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RE: New TV....
gotcha, there's some good advice posted. hope it works out for the summer.
It'll prolly end up sitting down at the dealer for the summer again...
And yes my wife has two cars. haha, the expy was suppose to be mine but I ended up getting a company truck so she has taken them both!
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2008FX4
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04/01/12 03:59pm |
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RE: New TV....
Do you owe on the Expy? You could trade it for an Excursion and kill two birds with one stone.
Yes, Dont really want to get rid of it.. Would rather trade in my wifes car...
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2008FX4
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04/01/12 03:51pm |
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RE: New TV....
The most weight I'd recommend with an Expedition is 6500 lbs. You run out of hitch capacity and payload.
As mentioned an older V10 F250 is hard to beat. A V10 Excursion would do the job if you need an SUV. Both are relatively easy to find used.
I was just trying to find a way to use the TT this summer without buying a new TV... Money is still kinda tight right now and I really dont like the idea of paying for a TT that I cant use.
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2008FX4
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04/01/12 03:48pm |
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RE: New TV....
Got a question.. The wife has a 2004 ford expedition 2WD with the 5.4L V8 in it. Since it's sitting on the same frame as the F150 was I was wondering if it could pull the TT? I went on line and was looking at the towing specs and this is what I found, Does it seem right?
Base curb weight
5.4L 4x2 5394
Max towing capacity, properly equipped
5.4L 4x2 8950
GVWR
5.4L 4x2 7100
GCWR
5.4L 4x2 14,500
It seems a little high to me on the towing weight?
Here's the specs on the RV.
2011 Forest River Flagstaff 831RLSS.
Dry Hitch Weight: 639 lb. (290 kg )
Dry Ship Weight: 5,981 lb. (2,713 kg ) Ours is about 7100
GVWR: 8,504 lb. (3,857 kg )
Exterior Length: 34 ft. 1 in. (10.4 m)
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2008FX4
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04/01/12 03:14pm |
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RE: New TV....
The 1999 thru 2002 Ford F250 diesels are great if you find a good one. They have a newer looking design that the old square bodies, although the pre 1999 has a large following and are also great trucks. The V-10 is also a great towing engine, but not quite as capable as the 7.3 diesel. If I remember correctly, the V-10 has 425 ft lbs of torque and the 7.3 diesels have from 500 to 550 ft lbs, depending on the yr.
The 1999's (early 1999's had a smaller turbo) and 2000 yrs 7.3 diesels had forged rods, where some 2001, and all 2002 and early 2003 (that still had the 7.3) were powder metal rods. The powder metal rods have a higher failure rate that the forged.
You should be able to get a get a good one for $6,500 to $10,000, with the higher cost being for the diesel.
I think you've made a good decision on keeping the TT, especially if you have to nearly give it away. Very glad to hear you're getting back on your feet, and best of luck going forward.
My dad has a 1999 2wd 7.3L I used it once to take the RV up to the smokies. It pulled it like a dream! I would love to find a good 7.3L.
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2008FX4
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02/22/12 07:35pm |
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RE: New TV....
Hi,
That is a pretty light hitch weight. I guess that with the fresh water tank full, the front end will get heavier though. The 2005 and later F-250 has about 3,000 pound cargo rating, while the 2004 and earlier is much less.
My suggestion is looking for a 1997 - 2008 F-250 with the 5.4L gas engine. While not as quick up the mountain grades, I don't recall seeing to many 4,500' passes when back east. So what if you have to slow to about 45 on a 5% grade? It will really save a lot of gas, and you should be able to pick one up fairly cheap.
PS: Great idea keeping the house, and sacrificing the truck and trailer. To bad the trailer did not sell, but at least you will not be looking to buy a new one of those.
Fred.
I was thinking that or a v10 f250.. Which one would be better?
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2008FX4
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02/20/12 04:58pm |
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New TV....
Some of you might remember I had a 2008 Ford F-250 SD with the 6.4L. I had to get rid of it back in July because the wife and I both lost our jobs with the Army....... We are slowly getting back on our feet. I have a job with ADT and making about the same as I was with the Army. The wife has a year left in college to become a teacher... We tried selling the RV also, but we haven't had any luck. We dropped the price 10K below what we owe and still cant sell it. It's sitting at a local dealer.
So the wife and I have just said that it's not meant to sale. So we are looking into getting a new TV for the RV. Nothing new like the 08.. Cant afford that kind of ride anymore. :-(
So question is, what type of truck should we look for that will pull the RV safely?
Here's the specs on the RV.
2011 Forest River Flagstaff 831RLSS.
Dry Hitch Weight: 639 lb. (290 kg )
Dry Ship Weight: 5,981 lb. (2,713 kg )
GVWR: 8,504 lb. (3,857 kg )
Exterior Length: 34 ft. 1 in. (10.4 m)
I can't remember what the sticker says for the weight of ours since it's at the dealer... But with all the options I think it was around 7,000.
I did pull the RV with a F-150 with the 5.4L. It did a great job, but didn't seem like enough of a truck. I loved the 250 but at the time it was either the house or the truck. :-/
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2008FX4
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02/19/12 09:37pm |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
wow... Let's fight a little less ok?
Anyways back on topic....
By the looks of it. I can have a max of 8 vents with the unit I have. And I have 6 vents. Will 2 more vents really do anything?
I'm thinking about leaving the TT at 30 amps and putting in a plug to support the AC on it's own power. That seems cheaper than converting everything to 50amps.
Can you explain how you got that 8 and from where. I still think you can really increase the cooling in the area where the A/C is located by adding the two vents as I described at the main air plenum to duct run junction. Vents at those locations don't suffer from either restriction losses or heat losses due to the ambient duct temps. Depending on the min # of vents you could then close off vents where you don't need them and with vents at the location I described might allow say two below the minimum still allow your A/C to provide max cooling w/o any ill effects such as freezing up the evap coil. The only issue I see is if you don't have a laminated/sandwiched roof where I'm not sure how they are ducted. In my roof the duct is simply cut into the solid insulation, but you can check that by removing a vent and taking a lookee/see to see what you are dealing with.
Larry
The doc I found on my unit says a min of 6 vents and a max of 8 vents.
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2008FX4
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06/02/11 07:57am |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
wow... Let's fight a little less ok?
Anyways back on topic....
By the looks of it. I can have a max of 8 vents with the unit I have. And I have 6 vents. Will 2 more vents really do anything?
I'm thinking about leaving the TT at 30 amps and putting in a plug to support the AC on it's own power. That seems cheaper than converting everything to 50amps.
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2008FX4
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06/01/11 10:45am |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
We're parked full time near Jackson, MS which is normally warmer than Arab, AL and we're in a swamp in full sunshine with a 15,000 BTU unit that's ducted. Our Rockwood is also 34 ft. long and we found that putting insulator pads in the vent openings and fan openings and some aluminum foil over a couple of windows in direct sunlight including the skylight in the shower along with putting the awning out in the afternoon will lower the temperature enough that we can keep the temp. below 80 degrees even on days that are well over 100 degrees. You also need to crank the A/C up early in the day so it doesn't have to play catch up in the afternoon.
To balance the unit you can play around with closing and opening different outlets so you can cool off hot spots.
We live in Arab.. Not camp here. Not going to camp in the city I live in. We camp all over the south east. Been camping in 115F heat.. Today the heat index got to 101F here in Arab.. Going to be a hot summer this year!
Anyways. I didn't think about closing up the sky light in the shower. That's a good idea. I do have the insulator pads on all the roof vents. That works a lot.. And I cant do 80F inside.. I cant breath in that.. Outside it's fine.. But inside nope...
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2008FX4
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05/30/11 06:42pm |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
I went out and counted. Our TT only has 6 vents... Looks to below the min?
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2008FX4
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05/30/11 02:10pm |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
Anyone know what the min and max number of vents are on a ducted 15,000BTU Dometic AC unit?
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2008FX4
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05/30/11 10:42am |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
are you ready to rewire the TT for 50 amps.
Yep! My dad has done this kind of work for about 30 years. Shouldn't be hard. I done traced out the 30amp cable that needs to be changed. Just trying to find a 50amp breaker box and what not...
We had a bunch of RVs get totaled in the april 27th storms. So I've been searching those. Most are 30amps tho.
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2008FX4
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05/30/11 09:43am |
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RE: Questions about scales
That's interesting because the dry weight of my camper is supposed to be 4400 lbs.
Is that the dry weight of what it says on the trailer or the website? Like mine is about 1,500 pounds more than what it says it should be on the website because of the options....
See...
Website: 5,981 lb. Dry
Sticker is almost 7,000 lbs.
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2008FX4
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05/30/11 09:39am |
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RE: Second AC Unit?
Have you checked to make sure your particular model A/C if ducted has the proper amount of air registers with the min per sq in rating. My Dometic did not and I added registers to meet the min requirements of the manufacturer close to the max. There are minimums and max numbers and I add close to the max. I also, added one on each side where the main air plenum meets each duct that runs the length of my trailer. These two register which are in the main living area really put out the cold air since they aren't subject to the air flow resistance making that 90 deg turn or running 10 to 15 feet down the ducts to other registers. Also with more than the minumum number of registers you can still get the max cooling and adjust it to where you need it.
Manufacturers will only generally put in the min number if that so there is room for a lot of improvement in the A/C air distribution.
Larry
That's a good idea. I didn't think about the number of vents. Does anyone know what type of unit Forest River uses? I would go out and look but it's dark. And I don't remember this kinda stuff off the top of my head. :-P
The front bedroom has two vents and it will freeze you out of there. I was going for the second unit so that I could point the ports down the hall to blow into the main living area.
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2008FX4
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05/29/11 07:18pm |
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Second AC Unit?
First off. Here's the TT I have. 2011 Forest River Flagstaff 831RLSS
Question is. The TT has a roof vent in the front bedroom. The TT has a 15,500 ducted AC unit. It does ok... But when the heat index is 110-115F it just doesn't keep up. I was thinking about adding a "Duo-Therm Penguin Low-Profile Air Conditioner" to the front bedroom. Of course it wouldn't be ducted. I was talking to a keystone dealer yesterday at a RV show about it and he was saying that I needed to make sure the roof can support it. Now I know not to trust what dealers have to say because most of the time they are wrong...
But here's the real question. Will the roof support the penguin? If not how can I make it support it? We could camp a lot more if we had two AC units. And yes I know... The TT is only 30 amps. Its in the works to upgrade it to 50amps. Just looking for a cheaply used but in good shape 50amp breaker box...
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2008FX4
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05/29/11 01:05pm |
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