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RV's and Boats


DarkSide

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I travel in the West. If there is much traffic, I stay in the lane I am in. Believe it or not, most motorists are pretty accommodating to changing lanes to pass. Biggest difficulty used to be fuel stops, but I added an aux tank, and now have 96 gallons of fuel, so I don't have to stop while pulling.

As far as total lenght, my experience is that is not something that is strictly enforced. I have traveled through states with much shorter length laws than Colorado (Missouri is either 60' or 65') without difficulty.

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My buddy used to tow his lsv that way behind his 5th wheel. It's not strictly enforced, but what stopped was when his insurance agent told him that if got in an accident like that it's highly likely the insurance company would claim he was operating an illegal vehicle and not cover him

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My dad kept a camper on castle rock in Wisconsin for most of my young life. Lots of weekends up there. We kept the boat up there too in the summer. It was pretty ideal for us

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My buddy used to tow his lsv that way behind his 5th wheel. It's not strictly enforced, but what stopped was when his insurance agent told him that if got in an accident like that it's highly likely the insurance company would claim he was operating an illegal vehicle and not cover him

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In a prior life, I worked in insurance. If there is an exclusion written into the policy, e is right. Insurance might not cover the claim. I have no such exclusions in my policy.

I'd rater not derail the discussion, so won't comment above that.

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Edited by RyanB
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Get the biggest travel trailer you can afford. Make sure it has slide outs. With two kids, friends, or whoever likes to come to the lake with you, you want plenty of room. Suggest one with a bunk house in back. Find a good storage for boat and camper right near where you go. Store both boat and camper there. So simple when you have both stored there and don't have to worry about hooking one up and then unhooking to place your camper. Been doing this several years and takes 20 mins to set camper up and 10 more and we are on the water. No yard work or clean up. just show up and good to go.

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We have both. Keep the travel trailer in storage close to the campground, and have the boat on a lift in the marina.

If you can't keep the boat in the water, then the option of storing with is also good, unless you can find a permanent summer site.

We usually camp at State or DNR campgrounds and their is a 2 week limit and they frown on you not being there.

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we just bought a Thor Axis. 8,000 pound towing capacity.

Congrats, great rig! You led me down the rabbit hole on a slow day at work. Yours led me to the Outlaw toy hauler with the double loft beds (one above the garage and one above the cockpit), plus sleeping area in the garage at night and the lounge area sleeper for guests.

Issue becomes weight capacity and length of the garage at 122" for a four seater around-town vehicle once at the lake. Looked at old school Fiat 500-850, OG Mini, (couldn't bring myself to consider the Smart car), street legal golf carts, VW kit buggies like the Manx, and on and on. Really (really) long story short for me right now with my small boat and family of four that likes their own spaces and privacy it would be:

--Thor Outlaw or Newmar 3920

--Modified Jeep CJ in the garage (custom tight fitting bumpers, if any, and link-and-coil suspension to get under 122". Plus updated drivetrain and brakes, of course.)

--Echelon in tow behind the bus

No towing triple and no launching the boat with the bus. Yanking an Echelon around a campground at 10mph is doable with a CJ.

So there it is, all I need to do is come into a bunch of money, fire up the back garage for some custom work, find the Jeep, and I'll see you guys at all the WOWs this summer. :cheers:

And THAT'S how you waste a whole day. :whistle:

Edited by jk13
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post-23290-1424922188255_thumb.jpg

Bought it used several years ago. It has the 330 cat engine in it. When we go on a boating vacation I pull my boat with the RV. it does better over the mountains and less drop in gas than pulling it with the suburban. My wife usually follows me in the car for 2 reasons, we want the suburban on vacation anyway and I don't launch the boat with the RV unless absolutely necessary. Works well for us, wife and I will always have a RV for as long as we can drive.

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Congrats, great rig! You led me down the rabbit hole on a slow day at work. Yours led me to the Outlaw toy hauler with the double loft beds (one above the garage and one above the cockpit), plus sleeping area in the garage at night and the lounge area sleeper for guests.

Issue becomes weight capacity and length of the garage at 122" for a four seater around-town vehicle once at the lake. Looked at old school Fiat 500-850, OG Mini, (couldn't bring myself to consider the Smart car), street legal golf carts, VW kit buggies like the Manx, and on and on. Really (really) long story short for me right now with my small boat and family of four that likes their own spaces and privacy it would be:

--Thor Outlaw or Newmar 3920

--Modified Jeep CJ in the garage (custom tight fitting bumpers, if any, and link-and-coil suspension to get under 122". Plus updated drivetrain and brakes, of course.)

--Echelon in tow behind the bus

No towing triple and no launching the boat with the bus. Yanking an Echelon around a campground at 10mph is doable with a CJ.

So there it is, all I need to do is come into a bunch of money, fire up the back garage for some custom work, find the Jeep, and I'll see you guys at all the WOWs this summer. :cheers:

And THAT'S how you waste a whole day. :whistle:

You can launch the boat with the bus easily - just install a front hitch and you are golden. We have a 28 ft. and haul our boat to the marina. Once there we unhook and then rehook to the front. It is a breeze.

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This topic seems to come up somewhat often. We thought about doing the slide in truck bed camper thing, but as someone said, we were floored after seeing some prices. We also looked into towing two trailers but its not allowed in Maine. We went a little different route then some others. (pics bellow) This has worked very well for us and we are working towards doing something with a bit bigger/newer unit now. We had the old camper to start with and was unsure how/if this would even work. It has worked out better then we had thought it would and are now willing to spend some money on a newer unit to do something similar. Just like anything, we know what we like and what we would like to change after doing it once.

How does towing the boat behind the camper work out? Can you back up at all with both? Do you go to the campground and unhook, or do you have to find a big parking lot close to the campground to unhook, then come retrieve one of the trailers? I know out west its more open then here in Maine, I think alot of the campgrounds here would be hard to get to with both trailers. Getting gas was one of my concerns when thinking of going that way, its a little hassle with what we have. We have a gas truck, so it makes it a bit harder, and more frequent stops.

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You can launch the boat with the bus easily - just install a front hitch and you are golden. We have a 28 ft. and haul our boat to the marina. Once there we unhook and then rehook to the front. It is a breeze.

Oh, I'm not scared to launch with a bus, especially that little guy. I've done it before and these new ones have all those cameras to help. But a few things:

1) Some campgrounds are pretty tight to maneuver around and get in and out of the sites and launch area.

2) If the weather kicks up I can get the boat out of the water without complete tear down of the bus.

3) I don't care to off road, so this may be the only excuse I have to build a Jeep.

4) Could always build a Fiat, but would rather put that effort into a Datsun 510, which won't fit...

Like I said, I wasted an entire day on this. It's well thought out. :biggrin:

Edited by jk13
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Oh, I'm not scared to launch with a bus, especially that little guy. I've done it before and these new ones have all those cameras to help. But a few things:

1) Some campgrounds are pretty tight to maneuver around and get in and out of the sites and launch area.

2) If the weather kicks up I can get the boat out of the water without complete tear down of the bus.

3) I don't care to off road, so this may be the only excuse I have to build a Jeep.

4) Could always build a Fiat, but would rather put that effort into a Datsun 510, which won't fit...

Like I said, I wasted an entire day on this. It's well thought out. :biggrin:

Ah crap, now you have me thinking. Not sure what areas you frequent but I have seen two other vehicles tow out quickly. One was a Polaris Razor and the other was some large ATV with what looked like a two wheeled trailer toad. You ever seen these things? Pretty flippin amazing.

http://www.trailertoad.com/id1.html

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Ah crap, now you have me thinking. Not sure what areas you frequent but I have seen two other vehicles tow out quickly. One was a Polaris Razor and the other was some large ATV with what looked like a two wheeled trailer toad. You ever seen these things? Pretty flippin amazing.

http://www.trailertoad.com/id1.html

Those are pretty cool. But don't solve the trip to town road legal requirement. Visit friends, relatives, bars, dinner, shopping, sporting events, etc. Everyone will use theirs differently, this is just what I came up with for my wants.

Mainekneeboarder did a great job on his trailer, which would work well for us at a fraction of the cost of what I'm talking about, including the truck to pull it with. But my wife has chronic pain issues so the comfort of the bus during drive time is kind of a big deal.

I'm in no financial state to make this happen right now anyway. Have rented and borrowed RVs in the past and enjoyed the heck out of them, just kind of got the juices flowing when pkh posted that Thor. We did look at a 1970 Dodge Travco last fall for $2500 that we could have completely redone resto-mod style, but there are more important things going on right now.

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This topic seems to come up somewhat often. We thought about doing the slide in truck bed camper thing, but as someone said, we were floored after seeing some prices. We also looked into towing two trailers but its not allowed in Maine. We went a little different route then some others. (pics bellow) This has worked very well for us and we are working towards doing something with a bit bigger/newer unit now. We had the old camper to start with and was unsure how/if this would even work. It has worked out better then we had thought it would and are now willing to spend some money on a newer unit to do something similar. Just like anything, we know what we like and what we would like to change after doing it once.

How does towing the boat behind the camper work out? Can you back up at all with both? Do you go to the campground and unhook, or do you have to find a big parking lot close to the campground to unhook, then come retrieve one of the trailers? I know out west its more open then here in Maine, I think alot of the campgrounds here would be hard to get to with both trailers. Getting gas was one of my concerns when thinking of going that way, its a little hassle with what we have. We have a gas truck, so it makes it a bit harder, and more frequent stops.

Maine, there aren't any wheels under the camper ?

Steve B.

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Those are pretty cool. But don't solve the trip to town road legal requirement. Visit friends, relatives, bars, dinner, shopping, sporting events, etc. Everyone will use theirs differently, this is just what I came up with for my wants.

Mainekneeboarder did a great job on his trailer, which would work well for us at a fraction of the cost of what I'm talking about, including the truck to pull it with. But my wife has chronic pain issues so the comfort of the bus during drive time is kind of a big deal.

I'm in no financial state to make this happen right now anyway. Have rented and borrowed RVs in the past and enjoyed the heck out of them, just kind of got the juices flowing when pkh posted that Thor. We did look at a 1970 Dodge Travco last fall for $2500 that we could have completely redone resto-mod style, but there are more important things going on right now.

One of the main reasons we did what we did. While we often spend ALL day on the boat we didn't want to feel like we had to. We like getting out and doing stuff, even if its just going for an ice cream in the evening. We had looked into driving campers but I didn't think of getting a toy hauler and a small vehicle like you have! If you can make it work it should be perfect! One of the benefits you would have is pulling the boat out for weather easily, one we have run into! We now carry a bigger anchor just for mooring, still have the small anchor in the boat.

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Would it make sense to move your back axle in front of the forward axle?

As said 3200lb isn't bad for a fifth wheel, we try not to tow it far without the boat, the most is 12miles, but typically less then a mile from boat launch to our house. I actually have wanted to weigh it without the boat but it would involve towing it close to 70 plus miles round trip to get to the scales that do separate axle weight.

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