jobythebay
USA
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Hi all, you've helped me in the past so here goes. We bought a 2006 Sunline Solaris and love it. It is 25 feet. We have a Toyota Tundra, V8, 2009, 5.7 liters. It is said to pull 10,000 pounds. We went to the camping show and fell in love with the Puma 30-RKSS. Person after person told us that we would have no problem pulling it up the Rockies. We've been cross country twice with two different TT but have never been to the Rockies. We didn't have the Tundra in 2007.
So my questions are simple:
1. Thoughts about towing this Puma with the Tundra, which weighs 7,000 lbs empty up mountain.
2. The Puma itself.
Thanks!! Jo
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skipnchar
Topeka or somewhere else
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Joined: 12/17/2003
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I don't see any difficulty. I towed heavier with my old F150 5.4 which has a LOT less power than your Tundra. You will get the NORMAL power loss associated with high altitude but can't imagine you'd have any problems. The place that is most COMMON to have problems for inexperienced mountain drivers is going down mountain grades not pulling up them. Just use your transmission to control your speed and when you DO need to use the brakes hit them firmly and slow down quickly then get back OFF of the brakes again so they don't overheat. About the worst thing you can do is lightly ride your brakes all the way down. Luckily with the disc brakes in use today you don't get the brake fade but you certainly CAN warp your rotors causing a fluttering feeling brake pedal.
If you don't feel comfortable on the two lanes, stay on the Interstate and it's just like interstate driving anywhere else. Probably would be a rare occasion that you'd even NEED to use your brakes on the Interstate.
Good luck and have a good trip / Skip
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jobythebay
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skipnchar wrote:I don't see any difficulty. I towed heavier with my old F150 5.4 which has a LOT less power than your Tundra. You will get the NORMAL power loss associated with high altitude but can't imagine you'd have any problems. The place that is most COMMON to have problems for inexperienced mountain drivers is going down mountain grades not pulling up them. Just use your transmission to control your speed and when you DO need to use the brakes hit them firmly and slow down quickly then get back OFF of the brakes again so they don't overheat. About the worst thing you can do is lightly ride your brakes all the way down. Luckily with the disc brakes in use today you don't get the brake fade but you certainly CAN warp your rotors causing a fluttering feeling brake pedal.
If you don't feel comfortable on the two lanes, stay on the Interstate and it's just like interstate driving anywhere else. Probably would be a rare occasion that you'd even NEED to use your brakes on the Interstate.
Good luck and have a good trip / Skip
Thank you so much! I love this forum. I wish I knew more so I could help others.
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LakeN
North Carolina
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We have same Tundra 08. Our Holiday Rambler is about 6400# unloaded. We seem to carry a fair amount of stuff (some month long trips). As Skip said, mtns will be slower but seems
you'd be OK with proper WDHitch. Overall, we like our combo & have no towing issues. Have not towed in Rockies but do tow in Appalachians.
Does your tundra have the tow pkg?
'08 Toyota Tundra 5.7L with tow package/Prodigy
'09 Holiday Rambler Savoy 29CKS
2 campers + Star (Sheltie) & Lulu (Aussie)
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zackyboy3rs
Eastern North Carolina
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How many people will you be carrying? Payload might be the problem. I too had a Tundra and I was at payload when I hooked the camper up and then added all 4 or us plus the 2 dogs. My payload was 1300 lbs. 700lbs tongue wt. and 600 us weight. My tt weight is around 7000lbs full thus 700-750lb tongue weight.
You have the truck and the power but payload will be tricky. That is what I have learned.
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anaro
Cary, NC
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What puma trailer? Do you know how much you will be loading into it? If not then you might want to go by the puma's GVWR. What is the tongue weight? Remember that the dry tongue weight will not be your final tongue weight. Load the tundra up as you would for camping and go weigh it. This will show you how much payload you have left for adding in the tongue weight of the puma. If it is still below all of your weight ratings then you should be fine. Just remember you can easily have enough truck to pull the trailer but the real trick is to have enough truck to stop the trailer.
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Terryallan
Foothills NC
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anaro wrote:What puma trailer? Do you know how much you will be loading into it? If not then you might want to go by the puma's GVWR. What is the tongue weight? Remember that the dry tongue weight will not be your final tongue weight. Load the tundra up as you would for camping and go weigh it. This will show you how much payload you have left for adding in the tongue weight of the puma. If it is still below all of your weight ratings then you should be fine. Just remember you can easily have enough truck to pull the trailer but the real trick is to have enough truck to stop the trailer.
Remember. the trucks brakes are only designed to stop the GVWR of the truck. Not the GCVWR. That's what the trailer brakes do. Any truck, No matter what kind, or size, that is towing over it's GVWR, and that is just about all of them. Has to have trailer brakes to stop the trailer.
Terry & Shay
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anaro
Cary, NC
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Terryallan wrote:anaro wrote:What puma trailer? Do you know how much you will be loading into it? If not then you might want to go by the puma's GVWR. What is the tongue weight? Remember that the dry tongue weight will not be your final tongue weight. Load the tundra up as you would for camping and go weigh it. This will show you how much payload you have left for adding in the tongue weight of the puma. If it is still below all of your weight ratings then you should be fine. Just remember you can easily have enough truck to pull the trailer but the real trick is to have enough truck to stop the trailer.
Remember. the trucks brakes are only designed to stop the GVWR of the truck. Not the GCVWR. That's what the trailer brakes do. Any truck, No matter what kind, or size, that is towing over it's GVWR, and that is just about all of them. Has to have trailer brakes to stop the trailer.
I get that but if you have too much trailer for the truck you will still get pushed down a hill... been there done that.
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BUFFALODAN
Buffalo NY
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MODEL 30-RKSS
Dry Hitch Weight 977 lbs. (443 kg)
Unloaded Vehicle Weight 6,954 lbs. (3,154 kg)
GVWR 11,137 lbs. (5,052 kg)
Cargo Carrying Capacity 3,733 lbs. (1,693 kg)
Exterior Length 34' 0" (10.4 m)
Thats a big trailer, heavy too. Id be concerned with the tongue weight when loaded vs your trucks payload capacity. Just my .02
Pumas seem to have a pretty solid reputation. My local dealer sells a lot of them.
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jobythebay
USA
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LakeN wrote:We have same Tundra 08. Our Holiday Rambler is about 6400# unloaded. We seem to carry a fair amount of stuff (some month long trips). As Skip said, mtns will be slower but seems
you'd be OK with proper WDHitch. Overall, we like our combo & have no towing issues. Have not towed in Rockies but do tow in Appalachians.
Does your tundra have the tow pkg?
Yes it does. I am printing out all the responses because I really want this TT. I love the Sunline's layout but with no slideout, it gets smaller every year we get older.  Thank you
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