florida trip for three months stay

Bummer. Spare tires are a real issue on these rigs. How old are the tires? By that I mean manufacture date. The rule in big RV's is to replace at 5 years after manufacture date. Some folks go to 7 years. This rule also should hold true for an road trailer. I have a bad tire on my C Dory 22--I was told that the tires were brand new when I purchased the boat about 3 years ago. I didn't look at the date, because the date was inside of the tire. So, I now am replacing both tires.....no matter what the date...
 
Pat, Thanks for the kind works, we came down here 2 years with out bringing a boat, we looked for the right place that would work for us, then we brought Pandy Girl down. Hope you got the Tire fixed in a timely Manner things like that happens, it has happen to us. Have you decited where you are going to stay down here????? Jim (Pandy Girl)
 
I used to have a 31' Class A. Towed a 21' "Party Barge" frequently, and then later a 26' Searay. Launched both them just fine, but I could easily see both boats in my rear view mirrors. In fact it was easier launching with the motor home than the pickup. I did have a small hitch on the front also, but only used that to launch a small 14' and narrow fishing boat. Of course when towing the boat, we didn't have a small car in tow also, nor did we feel we really needed one.
 
So, tire blew out around 4:00 pm yesterday while driving on I-75. At exit 307 south bound. Was able to limp into a near by rest area. The service truck pulled in around 8:00pm and replaced my tire. $417.28 total cost and I am good with that. We decided to stay where we were for the evening. Great facilities, very clean and safe. Regarding towing a 26' sea ray with a 31' motorhome, that's a lot of weight! Pandy girl, we are staying the month of January in Sarasota and then moving on to ft Myers for Feb and march. Flat tires are part of the adventure. Always surprises with boats and motorhomes. No damage no injury so all is good.
 
A lot of weight indeed. The 26' SeaRay weighed about 9300 lbs total (boat and trailer). Tongue weight was about 500 lbs. The 31' Winnebago Brave had a 11' overhang behind the rear axle. Needless to say, when towing the boat, I didn't keep the RV's water tank (located behind the axle) very full, nor did I allow the kids and wife to ride in the bed back there. But other than that, the Brave was rated to tow up to about 10,000 lbs if I remember rightly. (May have been 12,500....) Actually, you could hardly tell the boat was back there. I also had the V10 for an engine. The pontoon boat before that weighed in about 4300 lbs I believe...guess that's comparable to my C-22 now. When we towed the boat with the Motorhome, we usually had our bicycles with us, so we had those to get around in town or in the campground. If we needed to drive somewhere, we'd just have to unhook and use the Motorhome. But I agree with the earlier comments about if you are going to be somewhere for 3 months, what's a day or two driving separately if you need the car also? Colby
 
In our experience most of the gas class A gas units have frame extensions and a hitch based on that. Thus these are usually rated to tow 5,000 lbs. When we towed the C Dory 25 with a 30 foot gas, we had the hitch beefed up both on the frame attachments and hitch itself. We also upgraded the transmission, and in several of the gas units put in a "gear splitter" which allowed intermediate ratios--thus making a 4 speed transmission into an 8 speed transmission, by giving a half ratio between shift points. Sort of like a 2 speed rear end. These can be set up as either an over or under gear. For heavy loads we had ours set up as "under" (not overdrive0.

Patrick, I assume that your road service paid for the labor, and the charge was for the tire. These tires are expensive any place you by them!
 
The 5000 lbs seems low. Most the gas class A units I was looking at at the time seemed to tow in the 10,000 lb range. The class C's were more in the 5000 lb range I believe. I think ours was a 1996. Sold it 8 years later with close to 80,000 miles on it, and we were not full timers! ;-) While I can't remember the manufacturers name, I did have "Tuned Exhaust" and a Modified Transmission Controller. Unfortunately, during this time, Ford (and maybe the others) had issues with Exhaust Manifolds warping/cracking due to cooling issues. The "Headers" fixed this and added some power and fuel economy. (But 10% at 7mpg isn't much... :-( My hitch was also welded on. It really did do a good job towing the larger boat, and other than total length, hardly any noticeable difference with the boat back there or not.
 
So, Dr bob, we are now in our site. All set up but not sure where to keep the air conditioner set at 68 or maybe 70. It's hot in Florida. Going out for dinner, then grocery shopping and back home for a cold beverage, while sitting outside in shorts!
 
patrick and linda":14p2af9i said:
So, Dr bob, we are now in our site. All set up but not sure where to keep the air conditioner set at 68 or maybe 70. It's hot in Florida. Going out for dinner, then grocery shopping and back home for a cold beverage, while sitting outside in shorts!
Click to expand...

Give yourselves some time to acclimate - start with the a/c at 68º, then turn it up 1º per day. 8)

Have fun!

I have often said there are 3 places in the lower 48 where you can find the best opportunity for a pleasant winter: south Florida, south Texas, and southern AZ/CA. Every year one of those places seems to be "colder than normal." The long range forecast for winter here in south Texas was: warmer than usual. They lied. This has been the coldest, windiest December I remember down here. That's what they said in 2007 when we were in south Florida. And 2010 in Arizona. Looks like Florida is the place to be so far this winter.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Hi, Glad you got everthing fixed, & in you sight, we will be in out sight tomorrow. When you get to Fort Myers Maybe we can get to geather for Dinner or Something Jim & Sandy Jessup
 
Bob, I may have to recant on the tow capacity of the Winnebago Brave 31 Class A. I've googled a few sites, and so far can just come up with a GCWR of 15,200 lbs, which of course wouldn't leave 10,000 lbs for towed weight, but would quite easily relate to the 5000 lbs that you mention. But I still swear I was within the weight ratings of my motorhome at the time with the 9200 lb Searay. I use to keep a record/file of allowed weights and actual weights and am sure I was within all limitations. In any case, I did have some modifications over the factory installed options and the end result was the Winnebago towed the SeaRay with no trouble. Including on hills and launching. I think as long as one maintains their RV and is aware of the weight and balance issues, a large motorhome can safely and efficiently tow a large boat (within reason). Later on I towed that boat with an Excursion, and maybe confusing the weight ratings with that. Colby
 
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