Towing rig and camper

Ram trucks are starting to look better to me after your post, which is a shame because I've always been a Ford truck guy.
We’ve had maybe 20 fords in my family, they have been nearly all trouble free. Mine is a 2013 model that I custom ordered in 2012 and never intended any significant towing. I didn’t get the max tow package and that may have made a difference.
The rental was a Silverado and we determined we’d never buy one after driving it back to Minnesota.

The majority of tow vehicles at the Moab campground had to be Fords, many F150’s looking significantly more loaded than mine
 
Get a goose neck with a 30' deck which would make it about 35' overall length. Put your travel trailer onto the goose neck.

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Then get a Mega Cab Ram pickup tow it with.

I had something similar but with a camper on front until I got married again and then let my NOW ex wife convince me that we needed a motorhome instead. Worst mistake I ever made.

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It kinda does mine too. But I'm running out of room. I keep buying vehicles but I don't want to sell any of the ones I already have.

Still, the best towing arrangement I've tried was almost 20 years ago when a friend lent me his 21' Class A Winnebago and 16' trailer so I could go to Moab Easter Jeep Safari. It was the perfect size small motorhome with the same 454 motor as the big ones. It towed that trailer with jeep like they weren't even there.

I flat tow mine with a 25' class C with the Ford V10. It does surprisingly well, but my TJ is on a diet weighing in at 3460 lbs. Future plans may be upgrading to a Class A, slightly bigger. Jury is out.
 
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I flat tow mine with a 25' class C with the Ford V10. It does surprisingly well, but my TJ is on a diet weighing in at 3460 lbs. Future plans may be upgrading to a Class A, slightly bigger. Jury is out.

Could your V10 Class C handle a 7,500# load of jeep and trailer? Even if I flat tow, which is likely because I definitely don't have room for a car hauler trailer, I don't see any percentage in getting a tow rig that can't tow my jeep on a trailer.
 
Could your V10 Class C handle a 7,500# load of jeep and trailer? Even if I flat tow, which is likely because I definitely don't have room for a car hauler trailer, I don't see any percentage in getting a tow rig that can't tow my jeep on a trailer.

A good trailer with proper brakes no problem. @lowranger does it just fine with his setup on a 23' Class B coach. I just don't have room for a trailer and a coach, so I put my TJ on a diet and flat tow.
 
Could your V10 Class C handle a 7,500# load of jeep and trailer? Even if I flat tow, which is likely because I definitely don't have room for a car hauler trailer, I don't see any percentage in getting a tow rig that can't tow my jeep on a trailer.

I use to work as a heavy line mechanic at a RV dealership. And after seeing the huge amount of gas RV's that came in for blown engines and transmissions I always said if I was going to have a RV and tow with it then it had to have a diesel. PERIOD.

Most RV's were at or near their weight limit before you added a trailer behind it with the gas units. Now I know this was 20+ years ago but I feel the same applies now.
 
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When I first got my 23' class B+ motorhome with a V-10, I knew I was going to tow with it, so I went to a friend's transmission shop to have him put a temp gauge on my transmission. When I came to pick it up, he told me that the transmission in my Motorhome was over kill for the size of my Motorhome. I was glad to hear that since I was going to be doing a lot of towing with it. Towed my Jeep on a 16' trailer to Moab and back with no problem.
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I too have ran thru in my mind the different combinations to tow a trailer and boat or the tj on certain trips. A class c motor home has limited towing, a class A diesel gets the comfort plus the towing capacity but we can't get into some of our favorite spots with it. We have a few different boats to tow, our Saltwater boat weighing 7k lbs on the trailer. With that weight we're talking diesel, yes a gasser will do it, been there, no thanks. Plus we would still need our 1 ton Ram Cummings dually foyr the gooseneck horse trailer. We have a Arctic Fox 10' camper with a full wall slide, that full wall slide really makes a difference for opening it up inside. If we ever decided to go to a TT, in the 24' range, a Crew Cab Diesel with a 14' flatbed would be my choice. I could tow the trailer and haul the jeep or our 15' Boston Whaler on certain fishing trips. But I'd still want the truck camper to tow the big boat on our ocean trips. We love our camper and it's floor plan with a dry bath, just the two of nowadays. I like your out of the box thinking, I do a lot of that myself,,,gregg
 
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Get a goose neck with a 30' deck which would make it about 35' overall length. Put your travel trailer onto the goose neck.

View attachment 178658

Then get a Mega Cab Ram pickup tow it with.

I had something similar but with a camper on front until I got married again and then let my NOW ex wife convince me that we needed a motorhome instead. Worst mistake I ever made.

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I like those setups, and would consider it already, but these are my current challenges:

Here is where it this is challenging. Getting rid of, or putting it on a gooseneck is not an option.
- I do not have room to park or store
- Sometimes want the option to hook up tt to WK2 and get away, we enjoy the boondocking and getting away where most Class C or B will not make it. It is raised, offroad tires, and changed up my WK2 from 20" to 18" with A/T for more capability
- Last year just sunk 5K / 100 hrs time into solar/batteries/upgrades to make it very comfortable for us
- Overall, we really enjoy the tt and versatility it brings

The van in the picture is going away, and that is where I could park my tow pig, not much room.

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Here in Ca. we can tow double trailers if the first connection is a 5th wheel and the right endorsement on your license. I don't see it often, but looks cool as well rolling down the hwy. Your current tow vehicle is very limited, sounds like storage is a issue, basically a second driver is the easiest. Good luck, post a solution when you get it put together,,,gregg
 
Threadjack:

How does your F150 do pulling that much weight long distances (i.e., Moab)? Engine? Trans? Axle ratios? Special packages?

I, too, am investigating tow rigs. One side of my brain says "replace the Xterra with the new Bronco." The other side of my brain says that a F150 Supercab 4x4 with 6.5" bed would make a perfectly fine daily driver where I live and it can tow the jeep. Neither side is winning so far because yet another side of my brain keeps thinking about used but not abused Class C motorhomes as tow rigs.

Now back to your regular programming.
Not the original poster, but I did have a 14 Ecoboost that I towed a lot with. I always thought it was about a perfect tow rig as you could get in a half ton Gasser. I haven't driven any of the smaller diesels yet, though. I routinely towed a 6000 lb boat and trailer combo, towed my jeep a couple of times. Even overloaded it a couple times with construction equipment and dirt.

I did have to have the rear end replaced at about 70,000 miles. That was covered under warranty though, as I had complained about it whining for a while and they "couldn't hear it." Well, that bad pinion bearing cost them a whole new set of bearings and Ring/Pinion set (plus all the labor). It ALWAYS had plenty of power though. I never felt it was lacking in brakes either. I thought about airbags or helper springs. It was kinda soft in the rear. I miss that truck, but I am cursed with a 20 x 20 two car garage and I was SICK of not being able to park in the garage. So I sold it to make room for a Colorado.

3 yards (!) of dirt
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Ford F-350 Van

This is about perfect here. Move the tool boxes, make a set of ramps, and it would be ready to go.
 
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Ford F-350 Van

This is about perfect here. Move the tool boxes, make a set of ramps, and it would be ready to go.

There ya have it, dove tail the bed a little bit and some ramps. Those low low miles on that 7.3 is just money under the mattress, it'll be there later if you sell it down the road, there's a huge community always looking for them. Pull the trigger Brotha, love watching build projects,,,gregg
 
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