Our fun machines

Thought I would post up my current tow rig with the moomba.We have had a couple of motorhomes and after having them breakdown on vacation with each of them we decided to go this route several years ago. Might go back to a small class c someday.
Jim

I have often thought of doing this as well since it would be easier than a. buying a motorhome, storing it, maintaining it etc.. & b. pulling a camper and then the boat. I was blown away at the prices of them though for what you get. However if I could wrap my head around spending 30k for a large pickup tent I'm sure I would be in love with how much simpler going to the lake and camping would be.

I've thought about a camper but just too cramped with the whole gang and what you get for what you pay for...

Posted up earlier this summer this motorhome I rented/borrowed from a co-worker. We're thinking about getting a Class C too but would have to be way newer. The trips we did were fun, but dicey, with a couple breakdowns and near overheating. We had this poor thing maxed out on towing weight, probably over, and it was rather pathetic on the hills. 460 big blocks drink a lot of gas...

I've been eyeballing a few 29-31ft Class C, Ford V-10, 1-2 slideouts. But they too are limited on tow capacity. Heard Class A are even worse?

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guy at work is trying to figure out how to make his setup work.. just bought a bayliner 21ft cuddy cabin. he showed me the pic of his diesel chevy hooked up to his 31ft 5th wheel and the boat behind it. it's 72ft2inch. legal here is 70ft before you need a trip permit and routing.. looks like a trainwreck going down the road..

of course he's used to hauling dual36ft's to utah all the time since he's one of our truck drivers so this is a drop in the bucket to him. says the chevy doesn't even know the trailers are there..

I'd recommend the class A truck chassis over the van chassis if you plan to keep it for a while and resale. The Winnebagos with a 503 and a six speed Allison do very well and they go back to at least 2004. My motor home is 28' but turn the Flexsteel seats around and you have all useable space. It gets around 8.5 mpg and it doesn't downshift very often on the highway. I bought this motor home in 2009 in Portland for $35K with 7,000 miles on it and it runs very well.

I would like the truck/camper combo with tip outs but the truck alone would have been $35k.

Oh boy, Z! I'm envious of that setup w/ the Jeep and dirt bike in tow. That is sweet and I would have guessed that RV cost 3x what you paid. Are you able to store it at your home?


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When we had the class c it was a 26' ford chassi with the 460. It did ok in the Colorado mountain passes towing the boat, had to go to 1st gear in the steepest parts but didn't rev it too hard. Sold it after one season use, hated the floor plan. Right after that we went to a 30' class A Fleetwood Southwind, chevy chassi 3 speed auto. Loved the floorplan heated basement, etc, towed ok, seemed like I had the gas pedal at least 3/4 throttle most of the time towing the boat here in the mountain west. It did ok without towing anything.Biggest drawback was when you had a headwind , no speed , side wind really had to slowdown afraid of blowing over. Took a YEAR to sell it and got what I owed out of it. Bought the truck camper within a week of selling it ... it is old now with lots of hail dents , was nice before .. dont care now it's been paid- for, for years and it will hail again. I have seen the trucks pulling the big 5th wheels and a 20' boat behind, no thanks. I think a Class c , Chevy chassis 24' at the most , maybe a gear vendors 2speed under drive aux transmission or the Allison behind a big block should do it. It would drink gas but pull what I need to .I guess it depends on what your needs are , we have have had 4 of us sleep in the camper, it was tight but
it did work for us.

We had a slide in truck camper up until this fall. Sold that because we bought a 32' 5th wheel. The truck camper was just too tight on living space for us and we only have one kid right now. It had been great for the last four seasons, but we had been ready to move on for quite a while.

We have a four hour drive (loaded down) to Powell, so we plan to leave the 5th at Powell for the summer and just travel back forth with the boat in tow. The drive cuts down to about 3 1/2 hrs with just the boat. Powell gets hot and we go down at least once a month in the summer, so the AC and dual slide-outs are going to be great!!!

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I towed my old boat behind my dads c class all over the state. Its a 28' jayco on an E450 chassis with v10 and surprisingly it gets 8-10 mpg. It's no diesel but did a great job. I will miss him flipping me the keys all the time and saying "have fun," he was always cool like that.

Any way you want to go works but I recommend renting or borrowing a set up similar to what you want to buy so you can see if that set up is what works for you and the family or even find out you're not cut out for camping. I've seen people go through different rigs until they find the one they really like. Kinda expensive method.

^^ Exactly what I was doing. Grew up camping in a trailer with my folks. Owned a 24ft travel trailer for a few years and it was fun but we were looking for the "all in one" deal instead of having 2 tow vehicles. Leaning toward the Class C for the extra bunk space since we usually have 4 kids + an extra or two so tents are always in the mix for the older ones.

Gotta say though - the roadtrip portion with a motorhome is much nicer with a little space for them to move around rather than looking for the next thing to start fighting/whining/arguing about while they're shoulder to shoulder for 3-4 hours in the back seat of a truck or SUV.

I already gave in to the fact that gas mileage with a motorhome and boat in tow shouldn't even factor into the equation with what we're doing. Ford seems to dominate the class C. I'd consider a class A if it had front bunks and/or side bunks somewhere but those seem rare if at all.

Hey Z - I forgot to ask. What is your Class A rated to pull? That jeep's gotta be close to to the same as a boat. Did you have to have the tow package upgraded or air bags for the rear suspension?

Curious because I talked to a guy this summer pulling a Supra 22V behind a BIG c-class, like 32ft if I recall, and he said he had to spend some money on it before he could tow with it.

I've always heard Class A are not rated for as much because of the long overhang off the rear axle.

Tow capacity is 5,000 pounds and the listed curb weight of the Jeep is 3,785 pounds but with what I have it is around 4,000 pounds. The limitation is the combined weight and the GVW and I think anything above 5,000 would exceed the combined weight limitation. Not sure how all that is figured up but I once looked at the Winnebago on the Mercedes diesel chassis (Sprinter) and with all of the equipment added it only had a 3,000 towing capacity.

The rig doesn't sag at all when the boat is connected. One thing with all motor homes is when you go into a turn the back end swings out and I caught a boat fender on a pylon at a launch once. One thing my Jeep doesn't have and by law needs is a braking system but I'm leery as they tie into the existing vehicle brakes and another failure point.