Camper....

[vthomley]

Last night I looked at travel trailer camper thingy..... Going to get it on Saturday. I feel the need for a 3/4 Ton Crew Cab Truck soon. This thing weighs 6040 pounds empty, my Expedition has a towing capacity of 7500 pounds. It certainly will not be happy having this hitched to the back of it... He has load bars, sway bar hitch that comes with it. I have the electric brake adaptor in my Expedition. Much better than the pics of the Redneck hitch thing in the other thread, well at least better.

 

[klejeune]

Get a diesel Excursion, unless you need the bed of the truck for bulk storage.

Looks like fun! My wife really wants an Airstream someday

 

[vthomley]

Keith, an Excursion would be awesome! I don't know if I can handle going from 14mpg to 12mpg... Diesel would be good, hmmm... I'll be looking into this later this year.

We do not camp much mainly because we do not have a camper, tent camping is not an option....per the wife. Looks like we are going from one extreme to the other, from no camper to a 36' camper...

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and SHE really wants to go camping and fishing. Yesterday morning I was looking at a Bowling Website and this was listed in the For Sale section - $2000. I called the owner, I had known his son, and we went to look at it last night.

We are going ot plug it in and turn everything on this Saturday before we buy it. Is there anything I need to look for?

 

[snicklas]

Your would love the Excursion to pull and otherwise. I have an 03 Excursion with the 6.0L Diesel. I LOVE THE TRUCK. I get 15mpg+ empty and have seen 20 on a long interstate trip empty. I get 12-14 pulling a 21' Coachmen Cascade Travel Trailer, weighing in at ~4500lbs+ gear and firewood. I can get on the interstate and set the cruise at 70-75 (keeping up with traffic) and it is like the trailer isn't even back there.... I pulled the same trailer with a 2000 Durango with the 360 V8 and got 6-8 mpg towing, and had a max speed of about 62-65. Your Expedition should do ok..... it is a "half ton" truck, the Ex is a 3/4 ton truck. BTW - 2005 is the last model year for the Excursion.....

 

[aaytay]

Vince-
I don't know much about campers, but $2,000 sounds like a pretty decent price.

Along with hooking up the electrical, have him hook up the water so you can verify that none of the pipes have frozen and burst or are leaky.

Speaking of leaks, check the inside ceiling for evidence of leakage.

As far as trucks are concerned, my 3/4 ton Suburban has a tow-rating of #10,000 and as you mention gets 11 mpg whether I'm towing or just driving to the grocery store. <font size="-2">Which is why I don't drive it to the grocery store anymore..</font>

Anyway, good luck with your purchase..

 

[vthomley]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I will look at an Excursion, 3/4 Suburban, or 3/4 ton truck when the time comes. I love my Expedition, but I also love driving the 3/4 ton Chev Extended cab truck my employer has. Hmmm, I'll buy one just so I don't have to get groceries.

I checked to see if the roof leaked by looking around the edges of each room, checked around the air vents, and I found no signs of leakage anywhere.

I'll have to see if we can hook up the water, not sure, but I'll definitely ask!

 

[lbaker]

Once you get it checked out Vince, hit the road!! Know you will enjoy it.. (Good buy too)

 

[vthomley]

Turns out the hitch he is a Pull Rite hitch, kinda like a 5th wheel hitch, or it has charateristics of a 5th wheel hitch.

So later today I will be buying an Equalizer Hitch to pull this Camper.

 

[dtanner]

Well i have gotten 19.71 with a Cub on the Cub Trailer(deck is 57"x14 ft)

and this for Camping 4000 lbs dry.

And this is the tow vehicle .
and the mpg with the trailer is 19 mpg over here.

I Love cruse control and a deisel. lol Later Don T

 

[aschumacher]

Don, you got almost 20 mpg with your Cub pulling a trailer? Thats great!
The truck and trailer are super too!

 

[vthomley]

We went and got the camper this weekend, then took it on its maiden voyage. All worked well, it is a huge load to pull! Only thing I found not working is the electric jack, I have not tried the heater and water heater yet.

I found out my Expedition has the Heavy Duty Transmission, a 4r70w or something, versus the lighter trans. Filter and tranny fluid was more expensive, and that synthetic tranny fluid does not smell so good... When I drained the old fluid I thought it was definitely in bad shape because of the smell, but the new fluid had the same smell.

The Expedition got 8.8 mpg on a 240 mile trip. doing approx 55 mph.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Vince, you need an Excursion... The one my parents had got in the area of 13MPG regardless if they were empty or towing either their 3 place or 4 place horse trailer full, with the cargo area of the Excursion full of gear. Their's had the V10. Prior to the Excursion they had an Expedition and it wasn't up to hauling the horse trailer like their old F250 "Supercab" was, so they didn't keep the Expedition very long before they bought the Excursion. After my father passed away my mother sold it. I wish I could have afforded to buy it that was an awesome vehicle...

 

[aaytay]

Vince-
Glad the camper worked out for you and family. (I was going to ask this morning, but never got around to it.)

Are you going to keep the tow-rig then? Here's my similar story..

I had a 1991 Suburban that we used to tow a rented RV trailer (similar size) about 7 years ago. Wouldn't you know, the week we had our trip planned to Hayward, the weather turned nasty-hot. Temps in the upper-90's and high humidity.

About 30 miles into our trip I had to turn off the A/C because the engine-temp gauge was reading hotter than normal. Much to the dismay of my family, we ran it that way all of the way up to the campsite and back.

The truck performed flawlessly, but when I changed the engine-oil the week after we got back, all of the paint just crumbled off the oil filter when I put the wrench to it.

Needless to say, that combined with the A/C issue moved me up on "her" priority list for a new vehicle.

 

[vthomley]

An Excursion would be AWESOME! Or even a 3/4 ton Suburban. I've already looked, the Ford dealer in Hudson has an Excursion sitting there.... But my funds for a different vehicle are currently at ZERO.

Art, I did not change my Oil filter the other day... I was wondering about changing the Tranny fluid myself and it was easier than any other verhicle I've owned. After that I drained the oil then attempted to change the filter, seems the filter is not easily accessable and it was on very tightly. So it has new oil with an old filter, I will take it for an oil AND filter change before the next camping trip!

One trip this summer is going to Baraboo to camp during Red Power Roundup. Hopefully the weather temp will not be like Art's experience...

 

[kmcconaughey]

Vince, Baraboo??? Are you planning on staying at Devil's Lake State Park? If so that's a great place and you should be sure to set aside some time to explore the park.

 

[vthomley]

Kraig, Devil's Lake State Park is booked, I tried, maybe next year. We are staying at Baraboo Hills Campground. It looks to be nice.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bummer, you should still be able to visit it. If you never have made a visit to it, you really should.

IMO, the best time to visit is in October when the leaves turn color.

 

[tcbusch]

Vince,
The next thing you know you'll be upgrading to a 30 foot double slide and a four door Duramax.

 

[snicklas]

Kraiq,

Do bad your parents Ex didn't have the Diesel. Mine does (6.0L)and it gets 13-15 Towing my TT and have gotten 20 empty. Here are my two:

The Durango did okay but the Ex lives to tow!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Scott, for the few miles they put on their 2000 Excursion, the diesel would not have paid for itself. When my mom sold it in 2007 after my father passed away I think it had under 50,000 miles.

FWIW, my 2001 Isuzu Rodeo does just fine hauling my tent.