4800 miles with Swift SLX 154 & Chrysler T&C

[BTCohosh]

We're nearing the end of a major trip with our new Swift. Thought I'd report in.

We drove southwest from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Colorado. We dragged the trailer up into Rocky Mountain National Park, around Denver, south to Great Sand Dunes, over to Mesa Verde, and then back through Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois.

Crossed the Continental Divide twice; many freeway miles at 105 degree heat (through Kansas--holy crap!); one blowout on the right rear van tire.

Impressions: while not an ideal tow vehicle, the minivan was certainly more than adequate. We kept our speed to around 60 mph and didn't expect much on the hills. I was surprised at how well the vehicle did in the mountains. The only serious challenge was the Continental Divide. Crossing from west to east was the hardest--more elevation and a steeper grade. Kept the van in Low and stopped about 3/4 of the way up to cool down.

We've got a weight distribution hitch and I can report that it made a *big* difference. It brought the back end of the van right back up to where it would normally be. The whole thing pulled quite docilely.

The trailer was perfect for what we needed. We've got two boys (8 & 6), and are basically tent campers at heart, though we found that making and breaking camp was getting to be too much of a chore. We treat the trailer as basically a tent, rather than a house-on-wheels. That said, when we had electrical hookups, the microwave was *really* cool to have, and, in the desert (and Kansas) the A/C was a Godsend.

So far, we're loving our Jayco.

[bender031177]

Any pictures?

[chopshop]

The good ol' UP eh!

That's my home also, I surely miss it up there. Camping just isn't the same down here in AZ. Congrats on a successful trip and may many more happy campings follow.

[Denise]

Brings back memories of us towing with our Odyssey and the little Casita. If only Jayco had the swift a few years back, we would defitely had purchased it instead. We had that Casita when we crossed the Continental Divide (pic). Thanks for the update! Post pics when you can!

[BTCohosh]

@ healthi: Oh, man--you pulled yours along the Trail Ridge Road in RMNP? Big, big stones.... You're my new hero

@ chopshop: We love the UP. We travel all over the country and keep thinking how lucky we are....

[BTCohosh]

The weather was crummy, but, given that we were in a trailer, we didn't really care.

[etothepii]

Very nice!!! Sounds like an awesome trip.

[2edgesword]

Thanks for the great trip report. I've made the trip from Denver to Estes Park on a number of occassions so appreciate what you put your van through towing the 154. Every time I rent a subcompact at the airport and tell them where I'm going the start pushing a mid-size car on my .

My wife and I are considering our first venture into the RV world (testing the waters with a rental in September) and looking at the 184 to have a little extra room when we have two or three of the grandkids along (that's our dream). What's it like as far as hot water for showering when you've got 3 or 4 people on board? A quick five minutes for each person or do you divide up the time (2 evening, 2 morning)? Yes, we are total novices .

[BTCohosh]

Hey 2edgesword!

We actually only used the shower on our 154 a couple of times. My wife & I washed the kids one night, and then showered ourselves the next morning. The water heater is small (6 gallons, I think) so we did the Navy-shower thing (wet down, shut off water, lather up, rinse off). We didn't really have a problem with hot water supply (we had the temp set high so we could mix in relatively more cold water), and, if we had, the smaller heater got hot pretty fast. The limiter was really the grey-water tank size (15 gallons)--more than adequate for casual use, but showering filled it quickly. We only used the shower on those couple of occasions when we had a sewer hookup at our site. By way of a side-note to this, we were shocked to discover how long water in the hot water tank *stayed* hot after the heater was shut off. We had more-than-warm-not-quite-"hot" water 24 hours or so after we shut off the heater.

That may or may not be a problem, depending on how you're thinking of using the trailer. It works great for a couple of days in one spot, then you need to hit a dumpstation. If you you move around a lot that's not a big deal. I'm thinking about getting one of those dolly-wheeled external septic tanks I can strap to the bumper for added capacity--we'll see how it goes.

Good luck with your hunt. Combing through trailer literature was half the fun for me.

[2edgesword]

Thanks for the additional info BTC. I can do the ever other day thing but my wife is a shower a day person and double that in the summer .

Yes, the searching has been fun and a real learning experience.

[CampRock]

Wow! Your my hero! Lol. We pulled a pop up camper with a town and country minivan and we felt like it struggled, you are brave souls! Lol