Thinking of moving to 29' from 19' - opinions and experience

Wife and I love camping, in fact we just came back from Beavers Bend in Oklahoma. We have (3) small kids, 5 year old boy, 2 year old girl and 2 month old boy. We are done reproducing our DNA and are looking to upgrade our travel trailer 2 or so years from now for our trip to Disney.

We plan on camping at Fort Wilderness - but a 19' with 5 people is pretty cramped.

Tow Vehicle: 2007 Tundra Crewmax TSS w/ full tow package (trans cooler, gauge, hitch, 4.30 gears, etc.). Just hit 109,000 miles this camping trip. P3 controller / WDH with single anti-sway.

Our current config:
KZ Sportsmen 19BHS -
2840 lb dry weight
3500 lb max weight
370 lb hitch weight
20 feet 6 inches OAL

What we want:
Forest River Surveyor 247BHDS -
5836 dry weight
7581 max weight
581 lb hitch weight
29 feet 4 inches OAL


First off - I never ever plan on going to the full 7581 weight. Tanks will always be empty, we load only roughly 400 lbs of clothes/food/toys. This may change as the kids get older/get heavier and bring more stuff. I estimate we will be at 6500 lbs with propane/battery/cargo.

How drastic will the difference be towing 10 more feet and 3700 more pounds? Towing our 19' is amazing, its back there but I still have acceleration on/off highways and up/down mountains.

Right now we get roughly 11mpg, will I be getting 7-8 with that much more weight or not? Is 65mph still doable?

Thanks in advance.

 

I have a 26' TT, which is almost 30' from hitch to bumper, and the biggest issue/concern I have on long trips is sway. I've had to drive as slow as 50mph white knuckle on a 70mph interstate due to a nasty cross wind and it was not fun. Your 29' is going to be well over 30' total. Since the longer you get the more issues you can have with wind I would be most concerned about sway and control. You say you have an anti-sway device but if it's the basic friction style like mine then it doesn't do shit.

My TT is about the same weight as your "new" one and similarly loaded. I get around 9-10mpg average. On a flat road with no wind I cruise at 70mph safely leaving plenty of stopping distance but I'm typically in the 65mph range. I also have ST tires on the TT rated for 80mph (most are only rated for 65) and change them out every 4 years.

 

So I think you might be mistaken on the length.

https://forestriverinc.com/rvs/travel-trailers/surveyor-luxury/247BHDS/1932

States exterior length is 29' 4" even with tongue/hitch.


And yeah, mine is the spin-down type of friction anti-sway. Do you use one or two?

 

Curious to these opinions as well. We've made 2 trips in one year to Disney 2019 may and october. Fort wilderness is the best! Currently have 21' with tongue and I am looking into something that can still fit within a 30-32' garage were building depth wise. 2018 sport CM pulls that camper like nothing through the hills and mountains from ohio to fla. We never hurry down we like to stop along the way to fish, camp, and hike with the little one. The only thing I have is the weight distribution bars on my hitch.

 

We're also looking at the Surveyor 245BHS - slightly shorter, 600lbs lighter, only lose the kitchen slide.

Question on that link I put above. It states "Tow vehicle 6600 lbs. minimum" - is that stating the tow vehicle must weigh 6600 lbs., or it needs to be able to pull that amount?

 

You’re definitely going to notice the extra length and weight. But when we bought our 21’ TT, we were told that everyone usually wants to upgrade within 3 years. And we wanted to also so each kid would have their own space. I’d stay around 26’ if it was me, but with enough bunks so each kid has their own space.

 

Well we bought this one in Jan of 2014, and don't plan on changing over until our stocks mature from this bottoming out. So 7-8 years aint bad!

I agree with each kid getting their own space, and this would allow us to fly the grand parents in to Disney and them stay with us for free as big as it is. I just want to make sure Im not huffing/puffing everywhere. I will be getting a 8,000/800 hitch system to replace what I have now to hopefully help with it.

 

If you weigh the tongue weight on the new trailer fully loaded, your hitch weight will be closer to 800 lbs.

I have a 2015 Jayco 24' with dinette side. The Sticker on my trailer said 5200 lbs dry weight, tongue weight of 535 lbs.

My travel trailer fully loaded, batteries, propane, 10 gals of fresh water in the holding tank, and 400 lbs of cargo, my hitch weight is 750 lbs.

Its best to use a tongue weight scale. My last Trailer I had a Nash 26x, the tongue weight was 1400 lbs.

 

We've done good bought our Springdale new in 14!

 

Do you like to keep truck and trailer connected once in your spot? In Texas, all parks will allow a 19'+ to stay connected.

Once the trailer gets above 28', no more. Must park it and disconnect then park truck down the road. That is a big pain in the arse when needing stuff from truck not to mention the safety factor. Just something to think about and look into at the places you want to stay.

 

If that's the case RV manufacturers are getting crafty and stating the overall size includes the tongue and bumper. So a 29' camper doesn't have 29' of living space. Yours would be comparable to my 2014 Shasta which is stated to be a 26' (living space) and overall length is pushing 31' (a bit longer than I thought).

https://shastarving.com/travel-trailers/shasta/26DB/4274

I have used my anti-sway device only a couple times as needed. I only have one. Do you find that yours works and makes a difference?

 

On my KZ, it helped a bunch, especially on I-35 going from Texas to Oklahoma. We always get West/East winds on the interstate and it used to blow me around a lot. However a much larger travel trailer would need something better suited for it.

 

I've never heard of this, that's nuts.

I usually disconnect and just pull my truck forward a bit so I can get the trailer level. Would only affect me in Amarillo as I do an overnight stop there on the way to Colorado.

 

I don’t like to push things to the upper end so my opinion is buy a smaller trailer or better suited truck. You have precious cargo with you.