Recommended travel trailer brands

You really need to weigh your truck and subtract your payload on your door from that. My my gross weight rating of my Ram is 7,100lbs. My door sticker says 1784lbs of payload. My truck actually weighs My truck weighs 5760lbs with a full tank of gas and just me in the truck. That really only leaves me with 1340lbs of payload. You have to figure around 12% for toung weight plus a Weight distribution hitch. Always go by gvwr, empty weight don't mean crap. Our trailer is 26' from bumper to hitch and weighs 5,500 loaded for travel. With you're family of 5, I would consider moving up to a 1 ton truck of your choice and then looking at travel trailers.

Chris, I highly doubt your truck can pull 13,000 pounds behind it. You need to find the GCWR number, that is the total combined weight of your loaded truck plus the loaded trailer. Your truck has a GVWR of 7000 pounds. Thats the maximum weight of your loaded truck including passengers and gear and tongue weight. Subtract that from the GCWR to find the maximum weight you can tow behind it. For example, I have a 2016 F150 4X4 crew cab 5 litre V8 with factory tow package. It has a GCWR rating of 14,000 pounds. The truck alone has a GVWR rating of 7050 pounds. This means I can tow just shy of 7000 pounds total, that's the total weight of the trailer, PLUS its contents.. This is on a rear bumper tow hitch. I tow a 2018 25 foot Forest River Surveyor that has an empty weight of 4160 pounds, 425 pound tongue weight, with a weight distribution hitch. With it's contents it's close to 5000 pounds. Works well. Very important to know these numbers first before purchasing any trailer. And then try not to max everything out.

As for trailers themselves most brands are similar in their good and poor points. Our personal experience over the years is a fridge and toilet are a must. Ovens, microwaves, and showers not so much. A slide out is nice to expand the interior, just make sure when it is closed you can still access and use the interior space if you stop somewhere you can't put the slide out. Windows that actually open, on both sides of the trailer, are a must for ventilation. Too many trailers are lacking this. Tandem axles are also a must in my opinion. Carry more weight easily and more control if a tire blows out.

This shows your max dead weight trailer weight to be 5,000 lbs and your maximum trailer weight with weight distribution to be 12,700 lbs and a GCVWR of 18,400 lbs max. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/vindecoder.php?vin=1FTEW1E44KKD97743 so if your truck is loaded to it's 7,000 lbs max that leaves 11,400 for a trailer. But this is where most folks make the mistake of believing in that number. It is pretty near impossible to reach that number without going over the payload number due to tongue weight. You could tow a 11,000 lb 4 wheel farm wagon with next to no tongue weight but that's about it and even then the numbers limit you to 5,000 lbs dead weight.

The max towing number is for sales. All the truck manufacturers compete to show big numbers but in real life they are not attainable. The trailer sales people also use the max towing number and normally they will ignore payload out of ignorance or out of greed to make a sale.

I've seen some of the newer Ford F150s with over 2500 lbs of payload but I haven't looked to see what you get for that.

One thing that puzzles me is your VIN shows 17" wheels on two sites but your sticker shows 18" wheels.

B1Toad said:

This shows your max dead weight trailer weight to be 5,000 lbs and your maximum trailer weight with weight distribution to be 12,700 lbs and a GCVWR of 18,400 lbs max. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/vindecoder.php?vin=1FTEW1E44KKD97743 so if your truck is loaded to it's 7,000 lbs max that leaves 11,400 for a trailer. But this is where most folks make the mistake of believing in that number. It is pretty near impossible to reach that number without going over the payload number due to tongue weight. You could tow a 11,000 lb 4 wheel farm wagon with next to no tongue weight but that's about it and even then the numbers limit you to 5,000 lbs dead weight.

The max towing number is for sales. All the truck manufacturers compete to show big numbers but in real life they are not attainable. The trailer sales people also use the max towing number and normally they will ignore payload out of ignorance or out of greed to make a sale.

I've seen some of the newer Ford F150s with over 2500 lbs of payload but I haven't looked to see what you get for that.

One thing that puzzles me is your VIN shows 17" wheels on two sites but your sticker shows 18" wheels.

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My RV and tow vehicle knowledge is literally decades out of date - BUT - there's no way I'd tow anything even vaguely close to these numbers with a half ton truck - or even a three quarter on the higher end. It would scare me half to death. But what do I know? We had a 29' fifth wheel that was just shy of 8,000 lbs dry that we towed with a succession of two 1 tons - one of them being a certain GMC I may have mentioned a time or two...

Just rent

EDIT: lack of reading skill. T@B 400 would only sleep 4 comfortably with the bunk bed options. Didn't even think about it because my boys sleep in the RTT

Check out the T@B 400. The newer models have bunk beds. We have a earlier model and I am very very impressed with the build quality. No MDF, Particle board, everything is made from birch plywood. We have had ours for close to 5-6 years now and the only issue we have had was me breaking stuff. (like snapping off the black tank handle)

cliffish said:

Just rent

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This is what I do. When I’m done I drop it off and go home.

cliffish said:

Just rent

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I was going to suggest this also. We rented a class C last year. Was an amazing trip and got us talking about maybe purchasing an rv or trailer. Decided that for $2k or so for a couple week trip to rent yearly, we could repeat for 10+ years (assuming a $20-25k camper) and not have to worry about maintenance, storage, etc.

Also a good opportunity to try it to make sure it's something the family enjoys!

Look at rvshare. It's the Airbnb of rvs and campers.

Andymc79 said:

I was going to suggest this also. We rented a class C last year. Was an amazing trip and got us talking about maybe purchasing an rv or trailer. Decided that for $2k or so for a couple week trip to rent yearly, we could repeat for 10+ years (assuming a $20-25k camper) and not have to worry about maintenance, storage, etc.

Also a good opportunity to try it to make sure it's something the family enjoys!

Look at rvshare. It's the Airbnb of rvs and campers.

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I'm not against the idea but people are disgusting..

P man said:

I'm not against the idea but people are disgusting..

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Ha! True story!

Andymc79 said:

Ha! True story!

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I just did some checking on that site and looks like $200 ish per night for a motorhome which is about what a motel would be but you are paying for gas. Definitely a good option for some people

P man said:

I just did some checking on that site and looks like $200 ish per night for a motorhome which is about what a motel would be but you are paying for gas. Definitely a good option for some people

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Yep, it definitely isn't any cheaper than doing a hotel trip once you factor in campsites, extra gas, daily rental fee, etc.

And like Airbnb experiences, some will likely be great (the family we rented from were amazing and the rv was nearly new) and other could be questionable. I guess Airbnb won't let you down on the side of the road though

We rented a Jayco for a couple weeks out in AZ a few winters ago. We used outdoorsy.com

Fairly new camper was clean and all but it was a POS. We had a 2006 holiday rambler 5th wheel and it was pretty solid but didn’t want to drag it across the country. When I say solid, meaning I had fixed and beefed up much stuff that self destructed over the years.

Once you figure out what you can safely pull the idea of renting a few sounds pretty appealing to me to get a feel for what you want as there’s plenty of available rentals in the Phoenix area.

RV’s remind me of buying a snowmobile. When I asked which brand was better the salesman said: “ choose your poison, they’re all junk”

Build quality can certainly be better on some brands but they put many of the same crap components into all of them.

Also you’re dragging your home down ever deteriorating roads so shit always breaks.

Keeping one garaged and under cover when not being used goes a long ways towards lessening maintenance.

I had a NoBo 19.1 toy hauler. The quality was pretty lacking but that seems to be an industry issue. I can specifically speak to some of the issues with the NoBo. During construction someone used screws about an inch to long to attach the bed framing to the floor. They drilled through the floor and into the fresh water tank. I found this on my inspection and the dealer repaired it. The interior panels are just held on with staples. They will work there way out constantly and litter the floor after each trip. The plumbing in the bathroom sink would separate whenever it was towed. I just made a brace and kept it under the p-trap. The trailer needed to be leveled or the door would stick shut. I'm not sure if this is specific to the toy hauler hauler since the rear opens. The AC was very loud and didn't blow hard enough push much air to the front of the trailer. On the plus side it did tow very easily. I towed it with a 2013 F150 5.0. It is also a great looking trailer. Unfortunately I can't give you a long term review. I bought mine right at the beginning of 2020 but sold it 6 months later, due to being laid off.

If anyone is interested in an Airstream cheap Copart just got in a bunch of hail damaged ones https://www.copart.com/lotSearchResults?free=true&query=airstream