Newbie from a pop up

Oscrfsh

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2016
Messages
16
Location
Turners falls
Hey there guys....my name is Jason and I have left the pop up world. My gf and I had made the jump from a 95 electric coleman Fleetwood pop up...to a 2006 dutchmen colorado 30 rl travel trailer i belive the model is. I am super pumped about it. I can't wait to use it..hopefully everything is pretty easy to use...happy camping guys!!
 
Welcome to the forum, Jason.

Our camper is an '07 Colorado 30RL, with the bedroom slide. You are going to find a bid difference in towing a brick vs a pop-up. It was culture shock when we retired our old Airstream and got the Colorado.

This is going to be our last camper, we got to the point where we either bite the bullet and buy a new camper or put some money into upgrades. We came to the conclusion that the upgrades were the better option than starting all over. When I read of the problems that the folks with the newer rigs with all of the electronics bugs and other assorted problems I figure we made the right decision.
 
Welcome to the forum, Jason.

Our camper is an '07 Colorado 30RL, with the bedroom slide. You are going to find a bid difference in towing a brick vs a pop-up. It was culture shock when we retired our old Airstream and got the Colorado.

This is going to be our last camper, we got to the point where we either bite the bullet and buy a new camper or put some money into upgrades. We came to the conclusion that the upgrades were the better option than starting all over. When I read of the problems that the folks with the newer rigs with all of the electronics bugs and other assorted problems I figure we made the right decision.

Yea. Ours has the queen bed slide out also. I am pretty pumped. The people we are buying it from said we could take over there seasonal spot so hopefully I won't be pulling it much. I do have an 07 f150 with 4 full doors. With the proper hitch and brakes and sway bars it should be OK if I have to pull it......but 7400 is a little more then my 1800 lb pop up .
 
Jason,

Keep in mind that 7400# is the curb weight, by the time you add cargo, food and water, you are going to be getting up closer to 10K. We are running close to 11K.

Getting the camper rolling isn't the challenge, it's getting it stopped again. I used to have to adjust the trailer brakes every 3-5000 miles, on our high mile trips. I never did like towing with electric drum brakes. Last year when I broke a shackle on our way home from Alaska, that was all the excuse I needed, to upgrade the suspension and brakes to electric/hydraulic disk brakes.
 
Welcome!



Just to put into context what hddecker is saying, (one of the most helpful gentlemen you will find here) I have a new F150 with the latest power plant and my RV is only 5000lbs "curbweight". Well below the "towing capacity"



But that towing capacity isn't the actual capacity that comes into play. Nor is the motor-power.



Instead, it's the weight of the truck itself when hitched to the trailer.



Passengers + truck bed cargo + tongue weight often exceeds the trucks capacity well before towing capacity comes into play.



Put another way, I wish my Trailer weighed 4000lbs (or less) dry. Cuz it's about all the truck can safely handle.
 
Oh don't let anything I say take one ounce of joy from your new tinyhouse mansion!



But also don't let towing it ruin it either. ☺
 
The thing that concerns me more than overloading the truck, is the trailer brakes that should have gone the way of the dinosaur.

I tow with a Ram diesel, with an exhaust brake, I could still feel the brake fall off and the truck doing more of the braking as the trailer brakes became less effective.

You can play the numbers game and make just about anything fit, it's just not a game I like to play. If the numbers work you just need to ask yourself, if you are comfortable with it and is it safe.

I'm grateful that none of the boneheaded stuff I used to do when I was towing didn't do any damage.
 
Does anyone know of anything to look out for on the dutchmen colorado 30rl ...upgrades to do...things prone to breaking?
 
Jason,

The most iritating thing for me is the crappy wiring, poorly crimped connectors and wire nuts that aren't tightened properly. It drives me nuts, because I am very picky about how electrical connections are done. I've got most of them resolved, any place that I found the shoddy connections I've reworked them so they aren't going to pull apart again. The biggest mess was on the a-frame, the junction box is far from weather proof and corrosion caused more than one failure. I replaced the junction box with a proper waterproof 7 wire box and enclosed the circuit breakers in waterproof project boxes from the electronics store.

If you still have the old analogue thermostat, you might want to do this upgrade to a digital t-stat.

RV Digital Thermostat Upgrade | ModMyRV
 
Thank you for the heads up! I will defiantly be looking into such things. I know what u mean about electrical connections. ... I like mine to be perfect also..I don't want any failures or fires. We picked this camper up from 1 owner. They bought it brand new in 2006...brought it to the seasonal campground and have left it there since. My guess is the tires are probably dry rotted also. It was an older couple we met while camping..our bad luck turned I to good luck...waited to long to make a reservation with or pop up and the only spot they had was a seasonal spot that someone just left..so we made friends with the seasonal neighbors and gt to talking about buying theres....they showed u around and looks perfect inside..they have never used the o en and used the stove a handfull.f times and that's it....they just realized it has rain sensing vents that close automatically. They are also giving us there seasonal spot for the rest of the year. Hopefully grabbing the title sunday!!
 

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