Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-07-2013, 10:42 PM   #1
Member
 
rycej's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 98
Brought home our first Travel Trailer today

Well the day has come and gone. We picked up our new (and first) travel trailer today. Had a great run through at our dealer (Kingston RV in Kingston Ontario, Canada). They have a hill coming from the back of the building where the shop is, to the front and where the parking lot is. It is quite the hill and no room for a run. I figured, that must be the test hill lol. If you can't get up it, your TV is wrong.

First thing I did was drive it the few blocks home and contact a buddy, who has driven everything from a large tour bus with a trailer to his current SUV and travel trailer, to come over and check things and help me safely get it in the driveway at home. First we took it for a short drive with him driving. He felt the truck and trailer were working fine together and just needed to adjusted the brake controller for the trailer brakes.

We will spend the next week loading it up with things and figuring out the best way to pack it so everything stays put during travel, then we go for a weekend camping on August 16th.

Thank you to all on this forum who have offered advice when I was looking at which trailer to get and other things. A fine group of people on this forum. I will try and upload a picture of our new setup at home here.

James.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	image.jpg
Views:	223
Size:	54.7 KB
ID:	37219  
rycej is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-07-2013, 10:46 PM   #2
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 88
Congrats! You have a nice rig and your very fortunate to have an experienced friend to help you through your learning curve. Enjoy and remember - those lucky enough to RV are lucky enough.
__________________

2012 GMC 3500 Duramax Crew Cab, SuperGlide 20k
2014 Cedar Creek 36B4, LP Onan, Level-Up, Trail-Air pin, electric fridge
Campwell is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2013, 07:13 AM   #3
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 13,709
Congrats on you new camper!
Wiscampsin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2013, 10:47 AM   #4
Broken Toe
 
Cowracer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Imperial (St. Louis) MO
Posts: 3,745
Congrats, but wow! That seems like an awful lot of trailer for a Ford Ranger.

tim
__________________
FROG Member MO-0008-571 Since 20124444444444My Project Blog: https://cowracer.blogspot.com/

"Camper" 2016
Rockwood Signature Ultralite 8329ss
"Casper" 2017 Ram 2500 Laramie Diesel
..ProPride 3P Hitch - "Yeah. It's worth it."
Cowracer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2013, 12:58 PM   #5
Junior Member
 
cfernandz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Panama City, Florida
Posts: 15
Congrats on the beautiful Surveyor!
cfernandz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2013, 10:21 PM   #6
Member
 
rycej's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 98
Thanks all. We have it setup in the driveway at the moment testing out some of the stuff. In fact my son and are sleeping in it tonight. So far everything's checking out great. Real test will be next weekend.
rycej is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2013, 10:27 PM   #7
Member
 
rycej's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowracer View Post
Congrats, but wow! That seems like an awful lot of trailer for a Ford Ranger.

tim
Well driving around it seemed perfectly fine. Went up and down some large hills with it. It is well under the weight limit of what the ranger is rated for plus it is setup with the WD hitch and brake controller.

I looked at a number of trailers and for what we wanted and needed, this seemed to be the best match. I will update some day on how it really handles on a road trip when we get out there.
rycej is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2013, 11:42 AM   #8
Broken Toe
 
Cowracer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Imperial (St. Louis) MO
Posts: 3,745
Quote:
Originally Posted by rycej View Post
Well driving around it seemed perfectly fine. Went up and down some large hills with it. It is well under the weight limit of what the ranger is rated for plus it is setup with the WD hitch and brake controller.

I looked at a number of trailers and for what we wanted and needed, this seemed to be the best match. I will update some day on how it really handles on a road trip when we get out there.

Not from a weight standpoint but from a power one. My Father in law has a 2002 ranger V6 and I pulled my PUP with it one time (about 3300# total) and it was horrible. The trans would not stay in any one gear, and hills just killed you speed. It was like I left the parking brake on.

Now, his Ranger might be a dog, but the PUP had waaay less wind resistance than your surveyor. I hope it all is good for you, but when you are 100 miles into a trip with 200 left to go, it sucks when you start dreading each uphill.

Tim
__________________
FROG Member MO-0008-571 Since 20124444444444My Project Blog: https://cowracer.blogspot.com/

"Camper" 2016
Rockwood Signature Ultralite 8329ss
"Casper" 2017 Ram 2500 Laramie Diesel
..ProPride 3P Hitch - "Yeah. It's worth it."
Cowracer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2013, 08:34 PM   #9
Member
 
rycej's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowracer View Post
Not from a weight standpoint but from a power one. My Father in law has a 2002 ranger V6 and I pulled my PUP with it one time (about 3300# total) and it was horrible. The trans would not stay in any one gear, and hills just killed you speed. It was like I left the parking brake on.

Now, his Ranger might be a dog, but the PUP had waaay less wind resistance than your surveyor. I hope it all is good for you, but when you are 100 miles into a trip with 200 left to go, it sucks when you start dreading each uphill.

Tim
Thanks Tim, for your comments on your history with a Ranger. I will keep an eye on how the truck handles this weekend. First trip out I will be sticking with the back roads rather than the main highway. We will only be about an hour from home but there are some pretty big and long hills involved. I will update how it goes
rycej is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2013, 09:23 PM   #10
Senior Member
 
wv campers's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 189
Congrats on the new camper. Enjoy!
wv campers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-13-2013, 02:14 PM   #11
Site Team
 
bikendan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Goodyear, Arizona
Posts: 33,602
Quote:
Originally Posted by rycej View Post
Thanks Tim, for your comments on your history with a Ranger. I will keep an eye on how the truck handles this weekend. First trip out I will be sticking with the back roads rather than the main highway. We will only be about an hour from home but there are some pretty big and long hills involved. I will update how it goes
i'd be interested in how it goes, having had a Ranger that i pulled popups with and would never attempt pulling a full height TT/HTT.
but i live in California and have numerous mountain ranges to pull over.
__________________
Dan-Retired California Firefighter/EMT
Shawn-Musician/Entrepreneur/Wine Expert
and Zoe the Wonder Dog(R.I.P.)
2016 PrimeTime TracerAIR 255, pushing a 2014 Ford F150 SCREW XTR 4x4 3.5 Ecoboost w/Max Tow Package
4pt Equal-i-zer WDH and 1828lbs of payload capacity
bikendan is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-18-2013, 05:53 PM   #12
Member
 
rycej's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 98
Well we had a successful trip!

Truck had no trouble at all pulling the trailer. Speed limit on most the roads I was on was 80 km and I kept the truck at around 90 km ( as no one drives speed limit around here). The route I took to get to the camp ground had us go up over a fair sized bridge, then right up a long and large hill (large enough to have a double lane for slower traffic going up). Managed to keep it going at 95 km up that hill. With overdrive turned off, the truck stayed at just around 2200 rpms while at the 80 to 90 km range. It didn't shift in and and out gears one bit. Now climbing the big hill, I had to give it more gas and it jumped to about 3500 rpms, but only for a minute or so. I would normally just stay at 80 going up that big a hill, but wanted to see how the truck would react to giving it a blast of gas.

Then on the twisty back country roads, again, no problems with handling the truck and trailer. I drove my buddy's Cadilac SUV which I think can pull 9700 lbs and his trailer is just a bit heavier than mine, and my truck and trailer felt the same way as far as bounce and pull.

We had a few small problems with the trailer that we will be taking it back to the dealer to be sorted out, but for the most part, it was a very good weekend!
rycej is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-18-2013, 08:03 PM   #13
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Mile 155 Suwannee River
Posts: 61
Congratulations for not falling victim to the idea that you need a $30000 trailer and $40000 truck to go camping.
SuwanneeDave is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-19-2013, 09:55 AM   #14
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Georgia
Posts: 647
Congrats. Glad to hear the Ranger worked out for you. I traded my Ranger, that was similar to yours, on a used F-150 with the 4.6L v8 as I was afraid the Ranger would never pull my Microlite 21FBRS. I didn't try it so maybe it would have. Any, glad it worked for you.
__________________
2021 Micro Lite 25FKBS
2021 Ford F-250 XLT CCSB 4wd w/ 6.2l and 6 sp. transmission, 3.73 locking axle
gmacklem is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2013, 07:32 AM   #15
Senior Member
 
mTn_biKer65's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Kingston, Ontario
Posts: 294
Very nice James. We (Family & Surveyor) live next door in Amherstview.
__________________
Nights camped
2007 Shamrock F19 hybrid - 2010 (22 nights), 2011 (24 nights), 2012 (11 nights)
2013 Surveyor Select 235RKS -
2012 (6 nights), 2013 (32 nights), 2014 (26 nights), 2015 (37 nights), 2016 (14 nights)
mTn_biKer65 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
trailer, travel, travel trailer

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Forest River, Inc. or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:59 PM.