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HDT configuration question


Pasperry

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Long time lurker and student of all (well, a lot) of your posts.  My wife and I have a rather unique set of requirements that I'm hoping all of you "been there done that" experiences can assist us with.  We spend part of the year in FL but live in CO.  We have 3 young kids (4,5, 8) that travel with us, which brings me to my requirements:

1.  Safe seating for 5 in the HDT

2.  Towing / carrying my wife's daily driver (currently a Volvo XC60 but would be open to moving to something smaller)

3.  Towing the 5th wheel or travel trailer (currently an Airstream bunkhouse but would consider a change there)

Originally I was thinking a 780 and having seat belts installed in the back of the sleeper and then having a hauler bed made to throw the (smaller) Volvo + motorcycle on and keeping the Airstream.  The only potential "catch" is that often times I'd like to be able to just take the truck and our snowmobiles and just "camp" in the truck, so in an ideal world I would have an HDT that could sleep 5 in a pinch, which would mean getting a custom sleeper / box built, which means then we have to tow the XC60 in something (maybe a stacker with custom living quarters)?

Are there solutions that I haven't thought of or options the rest of you pursued?

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Welcome to the light of day Pasperry!

As far as hauling the five people, there are a few things that could be done.  With that , housing four would be much easier than five, have you considered getting rid of one of the kids that you might not like all that much?   Lol

With a 780 you generally have the work station so you do have the seating and could configure seat belts appropriately.  Or take out the work station for three individual seats.  That option would, while providing more comfortable seating, take away from your wanting to use the truck as a camper.

As to the truck hauling vehicles, the bed we are in the process of building is 18' long.  While that does push the overall combined vehicle length, it will allow for a wide spectrum of vehicles to be hauled on the bed.  From a  2 door Jeep Wrangler, flat on the bed, a 4 door Wrangler on an incline rack, or in your case, 3 smart cars sideways on the deck....lol

Not sure about Colorado, but I believe you may have issues licensing a truck to pull a fifth wheel in Florida.  That will take up an entire separate post.

Again welcome to the fold!  

Hopefully you can make it to one of the rally's to get more ideas....

John

Southern Nevada

2008 Volvo 780, D13, I-Shift

2017 Keystone Fuzion 420 Toyhauler 

2017 Can-Am Maverick X3-RS

 

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Search for the posts by bmzero.  I recall he had a few kids that factored into his hauler design.

2012 F350 KR CC DRW w/ some stuff
2019 Arctic Fox 32-5M
Cindy and Tom, Kasey and Maggie (our Newfie and Berner)
Oh...I forgot the five kids.

 

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Also look at Gregg RvHaulers YouTube channel.  There is a video the title is something like family of six full time rv'ers.  In the last couple of minutes Heidi shows how the 4 kids sit in the rear of their Freightliner Century.

Nigel

2006 Volvo VNL 430, 2006 smart cabrio cdi, 2000 Triple E Topaz 30'

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There is no problem seating  four in the back, but you will lose the workstation and probably sleeping - at least decent sleeping. There is no way to reasonably sleep five in a standard condo - at least not in comfort. 

To cover the living for five you are going to have to go to a larger condo. And to carry the car you are going to have to have something like an 18' deck. Now you have a huge long truck. Have you given any consideration to driving the car, or giving up sleeping for five...either allows a reasonable solution.

Why not a motorhome towing a car?  That seems like the obvious solution????

 

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
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See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
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Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

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1 hour ago, Jack Mayer said:

Why not a motorhome towing a car?  That seems like the obvious solution????

You might be onto something there!  A truck conversion like mine is a little long for little side excursions, but it's configured to sleep 8 (maybe 9 if you count the dinette) in beds.  Tow a trailer with the XC60 and snowmobiles, and figure out the balance between living space and overall length. 

45' 2004 Showhauler -- VNL300, ISX, FreedomLine -- RVnerds.com -- where I've started to write about what I'm up to

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9 hours ago, Pasperry said:

Long time lurker and student of all (well, a lot) of your posts.  My wife and I have a rather unique set of requirements that I'm hoping all of you "been there done that" experiences can assist us with.  We spend part of the year in FL but live in CO.  We have 3 young kids (4,5, 8) that travel with us, which brings me to my requirements:

1.  Safe seating for 5 in the HDT

2.  Towing / carrying my wife's daily driver (currently a Volvo XC60 but would be open to moving to something smaller)

3.  Towing the 5th wheel or travel trailer (currently an Airstream bunkhouse but would consider a change there)

Originally I was thinking a 780 and having seat belts installed in the back of the sleeper and then having a hauler bed made to throw the (smaller) Volvo + motorcycle on and keeping the Airstream.  The only potential "catch" is that often times I'd like to be able to just take the truck and our snowmobiles and just "camp" in the truck, so in an ideal world I would have an HDT that could sleep 5 in a pinch, which would mean getting a custom sleeper / box built, which means then we have to tow the XC60 in something (maybe a stacker with custom living quarters)?

Are there solutions that I haven't thought of or options the rest of you pursued?

Pas,

We have a old Freightshaker Century mid-roof with a Ex--Ryder 20 ft cargo box and often tow a plain-jane 30 ft toybox or horse trailer.........

Our kids are grown and have kids so......however we do pack around a surly 10 pound grumpy cat and a 1,050 Pound Paint-horse named Dolly.......

Dollymoma likes to trail ride with a bunch of cowgirl friends so.......our camping can get complicated ........as I recall our record is 9 folks sleeping over.........two in the sleeper condo of the Freightshaker.......four in the two-room toyhauler .....and 3 folks in the 20ft Ryder-room with one ton of hay and a 330 gal water tote UNDER the elevated queen bed and the other lady had a 16 ft X 8 ft cargo bay for her coot-bed so everyone had plenty of room.......

Oh did I mention...........we hauled our Honda Quad and Samurai enclosed in the cargo box and Dolly has a custom Dolly-module that slides into the back 3 ft of the garage of the toy hauler so when we get to the horse camp we unload Dolly and then slide the module out and no one knows we had a horse in the living room………and we are only 64 ft 8 inches overall…….

Now kids are often a different kind of animal for sure but when they get to be too wild…... just lock them in the cargo box and wait for the noise inside to subside……..

The Dollytrolley is likely the Rat-rod of the forum but it works for us…..


 

Drive on……..(How many beds …..tonite?)


 

 

97 Freightshaker Century Cummins M11-370 / 1350 /10 spd / 3:08 /tandem/ 20ft Garage/ 30 ft Curtis Dune toybox with a removable horse-haul-module to transport Dolly-The-Painthorse to horse camps and trail heads all over the Western U S

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Welcome Pasperry!

I installed a Sprinter van seat (4-person with integrated seat belts) in the back of our Volvo 630. The bunks were removed though, so the plan to camp with just our truck is no longer an option. 

For the daily vehicle, we still drive that separate.

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I asked Robert about that while at the ECR and in their truck, two kids in the upper bunk, Heidi and Robert on the bottom bunk and two in the floor in sleeping bags for short trips. They make it work but do not haul a car on the deck. They have a separate vehicle to haul the 6 of them around or they just use the truck.

There are solutions to every problem but some solutions are better than others. In this case, a larger motorhome pulling a stacker trailer might be a better option.

2017 Kenworth T680
2015 DRV 38RSSA Elite Suites
2016 Smart Prime

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