Going to put the Ram to work.

[PolarisCobra]

Purchased a Travel Tailer. 2019 trailer, in fine shape. 27 Ft long, 5200 pounds empty. The truck should manage it fine, as long as I don't overdo it.

Seller delivered it to my house (long story), not registered just yet, so I have not had it out on the road just yet.

 

[Random_Walk]

Nice!


You'll def. want to give it a quick shake-down cruise for a weekend before the weather forces you to winterize it. That'll give you a chance to make sure you have everything you want/need, identify pain points to fix, and it'll give you ideas as to what you might want to add or change. When I did mine earlier this year, it was a godsend - I camped at a county campground 3 miles south of my house, which let me run up to the house to grab stuff I forgot/missed, as well as tools and etc. It was also still close to town, so I could bop in and grab any forgotten/needed accessories I didn't have at home (example? I needed to go into town to get a longer sewer hose; the typical 10' stinky-slinky the dealer gave me was not long enough to do anything useful). Autumn also gives you a wide enough range of temperatures to test out the heater and the A/C unit...

Besides, it's a fun way to give it a good once-over.

I'm going to try and squeeze in one more outing before the rainy season arrives and gets ugly enough to require putting it up for the winter... probably an outing to the coast again, before the storms get there...

 

[PolarisCobra]

Yup - We are looking at two long weekends within an hour of home this fall, then it will be time to put to bed for the winter.

 

[2003F350]

Nice!


You'll def. want to give it a quick shake-down cruise for a weekend before the weather forces you to winterize it. That'll give you a chance to make sure you have everything you want/need, identify pain points to fix, and it'll give you ideas as to what you might want to add or change. When I did mine earlier this year, it was a godsend - I camped at a county campground 3 miles south of my house, which let me run up to the house to grab stuff I forgot/missed, as well as tools and etc. It was also still close to town, so I could bop in and grab any forgotten/needed accessories I didn't have at home (example? I needed to go into town to get a longer sewer hose; the typical 10' stinky-slinky the dealer gave me was not long enough to do anything useful). Autumn also gives you a wide enough range of temperatures to test out the heater and the A/C unit...

Besides, it's a fun way to give it a good once-over.

I'm going to try and squeeze in one more outing before the rainy season arrives and gets ugly enough to require putting it up for the winter... probably an outing to the coast again, before the storms get there...

I've done this with every camper I've ever owned - buy it, load up what you THINK you need, and see how things go. At this point it's more 'move it all from one camper to the next' and there's very few things we've had to find/add. It also lets you see if there's any issues that need repaired (especially if it's a warranty concern - our latest one had a water leak around the fittings outside, woke up to water on the floor of the bathroom during a heavy rain).

Our latest camper came with a roughly 6' sewer hose...I threw that out and replaced it with the brown/orange collapsable style (I want to say it's Rhino brand? Love the caps, swivels, etc). It also came with about 10 ft of white water hose...I still have it but primarily use one of the 3 25' hoses I carry. About the only thing that was useful in the 'rv starter kit' they gave us was the in-line water filter.

 

[Random_Walk]

Our latest camper came with a roughly 6' sewer hose...I threw that out and replaced it with the brown/orange collapsable style (I want to say it's Rhino brand? Love the caps, swivels, etc). It also came with about 10 ft of white water hose...I still have it but primarily use one of the 3 25' hoses I carry. About the only thing that was useful in the 'rv starter kit' they gave us was the in-line water filter.

Camco's "Rhino" hose... and yeah, it's awesome. The wife got squeamish about the clear plastic elbow at the dump-end (it's the eww factor), but it's perfect for knowing when you're empty.

Agreed on the dealer kit though the 80 Ah battery they popped in isn't too awful bad - I still have that (the solar panel on the roof helps big-time w/ keeping things charged). Still want to replace it with a 300 Ah Lithium-Ion LiFEPo tech battery, though.

 

[PolarisCobra]

Started our shakedown cruise. Drove about 40 miles to a campground near Newport RI. Truck pulled this camper without issue, pretty level with the WDH, I still need to do a few measurements to see if any adjustments are needed there. No real issue with the rear end bouncing in the highway, or swaying. Pulls nice and smooth.

Dashboard says 10.4 MPG getting here, about what I expected.

No Brake controller in my truck. I opted to buy a blue tooth controller that plugs into the port on the truck, then the trailer plugs into it. App on phone allows manual control, and tuning for sensitivity. Made by Curt. It seems to work well, trailer doesn't push or pull the truck when slowing down. It cost about the same a me installing a factory controller, but if I get a new truck, I can just plug this into the new one.

I think this is going to work fine for us.

 

[2003F350]

Glad it went well, but I'd still suggest getting the ITBC installed, whether you buy the parts yourself and have a dealer activate (or if you've got the software do that yourself too) or just have a dealer install it. It's NIGHT AND DAY difference to any other brake controller out there. It also doesn't rely on bluetooth, which occasionally can decide to just...not connect, which would leave you with no trailer brakes at all.

 

[PolarisCobra]

That's not the way it works. The controller will work fine when it's plugged in, even if the app isn't running on my phone. The App, via blue tooth allows you to adjust sensitivity, which it pretty much set and forget for a particular trailer, and allows manual controls of the brakes, which you might want to stop swaying. If the app is running on your screen, you can see how much braking is being applied by the trailer.

I would not drive with the app off or disconnected, but the controller would work if I did.

 

[2003F350]

That's not the way it works. The controller will work fine when it's plugged in, even if the app isn't running on my phone. The App, via blue tooth allows you to adjust sensitivity, which it pretty much set and forget for a particular trailer, and allows manual controls of the brakes, which you might want to stop swaying. If the app is running on your screen, you can see how much braking is being applied by the trailer.

I would not drive with the app off or disconnected, but the controller would work if I did.

Again, glad it's working, but long-term I would still go for the ITBC. Everything is at your fingertips, and you don't have to mess with unlocking your phone to bring up an app (might be handy if it is accessible through CarPlay or Android Auto, but again, it's searching for an app) - gain and manual control are buttons/a slider that you can just grab immediately.

 

[crash68]

allows manual controls of the brakes, which you might want to stop swaying.

This is the safety pitfall of a Bluetooth controller, there is no manual slider at you fingertips. Your not going to take the eyes off the road to look at the phone in an urgent situation.
Wireless brake controllers might be nice in a pinch but if you're going to be towing a lot consider getting a hardwired controller.

 

[PolarisCobra]

The phone is in a holder next to the steering wheel. It's plugged into a charging socket. The App stays active, the display stays on, its right there at my fingertips all the time.

The App designers seem to have thought things out well, there are thousands of them in use these days.

 

[PolarisCobra]

You can learn a bit about this device here. Pricing is much better on Amazon.

Echo Mobile Trailer Brake Controller, 7-Way, Bluetooth® Smartphone Connection

The Echo® mobile trailer brake controller is truly a brake control for the modern age. It plugs into your vehicle and wirelessly connects to your smartphone, allowing you to control and monitor all trailer brake activity right from your own device. It comes with a customizable app for Apple or...

www.curtmfg.com

 

[PolarisCobra]

Did a trip over the weekend. Only about 100 miles total, but the Echo controller worked fine for that time. Made a couple of adjustments to the sensitivity over the first few miles, trailer brakes seem to be well balanced, display on phone shows that brakes are being applied when I use the truck brakes, I'm happy with the performance of this thing at this point.