Pulling a Camper

[G8R]

I too am in the hunt for a Black Series. I think they look close too ideal but have yet to check one out personally. However, if the Bruder EXP-6 wasn't the cost of my first house it would be on top of my list.

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[TennesseePA]

I hadn't heard of Bruder until you mentioned them and I wish I still hadn't. You had better keep your eyes peeled for my wife looking to hunt you down. They start at $100k that is just insane. They have to sell them or they wouldn't still be in business. I just bought the Gladiator and my son wants to be on his high school's bass fishing team next year so I gotta buy a boat too, I know poor me. I can get the Black Series Camper and the Prodigy surface drive boat and still have lots of money left over for what the Bruder costs.

 

[G8R]

I hadn't heard of Bruder until you mentioned them and I wish I still hadn't. You had better keep your eyes peeled for my wife looking to hunt you down. They start at $100k that is just insane. They have to sell them or they wouldn't still be in business. I just bought the Gladiator and my son wants to be on his high school's bass fishing team next year so I gotta buy a boat too, I know poor me. I can get the Black Series Camper and the Prodigy surface drive boat and still have lots of money left over for what the Bruder costs.

I know the feeling! Except we are in opposite camps as your wife is going to have to hunt down my wife as she is the actual culprit here. Crap that Bruder looks awesome but come on, 100K+??? There are some other pretty nice looking Australian caravans out there but we just can't get them here in the US. Having just moved to TN and spent a good chunk of last summer bass fishing I now have that bug as well and suspect a boat is in my future (not a Ranger like my dad runs... maybe a dingy with a couple paddles, lol). My oldest son is going to UT this year and wants to join the bass club there so I suspect I will be spending some time on the TN river and it's multitude of lakes at some point, I hope.

 

[TennesseePA]

My wife is an interior designer by her education and is a project manager for Vanderbilt Medical Center so she is used to spending lots and lots of other people's money. That is really biting us in the backside as we are doing a down to the studs renovation of our house. That is one of the selling points for the camper, rent in our area is 2800/month for a shack in the back of a house. If our renovation takes 6-9 months or even a year that is a very significant portion of the camper cost saved.

 

[TennesseePA]

The Black Series Campers are just down in Huntsville, AL so I am going down on Tuesday next week. I am going to take my brake controller and I hope that they will let me hook up to it and see how the Gladiator pulls it. I am a little worried about how well it tows since I added the 37s and kept the stock .410 gear. I hope it will still comfortably tow 6500 or so. If it does that then I am in good shape.

 

[Bullfrog]

wow what a long rig. I bet it does tow very good with that wheelbase...until you encounter some stiff cross winds. The only thing I miss about my old DRW Fords is how they towed and drove the same no matter what was hooked to them and what the conditions were. I stepped out of my F350 at the rest stop just east of Amarillo and the wind was so strong it was a struggle to walk straight but the truck drove as straight and true as ever. I will add that the gooseneck trailer and machine on it weighed in at 26k lb and it was a piece of equipment and not a flat sided 27 foot long wind sail.

Yeah there were some flat cornfields in Ohio where I towed it and you could definitely feel the cross winds. That was the most sketchy it felt.

 

[LSD2020]

Buy this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QRWR1YI

And this:
https://www.amazon.com/Tekonsha-90885-Prodigy-Electronic-Control/dp/B002YIACG8

Then reach up under your dash on the drivers side, plug it in and go. It's not rocket science. Hell, it's not even grade school math. If you can't handle that, you'll never be able to figure out taking the top and doors off.

I installed one in mine earlier this week, took me a whopping 5 minutes.

Or, if you HAVE to get it from Jeep, here's the part number:

82213173AB

This is the brake controller with pig tail that plugs in under the dash. They should also be able to install it for you. I think the above Tekonsha is better, though. Yeah, it's not the pretty one they were showing off, but it's not like you can't easily get a brake controller installed. Or you can sit around and wait for that nice one.

Thank you for taking time out of your life to post this helpful information. If we hadn’t found you and bought these parts we would not have been able to pull our new camper back home from the dealer today. They had the wrong harness ready for us and a less adequate brake controller. Thank you so much for providing the great help. (Jeep wave from Kentucky)

 

[Bobzdar]

Thank you for taking time out of your life to post this helpful information. If we hadn’t found you and bought these parts we would not have been able to pull our new camper back home from the dealer today. They had the wrong harness ready for us and a less adequate brake controller. Thank you so much for providing the great help. (Jeep wave from Kentucky)

Glad it worked for you, post some pics of the setup!

 

[LSD2020]

Glad it worked for you, post some pics of the setup!

We hope to post a pic tomorrow! Just wanted you to know how much easier our installation and hookup went thanks to your help on the forum. The guys at the RV place were also glad to get this information. Ours was the first Gladiator to come through their shop, and it got a lot of attention!

 

[BlackDog]

I've seen conflicting results with that 3014-p harness. How's it working for folks here? Any issues with error codes? (cross post)

 

[LSD2020]

I've seen conflicting results with that 3014-p harness. How's it working for folks here? Any issues with error codes? (cross post)

We have been pleased so far with this harness along with the Prodigy brake controller. We have only pulled our 20-foot camper a few times since the installation, but with the setting on “6” it has felt just about right. No error codes.

 

[LSD2020]

We hope to post a pic tomorrow! Just wanted you to know how much easier our installation and hookup went thanks to your help on the forum. The guys at the RV place were also glad to get this information. Ours was the first Gladiator to come through their shop, and it got a lot of attention!

Update: photo included

 

[MomsSpaghetti]

I drove 55 miles pulling our A frame pop-up camper (2,690 lbs dry) to trade it in for a 29' travel trailer (5,013 lbs dry).

The Jeep didn't break a sweat pulling the pop-up. Pulling the new trailer home it did just fine. I was concerned going into this it may be too much. I watched the temp closely and no issues there. There was only one time when the RPM's got up to about 5800 and that was when we just turned a corner and had a pretty steep incline (guessing about 15 degrees). You could definitely tell the trailer was back there, but it did just fine. It was pretty windy today too.

We had a weight distribution hitch installed and bought a Curt Echo break controller.

 

[TennesseePA]

I drove 55 miles pulling our A frame pop-up camper (2,690 lbs dry) to trade it in for a 29' travel trailer (5,013 lbs dry).

The Jeep didn't break a sweat pulling the pop-up. Pulling the new trailer home it did just fine. I was concerned going into this it may be too much. I watched the temp closely and no issues there. There was only one time when the RPM's got up to about 5800 and that was when we just turned a corner and had a pretty steep incline (guessing about 15 degrees). You could definitely tell the trailer was back there, but it did just fine. It was pretty windy today too.

We had a weight distribution hitch installed and bought a Curt Echo break controller.

that was quite the upgrade. Glad to hear that it pulled the load well. I haven’t gotten a camper yet but plan to very soon.

 

[Tonopah01]

I did a quick overnight in the pines as an equipment test. I did not have the Curt Echo trailer brake controller as it did not arrive in time, but, heck, my trailer is only about 1500 pounds and I hardly noticed it back there.

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