2016 Jayflight 28 BHBE Elite - towing with an F150 - Page 4

hboy · 08-10-2015, 04:34 PM

I have that same trailer. Lightly loaded with batteries and propane (no food/drinks) my tongue weight is 900-1100 generally. That's measured from the trucker scales, as well as a sherline scale.

I travel with my wife and 3 kids.

I just sold my 2011 F150 ecoboost as we are wanting to slide into a 5th wheel (wife wants more room; I want to get away from the bumper pull thing). The advice you are getting is good advice.

If it was me, I would try towing with the rig I have. You may find it works just fine. Then you havn't blown thousands on more depreciating assets. for me, towing locally doing the state park thing and summer at the lake, etc was okay. I liked the F150 as my daily driver. So the trade off of loosing the comfortable daily driver, and moving into a bigger truck that may not fit in the garage may not be worth it. I would not be comfortable with a long trip using the half ton set up and this trailer. I do see plenty of folks who make it work, and with longer trailers.

Safety is most important. I think many people buy the rv they want, then upgrade after a couple years. You just don't know till you get into it what is really working for ya.

NewBlackDak · 08-10-2015, 05:15 PM

Mine is a 287BHBE. I originally towed it with a Titan with higher capacities than your F150. I'm in a RAM 2500 now. Don't believe that hitch weight for one second. Mine is a shade over 900 lbs once loaded up for camping. You will want to use your bed for stuff too, but won't have any capacity left when the cab is full of people.

NewBlackDak · 08-10-2015, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthCo

Would a 3/4 ton do it better? LOL. Don't kid yourself... Of course it would, especially if it was a diesel. And any leaf spring rear end will do it better than a coil rear end unless you have air bags and even then I'm not sure.... But good to hear your setup is working good for u.

Ram 2500s have coil spring rear ends now. It's more stable than any leaf truck I have ever driven.

spoon059 · 08-10-2015, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewBlackDak

Ram 2500s have coil spring rear ends now. It's more stable than any leaf truck I have ever driven.

And surprisingly comfortable too. The ride is no worse than my Tundra... possibly even better.

SouthCo · 08-10-2015, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewBlackDak

Ram 2500s have coil spring rear ends now. It's more stable than any leaf truck I have ever driven.

And they have a lower payload right? Coils ride nicer unloaded but handle less weight. It's a trade off. My tow vehicle is not my daily driver. So I don't have to compromise.

Northern Jay · 08-10-2015, 08:21 PM

OhioRVmom. When we purchased our 3500 Silverado, we did it at the end of the model year. We got a super deal on the truck as the new models were hitting the dealers and they wanted the "old" new trucks off the lot. We were notneven thinking of getting a trailer at that time, but as we have a large camper, a 3500 was needed to remain within GAWR. We found it was very nice when we went looking for our trailer that we could tow away nearly anything on the dealers lot. We stayed away from the dieselbas it was a $12k option at the time. (i can buy a lot of gas for $12k). We still manage 9 mpg towing in the mountains of BC, and have no lack of available power with the 6.0l Vortec engine. I can climb the steeper hills with only a 5-10MPH loss of speed without having my foot on the floor (generally maintain 55-60mph max). Half the adventure is getting there. Also, as far as extended warranty is concerned, i believe they are a waste of $$$.
Just my .02 of course.
Happy Camping.
(we are thrilled with our 28BHBE, wouldn't trade it for anything else. It is also easy to park)

tylersdad · 08-10-2015, 09:31 PM

Our extended warranty saved us $8500 in the last year. Not a penny out of pocket. Money well spent.

Country_Mouse · 08-10-2015, 09:49 PM

Good to know tylersdad. We purchased the extended warranty because dealer offered it to us for a third of cost because we bought trailer outright.

clubhouse · 08-10-2015, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylersdad

Our extended warranty saved us $8500 in the last year. Not a penny out of pocket. Money well spent.

On what? The model year of both items in your signature have me thinking they are still covered under a factory warranty.

tylersdad · 08-10-2015, 10:44 PM

On a 2010 GMC Acadia. We traded it in for the F-150.

Camper_bob · 08-11-2015, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthCo

And they have a lower payload right? Coils ride nicer unloaded but handle less weight. It's a trade off. My tow vehicle is not my daily driver. So I don't have to compromise.

In the 1/2 tons, yes. But my RAM 2500 Tradesman 6.4L 4x4 has a shade over 3000 lbs payload capacity per the door placard. You can knock a grand off that number for the Cummins Turbo Diesel option.

With that being said, the RAM 2500 Power Wagon has about the same amount of payload as my 2012 GMC Sierra 1500.

It's a neat truck though...

NewBlackDak · 08-11-2015, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthCo

And they have a lower payload right? Coils ride nicer unloaded but handle less weight. It's a trade off. My tow vehicle is not my daily driver. So I don't have to compromise.

Nope. 10000 GVW. Truck weighs 7383 lbs with me and a full tank of gas. It's a megacab 4x4 too.

spoon059 · 08-11-2015, 08:51 AM

I've only got a measly 2370lbs of payload in my diesel 2500 with rear coils...

OhioRVMom · 08-11-2015, 10:03 PM

Thanks all! I stopped getting email notices on replies, so didn't realize there were still replies coming in. We wanted to go the new truck route, but after researching the cost, adding the cost of the trailer, we're not in a position to spend the extra money right now. Our car payment would increase by at least $100, plus potentially $200 or so - puts us at a good $300 or more per month. we had anticipated maybe $200 for the trailer, but going from an XLT 150 to an XL 250, losing probably $8k in depreciation on our truck only having had it for 1.5 years.. all these factors played in to us having second thoughts. It's a great financial hit, and I'm not saying we won't do it, but doing it so close to having bought it won't work with our financial situation at the moment. We've decided to compromise, knowing that the solution is temporary, and after about 5 or so years, we will either upgrade the truck OR go to a Motorhome, it's just that we really shouldn't do either of those options financially at this time.

That said, we're looking at lighter weight trailers (both Jayco and others), and I am considering the whitehawk line (which I thought wasn't really that much lighter, but did find one worth considering).
White Hawk 28DSBH

with a weight of 5669 - about a thousand less than the 28 BHBE, and about two thousand less than our max rating.

I was hoping to get under 5,000, but this is about as good as I can go with a compromise at this time. the other trailer we are looking at is also about 5500 lbs. It already has some of the things we were thinking about adding - Power tongue jack being one, and that weight is supposedly already figured in. I am hoping this lighter weight trailer will be light enough, conisdering on paper its 2000 lbs below our max.

SilverEscape · 08-11-2015, 10:12 PM

Where did you see that weight? I see it listed as 6020 dry, which means it will come to you more likely at 6300-6500. So, once loaded you'll be over 7000 pounds with likely a 900-1100 pound tongue weight. Hopefully others that have it can report their real weights to help you better determine if it will work for you.

2016 White Hawk 28DSBH | Jayco, Inc.

The 2 trailers you are looking at aren't that much different in dry weight. It's mostly the cargo loading capacity that is different. People before were basing some of the numbers on loading the other one to somewhere over 7000 pounds, not to the full GVWR. So if this one will be close to the same loaded, it's not going to be any different.

Remember the max tow rating of your vehicle is mostly meaningless. You can only tow that with a 150 pound driver and nothing else in the vehicle and no accessories added by the dealer or yourself. They use those max weights more for advertising purposes it seems. Makes it sounds like the trucks can tow anything.

OhioRVMom · 08-11-2015, 10:25 PM

I should have clarified - this is a 2013 model - used - White Hawk Travel Trailers | Jayco, Inc. it's listed at just 5,290 but the actual ship weight according to the dealer is 5669.
2013 White Hawk Floorplan 28DSBH

WeightsUnloaded Vehicle Weight (lbs) 5,290 Dry Hitch Weight (lbs) 590 Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (lbs) 7,500 Cargo Carrying Capacity (lbs) 2,210
i know there is a great disparity between what things are sold as being able to do, and what they SHOULD. which is why we have dropped to the 5500 range as our starting point. or rather, a goal to hit or stay under. 5669 does not seem significantly over that, but i could be wrong

RUSSELL5000 · 08-11-2015, 10:29 PM

Ohio, I think you have pretty much read all the different views by now. My hat off to you and the hub for thinking ahead.

My experience has taught me:

Tough to have too much trailer if you have kids. A lower trim level truck tows as well as higher trim level and costs way less. Got the short bed truck - wished I had gotten long bed - always more stuff to put in bed of truck. Got the 2500 - should have gotten a 3500 for such little difference in cost. Don't see the need for a dually unless pulling a fifth wheel - then go dually. Got a new diesel HD truck - should have looked for a late model used.

I think on these points for the future.

Best of luck.

Country_Mouse · 08-11-2015, 10:32 PM

It sounds like you are going through the same exact process that I went through. I fell in love with the Keystone Outback 25TRS which weighed in around 5500#. Almost pulled the trigger but there wasn't a dealer locally. I also got to researching some more and realized that even though it initially looked good on paper since we have a Ford Expedition that is rated to tow 9000# once we added in our passengers in the TV (I have 4 kids and 2 dogs) we did not have the payload left to make that fly. I also knew I didn't want tent ends on my trailer. That is why we went with the Jay Feather X254.

OhioRVMom · 08-11-2015, 10:37 PM

I hear you. What we want to do, and what we can do right now are a little different. So we have to take the information we have gleaned and try to make something work. hopefully. if this one falls through again (if we find it's just not a good idea) then we may resort to an OLD OLD Motor home, that is in budget but yet no towing worries. but a heck of a lot of maintenance concerns

no easy answer. We want to go, we want to bring at least some family, and we'd prefer to stay away from hybrid/tents. our options just narrowed WAY down. just trying to get a comfort level. I am thinking this is an ok option based on what I have seen, but it's hard to know an exact number that is safe. I just don't know. Part of it will be a guessing game, I am just hoping to keep THAT part incredibly small.

SilverEscape · 08-11-2015, 10:50 PM

Have you weighed the truck with everyone in it? That would be a great starting point as then you know what the rest of your gear, tongue weight and WDH can weigh.

Add about 1000 pounds to that trailer weight for all your stuff. And you're at around 6600. Your tongue weight is going to be 800 pounds or more. Add 100 for WDH. Once you folks weigh yourselves you can see if you have the room for 900 pounds on the tongue and gear.

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