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Old 06-27-2007, 08:22 AM   #6
grakin
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As for the safety, it's like anything else - it can be done very safely, or it can be done very badly.

Some safety things:

1) Right hitch (and maintained).

2) The right tow vehicle (and maintained). From what I know, the heavier and longer wheelbase, the better.

3) Tow speed - when I see someone with a 35 foot trailer fly past me on the highway in wind and rain, I get worried for them (I saw one pass me with a radar detector mounted on the windshield - if you need a radar detector to pull a trailer, you're definitely doing something wrong). That's got an advantage of increasing my gas mileage 2 MPH over doing the speed I'd do without the trailer (yep, I get 2 MPH better mileage pulling than I do without the TM - because of speed). There's a reason semi tractors are going slower most of the time - they know it saves money and adds safety, and they do this for a living.

4) Good defensive driving - are you going to need to slow down ahead? Do you have room around your vehicle? Are you well rested (no excuse not to be with a TM!!!).

I drive a lot - I drove about 25,000 miles last year in a passenger car with no trailer. This year I've driven a few thousand miles with the TM behind me. I think I'm safer with the TM, for a bunch of reasons. I'm driving a better vehicle, driving slower, paying more attention to what is around me, and getting plenty of rest at night. I'm not at all worried about jacknifing with the trailer - the thing stays where it should, and doesn't sway.

I'll probably get a WDH sometime even though I don't really need one - I found a few sections of road where the bounce could start to resenate and suspect that a WDH would reduce the tendency to do that a bit (but most of the trip was great - that was the rare exception, and changing my speed slightly was an easy fix to the resonating problem).

As a subjective opinion, I picked up a friend for a bit and took him in the TV with the TM behind me. He used to sell RVs, and his comment upon reaching our destination was "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a trailer pull that nicely." There's things wrong with TMs, but I will say this for the factory - they thought through a lot of things that I took for granted until I started looking at it in depth.

So safety isn't a reason to avoid the TM. And I echo what everyone else says - it's your RV, not your neighbors, so buy what you want.
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