Does anyone full time a toy hauler?

[Mixologist]

This is my first post to the forum and if I violate any rules or conventions, let me know.


I should be buying an RV soon and to live full time and am very interested in toy haulers, especially the 425TS. Does anyone live full time in toy haulers?

[sourdough]

First and foremost, welcome to the forum! As far as full timing in a toy hauler I don't know but assume some probably do....although I wouldn't know why. Beyond that, looking at the 425TS, what do you have, or intend to get, to tow it with? - that's a pretty heavy trailer.

[xrated]

Welcome to our little corner of the interwebs. At this point in time and even further down the road, so to speak, we have no intention of full timing and selling our house. We have been dreaming a bit though about a bigger T.H. and the Raptor 426TS is the one we like best so far. Right at 44' with a fairly spacious bathroom, king size bed and a garage that would definitely be big enough for a couple of motorcycles and have leftover room for other storage. At best, I could see us doing a 2-4 week trip, but not full timing it. Those Raptors are very nice units, and as mentioned, a pretty heavy rig. IIRC, the 426TS GVWR is 19K, so definitely a Dually or maybe even a tad bigger.

[Harleydodge]

Do you plan on "fulltiming" in one spot, or do you plan to travel with it?
If you are planning to travel, a toyhauler makes perfect sense, that is, as long as you are planning to "Haul Toys"
We do not "fulltime", but do spend and plan to spend extended periods in our toyhauler and we love it.
The 425TS is a huge chunk of trailer. I hope you know what you're getting into. Do your homework for sure as far as tow vehicle and towing characteristics go.

[Mixologist]

Thanks for the replies. I’m fairly early in the research of toy haulers but intend to get a Silverado 3500 duelly. I plan to travel except for winter months as I’m not a fan of the cold and will bring a Can Am Snyder with me.

I have been researching 5th wheels for a while but would like to bring the toys and that won’t work. Until recently I never considered toy hauls as full timers. I joined hear to get some insight. Thanks again.

[travelin texans]

We've fulltimed for 10 years but not in a toyhauler. We've looked several times at THs with the idea of making the garage a hobby room, no toys, but ALL we've looked at the living area was too crowded/small & poorly laid out for our liking. As example, it seems most had the main tv mounted up high with no seating that you didn't have to turn 90 degrees while looking up to watch, not a very comfortable arrangement. The other drawback was all that we were interested in were LONG & HEAVY, we have a dually but weren't willing to tow 18-20k lbs. Also those with rear doors that could also be patios were nice but there aren't a lot of rv parks big enough to handle them or that allow them. Most state & national parks don't have sites big enough to handle 40'+ fifth wheels with or without the patios.
There are a lot folks fulltiming in THs & you may be more than comfortable doing so, but was only stating a few of the dislikes for us when we thought that was the direction we were going to take. Instead we finally chose the 5er listed in our signature & have enjoyed every second of the fulltime experience.

[On The Road Again]

My first toy hauler was a bumper-pull Keystone Impact 301. I didn’t buy it to haul toys. I bought it to haul all the stuff that would not fit in the limited storage. Back then I had the mindset that trailers were for boats. I put coolers, grill, charcoal, ladder, tool box, mini fridge, etc. in the garage. I currently have a Fuzion 331 and now haul two Harleys on one extended road trip and several shorter trips. The rest of the time, I use it for hauling all the extra stuff. Mine has a sliding glass door and curtain so it is separated from the rest of the trailer. It has the HappiJac beds for the rare occasion we have overnight guests. We are currently contemplating full timing and I would not own a trailer without it. However, we will keep the sticks and brick as a backup. In fact, the only reason I do not have a class A diesel pusher is that I cannot find one with a suitable garage. YMMV.

[notanlines]

I can’t argue with any of the points made above. We had our Raptor for four years, living in it eight months a year. I believe TT brought up the best point and the reason we went to a large DRV: living room was simply too small and not suited for full timing. We now triple tow although that is a solution not suitable for the meek, nor for those on the east coast.
YMMV

[Frank G]

Our neighbor in the resort is full timing it in a Fuzion Chrome. Just the 2 of them, retired, sold the S&B and moved about 10mi. So far they have smiles on there face. The Toy Hauler was a deliberate buy.

[Mixologist]

What a great site. I appreciate all the replies. I little about myself, I will retire next December after 30 years in the fire department. I divorced many years ago and will mostly be traveling solo so the living areas will be fine for me. You all have given me much to think about and I appreciate all the help.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Mixologist

What a great site. I appreciate all the replies. I little about myself, I will retire next December after 30 years in the fire department. I divorced many years ago and will mostly be traveling solo so the living areas will be fine for me. You all have given me much to think about and I appreciate all the help.

And we all wish you the very best. Retirement IS all it's cut out to be so go and have tons of fun.

[PARAPTOR]

It is my opinion if you have a hobby and need a dedicated separate room or you have toys that you want to have with you as you full time a TH is a great choice. However if none of these apply you are giving up a lot of living conveniences like space, etc going with a TH. Lets face if most emphasis is on the garage, for example if you think you want to go to a larger model in order to get more living space, you will find that the majority of that extra length goes to making the garage longer. Lets face it that extra area in the back can be used as extra living space, but appearance wise, etc is a basic garage

[Badbart56]

We fulltime in our Fuzion 405. We previously had a Gulfstream Sedona 2 bedroom so there's really no loss of living room between the two. We use the garage as a spare bedroom since it has the electric beds and the second bathroom. We have boys that are in the military and we have room when the come for a visit this way. It's big and heavy too but I upgraded from the old 97 F350 to my current 2011 F350 and the difference is astounding!

[AbHDToyHauler]

My wife and I never planned on full timing it in our Toy hauler. We did buy it to head south and take our motorcycles along once we retire but will keep our home here as well. In fact i will probably tow south to Arizona in Sept or early October and perhaps stay south till Christmas then head back home to Canada (Trailer and bikes will stay there) and then head south again in Feb and stay till spring. Many of our friends head down and stay the 6 months. We don't really see ourselves doing that but the great part of retirement (we hope) will the choice to say "You know what, it's nice and warm here , lets stay a few more weeks. " We have been camping as much as we can to get a feel for it for living space but we love the garage as our eating and game playing and general sitting room . But that's us. Would have loved to change out couch/bed in kitchen area to recliner style seating but wife likes it as is. LOL

[wiredgeorge]

If you have never owned a TH, suggest you look into ways to avoid scraping the undercarriage of your Spyder where the door hinges at the bottom. I had a Forest River TH and my GL1800 trike scraped going over that area. On a level pad, I had to lift the door about 4 inches and use a trifold ramp to get from end of door to ground. There are more clever ways to do the unload/load but that is what I did. That TH you are looking at is a very heavy & large trailer so make sure that Chevy you are looking at is up to the task. My poor Ford couldn't pull a trailer that big downhill.

[Cbsteve]

We full timed in our Raptor for two years when we lived in California. It was my wife, me, Kindergarden/First grade daughter, two dogs and 2 cats. I added foam padding in the garage under the carpet and turned it into my daughters bedroom. We eventually had to replace all the faucets, a check valve in hot water heater and converter from everyday use. In our situation, we were ready to get out of the trailer. We did not use our trailer for about 8 months after moving back home.

[Mixologist]

Again, thank you all. Very much to think about including the bottom scraping on the ramp (which I never considered) and the tow vehicle. I'm getting the house ready to go on the market so I still have time for research and will always use due diligence in my decision making. I appreciate all the help.

[xrated]

A pretty simple fix for "toys" dragging when loaded into a T.H. garage is to use wooden blocking under the rubber pads on the outside of the ramp gate. You simply place the blocks on the ground and lower the ramp down.....which will now be xx inches higher than if it sat on the actual ground/pavement. Buy a sheet of 3/4" thick plywood and make a foldable extension to the end of the ramp. You can cut it to any size you need and it doesn't have to be quite as wide as the ramp itself. Using a fairly heavy duty piano hinge, attach the plywood to the inside of the ramp so that it will fold back over onto the ramp when not in use. Then, when you get ready to load or unload a toy, all you do is lower the ramp down onto the wooden blocking, "unfold" the plywood extension, and rid the toy in or out of the garage. When done, fold it back onto the ramp and close the ramp. Of course you probably want to paint it or use non-slip material on the extension.....and what I did with mine was to buy 3/4" aluminum angle and put it on the the plywood to provide a finished look. So the angle would be on both sides of the extension and the rear of the extension....the part that comes in contact with the pavement/ground. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about. Granted, this was on an enclosed trailer that I previously owned, but the concept is exactly the same except you will want to use blocking under the ramp's rubber bumpers to get it up higher...then add the extension so that it will work for you.

[ctbruce]

You can raise the tongue, too and reduce the angle. That makes for an exciting loading and unloading time! I also learned to use the clutch to control speed when backing out. Oh the little tricks you'll learn.....

[xrated]

Originally Posted by ctbruce

You can raise the tongue, too and reduce the angle. That makes for an exciting loading and unloading time! I also learned to use the clutch to control speed when backing out. Oh the little tricks you'll learn.....

I've used the clutch to help with backing the bikes out of the present T.H. I have, as that ramp angle is pretty steep. My procedure is to put the bike in gear, leave the engine OFF and start rolling backwards. Then, if needed, feather the clutch out to slow it down. This allows both feet to stay on the ramp for good balance. On my street and track bikes, if you tried to use the front brake and keep your feet down, the front tire would simply slide down the ramp. Maybe on some of the heavier bikes this wouldn't be the case, but on light weight street bikes and the very light track bikes, they would always slide the front tire if the front brake was used.....thus the in gear and feather the clutch.