Buy a real truck.  Unless you want to do 55 on the freeway, avoid windy
days, stay away from semi's wake wash, and do 35-45 on upgrades.  Oh, and if
you don't intend to do ANY panic stops or hard braking, or driving in
anything but bluebird dry conditions.

Your truck will do fine in perfect conditions, but if it's anything else,
you get to walk the fence.

Steve

Fleetwood is the "General Motors" of RVs.  They crank 'em out en masse but
don't enjoy a particularly admirable reputation.

Fleetwood stuff, at least lightweight, entry level stuff, is OK.  Just OK.

When buying a lesser-expensive (cheaper) unit, especially if it is a "Lite" or
"Feather" or some other reduced-weight name, it is built more cheaply.  Weight
savings is usually achieved at the cost of quality build.  Unfortunately, I am
not aware of any high-quality trailers that are also light(er) weight.

If you get a lightweight trailer, you should be OK with the Tundra but
probably not much better than "OK".  Because of the frontal area of a
full/high-profile trailer, your foot will be down most of the way most of the
time.

In any case, your best bet is to find a conveniently located dealership with a
good reputation and do business with them.  Good luck!

As you can see, when it comes to Fleetwood almost everyone lumps
everything Fleetwood builds into some problem they had in the past
with some Fleetwood product.  The Pegasus series is about as good as
any make IN IT'S PRICE RANGE.  I am in the Fleetwood Travelcade Club
and I attend rallies with all Fleetwood products (except pop-ups) in
attendance and hear very few complaints from those in the lower end
units because they didn't pay the big bucks for 1st quality. I have
been on 7,000 mile caravans with people in Pioneer and Orbit trailers
and they were having just as great a trip as those in the $300,000
American Eagles or me in my 1986 Fleetwood Avion. Bottom line, if it
fits your needs, it's about as good as any in that price range,
especially if you buy from a good servicing dealership. Just be sure
to keep up the outside maintenance and prevent leaks, which applies to
any brand.

Tom J

Tom J

I went through a somewhat similar experience in 2001, when I purchased
an 18' Fleetwood Terry Resort which I intended to pull with my '91
Chevy S-10 Blazer 4.3L V6 4-door.  I made a trip to Alaska with this
setup, and never had a situation where I thought I was loosing
control. Passing trucks were quite noticeable, but I corrected for
them without trouble. I was concerned about the short truck wheelbase,
so always drove conservatively.  Performance was sluggish, but
acceptable except in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I don't like to hold
up traffic, and pulled over to let cars pass.  By the time I got up to
speed, a number of cars were lined up behind me again.  Where
possible, I drove about 50-60 mph, speeding up to a steady 60 in heavy
traffic. Other than performance, I had trouble overheating on mountain
grades in the summer. I would turn on the truck heater to max heat and
continued on.  Truck was ok; my foot was not at that time.

Gas mileage for about the last half of my Alaska trip was 13.6mpg,
using the car odometer.  I never checked the odometer. I misplaced the
earlier trip records, but this data covers 3556 miles.

In 1997, I purchased a 1/2 ton Chevy truck (K-1500) to pull the
trailer, and used the Blazer for other driving. It is still running at
157k miles without major work, though obviously not new.

Here's some tips when purchasing your trailer (not necessarily in the
correct order).

I assume you have a choice of more than one trailer of the type you
intend to purchase.  Go through each, opening all drawers, converting
to a bed and back, checking all doors for easy closing and no warping,
operating windows, etc. , looking into storage spaces for sloppy
workmanship, etc.  I think most of the tolerances are eye-balled  and
you might as well get the rig with the fewest flaws.

Did your wife check closet space for coats, and kitchen area drawers
and shelves and counter space for cooking.  These areas may not all be
adequate, but will she accept them? Can you stand up in the shower
without bending too much or move around a little without touching the
shower curtain?  It's better to be aware of any shortcomings before
the purchase and accept them before the purchase.

I had a choice of two or three steps for the door step.  The three
step is useful in non-level camping areas.

Does the trailer come with a sway bar? It's a useful accessory, which
costs about $100 plus installation.

Calculate the weight of water with the tank filled, and propane with
the propane tank filled. Estimate the weight of belongings you may
have in the trailer, particularly if you are somewhat of a pack rat
(admittedly difficult in a small trailer with limited storage).

Weigh your tow vehicle with you and your wife inside, and with items
you will carry on your trip.

What about the trailer spare tire? Does one come with the trailer?
Rims are not available everywhere, and you want another ST185/80D13,
not a car tire that is somewhat similar. Is there a place for it on
the trailer, or will you carry it in your tow vehicle.  Consider it's
weigh in weight calculations.

Find a commercial scale near the trailer dealership, talk to them
about weighing your rig so there will be no last moment surprises. Try
to find a station with no ramp to the scale

After indicating a serious interest in purchasing a rig, try to make
part of the agreement weighing the rig at the commercial scale to
verify you won't exceed specifications.  This may take some talking as
the load equalizer hitch equipment will need to be installed on the
trailer before moving it, and who pays for it's removal if you don't
purchase the trailer. Get weights with both truck and trailer and
truck alone (truck at center and end, as scale accuracy may suffer
when the load is not centered and you can check the difference.  Then
go to the end where one is on the scale and the other not, weigh with
both, then disconnect and weigh again.

Do calculations. If you carry many things in the tow vehicle, it's
possible to exceed the GCWR, but be within the other ratings.

Let me give you an example of my current setup with my Chevy K-1500
5.7L extended cab, short bed with a shell  and 4wheel drive.

Trailer Gross Dry Weight:  2880 lbs.
Trailer GVWR: 5000 lbs.
Trailer GAWR (axle weight ratings) 2695 lbs.  I have two axles.

Truck dry weight - don't know. Neglected to weigh it before shell was
installed.

Truck payload (what the truck can carry, excluding driver weight):
1667 lbs

Truck GVWR (truck weight, payload, plus hitch weight): 6200/6600 lbs
per brochure
.
GCWR (weight of truck and trailer): 12,000 lbs.

Unfortunately,  I didn't jot down the data on the driver's door.
Another motorist ran into the door, and the door was replaced

These figures indicate  that there is more than enough reserve - but
here are actual measurements, made hear Hemet, CA where there is an
excellent truck scale.

Truck and trailer weight: (GCWR):  11,260
Truck only: 4500
Truck connected to trailer with truck off scale 4500
Trailer only on scale 4960

Looking at the published trailer dry weight, I have over 2000lbs of
trailer cargo.  There is little storage space in the trailer and one
propane tank was empty, but the water tank was full.  I can only
assume the published dry weight was optimistic.

Anyway, my comfortable reserve dropped to almost nothing on the
trailer and a much smaller margin on the truck than I anticipated.
These figures explains why truck performance is sluggish (but usable).
The truck is holding up ok, except the differential will overheat on
long grades on hot summer days. I had temperature sensors installed in
both the transmission and differential, and slow down when necessary.

Trip gas mileage is about 10.5 mpg.  The odometer may be a little
optimistic - comparing it to my GPS, I estimate about 1-3%. I need to
check more carefully.

Hope this helps.  There are more things to consider, but this post is
too long right now. If you use my email address, delete the X, which
is there to reduce spam.
Jim