Elementary questions about RV buying

[Kirk W]

I finally found some specifications that you need for the truck that you have. By digging about the internet I was finally able to locate the specifications for a 1997, GMC Sierra, 4.3L V-6 truck. It seems to have the same weight ratings with either the 5 speed manual or the automatic transmission. 

Quote

Maximum Towing Capacity	7000 lbs.
Curb Weight	4021 lbs.
Gross Weight	6100 lbs.
Ground Clearance	6.6 in.
Height	70.0 in.
Maximum Payload	2079.0 lbs.

This means that you should not consider any trailer that will exceed 7000# when fully loaded for travel with all tanks full and that it would be wise to limit yourself to a travel trailer that has a GVWR between 5000 & 6000#. 

[chirakawa]

Also understand that those specs which Kirk posted are for a brand new truck as it rolled off the assembly line........like yours did 24 years ago.  That's before the suspension wore and the chassis and frame twisted a million times, when the brake system was completely new, etc.  Rebuilding the engine and transmission is a step forward, but far from the whole picture.

There's no way I'd tow anything bigger than a Casita or Scamp with your truck.  Sure, you can find a 20' to 25' trailer with a dry bath which will fall into those listed specs, but it'll most likely tax that 24 year old truck of yours to the limit and push that little short wheel base truck all over the road.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Once again, JMO.

 

[Corrie473]

Hi guys,

Yeah, I'm in New England, which I feel (but have no evidence) is a really bad place to be looking for an RV, reasons being

(a) lack of public land in this area means people don't really understand the RV lifestyle, most people are doing the 'take it to the lake for the weekend' routine that someone else mentioned, so they can't really conceptualize what you'll be needing. I think that's why I got the suggestions of a pop-up, and

(b) I just think prices are high here... rent is high, food is high (wages not so much, never really figured that one out).

I'm not totally opposed to traveling to purchase an RV so I am looking at PPL motor homes... the other thing is that once we go full time we will have to establish our domicile in one of the "appropriate" states and it may well be Texas (I lived in Houston for 6 months at one point and it's a bad memory for personal reasons - a time in my life when I let a good opportunity pass me because of various personal weaknesses - I have not been able to even drive through Houston since then, but I have told myself I will have to get over that...) so it may be more practical to buy down there. Of course I'd have to be relatively certain that it was the right travel trailer before embarking...

But in any case thanks for the tip, I am on their website now.

Corrie

[Corrie473]

1 hour ago, chirakawa said:

Also understand that those specs which Kirk posted are for a brand new truck as it rolled off the assembly line........like yours did 24 years ago.  That's before the suspension wore and the chassis and frame twisted a million times, when the brake system was completely new, etc.  Rebuilding the engine and transmission is a step forward, but far from the whole picture.

There's no way I'd tow anything bigger than a Casita or Scamp with your truck.  Sure, you can find a 20' to 25' trailer with a dry bath which will fall into those listed specs, but it'll most likely tax that 24 year old truck of yours to the limit and push that little short wheel base truck all over the road.

 

Okay, yes, that's true also... I remember when the engine crapped out in 2017 on a long extended trip, I was in a small town in the UP and had to make a quick decision about whether to put in a new engine or junk the truck and shop for something else. A friend advised me to put the new engine in saying something to the effect that 'it'll be like a brand new truck, and you can't get a brand new truck for $3500'... yeah... except that it didn't really turn out that way. All the other components are still those of a 24 year old truck. I do love the truck, it's a stick shift so it's fun to drive, it handles great, it looks great, it's solid, it's comfortable... but I hear you, it has its limitations.

When you say a Casita or a Scamp I assume you would also consider a 15' A-Liner or R-Pod? 

[mptjelgin]

The 1997 Trailer Life Towing Guide that shows a 4.3L truck with manual transmission maxing out at 3500 pound towing capacity. The truck with automatic transmission maxes out at either 4000 or 5000 pounds, depending on the rear axle ratio and "special trailer towing equipment". It is not uncommon for light trucks of that era to have significantly lower tow capacities with manual transmissions as the clutch can be a weak point. 

1997 Towing Guide

You should try to figure out exactly what the GVWR is for your truck before you make assumptions regarding what it can safely tow. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by mptjelgin

[rickeieio]

Another point to keep in the back of your mind....This is a short bed.  It may not handle well with a trailer near the max rated weight.  Just say'n...

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Corrie473 said:

When you say a Casita or a Scamp I assume you would also consider a 15' A-Liner or R-Pod? 

While I'm not familiar with the interiors of an A-Liner, I am very familiar with the R-Pod as we very seriously considered one of them when we left the fulltime lifestyle and returned to part-time. The first point is that all of them that I have ever seen have a wet bath. They are also very short on storage space and several other issues that caused us to move on. We did buy a KZ Sportsman, Classic in an ultra-lite model that is 19' long and that has a GVWR of 4000#. I think that you probably could safely tow one like ours but having towed ours with a V6 powered SUV for the first 3 years and while it did the job, it was very impacted by high winds and so was a bit tiring to travel with. Realize also that there are several factors that influence the practicality of a trailer for towing with a specific vehicle besides weight. Length and amount of frontal area also play a major factor in drag and wind caused handing issues.

[fpmtngal]

The ALiner should be OK.  One thing it has going for it is that it's a hard-sided pop-up so you don't have the frontal area that you would with a regular travel trailer.  The disadvantage is that they are a pop up and take some effort to put up.  I once considered getting one but am very glad I waited and got a regular trailer - having a proper bathroom instead of a cassette toilet (i.e., portapotty) is huge for me.

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, fpmtngal said:

having a proper bathroom instead of a cassette toilet (i.e., portapotty) is huge for me.

Just to be sure that you understand what we are talking about, here is a link to information about cassette toilets and how the must be emptied. 

     

It is important that you realize that any RV which has a bathroom will also have waste water tanks that the owner must empty periodically. In most cases there will be two tanks, one for gray water(from sinks and shower) and another for back water(from the toilet). The smaller RVs also have small tanks which must be emptied more frequently. If you do not realize what is involved, check out this video to see what it takes. 

[2gypsies]

Keep in mind that some, if not all, Escapee parks do not allow the cassette toilets to be emptied in the restrooms.

On another note, we volunteered in a national park and witnessed a camper emptying his cassette in the outside kitchen sink designated for campers to do their dishes.  The guy was removed from the park and fined.  We disinfected the sink good.  Soon afterward we found a guy around 10pm taking his bath in the kitchen sink.  Again, he was removed from the park and fined.  Again, we disinfected the sink thoroughly.   Just something to keep in mind if you use the campground's outside sink! 😲

[Lou Schneider]

Once I pulled into a rest area and was proceeding to the dump station when a car with a family inside cut in front of me.  The driver got out, used his foot to open the drain cover and stuffed a used Pampers down the 3" hole.  Plugged it up really good.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Lou Schneider

[Corrie473]

On 5/5/2020 at 8:35 PM, fpmtngal said:

The ALiner should be OK.  One thing it has going for it is that it's a hard-sided pop-up so you don't have the frontal area that you would with a regular travel trailer.  The disadvantage is that they are a pop up and take some effort to put up.  I once considered getting one but am very glad I waited and got a regular trailer - having a proper bathroom instead of a cassette toilet (i.e., portapotty) is huge for me.

Yeah the cassette toilet sounded a little,uh, icky... salesguy claimed it would be no big deal and can just throw it in a dumpster when you're done with it "but I didn't say that."

I did really like the layout of the ALiner... it was one of the larger models. I do a lot of creative writing so I would like a nice seating area with a large stable table surface, not a flimsy swiveling tray that you can just rest your plate on (like I saw in one of the T@B trailer). The ALiner had that. It also felt surprisingly roomy, probably because the A-shape gives you a high ceiling in the center. 

But... in addition to the cassette toilet issue, yes the set-up was another thing I was worried about. My friend in New Mexico said this: Imagine you just want to pull off the road and take a nap (which I like to do, but it didn't happen much with Lena because we need to sync our sleepy times, but anyway...) You have to set up the ALiner, which takes 20 minutes. By that time you're not sleepy anymore. What a hassle! I couldn't really argue with that... on the other hand, they are very appealing in their layout...

[Corrie473]

On 5/6/2020 at 8:25 AM, Kirk W said:

If you do not realize what is involved, check out this video to see what it takes. 

Whoa. Just watched the video. It is a very good video, very thorough and informative... and my reaction was NO, I can't do this. 

I'm sure I sound lily-livered. I actually don't have a problem digging the cathole when camping and I have cleaned toilets in hostels while traveling overseas, so it's not as if I've never been around poop... not sure why this turned my stomach SO badly but ulgh... the black garbage bag she keeps it in... you know that just rinsing the hose off doesn't really clean it, you'd need bleach or possibly leaving it out in high-altitude sunlight... and then you could see that some of it was leaking the entire time she was flushing it... just gross.

I'm going back to my original thought that we will just use the showers and toilets at the campground!

Thank you for the reality check. BTW why does she say that some people don't want a Class C for this reason? A Class A works exactly the same way in terms of grey and black water tanks, right? What is she contrasting it to?

[2gypsies]

I think you're making a mistake in thinking that you plan to use the campground toilet & shower continuously - especially with a small child.  That can be more unsanitary than having to dump the tanks.  You'd have the inconvenience of 'during the night' trips to the toilet and getting to them in inclimate weather.  Some bath houses aren't heated.

Dumping the tanks really isn't a big deal once you get a system down.

As far as your comment of rinsing the hose off doesn't really clean it.  No, the procedure isn't meant to sanitize it.  You could never do that thoroughly and safely.  Rinsing off is just getting any particles off such as toilet paper and any residue before storing it.  There's absolutely no sense in trying to sanitize it.

However, I see one error in the video.  If there was only one faucet there to use, she rinse the dump hose and connected her fresh water hose to the same faucet.  She should have sprayed the faucet with bleach before she did that.

As far as the salesperson telling you to dump the cassette into the garbage dumpster. That's definitely a no-no.  You would take it to the restroom toilet & dump it there.

I didn't catch her comment about a Class C or A.  Yes, they would be dumped using the same procedure as a travel trailer, pop-up, Class A or Class C.  If they would all have holding tanks you would empty them the same way.

Edited May 7, 2020 by 2gypsies

[sandsys]

I prefer a bucket toilet to a cassette one. Line the bucket with a heavy duty plastic bag placing a room deodorizer between the bucket and bag and add a seat/lid that seals. As often as you feel the need to do so, tie off the bag and dispose of it. If you put your regular garbage in that toilet as well it becomes easier to justify replacing the bag often. Just keep reminding yourself that putting those bags in a dumpster is no worse than throwing away used disposable diapers.

Linda

[Kirk W]

23 hours ago, Corrie473 said:

BTW why does she say that some people don't want a Class C for this reason? A Class A works exactly the same way in terms of grey and black water tanks, right? What is she contrasting it to?

To be very honest, I didn't completely watch any of those videos on dumping tanks, because it is something that I have been doing from time to time for more than 30 years. I have no idea why anyone would make that comment as the dumping process is the same on all RVs. There are minor differences in where the hose is stored and some RVs also have a flush system for the waste tanks but everything else is pretty much the same.

I think that before you make any expenditures for an RV, you need to spend some time looking at RVing videos. A good place to start would be YouTube hooking up an RV videos but there are videos available about pretty much any RV subject. 

[Corrie473]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

I think that before you make any expenditures for an RV, you need to spend some time looking at RVing videos. A good place to start would be YouTube hooking up an RV videos but there are videos available about pretty much any RV subject. 

I see what you're saying and I did watch a very informative video about the pros and cons of RPods but then there is so much junk to wade through on YouTube to find one good video. I've found this with every topic, not just RV life. The one you linked was very good, I don't know how many videos you sifted through to find that but thank you. I will check out this one too.

[Corrie473]

20 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

think you're making a mistake in thinking that you plan to use the campground toilet & shower continuously - especially with a small child.  That can be more unsanitary than having to dump the tanks.  You'd have the inconvenience of 'during the night' trips to the toilet and getting to them in inclimate weather. 

I know you're probably right from a rational perspective... even on our trip last summer/fall (we were in Arizona and southern Utah during the fall so not so cold) it got old making middle-of-the-night trips... I usually had to pee some time in the middle of the night, usually when my daughter was sound asleep, but I could not chance leaving her in the tent and walking to the bath house alone... so I would either try to wait until she woke up or have to wake her up to bring her with me which I'm sure she didn't appreciate.

I know in terms of bacteria per square inch you're probably right, the bath house is worse. It's an out of sight out of mind issue - I just walk in there, it looks clean, I flush when I'm done and the waste 'goes away'... Maybe it's not so bad once you get used to it but it just turned my stomach to watch that process...

[MidMOTraveler]

Just keep in mind several campgrounds have closed all bathrooms and showers during this virus. 
Many are requiring “self contained only” . 

[Corrie473]

5 hours ago, MidMOTraveler said:

Just keep in mind several campgrounds have closed all bathrooms and showers during this virus. 
Many are requiring “self contained only” 

Oh... interesting point. I was wondering about RVing during this craziness. I was thinking I had dodged that bullet and assuming that by the time I get on the road it'll be mostly back to normal... can't count on it though and you're right that is a big consideration.