shane_th_ee
Full Access Members
Instead of flying to visit family over the holidays, we decided to drive and take our 22'/~6000lb travel trailer. We left on December 15 and drove from Seattle to Austin via I-5 and I-10 and then up to rural OK (between Ada and McAlester). Came home pretty much the same way, except I flew back and my wife brought her mom back & they drove. They skipped Austin and returned to I-10 via I-20 and went through Joshua Tree and then CA-99 to Sacramento.
It was a great trip and I came away feeling like I made the right choice on both truck and trailer. We had enough room in the truck to put two kids in each row with just enough cargo room in the back for the Honda i2000 generator & gas can, the 2-kid bike trailer/jogging stroller and bikes for the 3 little kids. The third row, being big enough and comfortable enough for grown adults meant that my wife spent much of the trip alternating between the 2nd and 3rd rows and entertaining the kids. The tip and slide 2nd row meant that we could put the older, more self-sustaining kids in the 3rd row and the younger ones (and carseats) in the 2nd row without anyone having to climb over the 2nd row seat back. There's nothing else on the market that would've made this possible.
I'm really, really glad we spent the extra $700 for the adaptive cruise control. It's wonderful to just set the thing and fall in behind a long line of semi trucks and just let the truck slow itself down and speed up as traffic slows and accelerates. Well worth the money.
Over flat ground the truck was very happy to trundle along at 70mph in 9th gear at ~1800rpm. Worst fuel economy was on the way down from Weed, CA to Mt Shasta, CA due to a 60mph head wind.
Most travel nights were spent in Walmart, Costco and Flying J parking lots, with a couple campgrounds thrown in and the obligatory BLM camping outside Quartzite. The lack of a slide out meant that Flying J's worked just fine, even if we had a close neighbor in the next lane.
This was also the time we used the receiver mounted bike rack and the new receiver I had put on the back of the trailer. This made taking a grown up bike much less of a hassle as we didn't have to store it on a bed and I'm sure it helped the tongue weight as well. We elected not to weigh the rig as I didn't want to know...
Night time temperatures ranged from the mid-50's in CA on down to the low 20's in OK. We kept the furnace set to 65, but didn't run it during the day if it was going to be above 40. I'm really happy we went with a 4-season trailer as nothing froze and we were nice and warm the whole trip. The floor would get a little cold, but we had slippers. Parked at relative's houses, we plugged the trailer in and turned off the batteries. Otherwise, we ran off the batteries and charged them during the day while driving. We actually went the whole trip without using the generator.
Only issues with the trailer was a loose screw on the door strike-plate & we discovered that with really heavy rain and a 120mph net head wind, water would get pushed up under the joint between the diamond plate and the fiberglass front. $2 worth of sealant from Home Depot and problem solved.
Total miles: 6340
Towing miles: 5799
Total Fuel: 658gal
Fuel Economy: 9.63mpg (22.97L/100km for the folks up North)
Total Nights: 28
Total Propane: ~3x 30lb bottles (didn't top off at the end, so it's probably a bit more)
It was a great trip and I came away feeling like I made the right choice on both truck and trailer. We had enough room in the truck to put two kids in each row with just enough cargo room in the back for the Honda i2000 generator & gas can, the 2-kid bike trailer/jogging stroller and bikes for the 3 little kids. The third row, being big enough and comfortable enough for grown adults meant that my wife spent much of the trip alternating between the 2nd and 3rd rows and entertaining the kids. The tip and slide 2nd row meant that we could put the older, more self-sustaining kids in the 3rd row and the younger ones (and carseats) in the 2nd row without anyone having to climb over the 2nd row seat back. There's nothing else on the market that would've made this possible.
I'm really, really glad we spent the extra $700 for the adaptive cruise control. It's wonderful to just set the thing and fall in behind a long line of semi trucks and just let the truck slow itself down and speed up as traffic slows and accelerates. Well worth the money.
Over flat ground the truck was very happy to trundle along at 70mph in 9th gear at ~1800rpm. Worst fuel economy was on the way down from Weed, CA to Mt Shasta, CA due to a 60mph head wind.
Most travel nights were spent in Walmart, Costco and Flying J parking lots, with a couple campgrounds thrown in and the obligatory BLM camping outside Quartzite. The lack of a slide out meant that Flying J's worked just fine, even if we had a close neighbor in the next lane.
This was also the time we used the receiver mounted bike rack and the new receiver I had put on the back of the trailer. This made taking a grown up bike much less of a hassle as we didn't have to store it on a bed and I'm sure it helped the tongue weight as well. We elected not to weigh the rig as I didn't want to know...
Night time temperatures ranged from the mid-50's in CA on down to the low 20's in OK. We kept the furnace set to 65, but didn't run it during the day if it was going to be above 40. I'm really happy we went with a 4-season trailer as nothing froze and we were nice and warm the whole trip. The floor would get a little cold, but we had slippers. Parked at relative's houses, we plugged the trailer in and turned off the batteries. Otherwise, we ran off the batteries and charged them during the day while driving. We actually went the whole trip without using the generator.
Only issues with the trailer was a loose screw on the door strike-plate & we discovered that with really heavy rain and a 120mph net head wind, water would get pushed up under the joint between the diamond plate and the fiberglass front. $2 worth of sealant from Home Depot and problem solved.
Total miles: 6340
Towing miles: 5799
Total Fuel: 658gal
Fuel Economy: 9.63mpg (22.97L/100km for the folks up North)
Total Nights: 28
Total Propane: ~3x 30lb bottles (didn't top off at the end, so it's probably a bit more)
