Newbie TV advice and Trailer advice

[superChop]

This is an observation for any newbies checking out TV and AS requirements. Top of Georgia had about 60 Airstreams in the park this weekend.
Story 1 - Trailer pulled in next to ours, a beautiful fairly new 30’. TV was about a 2007 Tundra with a bit of rear suspension modification to make the truck sag less. I asked the owner if we could check his payload rating on the sticker inside his drivers door. You guessed it = 1475 lb payload. About a 1000 lbs for the tongue weight + his Hensley type hitch at about 200 lbs + His wife, and two kids = 500, for a total of 1,700 lbs of cargo with nothing in the bed of his truck.
Story 2 - a couple from middle Georgia came to the park to try out an AS via one of the online rental opportunities. Their selection was a 19’. The AS was towed up from Atlanta, leveled, and hookups connected for them. What a great idea and test for two folks to evaluate the AS layout on their expectations. I am sure they will rent a longer AS in the near future.

Very interesting towing analysis since he said they had towed this AS all over the country, with a bit of a challenge going up steep hills. At the end of the discussion, he admitted the TV was mismatched and his next TV would be a Diesel SD.

I would love to have a Toyota TV! But Thought I would include this note based on observation, that folks would rather have the durability and reliability of a Toyota vice the safety margins of a higher capacity TV! Not sure how these decisions are made? A couple of weeks ago at this same AS Park, we saw a 34’ being towed by a Nissan Armada, whose owner was told by Andy at CANAM to keep the ball on his hitch very close to the rear bumper for better handling. In the above example the Hensley type hitch with its “stinger (sp?) sticking out from the TV, makes that an impossible task.

Keep “streaming” with safe TV’s that can handle the requirements of your AS! Rally’s and Caravans next year will provide me with additional observations about what I consider mis-matched TV’s.