Anyone with mid duty/toterhome experience??

[Rockcrawler]

I'm considering an updrade to a mid duty FL70 type chassis toterhome (10-12' camper with a 5er hitch) for the race trailer and I'm looking for real world experience to help make a sound decision.



My tweaked 03 really does a pretty good job at keeping speed limit + 7 or so on 20+ hour road trips (straight thru becasue of limited vacation time). I had considered getting another 3500 (dually this time thought the srw does great) for towing and retiring the srw sb to grocery/family duty.



My thoughts are that for a bit more I can have a rig which I believe will depreciate a lot slower ( I tow 25k a yr) and the family and crew of 5-6 people would be in a lot more comfort, can switch off sleeping comfortably etc. I'm at 23k lbs +/- so it's really not a weight thing, just comfort and depreciation, I would buy used.



My concerns are that it would be a dog cause it weighs so much more and that ride/noise would kill the comfort factor as much as the room made it better. I could get by without 4x4 as the race sites are going more mainstream.....



Any thoughts??

 

[Eric_77]

You are right about them being dogs, the semi auto transmission in them (Fuller 10 speed I think is what was in the one I drove) can be a head ache I took it out of semi auto mode and always used the manual shift mode otherwise it would constantly upshift in traffic and be all out of wack.



Used I am unsure how fast they depreciate but new oh my, I didn't own it but the one I drove was bought new (with triple axle trailer GCVW 34,000). It was an FL60 coach and they spent near 225,000 with it loaded out with cabinets and everything. Sold the rig just a month ago (had it for 5 years) for 65k with ~70k miles on it.

Other kicker is the CDL thing 99% of the time if you are racing you need a Class A CDL and the toter home rigs with race logos on side scream that out to the DOT.

 

[Rockcrawler]

You can buy new closer to 100k, lots of used stuff for 40-70k. You can get around CDL if you register it as an RV (at least in AR) regardless of wt, brakes etc.



I need to study weights more- if you add 10k to the package with similar hp/torque I guess performance goes south- at least in acceleration and hills, maybe not aero load (which is huge in the hwy speeds I do with a 9'6" tall trailer)

 

[Rockcrawler]

Well, an update for anyone else to learn from... .



I bought a used FL70 based 12' toterhome with a cat 3126/ fuller 6speed. It weighs about 9k more than my Dodge, 33k GVWR.



The Dodge has considerably more towing power due to power to weight ratio, but the Toterhome, for my needs, seems to be well worth it. noise at Cruise speed in cab and coach is much quieter, friends and family are in comfort. The TH is slower to get up to speed but stays at speed pretty well and did the speed limit + pretty well, even with huge cross and headwinds. got 8. 5 mpg @ 80 mph across Wyoming hills and all, climbed nice out of salt lake. Handling and brakes are night and day. Even went through the spring blizzard in Denver pretty well (only 4-5" when I went thru)



Edge made a box for it too, went on the day I left

 

[Eric_77]

glad the rig is going to work for you much more comfortable when passengers can get up walk around or lay down on those long trips or better yet make a snack for the driver; grated cheese melted over doritos was one of my favorites.



FYI the one I drove was registered as an RV in AR. The owner got popped for the DOT stuff since he used it for racing (part of the reason I even drove it)also the cost new was with the trailer all upfitted for racing with crew area AC etc. I think trailer was about half the cost of the total package.

 

[Rockcrawler]

What state did the DOT stop you in? My understanding is that as long as it's registered as an RV and you are going on vacation (my case "trail riding with friends") you should be OK.



Now if the guy follows my type racing, knows that there's a race and I'm one of the racers he may be able to call BS, but then again he might be a fan... risk management I guess.

 

[Eric_77]

His Toter and Trailer were all stickered up with the shop name and numbers sponsor stickers etc. He was traveling from Jonesboro to Daytona Beach I think he was stopped in Alabama but it may have been Georgia. I didn't go up to "rescue" him as the DOT required a Class A driver to come move rig as I was still driving down with another rig.



Yeah if you know the right things to say no purse, no money to be won, not selling anything just going to hang out, got the big rig to haul friends in comfort etc. DOT will only hassle you not shut you down and ticket you. Hard to do if you have logos and such all over trailer tho.