NDBirdman

I can run outside and hold up my Capt. America shield, will that help?

Surprised you have not heard of it. They all break down in the middle between the bladders. When you call them, they send you a wedge shaped piece of foam to put under them and a new piece of foam to place between the bladders. We did it several times over the 10 years we had one, their quick fix was always short lived. The valley develops between the bladders leaving a depression one or both of you end up rolling into during the night. This tore my back up, always woke up in pain. I'm not the only one, has been going on for a long time. So much that they know about it and try to fix it with cheap worthless foam. The happiest day in my life was when I threw that dayum thing in the trash where it belonged. Good luck with yours.

Those things are great, until you start experiencing the valley of pain they all develop. Threw ours in the dumpster, never again, we went through all their fixes/suggestions. We bought a Zinus 8 inch memory foam Green Tea for RVs from amazon, so far so good.

Hitches are made for short beds as well as long beds, just shop around. I have a 6ft bed and use an Andersen hitch. It is a much lighter hitch, just as strong as the big heavy hitches. My use of this hitch comes mainly from the weight. I can lift it in/out, move it about, etc because it is only around 40lbs. The big/heavy hitches go up to/over 300lbs which also figures into what your truck can handle weight wise. Also, consider a goosebox. It is a modified and safe version of a gooseneck, only needs a ball in middle of the bed. As for the truck, 3/4 ton, check manufacturer weight recommendations. It's really not 100% about what the truck can haul, more like what is the truck safely capable of controlling in a strong wind, how well the truck can *stop* the weight, etc. Ok, a short note about your choice of truck. F250, if you must get that small of a truck, DO NOT BUY THE ONE WITH THE DIESEL 6.0 ENGINE!! I made that mistake once, never again. It's one of the main reasons I changed over to RAM.

Welcome to the forum! That storm hit here in ND too so I can relate to the wet/snotty crap coming down now. It just started back up but was able to get down the driveway in 4x4. Be thankful your not in southern MN or SD, they got the worst of it from what I can get from the news. This, on top of some bad flooding we are experiencing... wow. I too want to leave the northern tier over winters, getting tired of this! Looks like you are on the right track for sure. Good luck!

Heard that through the grapevine. We lived in Bitburg for a while, rent was nuts! We moved into a town bout 30 clicks down the road in a little village called Peffingen. Was a small clickish town, but the time we were *in* with the village residence, we had to move back to the states. Made some very good friends there, joined the fishing club which went through our place and had a blast! Our home, and it was a very huge place on 100 acres or so, cost almost half what our apartment rent in Bitburg was. Miss that place, was a once in a lifetime experience. Got to enjoy some german way of life, experience german farming, land lord was burger meister and dairy cattle farmer. Paid alot of our rent by working the fields and milking cows, that was a trip!

We miss living there, Bitburg AB. Was there '90 - '94. Was a sad time helping close down. Sure enjoyed BernCastle, spent a lot of time there. We did a lot of *wine probing* up and down that river.

Welcome to the forum! Most campgrounds around my area, holiday weekend are booked way ahead of time. We do alot of boon docking so I don't worry about it. Don't know where your going to be at, we do mostly the Dakotas.

Welcome to the forum! I think they nailed your question. I say the engine if maintained is not the problem (maintenance records?). What would scare me is that many miles on the chasis/suspension. I say chances are it's going to need a lot, tires, bearings, ball joints, etc. A good professional inspector would be money extremely well spent if your serious about this rig!

Alrighty then. All these years I thought that he sung that... had to go searching, found this: http://songs-tube.net/artist.php?id=2283 I guess I've been:

I wondered about that! I know bobby also sung it but youtube has it posted alot as bob marley. Hmm, I love the song either way! Thanks for the help.

This forum really needs a like button! Well put.

Sounds like you have a firm grip on things, cool. To answer the above, we have camped off and on most our lives. We knew it would be time to spend time traveling when we retired, I did 9.5 yrs ago, my wife this fall. This really is not something we spent our lives planning, we just knew when the time come, we would do it, having money laying around had nothing to do with it. Definitely not spur of the moment as we have wanted to do this for 40 yrs, that is, spend time seeing things and areas we missed in life thus far. The way it worked out, we saw a lot of the world, now it's time to see the US. As far as crazy, there's a little bit of crazy in all of us, if there wasn't, it would be a boring world. I would not worry about it, but yea, keep driving him crazy, keeps him on his toes.... LOL

What are you going to pull this TT with? When you retire in 5 years and want to upgrade to a bigger camper, are you going to have to also buy another vehicle? Then you'll have 2 big payments a month. We ran close to the same thought as you, what we did was buy a fairly new truck, bigger than what we needed but big enough when we buy a newer/bigger 5th wheel in a couple years. Then we bought an older but great shape camper. I put some sweat equation into it and now it works great. Actually, I have it set up much nicer now than a lot of newer campers, we own it, not the bank.

Welcome to the forum! No experience here with that vehicle. But my opinion, I don't max out what the door sticker says I can do, I like a little room left for comfort. That 6k pounds includes trailer/water/clothes/cookware/ food, etc. I say the added is probably 1,500lbs so look at a 4.5lb camper? I'm thinking lightweight pop-up or teardrop style camper but that's just my 2 cents. That's towing weight, you have to check on tongue weight which is much lighter, then tire/axle weight ratings, brakes, etc. Even that small, if not set up right could make for a towing/stopping nightmare.

I have not researched this, so I will ask you and others here. Is there a site that lists what manufacturers use these frames? My RV is a 2002 and has a Lippert frame, so far no problem but we are looking ahead, going to shows, stealerships, etc. Is there a frame you would suggest is better? We are looking for an RV between 15-18K loaded, Not for full timing at the moment but will be heavily used, including snow-birding atleast 3 months a year/winter.

ROFLMAO!! Thanks, I got a great laugh from that! As funny as that is, it's a shame you see way too many of those in campgrounds.

I plan on looking at it before I use it again. Should be an easy for for me, we have the tools and technology. 🙂 I have a lot of locktite.

Well poop. My serial number is included. Guess I better find out what I need to do to get it fixed. Thanks!

Recall linky "The recall includes two models of generators, the Honda EB2800i and the Honda EG2800i." I had to go check after you said that, had not heard it. It does not cover the 2200i so we lucked out.

Nice find, did not think to look at e-bay.

I think I paid $950 for mine on sale last year, plus taxes. Don't recall ever seeing them for less. Best price I see for them at the moment is $1009 on Amazon, u can usually find free shipping on there. Saw the 2200i and companion 2200 with cable/covers for $2,2xx, good price for the pair IMHO. Good luck finding any for less. I operate my electronic items in our RV on one of these, no problems so far.

I hear ya! This Ram is loaded to the hilt, would not have enjoyed driving it off the lot new!! My wife's car is slowly circling the drain, it's in the garage not running now do to the extreme cold we've been getting past few weeks. That Jeep is what I've been looking at but my wife is thinking she wants a Honda Pilot, gave a feeling she is going to win... LOL It's off to the auto parts store for me shortly.

My used truck ran ~55k, big enough to haul a large 5th wheel, then cost of RV. I would not buy too much older of a truck/cheaper as the repairs/upkeep might get spendy quick, but it is possible and ppl do it. On your budget, I might even look at a class C, I see nice ones in your budget often. But a decent class A is nice too, both classes can tow vehicles.