Travel Trailer Options - JT Rubicon

[Blade1668]

The last 3 post are spot on. A experienced T.T. owner(s) with you. Dealership sales people are not your friend they work on commissions "many do". I was looking for my first RV in 99, ended up with a house. The sales scumbag turned me off then and again few years later. I ordered my Scamp in summer of 2010 delivered Nov 2010 been in it since. Reason for it it was well under my tow vehicle weight limit by "1500 plus lbs." It's a bed(s), bathroom / shower, kitchen and place to stay when weather is crap "I've been full-timing" in mine. I've probably towed it 5000 miles or more with my LJ. Now what would I like it to have 2-4 inches taller inside, more ground clearance, tandem axles.

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[bd100]

Small and light, and even better if it folds down for less air resistance and effects from cross winds. We also have an A frame, and they work great for a small family on the move. We have two beds either of which can become a table, plus sink, stove, fridge, AC, furnace, water heater. Porta potty in the entry way. Folds down for travel. My JT get 24mpg highway w/o trailer, 16-17 towing. My old 1500 pickup does 16 not towing, 13ish towing the same trailer.

And I'd rather walk a porta potty or toilet cassette to the restroom every day than have to go to dump stations once a week. Just dump it into a toilet and flush. Or a pit toilet. Clean it afterwards, and it gets cleaned more often than the ones at home.

 

[RJinPV]

Everyone is commenting to go lighter and I will do the same. I looked at a Gladiator Rubicon payload capacity and it's only ~1,110Lbs. 700lb tongue weight and you only have 400lbs left over for your family and their cargo PLUS any options you might have added to your Jeep. No margin there. For the trailer, don't use the dry weight. You need to look at the trailer's GCCW number. That is the heaviest you should load it. Assume your'e going to max that out because trailer manufacturers dry weight is an underestimate and it doesn't include all the options you add to the trailer, like solar panels, more batteries, etc. Then most people load their trailers with too much stuff because the storage areas are large and we tend to think if that extra table and grill can fit, then trailer's weight is fine. Not true.. I would not go with any GCCW trailer over 6,000 lbs and DEFINITELY get a weight distribution hitch.

Edit: Sorry, The number to look at is not the GCCW. It's the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating). That is the heaviest the trailer should ever be.

 

[bd100]

Regarding adding stuff to the trailer, I once had it start to sway when I had the cargo shifted towards the back. Move it all forward and it was fine. Recently saw someone on the interstate with a trailer swaying back and forth continuously. I was glad to get away from them.

 

[RJinPV]

Regarding adding stuff to the trailer, I once had it start to sway when I had the cargo shifted towards the back. Move it all forward and it was fine. Recently saw someone on the interstate with a trailer swaying back and forth continuously. I was glad to get away from them.

So true. Trailer sway is very dangerous. Some may think that you can shift weight to the back of the trailer to lighten the tongue weight, and improve the Gladiator's payload margins. But that just causes a greater likelihood of trailer sway. That's where I'm happy that my weight distribution hitch has some good anti-sway features. But I have to admit that I have never measured my tongue weight, or trailer weight. With my Ram I always felt I had margin and I got lazy. With a Gladiator the margin is much less and I'm going to have to start measuring those weights.

 

[sarguy1941]

FWIW I just made a 6000 mile trip around the US. From VA to NY, then west to Boulder CO, Moab, Grand Canyon, Waco TX, MS, GA, and back to VA. My CTC came in at 1700#'s. My Max tow with steel winch bumper, winch, cooler, spare for trailer, Honda 2K, 10 Gallons of spare fuel, tools, BBQ grill etc came in at 6500#'s. I have had 5th wheels, motorhomes and pop ups. In the end I hated the trip towing. It towed it but hills sucked as did wind. At one part we were heading directly into the wind thru Iowa and mileage when to 7mpg using manual shift and running about 65. Remember the wind sail you will end up with as well as dry weight is before options as said earlier. (as reference best MPG we got was 12 on the entire trip).

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