Travel trailer experiences?

[Busyobeforever]

It was the cheapest the dealer offered, and they included it at no cost. I knew without it, the single axel would "porpoise" and this was the safest option to use with unibody. I would not use any other hitch on a maverick.

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[chilicharger]

Wow, that is pretty sweet a dealer threw it in for free! What dealer was that?

 

[Busyobeforever]

Good sense rv!

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

It was the cheapest the dealer offered, and they included it at no cost. I knew without it, the single axel would "porpoise" and this was the safest option to use with unibody. I would not use any other hitch on a maverick.

No porpoiseing here.
$110 air bags in my rear springs prevent it.
Normal simple ball hitch working great so far. Close to 400 lbs on the ball.
I think being on the heavy side reduces tendency to sway too.

I would not go any bigger or heavier than this. This is maximum, and speed limited to 65 mph and under.

 

[Busyobeforever]

No porpoiseing here.
$110 air bags in my rear springs prevent it.
Normal simple ball hitch working great so far. Close to 400 lbs on the ball.
I think being on the heavy side reduces tendency to sway too.

I would not go any bigger or heavier than this. This is maximum, and speed limited to 65 mph and under.

The Anderson hitch prevents the bed from lowering so much. Your bed is very compressed. My bed only lowered 1/2" pulling my trailer. Without the hitch, it lowered significantly, like yours. I was not comfortable with that kind of stress on the frame.

 

[Escapologist]

By the way, many trailer tires aren't rated for speeds over 65mph either, so if you think you've got something light and aero enough to do 75, check you've got the tires for it.

But while I'm on about trailer tires, two more things...

i) When one tire blows on a trailer, it frequently happens that the other tire(s) are then overstressed and might fail soon after you get the "one" bad one replaced

ii) Passenger or LT radials don't go on trailer rims, the bead is different. They will come off. They can go on with an a rim that is from a powered vehicle, BUT, they need to be derated at least 10% for weight in trailer use. They are usually not a great idea because the sidewalls will tend to squab too much for a trailer and amplify a bit of air turbulence into sway and then be hard to calm down. The other problem that is typical is that the arch/space/offset to install a wheel on a trailer typically isn't large enough to upsize into the weight range required in a P metric. That's just for anyone thinking they can match rims with their Mav... it's unlikely that it would work out.... probably need bolt pattern adapter to get them on a trailer hub, probably won't find a ~2500lb trailer (approx what two mav tires will handle when derated to trailer use) with big enough wheelarches to get them on, unless you drop the axle. Then you need to carry a compressor, because you'll need them at max pressure on the trailer. So your interchangeable spares will need pressure adjusting to go on trailer or Mav. In general the whole idea tends to be not-recommended because of the number of things that have to line up right, and thus can be got wrong, and it still might not be ideal when it works.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

The Anderson hitch prevents the bed from lowering so much. Your bed is very compressed. My bed only lowered 1/2" pulling my trailer. Without the hitch, it lowered significantly, like yours. I was not comfortable with that kind of stress on the frame.

My bed had 1300 lbs!

900 cargo plus 400 on the ball!

A WDH tends to put more stress on the truck body, but if not overdone will be fine.

Yes, I was heavy. But the extra weight in the truck, I liked. I felt very "planted" and stable. It handled very well. Steering and braking events were confident and unremarkable. Trailer brakes braked the trailer. Stopping distance was not grossly changed. Needed a little more space, sure.

I think a light truck with a heavy trailer would be worse.

 

[anthonym6]

We purchased a Catalina 134BHX. I removed the propane tank and installed a lithium battery to keep the tongue weight below 400lbs. I am also using a Camco R3 WDH hitch (600 lb springs) which keeps the truck pretty much level. Towed great and we did about 2000 miles with it this year. My overall mpg was about 12 mpg, and towing speeds were usually between 65-70mph. Overall weight of the trailer was around 3400 lbs and had the truck bed filled up with a spare for the camper, cooler, grill, etc. I use a wireless camera on the back of the camper to see behind me while driving which is a must have.

https://coachmenrv.com/catalina-summit-series-7/134BHX/10062

 

[Busyobeforever]

Looks great! Link for the wireless camera please

 

[anthonym6]

Looks great! Link for the wireless camera please

https://a.co/d/3aK3vYz

Many more options on Amazon too.

 

[JohnCondren1933]

Haha, I just mentioned that in my prior post. I'd absolutely love a 16 foot Scamp. But those units are really, really expensive and hard to find used as well. I'm probably looking for a Scamp alternative that's a bit more common (and thus cheaper).

I would be interested in how the Coleman trailers do with Maverick, they are priced really nice and seem to be better than average reliability for normal campground camping.

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