385rlts American sport by forest river. 2 or 3 axels. Help needed.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Danhobie

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2012
Posts
8
Hi everyone,
please help me if you can. i am looking at buying a 385rlts all American sport online. The one this guy has for sale has 2 axels.
Everywhere I look on google images and rvtrader has 3 axels. Is it an option when you buy them new from factory to have one less axel? Should I be avoiding this one that seems rare?
Oh it's a 2006 toy hauler.
 
Dan, I currently own a 2006 385 All American Sport with 3 axles. I moved up from a 2000 36CK Al American Sport with 2 axles. My wife and I really enjoy the extra space with the 3 slides vs. the 1 slide on the previous one. The 385 came with a complete set of factory brochures showing the construction process of the trailer and the sales brochure. All the literature shows the trailer with 2 axles. So I don't know why there is a difference in axles but I can tell you that the 385 is a heavy trailer. I would want one with 3 axles. I am even upgrading my tow vehicle to a HDT because of the tow weight. When I load my golf cart and Vulcan Voyager in the back its a handfull. My 2011 Chev 2500 HT diesel pulls it ok but it's right at the limits and I don't feel comfortable with that beast behind me. I have a Kenworth coming in a few days, should handle it just fine. 
 
Ok cool so your saying the brochure even has 2 axel trailers? That's a relief! I thought it might have Been chopped up and re built. I'm living out of it and not planning to move her much. I currently have a f150 ford raptor. It wouldn't pull the skin off a banana. So eventually will have to upgrade to a 350 when I start to travel around.
As an owner is there any maintenance issues or problem areas I should look out for with the trailer? Thanks for putting my mind at ease with the axel issue.
 
I have only owned this 385 a few months and so far the everything is good. I do keep it inside when I'm not using it so it stays protected. I did have to replace the carburator on the generator. The previous owner never used it, in fact the hour meter showed .5 hours when I got it. I run the generator about every 3-4 weeks for 20 mins or so. Works great. Good luck and enjoy.
 
The number of axles required is a function of the the maximum weight  the unit is designed to carry (GVWR) and the weight capacity of each of the axles (GAWR).  Without those numbers, you are only guessing but if later models of a similar size have 3 axles I would question it very closely too.

Are you sure it is a model 385 (38 feet??) or is there a typo somewhere, perhaps in the original ad itself??
 
I checked Nada and they have two 385's. one is a dual slide with two axles. The other is a triple slide with three axles.
How many slides does the one you are looking at have, if it's two the model number should end in DS not TS.
 
That makes sense....  DS is likely Dual Slide; and TS, Triple Slide. It also jives with the weight requirements as slides weigh a lot .

Those letters in the model are different for each manufacturer and so it is difficult to find what they actually mean, if anything!!
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
134,550
Posts
1,431,347
Members
140,125
Latest member
Schwabelectric
Back
Top Bottom