What do you TOW with your Tundra?

You're not wrong. lmao

 

Just to mention that when my jayco was new I cleaned up all the caulking on the roof and installed eternabond on all the seams I also removed all the windows took off the foam gaskets they come with and replaced with butyl caulking strips. The butyl remains flexible forever and seals like a damn, don't use putty as it drys out.
Windows and the roof of course are weak spots on all these trailers.

 

Yeah, planning to build in the next few years, hopefully. Tired of the old broken down double wide crap. Not worth the effort, time, or money to fix them.

 

Nothing is built to last anymore, unless you can afford an airstream one day one day

 

Yes 2020 SX DC 4X4 and 2019 Coachman 204RD ultra lite. I was pulling the TT with my 18 Tacoma. Handled great but just didnt have the power for the mountains. Tundra gets the same mpg while towing.

 

Airstreams are sweet, but I've never seen a toy hauler version of one. That and the fact that they are twice the price per foot over anything else is just painful.

 

Sadly this is not so true anymore either,almost all of them are built like crap and are made way too quickly and cheaply for it to be any different!

The main reason I have stuck with Fiberglass Eggs is that at least the entire Body and Shell is 2 pieces of glass sandwiched together where there is much lower chance that the roof can leak and the shell at least has great integrity from the start.
No Wood is also a huge advantage I think.

Any construction that involves sheet materials stuck to a stick frame is just going to leak down the road,pun intended for sure!
Windows and Vents are going to leak and all of the innards of an RV are exactly the same low standard junk in all of them and they are all going to have a shorter life span as well.

I have built a few Toy Haulers from Cargo Trailers too though and at least with that I can make them as slowly and carefully as I want to and with whatever materials I want to too.

But if they feature exterior seams they are going to leak.

 

One of the best trailers for the buck has to be the Camplite/Livinlite trailers. Excellant workmanship and all aluminum construction with no wood inside or out. Sadly they dont make them any longer

 

Those were the ones I was looking at, but they didn't make any short enough that would fit my toy. That, or they have tip out tent beds, and if I'm sleeping in a tent I don't need a trailer.

 

Hey sask3m,

Would you mind posting a pic or two of your fiver trailer and hitch set up? I'm not giving up hope to maybe be able to haul a lighter 5th wheel with my new Tundra.

-Dave

 

Yes hitch weight loaded is around 550lbs. I weighted my truck at the scales to see what the really world payload numbers are. After subtracting from the GVWR I was only left with 830lbs. I only have a hard tonneau cover, bed mat, aluminum running boards and spray in liner installed. With my wife, myself, a small 10lbs pup and a 100lbs 3K generator I'm over. The kicker is my Camry has 905lbs payload so I guess I should be using it to tow the TT.

 

My dad did this to his trailer when he bought it but his is a 1983 Vanguard he bought in about 2000.

 

lol

 

This is exactly why i just traded in my 2013 Tacoma for a 2020 Tundra TRD sport. I weighed my Tacoma with TT attached and myself and wife inside and I weighed in at 10800lbs combined weight. The Taco is only rated at 11100lbs, that only 300lbs remaining. My TT is a KZ Sportsman 25' bunkhouse. When i came back from my trip, i traded it in that weekend. and i figured the same thing you did, the taco and Tundra will get roughly the same MPG's towing. I mine as well be more comfortable when towing and know i can go alot further on a 38 gallon fuel tank

 

The 38 gallon is differently a major plus. The 20g tank in the Tacoma reduces you range badly. I would have to carry a extra 5 gallons in the box for emergencies and I used it a few times. Also Tundra has a lot more room with bigger more comfortable seats.

 

Did you install a transmission cooler? I hope you know about that.

 

If Toyota comes out with a diesel Camry I'll hook it up.

 

We purchased this Grand Design Imagine 23BHE almost 2 months ago. It’s around 6400 lbs loaded and 28 ft overall length. It’s pulls the trailer pretty good but I’m glad I didn’t go any bigger.

 

Nice trailer. How do you find the quality of the Grand Design?

What are the chances of another Tundra pulling an Apex right behind you?

 

Lol that was my cousin that we were camping with.
As far as the quality this is our first travel trailer and I don’t have anything to compare it with. There were a few issues I fixed myself to save the headache of towing it to a dealer 100 miles away. The biggest issue was the slide was leaking because the slide flange wasn’t making contact with the bulb seal when the slide was in. The other issues were small things like the bathroom door being hard to close which just required a hinge adjustment. I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the slide leaking but I think I’ve got it fixed.
I have two family members that own Apex’s and they seemed pretty impressed with the Grand Design’s features.

 

I had both of these issues with my Imagine 22RBE XLS. The slide was getting water in it behind the top corner cap, running down the hollow insulation and down the slide track onto my floor. Pretty common issue with these that I resolved with GD. The dealer was clueless.

 

They all have small issues and your problems seem small. I bought a Freedom Express last year which is suppose to be the next step up from the Apex. When I got it home realized two large windows leaked, the fridge didn't cool properly, various trims had to be secured, closet door had to be adjusted and support beams had to be installed under the fresh water tank because it was sagging when full. Forest River was good enough to send two frameless windows which I installed and the rest I did myself.

 

That’s good to hear GD worked it out. What was their fix for the leak?

 

I expected to do repairs and learned quickly that RV service was nothing like cars. The smallest repairs took weeks. I just started doing my own repairs even under warranty.

 

You have to caulk behind the corner caps and fill that hollow insulator that runs down behind the corner cap with caulk at the top.

Join the GD Facebook groups if you haven't already. GD monitors those and often offers help. Great customer service from GD office. The dealers, not so much.