Toy Hauler Question

[TFucili]

We are going to take a road trip to Coleman, OK to visit the Sundowner plant next week. Should be interesting.

 

[CJ8Rockcrawler]

Please share your thoughts and whatever pictures they let you take. I'm thinking that we're going to head the route of an enclosed car hauler with an RV, but haven't decided yet. Have fun on your trip!

 

[TFucili]

Please share your thoughts and whatever pictures they let you take. I'm thinking that we're going to head the route of an enclosed car hauler with an RV, but haven't decided yet. Have fun on your trip!

I don't even have a smart phone but I'll try to get the wife to take some.

 

[TFucili]

Well, I got so tied up in the factory tour and asking a million questions(still forgot some)that I completely failed on the picture mission, sorry. We visited the plant, and I am pretty sure this is the toy hauler we will go with. They are built tough, not flashy. Manufacturing was pretty old-school, and I don't mean that in a negative way. They have a campus of buildings, I think he said five acres under roof(?), and each "shop" performs particular operations. There is tons of customization, so there are people reading build sheets and getting it done at each location. Certainly not a production line, in the conventional sense. Super nice folks there, and we really enjoyed it.

One thing I didn't anticipate was that it is virtually impossible to get a darn motel room east of El Paso on I-10 or along the I-20 corridor, apparently due to the oil field workers taking everything up. Most places are "No Vacancy", and a few are "we have two rooms left and they are $399/Night, and that's not the Ritz-Carlton! This is for hundreds of miles. Pretty aggravating when you are plumb wore out.

My 2500 6.4 Hemi averaged 15.1 over 2687.9 miles, this was empty and running 75, even where the speed limit was 80. She's a thirsty girl, but that's what you get with a gasser!

 

[CJ8Rockcrawler]

Awesome. That's great to hear about their quality and attention to detail.

Did you discuss weight distribution or pin weights at all with them?

Well, I got so tied up in the factory tour and asking a million questions(still forgot some)that I completely failed on the picture mission, sorry. We visited the plant, and I am pretty sure this is the toy hauler we will go with. They are built tough, not flashy. Manufacturing was pretty old-school, and I don't mean that in a negative way. They have a campus of buildings, I think he said five acres under roof(?), and each "shop" performs particular operations. There is tons of customization, so there are people reading build sheets and getting it done at each location. Certainly not a production line, in the conventional sense. Super nice folks there, and we really enjoyed it.

One thing I didn't anticipate was that it is virtually impossible to get a darn motel room east of El Paso on I-10 or along the I-20 corridor, apparently due to the oil field workers taking everything up. Most places are "No Vacancy", and a few are "we have two rooms left and they are $399/Night, and that's not the Ritz-Carlton! This is for hundreds of miles. Pretty aggravating when you are plumb wore out.

My 2500 6.4 Hemi averaged 15.1 over 2687.9 miles, this was empty and running 75, even where the speed limit was 80. She's a thirsty girl, but that's what you get with a gasser!

 

[TFucili]

Awesome. That's great to hear about their quality and attention to detail.

Did you discuss weight distribution or pin weights at all with them?

Yes, but it's not like there is a chart on the wall. They take your layout and run across the office to one of the engineers who then prints it out and can calculate hitch weight. We designed a 2286SGM-that's a garage model with a slide-with a gen-set and fuel station, and with an enclosure for the breastplate, and they estimate about 3,200 lbs on the hitch. They said the weight of the buggy, fuel, and water would be borne mostly by the spread axles, and hitch weight should not change a bunch. I was also concerned about ground clearance when we go boondocking, as low profile is their thing, but they will block the axles on request, so we settled on 3" blocking. They lay out the fenders accordingly, so it doesn't look like it is "jacked up". I also am going to opt for the Michelin LT tire upgrade, so no ST chinabombs. They like to put the gen-set on top at the rear of the garage, where horse trailers have a hay rack, but I opted for a gen compartment at the left front of the garage. It does intrude into the garage some, but I was planning to build a work bench anyway, so I'll just work around it. The 19' garage will have 184" from the ramp door to the gen box. On units with larger living quarters they can have the gen compartment take some space out a cabinet in the LQ, which reduces/eliminates the box in the garage. They will build it exactly like you want it. The downside to that is you can get trapped in analysis paralysis trying to think of every possible scenario for everything you do. It is making my head hurt a little bit

 

[NIsaacs]

That sounds like a fine rig, can't wait for pictures. I am thinking the internet weight police might arrest you tho

 

[TFucili]

That sounds like a fine rig, can't wait for pictures. I am thinking the internet weight police might arrest you tho

Well, I am installing air bags...

 

[Dieselnut59]

What gen set did you get? I would love the Cummins/Onan with the little Kubota diesel when I get my toy hauler. I think it is in the 7000 watt range.

 

[TFucili]

What gen set did you get? I would love the Cummins/Onan with the little Kubota diesel when I get my toy hauler. I think it is in the 7000 watt range.

I went with the 5.5 kW Onan. The 4kW would do it, but it is a single cylinder turning 3,600 RPM, where the 5.5 kW is a V-Twin turning 2,400 RPM. These are gas, as I need an onboard fuel station for the toys, and it will share the tank with the gen-set.

 

[Northfork]

The only downside I see to the Sundowners is the limited height in the bedroom. At 64 crawling around up there to get in and out of bed wouldn't be much fun. We sold a large Arctic Fox Camper due to this issue.
They build good stuff, and I sent them an email suggesting they consider researching a full RV style bedroom build.
Looking for quality in an RV today can be a frustrating mission. There is a lot of junk out there, of varying prices and amazing advertising.

 

[TFucili]

Yes, the bunk in the gooseneck is a definite compromise. But the garage space with large payload advantage, lower overall profile, and more rugged construction(IMHO)makes it worthwhile. Time will tell.

 

[TFucili]

To bring this up to date, I left for Coleman on Monday, figuring I would get there Tuesday too late to go to the plant, so I would do my walk through and hook up Wednesday. As usual, I pushed hard Monday, making it to Clarendon, TX. That put me into Durant/Coleman early enough Tuesday to go to the plant. Did my paperwork, and hooked up to pull it out of its row to inspect. This is with no air in the bags.

There was a production snafu, and it had the wrong landing gear. Rats! My contact there went to bat for me, and they promised to have it re-worked Wedesday. A bit after 2 PM I got the word and went to hook up. Naturally, the rain had started, like every time I buy something. This is staged for departure in the lot across from the hotel. 30 psi in the bags leveled her out pretty good.

 

[TFucili]

Flying J, Tucumcari, NM.

Parked in the truck lot Thursday night in Holbrook, AZ after 900+ mile day.

 

[TFucili]

I opted for the enclosure for the gooseneck.

Michelin LT tires

Onan 5500

Fuel station for toys shares the gender tank.

 

[TFucili]

Rear spoiler with work lights.

There is an Airstream behind me, so I could not open the ramp door. Garage from rear.

The mystery box at front left is the genset enclosure. I will build a work bench over it. Still figuring that out.

There are two runs of L-track on the floor, and two on the walls.

 

[TFucili]

Vanity and shower

Kitchen

The bunk

The sofa is in the slide. I did not run it out for the photo.

 

[DavidC]

Nice looking rig. Keep it well waxed/sealed as the Az. sun is a killer on finishes and external graphics, plastic etc. Length ?, slides?. I notice one AC unit, did they pre-wire for a second ?. Reason I ask is this was the first summer spent in the Phoenix area in a RV. Most days I had to open the quick cool to keep the temps below 85 with the one 15k unit as the factory ducting could not handle the high temps. We managed but it took extra attention on my part to keep things going. During the hottest part of the days there were times I had to spray the coil with water to help keep the amps down as the internal overload would trip around 18 amps on a unit that would normally run around 13-14.

Dave

 

[jgillott]

Wow. Impressive unit. Congratulations. It looks like it was well worth the wait.

 

[TFucili]

Nice looking rig. Keep it well waxed/sealed as the Az. sun is a killer on finishes and external graphics, plastic etc. Length ?, slides?. I notice one AC unit, did they pre-wire for a second ?. Reason I ask is this was the first summer spent in the Phoenix area in a RV. Most days I had to open the quick cool to keep the temps below 85 with the one 15k unit as the factory ducting could not handle the high temps. We managed but it took extra attention on my part to keep things going. During the hottest part of the days there were times I had to spray the coil with water to help keep the amps down as the internal overload would trip around 18 amps on a unit that would normally run around 13-14.

Dave

All points well taken. It's 41' overall, 22' LQ including 8' bunk on the gooseneck, plus 19' garage. One slide where the sofa is.

It has one 15K AC in the LQ and is framed and wired for one in the garage. It may prove to be a mistake, but the reason I went with one AC is we are not intending to full-time, so in the cool months I like to go duning in Glamis, and we may spend some time at Alamo Lake, etc. In the Summer it would be to escape to cool country to do some riding/exploring. Friends of ours just bought a lot in Star Valley, WY, so we may spend couple weeks there. That's the plan anyway, and I have been wrong plenty-o-times. I've got a steep learning curve in the RV world.