Towing my 32' travel trailer

[alwalden22]

We bought our first TT. 32' Colman Lantern 295qb. So far so great. We are exploring our backyard state parks. Hitting up Key Largo at the end of this month.

 

[LoNeStAr]

Nice. What are your trailer specs as far as weight? No issues pulling that length? I was trying to keep the length of the ones we are looking at below 30’ but the ones we like are around 32-34’ but light weight.

 

[alwalden22]

Nice. What are your trailer specs as far as weight? No issues pulling that length? I was trying to keep the length of the ones we are looking at below 30’ but the ones we like are around 32-34’ but light weight.

The trailer dry is about 6300lbs.
dry tongue weight is about 814lbs
Towing weight is about 7000lbs loaded.
Overall I am coming in around 12,900 GCWR which leaves about 1k lbs before I am overweight for the 3.21 gear ratio
I am slightly over my payload capacity but under my gross axle weight ratings.

So far I haven't had any issues or errors with the air ride system. I have a decent weight distribution system that has active sway control. I am still adjusting things with the hitch, but overall its a pretty comfortable ride.

Hindsight - Pay attention to the tongue weights you are shopping for. There are 32' travel trailers with tongue weights 100-200lbs less then mine. I wish I crunched the numbers a little more so that I could shop better and save some payload capacity.

 

[LoNeStAr]

The trailer dry is about 6300lbs.
dry tongue weight is about 814lbs
Towing weight is about 7000lbs loaded.
Overall I am coming in around 12,900 GCWR which leaves about 1k lbs before I am overweight for the 3.21 gear ratio
I am slightly over my payload capacity but under my gross axle weight ratings.

So far I haven't had any issues or errors with the air ride system. I have a decent weight distribution system that has active sway control. I am still adjusting things with the hitch, but overall its a pretty comfortable ride.

Hindsight - Pay attention to the tongue weights you are shopping for. There are 32' travel trailers with tongue weights 100-200lbs less then mine. I wish I crunched the numbers a little more so that I could shop better and save some payload capacity.

Thanks for the info. Glad it is towing well for you. I really Like the Keystone Bullets. Pretty light overall, tongue weights aren’t too high and they have the wider apart axles. Which is supposed to help with overall towing and sway.

 

[Mike W]

I just bought a 2020 Highland Ridge Open Range Ultra Lite UT28002BH. Its 31'9" long and dry weight is 6380. The Tongue weight is 650 LBS I tow with 3.21 and have no problems. I just went camping last weekend and it was 117 degrees outside and towed up 6-7% 6 mile grade. I watched the temps and they barely moved. I was going 50 mph and rand about 2500 rpm.

 

[LoNeStAr]

Good looking rig. Glad to hear the 3.21 gears have no issue towing that size

 

[Big Dave TX]

Good looking rig. Glad to hear the 3.21 gears have no issue towing that size

My dry weight is about 6300# and with some pots and pans, etc. and a little water in the tanks (they never seem to completely empty) I'm towing at about 7200#. My max is appx. 8300# (3.21 rear end) and the tongue weight is 730. I sagged and sometimes it was hard to tell who was driving, so I added Timbrens in the back and it just hums right along. On the Interstate I run 65 and it's fine. All the temps exactly the same as when I'm running around town naked (so to speak). Coming back from the beach we used some state highways with lower speeds and I got nearly 11 mpg! The trip down on the big highways at 65 it's about 9 mpg.

 

[LoNeStAr]

A rear living floor plan is what I am looking for.

 

[Big Dave TX]

I guess this is rear living. Obviously in something light enough the 'living' space is somewhat limited but we are comfortable enough. At first I thought the tv would be too small but it has been fine. In the second pic, the door is to the bedroom. There is a little hall there that has the door (a real door, top to bottom) to the bathroom (behind the tv) which is a good size and works fine for us. As the screen name indicates, I am plenty big and the wife is full grown (and beautiful). The king size bed (RV king) keeps extra space in the bedroom to a minimum but sleeping is good so that's about all we can expect from a light trailer with a king bed. There is also an outside door in the bedroom which is very handy.

 

[WhattheTruck!]

Like many of you, we are gearing up for camping adventures with a travel trailer as well. This thread has been very helpful, thank you all for contributing!

I've been doing research and put together a simple spreadsheet based on my specific Ram's numbers to see what our options are. I'll be adding some additional assumptions around gear weight (hoses, clothes, supplies, pots/pans, ~15G water, etc.) to help button up my research, but this is what I'm working with.

I think I've spent months looking (virtually) at every single BH option out there... and there are definitely some that I prefer more than what I have listed below, but we're homing in on trailers that a) fall within safe numbers and b) modifiable rear BH floor plan, if necessary, to suit our needs. The Apex is currently top of the list, but we're hoping to see information on the Jay Feather before an impulse buy...

Truck:	Ram | 1500 | Big Horn | CC | 4x4 | 144.5"WB | 3.0L
Tire:	275/65 R18 116T
Tire load rating:	2,806
Fully Loaded:	2 adults | 2 children | 1 dog
Travel Trailer:	TBD
Truck Weights	Factory	Scales (Fully loaded)	Available Capacity
GAWR Front	3,900	3,440	460
GAWR Rear	4,100	2,680	1,420
GVWR	7,200	6,120	1,080
GCVWR (Pay+Tow)	17,134
Max Payload (Door Jamb)	1,534
Max Towing (MyRam Website)	9,934
Trailer Weights	Solaire 292QBSK	Apex 300BHS	Jay Feather 30QB
Hitch Weight	845	672	TBD
UVW	5,893	5,975	TBD
GVWR	7,845	7,600	TBD
Hitch	112	112	112

 

[LoNeStAr]

Look at the Keystone Bullet as they are lite

 

[WhattheTruck!]

Look at the Keystone Bullet as they are lite

The 287QBS is on my list as well. They're our favorite for look/feel in this weight range. It's slightly higher on the hitch weight over the apex at 735lb., and didn't have much in the way of kitchen storage (drawers). It does have our favorite configuration in the BH with the dinette (we'll mod a trailer that doesn't have this if needed).

What you can't see on the spreadsheet excerpt above is the other 10+ BH trailers we've 'shortlisted'... >.<

 

[Mike W]

Just got back from another camping trip and love our new bunk house. Open range Ultra Lite UT2802BH. It has a lot of cool options. The A/C is whisper quiet unlike our 2 year old Jayco. the Jayco A/C was really loud. It also has a PVC roof and has a 15 year zero maintenance warrantee. I don't have to get it UV treated every year.

 

[WhattheTruck!]

Just got back from another camping trip and love our new bunk house. Open range Ultra Lite UT2802BH. It has a lot of cool options. The A/C is whisper quiet unlike our 2 year old Jayco. the Jayco A/C was really loud. It also has a PVC roof and has a 15 year zero maintenance warrantee. I don't have to get it UV treated every year.

Awesome! We looked hard at the parallel bunk/bath configurations. This one was on top of our list as well for that particular layout. And the ~650lb. hitch weight was fantastic. We ultimately landed on the BH 'room' layout, however, and Highland currently doesn't have that layout in their ultra lite models.

 

[Mike W]

I got mine from RV Wholesale Club. They have about 8 Dealerships. I got mine in Kentucky because it had the Theater seating we wanted. They had a Dealer in Georgia with a very similar layout and there is Dealer in Nashville with a larger couch/dinning table plan. The lady who does the online sales is awesome.

 

[Mike W]

Are you looking at the separate BH room version.

 

[WhattheTruck!]

Are you looking at the separate BH room version.

Me? Totally.

 

[Mike W]

I like the idea of the separate room but the ones we looked at the bunks were to small. My 14 year old son is already 6'2". I needed the bigger bunks.

 

[WhattheTruck!]

I like the idea of the separate room but the ones we looked at the bunks were to small. My 14 year old son is already 6'2". I needed the bigger bunks.

I hear ya. Most are ~74" max. We have little ones, currently (6 & 3), so we're expecting to get plenty of time to grow into / out-of it.

 

[LoNeStAr]

The Keystone Bullet with the separate BH is a nice layout