VallAndMo
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 6, 2011
- Posts
- 550
Hello everyone,
After spending the last few years planning to go the truck+5thWheel way for our fulltime RVing retirement, we've recently started considering going with a truck+TC instead.
We still know very little re: TCs (for a summary of our knowledge so far, please see this post), so we'd like to ask you more experienced folks a few questions:
1) what is the recommended total weight we should set aside for cargo? We were planning on 2500-3000lb for the 5th wheel, but we know we will need to downsIze that a lot for a TC. Still, what range should we consider? As to ourselves and our planned RVing style, we are a married couple on our early 50s, with no kids and no pets, we're pretty healthy and interested in outdoor activities (hiking, biking, kayaking, exploring, stargazing with and without a telescope, and photography), and plan on staying as much as possible next to Nature (ie boondocking), specially in the US SW deserts.
2) as to the TC proper, we would like it to be as rugged and maintenance-free as possible, and to have good thermal insulation, hard sides and top, a dry bath and a cassette toilet. So far, we've researched Arctic Fox campers (mainly due to it being one of the manufacturers in the shortlist for our 5thWheel plans) but they seem to be rather heavy and not to have any models with cassette toilets, and Northern Lites (great name and they seem to have hardshell units that are both very light and with dry baths and cassette toilets, but they are rather expensive, and their factory is located in Canada). Do you folks have any considerations re: these manufacturers, and/or recommend we look into any other brands and manufacturers?
3) we've recently learned that, besides weight, TC COG location is an important consideration when matching a TC and truck, but the sum of our knowledge in that area is presently the contents of the 3rd page of this PDF (http://m.ramtrucks.com/download/pdf/manuals/2015-RAM_15_25_35-Camper-Guide-3rd.pdf), whis is of course specific for RAM trucks. Can you people recommend any other resources for us to learn more about that? Also, besides weight and COG, is there anything else we should learn re: truck and TC matching?
4) we were planning on a diesel 4WD SRW CC LB truck to pull the 5thWheel, and were initially planning to keep it in our plans for the TC, but it seems that (a) we will need a DRW instead to deal with the added RA load for the TC, and (b) it seems a SB (short bed) is better for a TC setup than a LB?! This seems very intriguing to us as it's the exact opposite for a 5thWheel, but in our TC research so far we've seem some hints that a SB truck would allow the TC to have more rear "overhang", unconstrained by the bed sides, and therefore better space utilization. Is this true? What other considerations re: the truck should we learn about and/or keep in mind as we adapt our plans for a TC?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
--
Vall and Mo.
After spending the last few years planning to go the truck+5thWheel way for our fulltime RVing retirement, we've recently started considering going with a truck+TC instead.
We still know very little re: TCs (for a summary of our knowledge so far, please see this post), so we'd like to ask you more experienced folks a few questions:
1) what is the recommended total weight we should set aside for cargo? We were planning on 2500-3000lb for the 5th wheel, but we know we will need to downsIze that a lot for a TC. Still, what range should we consider? As to ourselves and our planned RVing style, we are a married couple on our early 50s, with no kids and no pets, we're pretty healthy and interested in outdoor activities (hiking, biking, kayaking, exploring, stargazing with and without a telescope, and photography), and plan on staying as much as possible next to Nature (ie boondocking), specially in the US SW deserts.
2) as to the TC proper, we would like it to be as rugged and maintenance-free as possible, and to have good thermal insulation, hard sides and top, a dry bath and a cassette toilet. So far, we've researched Arctic Fox campers (mainly due to it being one of the manufacturers in the shortlist for our 5thWheel plans) but they seem to be rather heavy and not to have any models with cassette toilets, and Northern Lites (great name and they seem to have hardshell units that are both very light and with dry baths and cassette toilets, but they are rather expensive, and their factory is located in Canada). Do you folks have any considerations re: these manufacturers, and/or recommend we look into any other brands and manufacturers?
3) we've recently learned that, besides weight, TC COG location is an important consideration when matching a TC and truck, but the sum of our knowledge in that area is presently the contents of the 3rd page of this PDF (http://m.ramtrucks.com/download/pdf/manuals/2015-RAM_15_25_35-Camper-Guide-3rd.pdf), whis is of course specific for RAM trucks. Can you people recommend any other resources for us to learn more about that? Also, besides weight and COG, is there anything else we should learn re: truck and TC matching?
4) we were planning on a diesel 4WD SRW CC LB truck to pull the 5thWheel, and were initially planning to keep it in our plans for the TC, but it seems that (a) we will need a DRW instead to deal with the added RA load for the TC, and (b) it seems a SB (short bed) is better for a TC setup than a LB?! This seems very intriguing to us as it's the exact opposite for a 5thWheel, but in our TC research so far we've seem some hints that a SB truck would allow the TC to have more rear "overhang", unconstrained by the bed sides, and therefore better space utilization. Is this true? What other considerations re: the truck should we learn about and/or keep in mind as we adapt our plans for a TC?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
--
Vall and Mo.