F150in4x4, I really like the tent option! That gives you a lot of extra living space.

Some friends of ours have a small hybrid camper, not a tear drop but about the same size. They use it to sleep and store stuff but spend almost all of their time outside. It's just not large enough for the 4 of them.

 

Buy one on the bigger side, most people regret buying one to small instead of to big.

I've lived in mine for 3 1/2 years (32 bhds) mostly with wife and 12yo daughter, 25k miles 38 states, love it.

 

I'm curious, with you being up here in Alaska which dealers are you looking into? When I was looking around most of the local guys are tacking on 5K for shipping plus another 20% over MSRP for profit. I ended up ordering my previous slide in camper from Apache Camping out of Washington and having them ship it up here and saved a bunch.

There's also FraserWay RV Sales in Whitehorse that I have heard if your driving that way you would save a bunch of money over buying here. The problem is there is only two "large" Travel Trailer sales places up here so they jack up the rates and don't budge. They sell Keystone Springdales for 36k where they go for barely 22k in the states.

 

Im used to tent camping so i think even this size of this trailer will be suffice for us, my main thing was the floor plans and the interior didnt really work for me with any of the other trailers i looked at. This modern look really sold me and then the size is good for towing seeing how my wife will be pulling this in the future her self. I feel confident she can handle this trailer.

The frieght for this was around 3k and the total ill be paying just for the trailer after tax,title,license is going to be right at 22k

I did get a over the phone quote from a guy in washington and he gave me a shipping charge "around 3k" and a sale of "around 17000". The guy iv been talking to is working me to get it to the island im on by helping me save some money but i will be out and extra 300 after all is said and done. Which it would cost me another 1k+ for me to get on a ferry and bring it back for a round trip.

I feel like this is not bad for AK standards, and this guys has been on the ball with taking care of me. Didnt feel like "just another customer".

 

Thanks for you input, butttt, im a little confused on what your talking about with the % stuff. lol sorry never really had to do math when towing things, seeing how i mostly towed junk metal to the yard for recycling and vehicles on a dolley.

 

Fairly simple. Lets say your new trailer , loaded up like you are going camping, weighs exactly 5000lb (just using a round number here). If you could weigh JUST the hitch (not the weight on the tires), you need that hitch to weigh between 500 and 750 lbs. Ideal would be 625 lbs. Too little weight on the hitch induces sway, so lets say the hitch only has 400 lbs on it.... that trailer will likely be quite a handful on the road.

 

ok well with my F150 and EX, i will most likely be well under that minimum. So if im understanding you the trailer will sway alot?

If im right in understanding you then how would i get rid of this problem.

Here are the specs from the manufacture for the trailer, and i know that my weight will change once i load up the trailer but this is for aguments sake on comparing to the EX not so much the F150 ill be selling it soon.
GVWR = 3785
UVW = 2630
Hitch Weight = 285

 

i was just about to write another post saying i understood it but then i lost my self half way through the first sentence. lol

any real life scenarios here say i was loading up the trailer and ex with 4 adults and 2 children and a 60lbs dog and going on a 4000 mile trip, bc thats what im looking at in a few years

 

Let's try this again.
Using your trailer's specs, let's forget that UVW and Hitch Weight as they are "dry" weights and do not include any options such as batteries and propane and of course none of your stuff. I always use the trailer's GVWR for these calculations as they tend to be closer to what the real world offers.
So with your GVWR of 3785lbs your target 13% tongue weight would be 492lbs, so let's just say 500lbs. That is what you will want your tongue weight or hitch weight to be for a well behaved trailer. The last thing you ever want to deal with on the road is serious trailer sway and the best way to avoid that is to have a proper tongue weight based on the trailer's total weight. Either your EX or F-150 will be fine with that 500lb TW and the EX shouldn't need a WD (Weight Distribution) hitch for that low of a TW, F-150 might be OK too but I'm not familiar with their ratings.
When we are talking about these tongue weight targets we are only referring to the actual weight on the trailer's hitch, nothing to do with the tow vehicle's hitch or towing ratings. So being well under the EX's tow ratings will not cause the trailer to sway, if that was what you were thinking (?).

 

yes that pretty much sums it up for me, so i think i got it down. . . As long as the wieght is distributed correct between the front and rear of the trailer then i should have less problems with sway.

I was reading some things where people with this trailer were having big issues with swaying and it seemed be mostly due to where all their gear was stored on the trailer. . .

my other thing this is if you dont have a 3way type scaled around your are then where would you go, i know we have a scale on island but im not sure that it is a 3way scale or that they even let the public use it. . . and if i was able to get it weighed how do i calculate the tongue weight, i was thinking total weigh of trailer - total weight of rear axle? and that would be my base to start at for that trip at least?

 

With no access to a good commercial scale and a lighter trailer like you are looking at the bathroom scale method is a good alternative, here is a pretty good write up with pictures to explain it, Measuring trailer tongue weight with a bathroom scale

 

that is great ill for sure be doing that for the trip back home then, ill do it for shts and giggles to figure out what im doing. thanks for the help.

 

This may be more than you want to spend, but they are handy, especially if you own more than one trailer.


Sherline Trailer Tongue Weight Scale - 2,000-lb Capacity Sherline Tools 5780