New Toy...

[dirkterrell]

...hauler. Susan and I picked this up yesterday:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/%7Eterrell/images/camper2.jpg

We want to do some traveling and take the bikes with us. I'm hoping I can get two street and two dualsport bikes in it, and it has some nice amenities. My first drive with it was during rush hour in pouring rain on I-25. The dually does the job quite nicely. Very smooth and stable at 65.

[One-ops]

Yeah that's nice!!!! Congrats man!

[j0ker]

Wow! Looks like you guys are ready for the great outdoors! :)

[birchyboy]

Awesome! Where'd you buy it?

BTW: http://www.keystonerv.org/ is a good site for Keystone owners.

[dirkterrell]

Thanks guys. We got it at Windish RV in Longmont and had a very good buying experience. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. We're planning a trip down to northern AZ to see the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. The hydraulic leveling system on that thing is amazing and very convenient.

[Gramps]

That's a nice setup!

[Kim-n-Dean]

Right on, Dirk!! You're gonna love traveling with that thing. Nothing better than dragging around your portable house! Fifth-wheels pull so much better than anything else. And, it's legal to ride in a fifth-wheel. It's the only style of trailer that is legal to ride in. Get one of those portable, automatic satellite dishes and you're set. The three S's are very important; Shower, Shitter and Satellite!

Every time we're on our way home with ours, we're wishing we had somewhere else to go instead of home!

[birchyboy]

Thanks guys. We got it at Windish RV in Longmont and had a very good buying experience. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. We're planning a trip down to northern AZ to see the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. The hydraulic leveling system on that thing is amazing and very convenient.

We bought ours there as well, from Josh. Good place. Not much to look at (facilities) but the techs seem to know there stuff.

[~Barn~]

Awesome Dirk! :up:

[madvlad]

Party at dirk's! Lol nice man

[birchyboy]

Right on, Dirk!! You're gonna love traveling with that thing. Nothing better than dragging around your portable house! Fifth-wheels pull so much better than anything else. And, it's legal to ride in a fifth-wheel. It's the only style of trailer that is legal to ride in. Get one of those portable, automatic satellite dishes and you're set. The three S's are very important; Shower, Shitter and Satellite!

Every time we're on our way home with ours, we're wishing we had somewhere else to go instead of home!

Some states do allow passengers in travel trailers but CO doesn't appear to. I'm surprised that anyone would ride in any type of camper myself.

[dirkterrell]

Right on, Dirk!! You're gonna love traveling with that thing. Nothing better than dragging around your portable house! Fifth-wheels pull so much better than anything else. And, it's legal to ride in a fifth-wheel. It's the only style of trailer that is legal to ride in. Get one of those portable, automatic satellite dishes and you're set. The three S's are very important; Shower, Shitter and Satellite!

Every time we're on our way home with ours, we're wishing we had somewhere else to go instead of home!

I definitely wanted a 5th wheel for a bunch of reasons that you know. I'll be looking into the satellite setup. And I'm sure that'll be our reaction too!

[Matty]

Nice... Katie and I want to do that in years to come!!! Have fun!

[bulldog]

Awesome....congrats Dirk!


Some states do allow passengers in travel trailers but CO doesn't appear to. I'm surprised that anyone would ride in any type of camper myself. Curious why you feel that way as I'd think riding in the would be way more fun than a cramped truck. Is it safety?

[birchyboy]

Awesome....congrats Dirk!

Curious why you feel that way as I'd think riding in the would be way more fun than a cramped truck. Is it safety?

Safety as well as the potentially rough ride. The larger 5th wheels may ride OK, but there are times when stuff gets flung around, doors open, etc in mine, and it's 25' feet long.

[Kim-n-Dean]

Some states do allow passengers in travel trailers but CO doesn't appear to. I'm surprised that anyone would ride in any type of camper myself.It's fifth-wheels only, and Colorado does allow passengers in a fifth-wheel. We've never had passengers in ours, but my buddy, Doug, fills his everywhere he goes. All his friends and their dogs on every trip. We tow our boats behind our fifth-wheels, so when we're traveling together we take-up the whole gas station. Therefore, we usually have to hit truck stops to fill-up. There are always cops around that come up to check out our rigs. They've confirmed it's legal and so does our Good Sam web site. Only fifth-wheels are legal to carry passengers.

[birchyboy]

It's fifth-wheels only, and Colorado does allow passengers in a fifth-wheel. We've never had passengers in ours, but my buddy, Doug, fills his everywhere he goes. All his friends and their dogs on every trip. We tow our boats behind our fifth-wheels, so when we're traveling together we take-up the whole gas station. Therefore, we usually have to hit truck stops to fill-up. There are always cops around that come up to check out our rigs. They've confirmed it's legal and so does our Good Sam web site. Only fifth-wheels are legal to carry passengers.

Sorry, my post wasn't worded correctly. CO doesn't allow passengers in hitched travel trailers, but they are allowed in 5th wheels and in-bed campers. Some states do allow passengers in hitched trailers. Every state is different.

[Rabbie303]

GAH!!! I have RV envy!!! Nice setup man.

[asp_125]

+1 on the auto-leveling system. Beats those old manual setups hands down! We pull in, unhitch and press a button. Then stand back and have a beer while it self levels. ;) The only problem we've occasionally come against is finding an RV site long enough! :D

Watch those overhead cabinet hinges though. The gas struts are too powerful and I've had 3 of the doors pop their hinges already. Cheap repair with some epoxy however.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3759/12094981273_5767bb4599_b.jpg

[#1Townie]

Nice setup man!! I would ride in a camper. With a trusted driver.

[Captain Obvious]

Man, you guys and your big rigs. Makes me feel dinky.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/funksouljon/Camping%20Trips/DSC_0252_zpsd91f755d.jpg (http://s51.photobucket.com/user/funksouljon/media/Camping%20Trips/DSC_0252_zpsd91f755d.jpg.html)

[Captain Obvious]

Nice rig BTW Dirk. Perhaps one day when I can justify....

[birchyboy]

Man, you guys and your big rigs. Makes me feel dinky.

Me too
http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz330/Birchy_Boy/Camping/BA1BEE16-3E14-4616-94A2-53494B212354_zpsdxebqrxw.jpg

[rybo]

It's fifth-wheels only, and Colorado does allow passengers in a fifth-wheel. We've never had passengers in ours, but my buddy, Doug, fills his everywhere he goes. All his friends and their dogs on every trip. We tow our boats behind our fifth-wheels, so when we're traveling together we take-up the whole gas station. Therefore, we usually have to hit truck stops to fill-up. There are always cops around that come up to check out our rigs. They've confirmed it's legal and so does our Good Sam web site. Only fifth-wheels are legal to carry passengers.

Dean,

Correct me if I"m wrong, but I believe that one of the requirements is that the passengers in the trailer have to have some way to signal to the driver that they need to stop. A two-way radio, or a light on the front of the trailer that the passengers in the trailer can activate would do.

[Captain Obvious]

Arrrrrhhhhh, thats huge too! ;) We actually decided to go small for a while. I expect to expand when the girls are bigger. And don't want to camp, then I will get what I want and go play in the woods by myself.


Me too
http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz330/Birchy_Boy/Camping/BA1BEE16-3E14-4616-94A2-53494B212354_zpsdxebqrxw.jpg

[Bueller]

Pretty nice Dirk, I sometimes wish I had a bigger one but I am actually thinking of going smaller. I like the hitched hauler since it allows me the full use of my truck bed. The roomy comfort of a large rv is nice but now I wish I would have gone with a slide in and bought a larger enclosed trailer.

[Kim-n-Dean]

Dean,

Correct me if I"m wrong, but I believe that one of the requirements is that the passengers in the trailer have to have some way to signal to the driver that they need to stop. A two-way radio, or a light on the front of the trailer that the passengers in the trailer can activate would do.
Ya know, I'm not sure. There's a chart that lists all the states that displays all the rules, such as, maximum length, is double towing allowed, minimum weight for brakes, yadda, yadda, yadda. Never read anything about being in contact with the driver. Although, that's
exactly what we do when one of us has to hit the bathroom, cell phone or radio...

[dirkterrell]

Dean,

Correct me if I"m wrong, but I believe that one of the requirements is that the passengers in the trailer have to have some way to signal to the driver that they need to stop. A two-way radio, or a light on the front of the trailer that the passengers in the trailer can activate would do.

That is my understanding as well.

[dirkterrell]

Pretty nice Dirk, I sometimes wish I had a bigger one but I am actually thinking of going smaller. I like the hitched hauler since it allows me the full use of my truck bed. The roomy comfort of a large rv is nice but now I wish I would have gone with a slide in and bought a larger enclosed trailer.

Yeah, there are many ways to go about it. We thought about it quite a bit before going for this setup. This one isn't too big but still has a decent sized garage and will serve us well for the kinds of things we want to do. You should know that hanging out with you and Renata at HPR got Susan thinking about all this...

[Kim-n-Dean]

You should know that hanging out with you and Renata at HPR got Susan thinking about all this...
That's too funny!! The last time Kim and I slept in a tent was around 2006. We were at Rampart and ended up sleeping in Dave's back bunk the last night of the trip. I don't think Kim had introduced Dave and Renata, yet, but less than a year later, we bought our fifth-wheel. It's all Dave's fault!!!!!

[bulldog]

Man, you guys and your big rigs. Makes me feel dinky.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/funksouljon/Camping%20Trips/DSC_0252_zpsd91f755d.jpg (http://s51.photobucket.com/user/funksouljon/media/Camping%20Trips/DSC_0252_zpsd91f755d.jpg.html)

Still nicer than mine
http://hooniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/7280344924_d21a507255_o.jpg

[Nguyen]

Wow! Nice! that has adventure and fun written all over it.
Riding around the U.S. is first on my bucket list. Looks like you can do that all while with your family too.

[bulldog]

Wow! Nice! that has adventure and fun written all over it.
Riding around the U.S. is first on my bucket list. Looks like you can do that all while with your family too. Yeah I went all out for the honeymoon...$50 at Hobby Lobbies decoration dept! :lol:

[~Barn~]

I think he was saying that to Dirk...

[dirkterrell]

Resurrecting this thread to show the new tow rig I got last week. I had been keeping an eye out for a while for a newer F350 since my '02 was only rated to pull a 12,500# 5th wheel and our RV is 13,000# empty. The '02 did pretty well, loved that 7.3 motor, but I was worried about going over the big passes and having some safety margin on the downhill run. Finally found what I was looking for:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/2011_tow_rig.jpg

It's a 2011 with 53K miles and set up nicely inside with navigation, etc. Last summer we moved to the new place and did get out in the RV much. This year we'll be hitting the road quite a bit more.

[Gramps]

Nice!

[Clovis]

That's a man's truck, LOL.

Congrats Dirk :)

[birchyboy]

Great looking truck!

[#1Townie]

how are you enjoying that 6.7 block? I haven't heard much about them.

[dirkterrell]

how are you enjoying that 6.7 block? I haven't heard much about them.

So far, so good. Noticeably more power, with a little more turbo lag than the 7.3, but when it kicks in, it really goes.

[#1Townie]

thats how my 6.4 is but I trust my 7.3 more.

[JKOL]

The 6.7 is a monster. The father in law has the same truck as Dirk and the wife has an '11 F250. The wife's 250 pulls a 30' trailer loaded with 4 sleds effortlessly even at higher altitudes like Kremling or Granby. There is noticeable lag, but like Dirk said once boost starts building you have to get off the gas or you will run right up the ass of anyone in front of you. It is fun to drive because it has so much power. Even with all the extra weight and significant power increase over my F150, it has better fuel economy than my smaller truck.

[Aaron]

I just wish all of this power would translate to not clogging up every road ever.