked to get one installed was at least $600 including the kit. I can install it myself and save $300!

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Looks like a nice little trailer.  Did you change out the spare as well?  With my wife being into horses, we usually do the tent thing, as the horses always come along.  I know they make horse / camp trailers, but they are pricey, about 30K on the cheap side.  Saw one even for 112K.  When we first looked for a horse trailer for her, a brand new one was just slightly more than a used POS.  

Edited by LFairbanks
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After talking with the tire guy, he said there would be no reason not to use the spare that was used for the blow out my dad had last year. It looked good so it went back on the rear and we just got 4 new tires. I tried to go to the next size up but it would have only left about a 1" gap to the wheel well so I went with the original size. I will be looking at tire covers to help them all last as long as possible. I also gave it a bath with help from my daughter!

 

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71AAEF71-22B4-48A9-9E2C-DEBDFCF417DF.jpg

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You mentioned that your spare was used in place of a blow out already.  I would think that the spare is just as old as the tire that blew out.  A tire that isn't being used is actually more detrimental than it is on a tire being used.  It is quite hard to be able to tell the what condition a tire is in by looking at it alone.  Age is a big factor in the durability of a tire.  From what I have read 7-10 years is the typical lifespan of a tire.  

 

This website will tell you how to determine exactly how old a tire is and if there is any recalls associated with it.  Simply find the numbers on the sidewall of the tire (tire DOT code) and plug them in.  

 

Also found a couple of articles that may help you as well.  The first two articles probably apply more to vehicle tires than they do a travel trailer.  

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=183

 

http://www.michelintruck.com/assets/pdf/bulletins/TB_Service_Life_RV_Tires.pdf

 

http://www.trailerlife.com/trailer-how-to/trailer-tech/rolling-along-safely-a-tire-guide/

 

Found this article to be quite informative.  Tire life expectancy that they list of 3-5 years for a trailer tire seems low, but I found those recommendations on other websites as well.  IMO, I wouldn't go over 7 years on any tire.  

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.  Just trying to be helpful.  I have seen blowouts at work cause some serious damage to vehicles.  They however are inflated to greater pressures than what you would have on a travel trailer.  The structural durability however is greater than what you would see in any travel trailer too, but the damage was substantial.  Not sure if I'am making any sense.  Looked like a bomb had gone off.

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Looks like the spare is around 8 years old, LOL! I will be replacing it as well. Thank you for the info!

 

On a different note, I got a nice 50' 12/3 cord for hooking up while at home and the A/C works great! I will be testing out everything in the coming days as we hope to take it out this weekend to our local state park. My wife is going stir crazy to get the decor upgraded. I need to get a piece of outdoor carpet and decide on a portable grill. I use gas at home but I'm thinking about a small charcoal grill to keep in the camper. That smell always reminded me of camping when I was a kid. The list keeps growing and growing!

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