First Trip with Travel Trailer Complete!

[TXWolf]

We took our new 36' travel trailer to the Coast (Aransas Pass) last week, and we survived! I had always thought that the highway from San Antonio to Aransas Pass was pretty level ... but I found out differently when pulling a lot of weight behind the truck. LOL We kept the speed between 65 and 70 for most of the 2.5 hours to our destination. The temps stayed in acceptable levels, although the TFT got up to 239 at one point.

One question ... how long is it OK drive with the RPMs at 4000 - 4200?

I'm really impressed with how the truck handled. Although I KNEW I had the trailer behind me, everything felt good. I never felt like I didn't have enough power to pull the load.

On a side note, if any of you guys ever get to the "Big Shell" area of the beach ... When you're driving in the sand, and you realize that there are no longer any other tire tracks around you ... it's time to turn around! Big Shell is a 4x4 area only, and I've gone down part of the way before. But with the truck loaded up with the wife, daughter, daughters boyfriend and our 2 grandkids ... at one point I was just creeping along, trying to find better traction. Everyone but me were freaking out , but I knew that the truck would make it out of there. I am SO glad that it's lifted, with 35" baja tires on it, though! LOL

Can't wait for our next trip ... We're going to Pedernales Falls up in the Texas Hill Country in a couple of weeks. There are a LOT more hills to test the truck, but I'm sure it's going to do fine.

[408F150]

I'm glad you survived. You need to flush your ATF and replace it now, though. Once you hit 230 you oxidized it and now it's going to degrade very, very rapidly and not protect your transmission or perform as well. Go to a good shop and have them drain the whole trans (not just the pan) and put some high-temp full synthetic in (I use RP). Helps keep temps lower and oxidizes at a higher temp to give you more of a buffer. If you haven't already put a larger ATF cooler in your rig, having one installed at the same time you're swapping fluids is a good idea.

[TXWolf]

That's probably a good idea. I also want to look into regearing ... going from 3.73 to 4.56.

[88Racing]

I have found in the past when driving on sand is to let 25%-50% of the air out of the tires. The only bad thing is putting the air back in when hitting the roads again. You are kinda SOL unless you have a compressor on the truck and who knows how far the next gas station with air is. Glad you had a good trip!

Lars

[TXWolf]

Yeah, as soon as I started to lose a lot of traction in the sand, I was kicking myself for not going with adjustable air bags in the rear end! When I first started looking at them a few months ago, I was thinking about how nice it would be to have an air compressor in the bed of the truck to fill my tires when I needed to.

[88Racing]

Originally Posted by TXWolf

Yeah, as soon as I started to lose a lot of traction in the sand, I was kicking myself for not going with adjustable air bags in the rear end! When I first started looking at them a few months ago, I was thinking about how nice it would be to have an air compressor in the bed of the truck to fill my tires when I needed to.

Don't look back!
You can still do the upgrade!
That's the one good plus about the air bag systems in my opinion too!
The onboard air compressor!

Lars

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by 88Racing

Don't look back!
You can still do the upgrade!
That's the one good plus about the air bag systems in my opinion too!
The onboard air compressor!

Lars

There's also the 120 volt compressors you can buy at places like Costco. I have one of those and took it on our recent trip into Colorado and Utah. I have a little quiet Honda 1000 Watt generator that powers it just fine and, of course, charges the batteries if we're "boondocking".

Glad your truck pulled the trailer, TXWolf! I was kind of thinking of you during our trip. I seem to recall our TFT being up in the 215 region a couple of times (long uphill climbs at 65 mph).

Be very careful about exceeding 65 mph with a trailer. Trailer tires are rated at 65 and if you drive faster than that, they can fail - it certainly shortens their life. I had a pair fail after about 5000 miles (chord separation). Same goes for pressure in those tires. Keep them at the recommended pressure, and check them before any day of towing.

- Jack

[TXWolf]

Well, I picked up a 10GAL air tank the other day. I'll take it with me the next time we go to the Coast (within a few weeks, I'm sure ). And thanks for the warning about the tires, Jack. I can definitely do 65MPH if it means possibly saving a life if a tire blows.

We're taking the trailer to a State Park tomorrow. It's in the Texas Hill Country, so I'll be taking it slow and easy. I hope to get the gears and larger tranny cooler after the first of the year. Or maybe those will be an early Christmas present to myself!

[TXWolf]

Well, we made it back from our trip to Pedernales Falls State Park with no problems at all! Heeding Jack's warning, I kept the speed between 55-65mph, and still made it to our camping spot with plenty of time to spare! LOL I still plan on getting the truck re-geared, along with a larger tranny cooler. Now that the wife and I have a couple of trips with the trailer under our belt, we'd like to use it more often.

I can't believe that I waited this long to get a travel trailer! It really came in handy when it rained all day Wednesday down here! LOL Sitting in a cool trailer and drinking a cold beer is a LOT better that trying to keep the water out of a tent while you're drinking a beer!

This was also my first stab at backing up the trailer into a camping spot ... and it was almost too easy! I was able to put the trailer EXACTLY where I wanted it ... which was with the back door of the trailer over a large rock that we used to get to the first step easier.



There is also something very, VERY wrong about hand-feeding an 8-point buck ... and wishing that you had your hunting knife with you! LOL

[JWBFX4]

Originally Posted by TXWolf

There is also something very, VERY wrong about hand-feeding an 8-point buck ... and wishing that you had your hunting knife with you! LOL

Something is definitely wrong with that picture. But definitely an experience.