bikendan
Napa, Cal.
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Taco6spd, it depends on which trailer you get and its tongue weight. and not its "dry" tongue weight. as was previously said, actual tongue weight often is way more than the "dry" tongue weight.
i know it's difficult to find hybrids on the West Coast. the DW is from Skagit County and we tried finding them when visiting her family. they are not common, even in Southern California. we would even stop in Oregon, on the way home, at RV dealers trying to find any.
we found 6-7 year-old used ones, were selling for more than a larger and brand-new one in the Midwest. that's why we bought one in Chicago.
by the way, there's a Roo owner that posts here, from Camano Island. they had theirs shipped out and apparently, still saved money.
Dan- Firefighter , Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur , Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever , 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LS, 2007 Rockwood Roo 23SS w/Equalizer and Prodigy, and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes
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Steveo35
Ohio
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We have a 2010 Roo 21ss and have had no issues with it. I think you'll find plenty of people that love their Jayco/Forest River products and a few that are unhappy with the same.
I'd recommend that you take the best deal your Tacoma can tow.
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Taco6spd
WA State
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Joined: 05/24/2011
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Thanks everybody.
Yeah, I still need to figure out where I can get a reasonably priced hybrid out here in WA. I talked to a Jayco dealer a few days ago over the phone, and he was offering an (almost bare bones) X20E to me for $27,200.  Ouch. As I said, the Forest River dealer is quite far away, two hours one way. Maybe I'll have to live with that.
Nights camped 2011: 13 (4 in the old popup) 
2012 F-150 XLT screw 4x4 HD max tow
2012 Jayco X19H
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bikendan
Napa, Cal.
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Taco6spd wrote:I talked to a Jayco dealer a few days ago over the phone, and he was offering an (almost bare bones) X20E to me for $27,200. Ouch. As I said, the Forest River dealer is quite far away, two hours one way. Maybe I'll have to live with that.
that's a ridiculous price!! see how West Coast dealers are ripping us off!!
i got my brand new 2007 Roo 23SS, with all the options i wanted, for $14,500. here in NorCal, dealers wanted $20,000 for the same thing and refused to deal.
you could have a Jayco delivered from Indiana, from RVDirect, and still save thousands.
and don't believe the thing about local dealers, refusing to work on it if you don't buy from them.
Forest River found other local FR dealers that were happy to do the warrantee work, even though i didn't buy from them. i never had any problems getting things done.
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Chuck_S
Broadview Hts, OH, USA
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The work has been done by the manufacturer: Truck tow rating: 6,500.
Actually that's the maximum towing capacity and is a best case. The truck must be empty. No passengers, no cargo.
Easy Rule of Thumb is the 1000 Pound Rule. Don't tow anything weighing more than 1000 pounds less than your max tow capacity. In this case that's no more than 5500 pounds. You probably won't be happy, though.
Happy towing uses the One Ton Rule. In your case I'd not want to tow a trailer weighing more than 4500 pounds. The "extra" 1000 pounds handles high summer temperatures, long grades, high altitudes.
4500 - 5500 pounds is all the heavier I'd want to tow with the V6 truck. The Roo 21SS is gonna be 4600 pounds sitting on the dealer's lot before you add the first six pack.
You're comparing a 3-bed to 2-bed floor plan? How many beds do you really need? The Roo 233 or 233S are better comparisons if you need 3 beds. The 233 is about 4200 pounds empty (not "dry weight").
I did not consider the standard 6000 pound max tow rating on the Expedition to be adequate for my 5000 pound Roo 23SS so I ordered it with HD Tow and 9000 pounds max capacity. Overkill always works.
-- Chuck
'06 Roo 23SS behind '07 Expedition out of Cleveland
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Taco6spd
WA State
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Thanks, Chuck!
As for the beds, three bunks are not required, but would be nice. From our point of view, the third bed does not really reduce storage, as if not needed, we could put our cloths in there (would be in a bag when travelling). The third bed would be nice when we have visitors from overseas, but as stated, not necessarily required.
As for the towing: I think we will be close, as I stated. All the trailers we are looking at would most likely be at or close to 5,000lbs when towing. That would put us right between the two rules you mentioned, and leave us about 2,000 lbs for loading the truck (11,000lbs CVWR, 4,000lbs truck weight). Our family's CWR is ~ 500lbs, dressed. I think all in all we will have about 1,000lbs of buffer to the max.
But I will take the test this weekend. Our popup is rated at 1,700lbs dry. I will stop at the dump and measure our CVW. The hybrids we are looking at are all in the 4,200lbs range (dry), making them ~ 2,500lbs heavier than our current popup. Now if at the scale, we measure 8,000lbs or less, then I think we'll be fine and I would give it a shot with one of these hybrids.
We btw. would never travel with water in the tank(s). In 6 years we never even used the sink in our popup.
And if then it would not work, there is the option of a bigger truck, but hopefully that's not needed.
As I stated before, I am much, much more worried about stopping power and sway than engine power. We don't travel with the trailer that often, or that far, so we can take it slower, but I'd like to be safe. A good brake controller setup (which I have) and a good WDH with sway control is therefore a must.
Now, one other option would also be the Jayco X20E. That trailer would put us within the "Happy Towing" one ton rule ....
I'll report back what our scale test this weekend says. Again, thanks everybody for the help!
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Taco6spd
WA State
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bikendan wrote:that's a ridiculous price!! see how West Coast dealers are ripping us off!!
i got my brand new 2007 Roo 23SS, with all the options i wanted, for $14,500. here in NorCal, dealers wanted $20,000 for the same thing and refused to deal.
you could have a Jayco delivered from Indiana, from RVDirect, and still save thousands.
Wow, bikendan, that's cheap! How / where did you get it for that price? Even RVdirect quoted me $16,200 for a Roo 21SS and $15,700 for an X20E.
There is a dealer here who currently has a 23SS on "internet special sale" at $19,990. What do you think about that? Taking into consideration that shipping from Indiana would cost ~ $4,000-$5,000, that would be a similar price. Maybe the dealer would also deal some more.
How did you get yours to Cali and for how much?
Thanks,
Taco6spd.
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FoCoNoCo
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Joined: 04/24/2011
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Taco6spd wrote:bikendan wrote:that's a ridiculous price!! see how West Coast dealers are ripping us off!!
i got my brand new 2007 Roo 23SS, with all the options i wanted, for $14,500. here in NorCal, dealers wanted $20,000 for the same thing and refused to deal.
you could have a Jayco delivered from Indiana, from RVDirect, and still save thousands.
Wow, bikendan, that's cheap! How / where did you get it for that price? Even RVdirect quoted me $16,200 for a Roo 21SS and $15,700 for an X20E.
There is a dealer here who currently has a 23SS on "internet special sale" at $19,990. What do you think about that? Taking into consideration that shipping from Indiana would cost ~ $4,000-$5,000, that would be a similar price. Maybe the dealer would also deal some more.
How did you get yours to Cali and for how much?
Thanks,
Taco6spd.
BTW, I don't know for sure that RV Direct will deliver to California - they won't deliver to Colorado - we would have to pick it up in Iowa.
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bikendan
Napa, Cal.
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Taco6spd wrote:Wow, bikendan, that's cheap! How / where did you get it for that price? Even RVdirect quoted me $16,200 for a Roo 21SS and $15,700 for an X20E.
There is a dealer here who currently has a 23SS on "internet special sale" at $19,990. What do you think about that? Taking into consideration that shipping from Indiana would cost ~ $4,000-$5,000, that would be a similar price. Maybe the dealer would also deal some more.
How did you get yours to Cali and for how much?
Thanks, Taco6spd.
we bought in November, when dealers were trying to get rid of their inventory before winter. you're shopping at the peak of buying time, right before summer, so prices will be higher.
we explored a variety of options. RVW would meet us halfway, in Wyoming, and charge us half the shipping costs. so the shipping costs can be negotiable. not sure about RVDirect.
we also looked into independent transport companies and also into flying to Chicago, renting a tow vehicle to bring the trailer back.
none of these options panned out.
we ended up just driving to Chicago and back. i also had just bought my Avalanche and needed mileage on it anyway, before i could tow.
our total trip costs were only about $700. made a camping trip out of it, even though we stayed on I80 the whole way.
if we had bought from RVW, we would've done the halfway thing.
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Chuck_S
Broadview Hts, OH, USA
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We (rather I) bought the Roo 23SS for many reasons but the big closet was one item that immediately got our attention. We don't carry anything but things like water in the Expedition. Clothes go in the closet or cupboards. That was the biggest hassle with out popup: my wife and daughter used up every bit of counter space and most of the floor with suitcases, etc.
Same weight range as the 21SS and a much nicer floor plan for us. Towed for two years with my 5500 pound max-rated V6 Explorer but never happy with the combination.
Here's the closet in the back hallway. The hallway is 6" wider in the later models (and the microwave is no longer in this position).
-- Chuck
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