Things to Explore When Shopping for an RV
An RV gives you the freedom and flexibility to explore America’s beautiful landscapes. If you’re ready to embark on exciting road trips, look for an RV model that’s best suitable for your current vehicle, budget and other needs.
Interior Specs & Features to Consider
When it comes to the interior features of an RV, you’ll have plenty of options in terms of comfort, utility and entertainment. However, it would help if you first focused on the basic HVAC and plumbing capacities to meet your travel needs. Select a model with a water tank that’s large enough to accommodate all passengers during the trip. As you travel nationwide, you may not find water connections at camping grounds for hundreds of miles. In such cases, it’s a good idea to have some water reserves in large jugs and other containers inside the RV or on your pickup truck’s bed. When calculating the gross vehicle weight rating GVWR and other towing capacities, remember to include the weight of a full water tank inside the RV. However, liquid petroleum tanks and other gas storage containers don’t add significant weight to the total towing load.
Things to Explore When Selecting Fifth-Wheel RVs
When shopping for a fifth-wheel trailer, you need to fully understand several important specifications relative to your existing vehicle. Most heavy-duty pickup trucks in North America are powerful enough to properly tow this type of RV. However, you may need to install a proper towing package to optimize the connection with a fifth-wheel RV. It’s essential to purchase the correct harness, wiring and other hardware for a smooth connection between a pickup truck and this type of trailer. Pay close attention to the dry hitch and GVWR ratings of the fifth-wheel RV that you’d like to tow. You also want to limit the length of this type of trailer based on your tow truck’s handling capacities. If the trailer is too long, you might struggle to maintain control behind the steering wheel.
However, some premium pickup trucks have technologies that minimize swaying and swerving when handling fifth-wheel RVs. The truck’s reserve axle capacity is another critical specification to consider when shopping for a trailer with a fifth-wheel configuration. You want to ensure that the truck’s rear axle isn’t overloaded by the live and dead loads of the RV. Carefully look at the net tongue weight of the trailer before you make any attachments. The Cargo Carrying Capacity of a pickup truck is another significant metric that you should understand when browsing a large inventory of bulky RVs.
Contact our RV dealership to learn more about what things to explore when shopping for an RV for your travel plans.
