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RE: [RC] Truck and Trailer - suggestions? - David LeBlancThere's a lot of right choices here, and a lot depends on your budget. One thing to consider is that nearly any full-size truck will _pull_ what you have, the real question is whether it will _stop_ what you have, or whether the suspension will handle it. To get an idea of this, look at the towing guide, and look for GCVW - gross combined vehicle weight. Now add up how much your truck weighs (probably 6000-9000 pounds), add in the camper (unless you go the LQ route), the weight of the trailer, and about 1000 pounds/horse. Next, add in how much water you'll carry - 10 gallons is about 80 pounds. And guess how much extra stuff you'll put in - tack, dishes, food, etc, etc, etc. For an extreme example, you can learn from our mistakes. We bought a 33' Featherlite 4H, 13' LQ trailer, and tried to use our Chevy 3500 to tow it. It pulled OK, but when we tried to stop it going down a very steep hill, it threw the suspension out of whack, the front wheels shimmied violently, and we had smoke coming out of the wheel wells from overworked brakes. I didn't like that much, and my wife was REALLY not amused. So I foolishly thought the problem was Chevy vs. Ford, and while I was discussing options with the salesman, Jennifer was reading the towing guide. On the way home, she tells me a F-350 isn't going to cut it. Turns out the F-350 has a GCVW of 20,000 pounds, and we easily go over that. She wisely wanted some over capacity. We got an F-550 that has a GCVW of 26,000, and it's been doing great for the last 6 years. The whole thing of camper and bumper pull vs. LQ vs. motor home with bumper pull - all have pros and cons, and I'm not going to get into that now. The most important thing is to buy more than enough truck. -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Fay Kelley Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:30 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Truck and Trailer - suggestions? Need some help here. I need to figure out what sort of vehicle I should get.... Probably a deisel truck and a trailer that has sleep-in provisions and a sizeable tack storage. Suggestions please ? Thank you ~ -- Cheers, Fay Every day in Flagstaff is just another day in Paradise! C Fay S. Kelley Cell 928.600.1733 "There are many paths to Enlightenment. Be sure to take one with a heart." ~ Lao Tzu ~ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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