Totally New At This - Looking for Advice on both Trailer AND Tow Vehicle

I'm so glad I found this forum!

At any rate, my plan is to travel the U.S. for a couple years with a vehicle and a trailer.  Since it's just me, I don't need a lot of space in the trailer but I'd still like it to be a little comfy so I don't hate sitting around in it!  Used is ABSOLUTELY fine with me!

I'm looking for advice on what size/brand trailer to get and what vehicles you recommend for towing it around.  I want to be free to explore the cities I visit, so I want to be able to leave my "home" behind on a campground.  Really hope you can point me in the right direction before I go shopping! 

Welcome! One thing you can do to start is to go to a local dealer and look around, not to buy, but to get a feeling for what you want or need and what you don't want. For example, for me, I wanted a bedroom with wood doors, not a curtain or accordian door because I valued the privacy since I travel with my kids. For you, that may be the last thing on Earth you care about. So take a look and see what details you you can add to your must have (or not have) list and go from there.

RVMommaTo6 said:

One thing you can do to start is to go to a local dealer and look around, not to buy, but to get a feeling for what you want or need and what you don't want.

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I really appreciate the advice but I don't live near a dealer AND I'm soooo bad at dealing with pressure from sales people!  I'm hoping to get some basic information/ideas before I make the trek to the closest dealer.

Find the trailer that you want first, and only when you have the details as to how much its going to weigh and so forth, go find a truck or other vehicle that can safely tow that.

Understand that both the RV salesman and the truck salesman are on commission, and both will almost certainly lie to you about the capabilities of what they're trying to sell you if that will get them the sale.  Sad, but true.  The few honest ones out there may not deliberately lie, but may honestly be ignorant or misinformed about towing.

For Ford products, Ford publishes some excellent towing guides that will give you the straight scoop as to what their vehicles can and can't tow.  You'll find them here:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/towing-guides/

I'm sure GM and Ram have similar info available if you hunt for it.

You need to understand such concepts Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, Gross Axle Weight Ratings, Gross Combined Weight Rating, Cargo Carrying Capacity, Tongue Weight, and so on.

Example:

Your Vehicles Curb Weight (The empty vehicle with a full tank of gas and all other fluids - ant-freeze, etc.) PLUS the weight of all passengers and cargo in the vehicle PLUS the tongue weight of the trailer = the Gross Vehicle Weight.  This is the actual weight of the vehicle, and it needs to be LESS than the published Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, which is the amount of weight the engineers who designed it say it can safely carry.

Then get the Gross Vehicle Weight of your trailer, fully loaded with water and propane and everything it is carrying - food, pots and pans, clothing, bedding, etc.

Add together both GVWs and you'll have your Gross Combined Weight, which again, must be lower than published Gross Combined Weight Rating for the tow vehicle.

Hope that helps

Will you have pets?  Cats need space for litter pans large dogs can need lots of space
Do you have hobbies that need space.  Sewing, woodworking etc
Do you hike, swim etc might be beneficial to have an outside shower for animals and you
Do you have mobility issues
and where are you more or less
So we need to know about your lifestyle in order to advise you

darsben said:

Will you have pets?  Cats need space for litter pans large dogs can need lots of space
Do you have hobbies that need space.  Sewing, woodworking etc
Do you hike, swim etc might be beneficial to have an outside shower for animals and you
Do you have mobility issues
and where are you more or less
So we need to know about your lifestyle in order to advise you

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No pets.  No hobbies - mostly just want space to fix myself food/sit and eat and to have room for clothes.  No mobility issues.  I plan to travel to Florida, Texas, California, Oregon...at the very least.  I just came into a situation where I can do something for myself and this is what I decided I want to do - travel until I decide where I want to spend living the next chunk of my life.