What kind of camper do you have???

The only thing I dont like is a trivial matter.
Wish the shower was a bit bigger because I HATE having the shower curtain stick to me when i'm in the shower.
Of course this is mainly my fault for not being more aware of where i'm standing.
So yeah....it's a trivial matter.

 

Nice!!!
But a question...
Are Y'all shooting porn videos with those sheets?

Just kidding.....

 

I purchased early of last year a 2022 North Trail Ultra Lite 22CRB. Really loved our first use of it and decided to get rid of my Ford Excursion (I didn't feel comfortable being states away from my diesel mechanic). Later last year, I picked up my 2022 Tundra Limited DC w/ 6.5' bed. I love this combination. Getting ready to get out camping again with the family. Both my adult kids, my wife and my oldest sons wife all love it. My oldest son has an OG 1995.5 Tacoma, V6 w/5 speed. He plans to bring it every time with us.

 

Just picked this weekend warrior toy hauler up. Biggest half ton front bed sleeper available. 2008 fs2300 super lite. Just hit the scale and full of fuel we are right under 6,000 lbs. OTT tow tune and air bags made it great. Pulled it through some 30 mph cross winds and did pretty good.

 

I forgot to update this post regarding our new 23LDE with the weights. Steer axle was 3400lb and drive axle was 3900, so 100 lbs over GVWR. I can eliminate ~200lbs of weight in the truck. Trailer axles were 5940lb.

 

I've posted this before, but not with the 2025 pulling it.

Jayco 267bhsw. 30ft and 7000lbs loaded.

Upgraded to 6000lb axles after the 3500lb-ers lost their bow and were wearing tires.

 

Damn 6000 lb axles! That's quite a jump. How is the 3rd gen towing? Did you need to add airbags or rear suspension support for the coils?

 

Standard trailer axles go something like 1500#, 3500#, 5200#, 6000#. Apparently the 5200# is the same beam as the 6000#, but the 6000# has larger bearings? The trailer supply shop quoted me the same price for either the 5200# or the 6000#, so I went with the more common 6000# for parts availability in the future.

New wheels and tires, because 6000# axles have six lugs. Six lug wheels only come in 15"+, so new tires were needed.

I put black sumo springs on the 3rd gen right after I bought it, so I don't have a 'before' reference. The picture is how it sat fully loaded and with the wdh dialed in.

I have to say, the 3rd gen out tows the 2nd gen in power, braking, and general handing. Tow+ mode is a dream. My trailer felt smaller than it ever has.

 

Good to hear.

 

Here are some pictures of the swap. Parts in the bed of the 2nd gen.


Edit: this was the tire wear after only a 300 miles and the reason for the swap. The rear axle had lost most of its arch:

 

My mom took this sweet photo of me pulling up for a family camping trip a couple of weekends ago with the Micro Minnie. I've been busting my ass installing my power system the last month or so and it worked flawlessly on this short trip. Heading to Alaska in June for about five months.

 

Please feel free to include some deets.

I, myself installed a mini split heating system in my RV. It works better than the original HVAC system. I don't know why rv's don't come with these to begin with.

 

Under 6k is pretty impressive ... I'm at 6300 in a CM with just me and gas and a few mods. (GCS cooler, KO2's, Miller cat shield, bags, and TRD sway bar)

 

Here's the basics. Everything expensive is Victron except for the batteries, which are 2x LiTime 200AH Plus 12V self-heating batteries. The Minnie came with a single 200W solar panel on the roof, I have that wired into the 75|15 MPPT you see there. The solar plug on the side of the trailer is wired into the 100|50 MPPT and I have a portable 450W panel to use for that. Both solar inputs go through their own cutoff switch before going into the MPPTs. The inverter/charger is a MultiPlus-II 3000VA 12V which I have wired into the trailer's OEM 120V system. It's just enough to run the roof air conditioner on low for about four hours or so off of the batteries. I replaced the OEM battery cutoff switch with a bus bar to tie the new system into the trailer's existing 12V system, the bus bar is on the far side of the Multiplus with a new negative ground run through the floor and bolted to the frame. For monitoring I have a Victron SmartShunt and the little black box is a Raspberry Pi 4 that I'm using to run Victron's VenusOS to monitor the whole system via an Android tablet.

I still have a few 12V wiring runs to do from that BlueSea fuse block, one for my Starlink via a 40A toggle switch so I can turn it off and on at will, one run for an additional USB outlet I added next to the bed, one for a 12V freezer I bought, and one to power the Raspberry Pi.

I bought all the Victron stuff from Explorist.Life, everything else was from Amazon pretty much. I didn't buy the Explorist.Life wiring kits because I knew I would need more cable than those kits came with. All total including the 450W solar panel and my Wen 3600W generator I'm into the power system about $5100. Not too bad IMO. I'm going to be living out of this for a bit so wanted good high quality components, made my employer happier too.

 

Thank you! This is an awesome setup!

 

Just a little psa for you out there.

Do not use the grease zerks on Dexter ez-lube axles. My trailer had all four brakes ruined from grease contamination when I got it. I thought it was a fluke until I did some more reading. Recently, my dad bought a newer, but used trailer. The previous owner had packed so much grease through the zerks that the hydraulic pressure drove the rear seals OUT OF THE DRUM/HUB.

The problem is in the design. The grease flows through the spindle to behind the inner bearing. In theory, the new grease is supposed to force the old grease out of the inner bearing into the vacant space between the bearings. Then it keeps moving up through the outer bearing and exits around the spindle washer.

In practice, the grease has a path of less resistance by pushing past the rear seal and out of the hub. It then gets flung all over the inside of the drum.

Im sure there is a way to make this work, jacking up the trailer, slowing turning the wheel and gently pumping grease. The problem is there is no way to know if you have pushed past the seal without pulling the hub anyway.

For me, every 3 years, I will remove my bearings, clean them, repack with synthetic grease, install new seals and have piece of mind. I removed my grease zerks and tossed them.

 

It’s not so much a design flaw but a service issue. If you jack up the trailer and spin the tire as you slowly pump in the grease you won’t have a problem. I have done it this way at the beginning of camping season for many years. I remove the drums every three years and inspect the brakes and have never had any grease leak past the rear seal.

 

The Wife and I thought long and hard about this option.
In the end we decided to go with a trailer.
My Truck usually has a lot to do with our recreation and having a camper in the bed just wasn't feasible since offroading is a big part of our vacations in a lot of cases.
Although it sucks not being able to tow the boat so we have to take two vehicles if we want to bring the boat.
Obviously this wont work on long trips.
While it could neither of us want to drive long distances by ourselves. It works fine if were going to one of our local lakes.
Makes getting a Motorhome more appealing everyday.
You can put the boat in the water when you get there and beach it right in front of your campsite.

 

Got the camper all washed up and ready for Memorial Day weekend at the lake

 

Yikes...
Got home to this nice surprise. Got the camper parked out back away from the dead Ash trees. Instead a big branch from a live tree came down and missed the camper by a couple inches.

Not a scratch on the camper.

 

I had the Micro Minnie FLX, we loved how easy it was to haul that trailer into tight spots, but godamn I hated the electrical system.

We went bigger and this time, like all other great minds, went with all victron.



Had the first trip, it was a success, everything worked the way it was suppose to.





The trailer was on the heavier side of 8000lbs, I think 27ft is as big as I'm willing to go with a Tundra.

 

Campers always look nice with a tundra in the photo.

 

Off to the lake!!

 

Nice! We are headed out tomorrow morning to a Yogi Bear in PA. Safe travels!

 

24 Four foot Wildwood, and 19 foot Four Winns. Just had the garage completed a few weeks ago on our new property to store everything.

 

Both will last much longer in a garage.

 

32 foot Imagine 2670mk for full time living due to work. Tundra tows it like a champ! a little under 8k lbs loaded, little under 7k dry. Was worried about having too much squat but my Iron Man suspension did the job great, may add airbags in the future.

 

Spent MDW out in western PA. Truck did great in the mountains and the family had a blast

 

A couple weeks ago, I moved my camper further south to spend some time with the family. My mom took this pic of me backing down her road to get into her driveway.





I went to purchase a wildwood fsx but found out they are regional brand new. They are the same as the cruise lite platinum's, just southern vs northern units.

So we took home and have been using a 24RLXL which is 5000 dry, GVWR 7550 and estimated hitch at 550.

When I loaded it the last time, I was seeing 700lbs on the hitch and stopped at a scale as well.

 

I got a 24 Keystone Bullet. It is the reason I got the Tundra. (i just googled a picture it is this model though)