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New Toy Hauler for Us

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DFW_Warrior

DFW_Warrior

Hmmmm.....
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Joined
Apr 4, 2006
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Location
Arlington, TX
First Name
Bill
We have been camping out of our little 6'x12' Haulmark trailer for close to 10 years now and it is finally time for an upgrade. Between the two of us, two dogs, motorbikes when we are on a bike trip, or all the competition shooting gear when we are traveling for that; the little 6x12 trailer was just WAY too cramped. I have some not so fond memories of being under an umbrella at the tailgate of the truck, trying to clean and oil guns between days of competition because there is just no room in the trailer for anything other than sleeping and getting dressed.

Now, couple that with this whole CoVid thing and campgrounds are starting to lock up their bathrooms and showers and that even further complicates dry camping with our little trailer.

So out with the old, and in with the not as old. We searched for a year to try and find the perfect trailer and finally stumbled upon it late one night. We didn't want a typical toy hauler as they seem to be not made entirely the best way. Plus their value seems to drop like a rock for the first few years until they quickly bottom out in the "I'll give you $1000 for it" category. This one is built on a horse trailer frame, and is all aluminum framing and structure. We also wanted an all aluminum roof as those are far more leak proof than anything rubber that is found on common RV's and toy haulers these days.

Enough chatting, and onto the photos! The first break in trip is this weekend, and then we are already booked for 2 full weeks down in Big Bend over Christmas and New Years.

Next year if all goes well it will see 3 trips to NM, 1 trip to Utah, several trips to central TX, a trip to Mississippi, 1 to Florida, and quite a few long weekends here in the DFW area.

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Nice find. That is a well built unit and should last a long time.
 
So you got the new truck as well? Is that the 4WD F350? Diesel? How do you like it? How does that whole rig ride? Does the back open up so you can get bikes in it?
 
Nice, as much as you two travel around it will be well worth it.

Campgrounds closing bathrooms? Really? What are tent campers to do? Is this obvious when you are making reservations?
 
Tourmeister said:
So you got the new truck as well? Is that the 4WD F350? Diesel? How do you like it? How does that whole rig ride? Does the back open up so you can get bikes in it?
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I did. I actually got the truck in February when the Eco-Diesel was loosing MPG like it was going out of style and then it started to have turbo issues. All of which was related to the emissions lawsuit flash that it had to have. This one is a F250 4wd, and I am proud to say that I will never own another diesel ever again. I got the 7.3l gas V-8 and it is a trailer towing monster. It darn near idles down the freeway with this big ol' trailer behind it and doesn't think twice about passing vehicles if need be. And I will never have to mess with an EGR, exhaust fluid, or a particulate filter ever again.

As for the ride, it rides like a dream. Nothing pulls as good as horse trailers since the axles are so far to the rear. It doesn't bounce around, there is zero sway, and even with a semi going past me it doesn't move an inch. This trailer will seriously spoil me.

It has a full drop down ramp in the rear so loading bikes is easy as can be.
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gixxerjasen said:
Nice, as much as you two travel around it will be well worth it.

Campgrounds closing bathrooms? Really? What are tent campers to do? Is this obvious when you are making reservations?
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We were at one place 6 weeks ago and there was only one bathroom/shower open. So if someone was in there dropping the kids off at the pool and then showering, the one bathroom was now occupied for an hour. As for what do to, I would just ask about the bathroom situation when making reservations. Had we been one week earlier to that campground they wouldn't have had any bathrooms open, so I guess we lucked out with what we got.

Now, hopefully it won't be an issue. :)
 
cheez said:
Nice looking trailer. Aligns closely with my desires, the main missing feature that I want the garage space fully isolated from the living space.
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And that was actually a feature that we didn’t want. Sundowner makes several models with a separate garage but when that happens, the living space becomes really tiny. We specifically wanted the combined living and garage space so it was more open to live in.
 
Wow! You really went uptown, Bill. Congratulations.

I've seen your driveway, so I'm assuming you won't be parking this one next to the house.
 
Now THAT'S how to do an upgrade! [emoji15][emoji15][emoji15]

Holy cow that thing is nice.

And I feel you on the gas vs diesel.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
DFW_Warrior said:
And that was actually a feature that we didn’t want. Sundowner makes several models with a separate garage but when that happens, the living space becomes really tiny. We specifically wanted the combined living and garage space so it was more open to live in.
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Yeah that's what I'm struggling with accepting- or moving up to a 40ft trailer that won't fit in national parks. :/

The wife is just really down on the idea of having to unload the bikes before having dinner every time we stop for the night. Coupled with her "I don't want to smell Harley oil smell in my living space" issue it's a hard blocker for her.

Glad you found what you were looking for- it's quite nice looking.
 
DFW_Warrior said:
I am proud to say that I will never own another diesel ever again. I got the 7.3l gas V-8 and it is a trailer towing monster.
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Wow. Just wow. As I understand it, that's like fighting words. Like, maybe worse than talking loudly about how Whataburger sucks and how In N Out is better.
 
tshelfer said:
Wow! You really went uptown, Bill. Congratulations.

I've seen your driveway, so I'm assuming you won't be parking this one next to the house.
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LOL, this one will not be getting parked beside the house I’m afraid. It will have a home at a storage facility eventually. For now I seem to have a decent spot to park it at.
 
cheez said:
Yeah that's what I'm struggling with accepting- or moving up to a 40ft trailer that won't fit in national parks. :/

The wife is just really down on the idea of having to unload the bikes before having dinner every time we stop for the night. Coupled with her "I don't want to smell Harley oil smell in my living space" issue it's a hard blocker for her.

Glad you found what you were looking for- it's quite nice looking.
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Well, I can’t help you on the smell of the bikes as my wife is the type that loves being put in the garage and getting dirty by working on them. As for the space, there is actually room to fully live in this one with the bikes loaded. Sure the couches won’t fold down but eating at the bar thingy or having some stand alone chairs fit just fine.

With the ones with the separate garages they typically overcome the space limitations by adding slides. So now if you are wanting to quickly stay somewhere for the night, you have to fully stabilize the trailer before you can “live” out of it. We wanted to be able to pull up in a Walmart parking lot and then head to the trailer for a quick dinner and then bed. So for us, I think it will do the trick, but we will have the motorcycle smell. There is no getting around that with the combined space. ☹️
 
gixxerjasen said:
Wow. Just wow. As I understand it, that's like fighting words. Like, maybe worse than talking loudly about how Whataburger sucks and how In N Out is better.
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There are quite a few folks over the past few years that are starting to feel that way. Especially with diesel deletions becoming more and more troublesome and the problems that come with leaving all the emissions stuff on them.

Long story short, the break even on the diesel motor upcharge assuming 25% towing 75% not, was 150k miles. Add one $3000 repair to the emissions system (of which, that is the minimum buy in for a repair on a diesel truck) and the break even is now 200k miles.

It just isn’t worth it.
 
Very nice trailer. Y'all are going to really enjoy that. Great call on the gasser. I am right there with you on that one.
 
I wish I had that trailer and you had a better one. LOL. I saw a youtube where they put a procharger on the 7.3. We've had mechanics bills of like $13,000 on a couple of 6.7 diesels at the co-op . I do think the new ford's are by FAR the best looking trucks I've ever seen come out of the factories.

Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk
 
JMZ said:
.... I do think the new ford's are by FAR the best looking trucks I've ever seen come out of the factories.

Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk
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Respectfully disagree! [emoji6]

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Love that trailer! Would like to know more about it please!
 
TheD-Man said:
Love that trailer! Would like to know more about it please!
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Sure thing! What would you like to know about it and I'll do my best to answer? It is a 2017 Sundowner that is technically a custom build. They now have an official floorplan that is very similar to this one but is slightly different. I do love the quality of this thing as it really is built on a horse trailer chassis. The floor is wood, not aluminum and is insulated underneath and then the bottom of the trailer is skinned in aluminum to protect everything.

Other than that, it has the typical RV type things in it. There is no oven, but truth be told we hardly ever use the oven in our house so I don't see why we would use one in the trailer any more often. If we do end up wanting to have an oven, some of the little countertop multi-function ovens look like the way to go. What isn't pictured is that we had the dealer we bought it from install some e-track into the floor so we can load the bikes into it. We already have e-track wheel chocks from our small trailer so those will just clip right into this one.
 
Most RVers don't use ovens unless they're fulltimers. A painful lesson I learned, when we bought our first camping trailer in 1982, is that wives don't consider it to be a vacation if they spend all their time cooking.

Now, spending all their time riding, THAT's a vacation.
 
tshelfer said:
Most RVers don't use ovens unless they're fulltimers. A painful lesson I learned, when we bought our first camping trailer in 1982, is that wives don't consider it to be a vacation if they spend all their time cooking.

Now, spending all their time riding, THAT's a vacation.
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What's funny is that some friends of ours with a very similar Sundowner have a countertop over because she loves to back cookies while they are out camping. And I guess you don't know me that well because if you did, you would know that I don't have to worry about Rachel not thinking it is a vacation if she has to cook. That gal doesn't cook when it isn't a vacation so I don't think that will change just because we are in a trailer. :)

mlinkibikr said:
What a dream setup ! Congratulations!
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Thank you. It has been a long time coming for us. We have used that little 6x12 Haulmark for years upon years to dry camp out of. I'm really hoping that we get a ton of use out of this one in the coming years.
 
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