[Bessiethevoodooblue]

Hello everyone. I have a question. We are transferring across country and are looking to travel by TT. It will be, my husband, and two kids (girl 16 and boy 11).
We would like to stay with a TT that has bunks for them and ideally have a door to their space. There are so many options out there and I have a bigger taste than my tundra can haul. (Champagne taste beer budget). I don’t want to modify my truck by placing a fifth wheel receiver in it. We plan to purchase a road toad to take the tongue weight off and alleviate the payload issue.
Can you recommend a few TTs that would fit with our needs?

 

[cerisestars]

Hm, that is an interesting thought. I hope someone can answer this post.

 

[jmansouri]

Not sure what a road toad is, but we have an aerolite 28 ft with bunks and a small slide out. Tows nicely and is comfortable.

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[Bessiethevoodooblue]

Not sure what a road toad is, but we have an aerolite 28 ft with bunks and a small slide out. Tows nicely and is comfortable.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

most essentially an extra axle that sits under your trailer tongue to take all the tongue weight.

TrailerToad.com

 

[jmansouri]

That's interesting, however unless you're going to max out the payload and towing capacity of the tundra a good setup of weight distribution hitch will serve you just fine. I imagine that toad setup isn't cheap. To each his own though!

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[bzboy]

We had a Keystone trailer that was about 30ft long with a bunkhouse in the back that we took cross country. I installed a tekonsha brake controller and definitely look at anti sway hitch bars.

 

[Djmonijnj]

It’s a tundra it should pull anything you put on it. I tow a trailer and have maxed the payload out so many times. My tundra has 325,000 miles and runs as good as the day I bought it.

 

[thedvldog]

I just bought a Grand Design "Imagine" which comes in various floor plans. It is a tad more expensive but nowhere near Airstream pricing. It is a 26 foot TT. I have a weight distribution system and some air bags and my Tundra tows it no problem. I have been back and forth from Texas to California twice, with no issues.

 

[Mikecol]

You should be able to get a full size TT with a good weight distributing hitch (WDH) and your Tundra will tow it just fine. You should not need the trailer toad.

I had a 2008 Jayfeather 32 ft TT and it pulled fine with a 4.6L CM Tundra. The nice thing about the Jayfeather is that it has a lower profile so it pushes less air, and that is really the key to towing a big trailer. If you have not noticed, a TT without a slide out has a much lower height profile. Most slide outs create a lot of extra trailer height and thus push more air. The Jayfeather was more like a non-slide out trailer and it worked well. I don't know if the new Jayfeathers are the same as the one I had, but the point is to pay attention to the height profile of the trailer for good highway towing.

Take it easy. I run mine around 60 mph in 3rd or 4th gear and manually run the throttle so the truck is not down shifting on every hill or incline.

Make sure to set up your WDH so that your trailer and truck are as level as possible and doesn't buck up and down over the bumps. It takes some screwing around with the ball height vs. the tightness of the WDH spring bars to get it right.

Don't skimp on the spring bars. If anything, get the next higher rated bars than your trailer requires. I find the stiffer bars make the combination less likely to buck up and down on bumps.

You will find a nice happy spot where the truck and trailer mostly go through bumps as a single unit instead of bucking up and down but it takes some time to keep adjusting the ball height and the spring bar tension to get it right. Basically, set the ball height so when you pull the bars up tight, the truck is almost level and the trailer is dead level. Drive it and see how it takes the bumps. If it bucks, lower the ball a little and pull up the bars tighter so the trailer is level again. After a couple of tries, you will find the best combination of the ball height and spring bar tension.

Note, the bars are going to be tight when you get it right. I usually make a extension out of pipe to give me more leverage when I am pulling the bars up and letting them down. BE CAREFUL. Don't have any part of your body or face in front of that bar when you are pulling up the bars or letting them down. There can be a lot of force there and you don't want to lose control of that bar and get hit in the mouth. You can use the trailer electric hitch jack to lifi the back of your truck to take pressure off the spring bars when you get ready to disconnect them (you can use the jack when hooking up the bars too if you want). And keep in mind that if the truck is not level side to side as compared to the trailer, one bar is going to be significantly tighter than the other. So be careful.

Have fun. There is nothing better than camping across the fruited planes.

 

[daka320]

First thing, are you only using it to move across country and than every other month or so to camp? If so, rent one out. It is cheaper!
If not, tay under 27-28 feet long and 8000 lbs or less. Longer and heavier will work on flatter areas but in the mountains and windy areas it is not good.
Buy a good WDH with sway control. We have one of the cheaper ones. It works, but in the market for a better one.
Stay away from cheap Keystone, Jayco, Coleman, and other TT. Outdoors RV, Northwood, Grand Design, ATC, Winnebago, and of course AirStream are some of your better TT. Trust me, you are better off spending an extra $10k on a better TT than some of the cheap junk some of these manufacturers are throwing out there.
If I were to buy another one it would be a toy hauler made by the better manufacturers. You have kids! More versatile space is better. Also, slideouts are heavier.
Be prepared to spend $3-$4k on accessories.
And finally, Do Not buy or service a TT from Camping World!!! Most horrible place around. Buy accessories from them, Amazon, Wal-Mart and EBay.

 

[Jgvollmer79]

Hello everyone. I have a question. We are transferring across country and are looking to travel by TT. It will be, my husband, and two kids (girl 16 and boy 11).
We would like to stay with a TT that has bunks for them and ideally have a door to their space. There are so many options out there and I have a bigger taste than my tundra can haul. (Champagne taste beer budget). I don’t want to modify my truck by placing a fifth wheel receiver in it. We plan to purchase a road toad to take the tongue weight off and alleviate the payload issue.
Can you recommend a few TTs that would fit with our needs?

I know the feeling that you are having. Picked up a 26 foot (30 foot total length) Forest River Tracer the end of last year and have already taken two fairly long road trips to South Carolina and Kentucky (from Maryland). Some may argue that it's a "cheaply made" TT, but it serves our purpose since we wanted something to vacation in without needing the quality of something that we were living in full time...everyone loves it. I've got a wife and two kids, 10 and 12, and have a similar setup for what you are looking at, a bunk in the back and a slide out with a kitchen table and couch. I don't have a separate door to the kids bunk, but that wasn't on my list of needs.
I have a degree of trailer envy when I see some other bigger rigs and 5th wheels, but I wouldn't change anything about our purchase if I had to do it again unless I went with a 3/4 ton or larger truck. I have a 2012 CM Rock Warrior and I personally wanted to pull a camper that was comfortable enough to stay in on a rainy day (it will happen plenty) and large enough that I wasn't maxing out all the specs.
Pay the most attention to the GVWR and my suggestion is to stay around the 8000 pound mark. I think that will cap you out at the 28 foot length. Running the VIN, my capacity is 8,100 I wanted to stay as below that number as possible as I knew we were going to do a lot of driving. My TT is 7600 GVWR with a dry weight of about 5700 lbs. The hills and the wind driving through West Virginia assured me that we made the right decision.
I agree with everyone that a good weight distributing hitch should suffice. I've never seen a trailer toad out there, but it looks to me like another option for people who want to overload their capacity. Stay within the specs of the truck and you will make a ton of great memories without causing many frustrations as a result of overdoing anything.

Good Luck!!

 

[mikeyinsd]

I have a 2010 5.7 2wd crewmax with a snug top on it. GVW on the tundra this tundra is 7k. tow capacity is 10k. gross combined weight is 16k go figure. we ended up getting a 31' rock wood 2706ws that has gvw of 8800. I tow it in 5th gear with tow/haul mode, as recommended in the manual, with a tekonsha brake controller and e2 weight distribution hitch. tows great. no problems. wanting to get the supercharger and some Firestone airbags in the future. tows at 8mpg going 65 behind a semi truck for optimal gas mileage. Do your homework. look at your user manual. know your rig and what it can and can't do. even if your rig can pull it, be warned that if you are overweight and get into an accident, this can totally become your fault really quick.

 

[Bessiethevoodooblue]

You should be able to get a full size TT with a good weight distributing hitch (WDH) and your Tundra will tow it just fine. You should not need the trailer toad.

I had a 2008 Jayfeather 32 ft TT and it pulled fine with a 4.6L CM Tundra. The nice thing about the Jayfeather is that it has a lower profile so it pushes less air, and that is really the key to towing a big trailer. If you have not noticed, a TT without a slide out has a much lower height profile. Most slide outs create a lot of extra trailer height and thus push more air. The Jayfeather was more like a non-slide out trailer and it worked well. I don't know if the new Jayfeathers are the same as the one I had, but the point is to pay attention to the height profile of the trailer for good highway towing.

Take it easy. I run mine around 60 mph in 3rd or 4th gear and manually run the throttle so the truck is not down shifting on every hill or incline.

Make sure to set up your WDH so that your trailer and truck are as level as possible and doesn't buck up and down over the bumps. It takes some screwing around with the ball height vs. the tightness of the WDH spring bars to get it right.

Don't skimp on the spring bars. If anything, get the next higher rated bars than your trailer requires. I find the stiffer bars make the combination less likely to buck up and down on bumps.

You will find a nice happy spot where the truck and trailer mostly go through bumps as a single unit instead of bucking up and down but it takes some time to keep adjusting the ball height and the spring bar tension to get it right. Basically, set the ball height so when you pull the bars up tight, the truck is almost level and the trailer is dead level. Drive it and see how it takes the bumps. If it bucks, lower the ball a little and pull up the bars tighter so the trailer is level again. After a couple of tries, you will find the best combination of the ball height and spring bar tension.

Note, the bars are going to be tight when you get it right. I usually make a extension out of pipe to give me more leverage when I am pulling the bars up and letting them down. BE CAREFUL. Don't have any part of your body or face in front of that bar when you are pulling up the bars or letting them down. There can be a lot of force there and you don't want to lose control of that bar and get hit in the mouth. You can use the trailer electric hitch jack to lifi the back of your truck to take pressure off the spring bars when you get ready to disconnect them (you can use the jack when hooking up the bars too if you want). And keep in mind that if the truck is not level side to side as compared to the trailer, one bar is going to be significantly tighter than the other. So be careful.

Have fun. There is nothing better than camping across the fruited planes.

Thank you!

 

[Bessiethevoodooblue]

thank you all for your responses. This was extremely helpful!