So after our First RV Trip in a rented motor home, we thought we had an idea about what we wanted. That’s all detailed in that previous post so I won’t go through it again.
In the mean time since that trip, we went out west to visit our BC family. My brother Dave drives a Ram 1500 Laramie, and he waxed rhapsodic about the EcoDiesel engine, and the great power and fuel mileage it got. I drove it a few times, and it seemed very powerful and yet comfortable to drive. And it is rated to tow 9,210 pounds, which is plenty for the sort of trailers we had in mind. So even before we got home, we started looking for used Ram 1500s with the EcoDiesel engine on the used markets.
We also had some very useful conversations with Dave’s son Brad, who owns a nice trailer and has owned a couple before this one. We got to stay in a few nights, and learned more about life in a trailer.
Not long after we got home, two things converged – I found a really nicely equipped 2018 Ram Laramie EcoDiesel with all the extras, including a towing package. The towing package was the deal-maker, but it actually had some other nifty features, like the “Ram Boxes” aka saddle bags, a tonneau cover, and a sunroof. And the second thing was that Meyers RVs was having a big show and end of season show. So we test drove the truck, but didn’t commit to it, then the next day we went to the show and bought the first RV we looked at (which fortunately was well within the towing capacity of the truck), then went back the next day and bought the truck. Then took the truck and went to pick up the trailer.
If you care about the specs, the trailer is a year or two old Keystone Cougar 22MLS with a bunch of extras put on by the previous owner, including 2 solar panels, inverters for all the outlets, two lithium 100Ah batteries, and a tank-less water heater. Also wireless cameras on the back and sides.
When we got home, we’d discovered that in spite of Meyers doing all the hooking up, somehow we had no running lights, no brake lights, no reverse lights, and only one turn signal. It’s kind of a wonder that we had the trailer brakes. I figured I’d be getting a run-around with finger pointing between the truck dealer and the RV dealer, so I looked up the pin-outs of the 7 pin connector between the truck and the RV, and verified with a multi-meter that the problem was on the truck side. We took it back to the truck dealer, and after 3 days, they said they’d fixed it and tested it on their own trailer. But when I got it home, it was exactly the same. By this time, we’d already planned and booked a trip leaving the very next day. I called the truck dealer, and they said a friend at a local muffler shop owed him a favour and he’d get them to take a look at it the next day.
The muffler guy seemed very pessimistic about whether he could get a look at it, but then the truck dealer guy called me an hour later, and less than half an hour later the muffler guy called me to say it was ready. Turns out the problem wasn’t the 7 pin socket like the truck dealer had assumed, it was a couple of blown fuses. I suppose if I’d owned the truck for longer, I might have thought to check those myself but I hadn’t, so I didn’t. I gave the muffler guy a tip in relief.
And so we left on our first trip, which is a story for the next blog post.