The title of this article is well known as it relates to the chicken and the egg. Well, I ask you, what came first? The Travel Trailer or the Tow Vehicle. For me it was the Travel Trailer and then out of necessity the Tow Vehicle. Maybe it’s just me, but I had to learn the hard way that some RV salesmen are not all that honest. When we did our shopping for our travel trailer, we really liked the Four Winds Express Lite 18B. It is not too large, just 24 feet long. It has windows on all sides to let the light in. It was affordable for what we wanted.
So, I asked the salesman, “will my Explorer pull this thing?” We sat down with him as he pulled some books out of his desk. He asked us “what engine?”, to which we replied “the 4.0 V6”. He asked which model, we replied “Sport”. He then looked in his book, then looked over his glasses at us, then back to his book and then the verdict, “Yep, yours will pull it just fine”. We were excited that we had enough power to pull the trailer.
The day of delivery; Okay, so we go to the RV Dealer and the service gang were just fantastic. They spent two hours with us going over all the details of how to operate all the features of our new travel trailer. Then, as part of our session, they taught me how to hook up the trailer to my tow vehicle. With that done, we pulled away with our new toy!
Our first long trip was about 450 miles and oh man, it was a white knuckle drive! We learned, (the hard way) that our tow vehicle just wasn’t enough. So, I had to upgrade! I know some of you are reading this and nodding your heads, because you did the same thing.
My new tow vehicle pulls the trailer just fine and you would think I would have no more problems. Well, all this took place in June of 2006. Here we are in January 2008 and I find myself itching for a trailer upgrade or maybe a Class C or even a Class A. Will the madness ever end? Nah….that’s one of the great aspects of this ‘hobby’!
Happy Camping and see you next Sunday!
RayO
One of the good things in your initial post is you not only recognized that you were towing with the wrong vehicle but you DID something about it! How many times do we see a vehicle running down the road with the headlights searching the heavens? They may even have an equalizer hitch installed but just won’t admit that they have the wrong vehicle.
One to keep in mind is just because your tow vehicle can move the trailer doesn’t mean it is safe. If you are over the GCWR than your brakes are marginal at best and down right dangerous at worse. Remember the vehicle has to be big enough, read heavy enough, to control the load also.
Ray
olstuf33
Some sort of education or training shoud be required before the purchase of an RV of any kind. Someone who has never driven anything larger than a passenger car likely has no idea of how a large motorhome handles. Some sort of walk thru should be done to understand that the refrigerator is a bit different that the one in your house or appartment. The sewer system is not the same. Lighting in different. It sounds simple to those of us who have been doing this since the dark ages but to those who haven’t it can be overwhelming. A recent incident near where I live confirmed that. An older couple decided to investigate the RGV area in south Tx. Liking it, they decided to purchase a fiver and have it put on a lot in a park. Not having a tow vehicle they had the dealer haul it to their site and hook it up. After 10 days the living area of the unit was flooded with water/sewage from the CLOSED tanks. No one told them how the system worked. They didn’t know nor ask. Now they have an expensive mess. I wonder how bad it would have been had they had a tow vehicle and tried to tow and park and hooked up the unit. It certainly isn’t rocket science but a bit of common sense and basic instructions is required. Don’t assume you know or can do things required to tow and use an RV. There are no stupid questions. Ask about things. You probably wouldn’t jump out of an airplane without some knowledge about a parachute. On second thought some of these folks might. 🙂
David Kurtz
I agree with you olstuf33 with regards to the ultimate responsibility. I would even add that I believe it would be beneficial for there to be some form of mandatory training. Perhaps a one day session to go over the details of pulling a trailer which might include backing, parking, hitching and un-hitching. Happy Camping!
olstuf33
All the blame should not be heaped onto the sales people who inform you about various tow vehicles. Many of today’s RVers have little or no experience towing or even some not even good driving experience. The biggest complaint I have with those sales people is the statement that “You won’t even know the trailer is back there.” You better know it is back there and drive accordingly. You cannot nor should not take the unit out on the I system and try to drive 70 mph without first knowing how it handles. That said, you don’t always need the huge dually to tow the trailer either. It depends where you might be using the unit. Guide lines in operator manuals, RV publications are just that. Common sense should be used and speed controled. Hitching can make the ride more safe and comfortable. It is easy to place the blame on someone else but it is you, the owner and driver, who should be responsible.
James
For us the tow vehicle came first. Bought the truck in July 2006 , ordered the travel trailer in September 2006, picked up in April of 2007.
However, we knew what type of trailer we wanted. We knew it was going to be long, 34′ tongue to rear bumper and we would need a truck to pull something that long..etc.
But you hear that a lot people pulling with an undersized tow vehicle. My opinion is one should purchase the tow vehicle first even if that means waiting to make the trailer purchase.