Towing a Travel Trailer

[battleax]

Yes, I do have a sway bar, I am not sure I could pull the thing with out it!! Bought gas tonight, I haven't filled it since the last camping trip, I was waiting for the price to come down, it came down to $3.39 for high test (chip) $90.00!!! I'm gonna have to ride the bicycle everywhere!! I am going to try, the lowered camper nose this weekend. One of the problems is I haul a motorcycle in the back of the truck when we go camping. It's just fun to sightsee on the motorcycle when you are in new areas. This kind of eliminates the topper, I do have one, but I don't know if I have ever pulled with it on the truck. I think the aerodynamics is a large factor, all one has to do is drive the rig into a stout headwind to see the effect. I have considered a less acute angle on the nose of the camper, but you still have to be able to turn the thing, so you would have to follow the tongue shape. I have also seen a study where they used a empty box attached to the back of a trailer with a flat back. They said there was a significant reduction in the suction on the back of the trailer. I post some pictures if I can. Thanks for the info.

[battleax]

Here's some pix

[battleax]

[battleax]

[BamZipPow]

You could try some AirTabs...

[lovemysan]

I had the same truck with a 5.4. 10.2 towing 6000lbs sounds pretty good to me. I averaged 15.5mpg highway. I would also recommend a topper maybe even one of those that angles up in the back. It looks like you could lower the rear of the bike and load it back first and it would fit. You might consider a wing on top of it(I'm not sure if it would help). You could make a test one out of plywood. Someone just recently tested air tabs with good results, I would let that member do a little more testing before I bought them. The belly pan would be nice but bit expensive. If you could get election signs for free(the big 4x8 ones) that would be the perfect material for the trailer bellypan. I wouldn't do the truck bellypan. You could also make some type of fairing for the a/c and vent as there catching a lot of "clean air".


Have you considered a shorter tire on the rear just for towing.

[csrmel]

double theck the economy of towing. i have a slide in camper for my truck and i did some calculations and figure dout that its cheaper to drive my car and pay for a hotel each night than it is to drive the diesel truck and bring along a slide in camper and stay for free in walmart parking lots.

towing that big gut of a camper, i bet you could grab a pretty nice hotel each night for the cost of the fuel to tow that thing.