New RV family from North Texas

[AlmostAPro37]

Hello all! We recently bought a 2021 Keystone Hideout 318BR! We purchased from United RV in Ft. Worth Texas and were very happy with the service we received there. It’s unreal how many campers are being sold daily right now. We were thinking about going used to better meet the budget, however with the current market new just made more sense. We are towing with a 2017 Nissan Titan pro4x. There’s seven of us total and this camper essentially marked off all of our checkmarks! With the oldest boy playing travel baseball most of our outings will be fairly local, up to 2-3 hours away. Most all our trips will have to be made with two vehicles, cause seven of us don’t fit in my truck and we’d be pushing our weight limit if so. We currently have it on our third outing, learning the trades what kind of essentials we need and want, how to store things and everything we can get to break before the initial full year warranty runs out haha! I grew up camping, my kids have been numerous times with their grandparents. My girlfriend and her three are new to RVing, but instantly fell in love!

[Javi]

Howdy from Waco.

[dutchmensport]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your RV purchase. That's a lot of people you've got there and it sounds like you've planned everything out pretty good to accommodate everyone. Remember, in all the hustle and bustle of attending to the kids, to spend time alone with your mate ... even while camping!

[B-O-B'03]

That is a lot of trailer for that truck, almost 36 feet, with a 9700 pound GVW and the tongue weight @ 13% of GVW would be 1,261 pounds.

You should post the payload sticker, from the drivers door, to show what your particular truck has capacity wise.

You say there are 7 of you, are they all riding in the Titan?

That will chew up a lot of the available payload right there, never mind the possible 1,200 pounds of tongue weight.

Congrats on the new camper, be careful out there.

-Brian

[Gary R.]

Hello and welcome to you and your family to the forum!

Congrats on your new Hideout!

Take care and have fun!

[spicercars]

Welcome from Northern MN.

[Camping family]

Welcome and enjoy. Be safe in your travels.

[Heavy_Chevy]

Welcome! Got the same trailer. Absolutely love it and you will too. Be careful though, it is one of the longest and heaviest bumper pulls on the market. I’m afraid you will find like I did, that your half ton off-road biased truck will be overmatched by this camper. Just a quick google search says your truck’s max payload is about 1500 lbs and max tow is 9700ish. With the 318 hideout, you’re already there when fully loaded.

I wish you many happy weekends! Just be careful getting there.

[Northofu1]

Congrats and welcome to the forum.
Have fun and be safe.

[flybouy]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new camper. Reading your posts there's a few concerns that stand out to me. Seven of us so MOST of the trips are 2 vehichles? I hope someone is staying home for the single vehicle trips.

The capability of the Nissa has been brought up but the why is this, trucks marketed as "off road" specialized typically are not good at towing. Yes, they have wonderful engines with great power and torque which makes a good PULLER but a poor HAULER. Towing a camper is about hauling the weight, pulling the weight, and controlling both the weight and large sail surface behind the truck. The suspension attributes that make a vehichle good for off roading like longer wheel travel, softer springs and shocks, higher frame clearence resulting in a center of gravity, high profile deep tread off road mud tires, are the exact opposite of what you need for towing.

It's been my own personal experience towing a 35 1/2' trailer with a 1/2 ton truck that it was a bad idea. I thought, and argued that it was "fine". And it was, right up untill it wasn't. That one time where the wind overcame what the truck could handle convincingly changed my mind. Fortunately it ended without harm, but just. We were traveling "light" just DW and myself (our daughter was following with 2 freinds in her car), about 150 miles from home. So those excuses that "we don't have the tanks full, only travel locally, or whatever other unrealistic exuse" is just trying to justify making a bad decision. You may as well say " we only travel during a new moon" or "we buy the marshmallows at the campground store to save weight", it's just about as relevant. Now this just a guess, but I'm guessing with a family of 7 that the trailer is loaded up with a LOT of tood, drinks, clothing, and "toys", like bikes, games, electronics, fishing gear, etc. .

Do youself a favor, strike that, do the RESPONSIBLE thing and run that setup over a Cat scale and find out what the weights actually are. Come back and stick it in our face and prove the "weight police" are full of it. This is intended for no other purpose other than awareness to a potential unsafe condition. I wish you safe travels and much enjoyment.

[wiredgeorge]

Not sure comments to the OP will be heard. He logged off 4 minutes after his post in this thread and hasn't been back. The OP, like many new owners when faced with an unsafe towing situation don't wish to face the safety problem. I wish him and his family well.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Not sure comments to the OP will be heard. He logged off 4 minutes after his post in this thread and hasn't been back. The OP, like many new owners when faced with an unsafe towing situation don't wish to face the safety problem. I wish him and his family well.

That doesn't mean he won't be back, or that onther reader may find it helpful.

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by flybouy

That doesn't mean he won't be back, or that onther reader may find it helpful.

You are absolutely correct. We have seen a number of Nissan Titan owners find out their truck wasn't the tow vehicle they thought although I have a dim recollection of someone saying the Titan was 1/2 way between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton. Might just be a faulty memory.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

You are absolutely correct. We have seen a number of Nissan Titan owners find out their truck wasn't the tow vehicle they thought although I have a dim recollection of someone saying the Titan was 1/2 way between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton. Might just be a faulty memory.

They are generally "thought os" as 5/8 ton, or a "heavy duty" 1/2 ton, but to me it's like the Keystone "1/2 ton towable". Sure, just show me the numbers on the ACTUAL truck and not a brochure. Never ceases to amaze me how you ask about fuel milage and most "honest" answers will be that the EPA rating is BS. But as about towing and they'll swear the advertised number is gospel.

[travelin texans]

I think Nissan & Toyota build OK trucks, but as for towing long, heavy rvs they weren't designed for, particularly the off road models. Towing boats, ATVs, snowmobiles or a utility trailer they're great, but 30'+ 8k+ lb RVs not so much.
As Marshall indicated no one is saying you can't or shouldn't tow with it, just be aware for the safety of you, yours & ours on the roads with you.

[markcee]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

You are absolutely correct. We have seen a number of Nissan Titan owners find out their truck wasn't the tow vehicle they thought although I have a dim recollection of someone saying the Titan was 1/2 way between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton. Might just be a faulty memory.

That is the Titan XD.....which the OP did not indicate they have. The XD is similar to the F150 3.5 V6 or 5.0 V8 equipped with the heavy duty payload package (HDPP).

The payload max on a standard (non XD) Titan is 1560 and bumps to about 2300 on the XD....as we know, that will still depend on truck optioning.

I did a bit of research on the Ford HDPP when I realized my mistake in getting a standard F150 to tow my trailer. I was maxing out with 1873 pounds of payload...plus the fact that the trailer is 33' long. The F150 HDPP does have a thicker frame than the standard as well as a different rear axle and some other mechanical differences. This bumps up the GVWR enough to give you 2300-2600 pounds of payload, depending on trim. You also had to have the 6.5' bed in order to get it, which gives you a longer wheelbase than the popular 5.5' bed F150. Same changes likely occur with the XD.

Bottom line, is they are sorta 5/8 ton, but glad I elected to go with the F350 instead!

[AlmostAPro37]

I knew all this was coming! Although I Didn’t expect anyone to accuse me of running off scared. You could imagine with seven of us life gets busy! We are 100% aware that we are at the top end of our weight limits. The camper is 7,830#s dry with an advertised 900# tongue weight (which seems high to me, but that’s what the brochure says). My pickup is the non XD model with a tow rating of 9,300#s. I have been to the CAT scale twice. First was only me in the pickup with a full gas tank. Second was me and the dog with also a full tank of gas hooked to the camper. Camper was mostly loaded. Had all the hookup accessories, bedding, half full fridge, full pantry, dishes, utilities, etc. Also had a pickup bed full of stuff to include bicycles and other crap I don’t even remember what. The CAT Scale printout told me I was about 200#s under my total combined gross weight rating. However it told me I was about 400#s OVER my rear axle rating. Obviously not okay with that. I’ve made some changes such as moved some things from the pass through storage and have not hauled anything in the bed of my truck. One thing that threw me off was that my front axle was like 1000#s less with the camper coupled. The dealership included an equalizer hitch and installation. After reading the manual and watching equalizer’s YouTube channel I felt like they didn’t properly install it. Plus when I picked the camper up from the dealership the dude coupled it to my truck, took a few steps back and was like, yup looks good! Well I did my own measurements and the installation was not even close. I have made all those adjustments and I now meet the manufactures recommendations. I have not been back to the scale since making adjustments.
Also, my truck only has 5 seatbelts so we don’t even all fit. I’ve been going with the dog and momma has been coming later with the kids.
I appreciate the well wishes and hospitality. And as far as hurting my feelings don’t worry about that, you gotta try way harder 😂

[markcee]

Originally Posted by AlmostAPro37

I knew all this was coming! Although I Didn’t expect anyone to accuse me of running off scared. You could imagine with seven of us life gets busy! We are 100% aware that we are at the top end of our weight limits. The camper is 7,830#s dry with an advertised 900# tongue weight (which seems high to me, but that’s what the brochure says). My pickup is the non XD model with a tow rating of 9,300#s. I have been to the CAT scale twice. First was only me in the pickup with a full gas tank. Second was me and the dog with also a full tank of gas hooked to the camper. Camper was mostly loaded. Had all the hookup accessories, bedding, half full fridge, full pantry, dishes, utilities, etc. Also had a pickup bed full of stuff to include bicycles and other crap I don’t even remember what. The CAT Scale printout told me I was about 200#s under my total combined gross weight rating. However it told me I was about 400#s OVER my rear axle rating. Obviously not okay with that. I’ve made some changes such as moved some things from the pass through storage and have not hauled anything in the bed of my truck. One thing that threw me off was that my front axle was like 1000#s less with the camper coupled. The dealership included an equalizer hitch and installation. After reading the manual and watching equalizer’s YouTube channel I felt like they didn’t properly install it. Plus when I picked the camper up from the dealership the dude coupled it to my truck, took a few steps back and was like, yup looks good! Well I did my own measurements and the installation was not even close. I have made all those adjustments and I now meet the manufactures recommendations. I have not been back to the scale since making adjustments.
Also, my truck only has 5 seatbelts so we don’t even all fit. I’ve been going with the dog and momma has been coming later with the kids.
I appreciate the well wishes and hospitality. And as far as hurting my feelings don’t worry about that, you gotta try way harder 😂

I think your brochure tongue weight is probably well under what it actually is. Did you weigh 3 times? (truck only, truck/trailer with WDH bars engaged and truck/trailer with WDH bars removed and in bed of truck?) You will be able to calculate all weights accurately from that.

If you only weighed the entire rig, what was the trailer weight? Figure 13% of this will be tongue weight.

Finally, if you didn't weigh the truck alone, what does the yellow/black/white cargo carrying capacity (payload) sticker on the driver's door indicate? This is what you have to support the weight of the tongue, you, any other passengers and any gear in the truck.

If you did weigh the truck alone, subtract this amount from your truck's GVWR to determine the cargo carrying capacity you have remaining. This will be in 'real time' so obviously more accurate than the sticker payload. Again, this is what you have for tongue, passenger, gear weight.

Regarding the hitch setup....I've found that the 'looks pretty good to me' method is pretty standard in the few I had installed/adjusted. I've never had one pull out a tape measure or use a torque wrench on any bolts. They rip on them with an impact wrench until they think its good.

[wiredgeorge]

Not complicated. Didn't mention which camper he had but a 7800 dry weight bumper pull will be close to 9.3 gross weight and 13 percent of that will be north of 1200 lbs. Hitch, passenger, dog, etc. in the truck and you are looking at easily 1700-1800 lbs hitch weight and likely over loading the Nissan he drives. Just something to consider.

[AlmostAPro37]

My original intro post has the camper, it’s a 318BR! I realize that picture I posted is hard to zoom in on, at least on my phone. It’s from the side of the camper. States unloaded weight of 7830. Gross weight of 9700. I’ve red tongue weight is generally 10-15%. So yalls 13% suggestion makes sense so at a gross weight that would be 1,261 lbs. I’m certain I’m no where close to 9700 in the camper. I bet I’ve got less than 500#s of gear in there. Like I said, we understand we’re close, so everything we’ve put in there is light weight and we don’t have anything we don’t need!

I’m at work and don’t have the scale print outs with me. I weighed the truck alone with me and a full tank of gas the first weigh.
The second weigh was truck full of gas, my 60# dog, me, loaded camper coupled to pickup with WDH all hooked up. This was before I made any adjustments.

I will get the scale info and pass that on. The second weigh had me under my GCVWR that I got from the manual. However it had me 400#s over my rear axle weight rating