re: Purchasing A Camper

quote:

---

frick a dealer, second hand is the way to go as many a motivated young family like yourself has purchased a new one only to let it set up in the barn after 2 uses in 5 years. Start looking around classifieds, craigslist, and just sitting on the side of the road on someones property. They are every where.

---

This. My brother's friend sold a small Jayco in excellent condition for $3,500.

quote:

---

I have the 8.0 1500 HD.

---

Oh damn. You're going to be able to pull a nice sized camper with that.

Looks like they have a lot of them on the SPORTSMAN that are probably in your wheelhouse.

I've pulled two different 5th wheels with my 1/2 ton with no issues at all.

quote:

---

Definitly not getting a fifth wheel this go round. Not instalilng the 5th wheel hitch in my bed until I know for sure camping will be done often. Thats why I am looking for a good smaller used camper jsut for starters.

---

I totally get that. We bought a hybrid bumper pull as our first for cheap to be sure we liked it. Did not take long to realize:

1. We loved camping; and
2. We were going to be miserable in that hybrid

We are looking as well, if you are picky about condition and floor plan new is the way to go, I have looked at some used but people just don't take care of stuff any more.

You will run out of payload capacity long before you run out of tow capacity. You can use they payload sticker in your driver door and it will tell you how much cargo not to exceed, subtract your family and yourself from that and you will have your left over payload. From this you can start looking at tongue or hitch weights, most of the time you can plan on it being 10-12% of the GVWR of the trailer. With a good weight distribution hitch, you can offset this a little, but you still need to watch the weight or you will be tearing up your axles.

We are looking at new trailers right now and have narrowed it down to 2, both Forest River, both Rock Wood Ultra Lites, model 2702SS (bunk house) and 2703WS (not a bunk house). We have 2 boys and we wanted more than a 27" wide bunk. The non bunkhouse version has lots of sleeping capacity just have to weigh converting the table and sofa each night.

Good luck - there are limitations with a 1/2T but there are also a lot of options to tow safely especially with a family.

ETA - I have a ram 1500 - so my trailer choices are mainly due to length and hitch weight due to payload capacity.

quote:

---

Side note: How best can I go about practicing parking the camper in a camping slot. I live in a cul de sac with a very short driveway so backing into my driveway isn't an option. Don't want to turn into the park laughing stock my first trip. My plan is to have a camper by this fall.

Thanks again.

---

If you have ever backed a boat, a bumper pull will be fairly easy.

Go to a mall parking lot early on Sunday morning. All kinds of space with lines you can use to mimic a camping site pad.

Get walky-talkies. Have significant other telling you if you're going to hit anything.