Arrived at home with our New Horizons trailer

Wayne

Administrator
Staff member
I got home yesterday and parked the trailer on the driveway for a couple days while we get it loaded. I'll make another post about my three day experience at New Horizons, it was fantastic.

The truck pulled the trailer nicely and does shift from 10th to 9th occasionally going up hills, but if you turn the cruise off and take a couple MPH loss, then it will hold 10th almost all the time. Some of the steep hills in the Flint Hills of Kansas had it shifting to 7th, which is direct. The trailer empty weight is 18,000 lbs. and the max gross is 23,500 lbs., for a useful load of 5,500 lbs. We'll never put 5,500 lbs. of stuff in it. On the trip home the total weight was about 28,000 lbs.

The combination of the Trailer Saver hitch and air bags, make the truck ride MUCH better than the 2018 single rear wheel Duramax pulling the 30' Airstream. The ride difference is astounding. Vertically decoupling the truck and trailer, with the Trailer Saver, virtually eliminates the truck and trailer jerking on each other going over bumps. I put 50 lbs. of air pressure in the air bags, which raises the truck about 1.5" and just raises the truck off the overload springs. This reduces the spring rate of the rear leaf springs and also make a big difference in ride quality.

I got 9.6 MPG over the 650 miles for a fuel cost of $0.29/mile at 65 MPH. The economy does go up at slower speeds, as this trailer pushes a lot of air.

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Have you taken it downhill yet? Bet it will fly haha. Unless you turn off overdrive. Looks good. Might need a bigger driveway soon 🙂.
 
I was wondering when you'd pick it up. That's a nice looking trailer, can't wait to hear about it. You got the same cost per mile as we did on our little xc trip, interesting. What's your first trip?

Did you stay in it on the trip home?
 
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Have you taken it downhill yet?
Just the small hills in the Flint Hills of Kansas. In a week we'll be in Colorado trying out the 7% grades on I-70. We've been up and down those grades several times pulling the Airstream, but this truck and trailer adds about 12,000 lbs to the equation. The secret is to SLOW DOWN. Start at about 30 MPH at the top of the grade with full engine brake and do not even think about going faster. Energy equals speed squared, so if you start at 30 MPH and accelerate to 60 MPH you haven't doubled your energy, instead you square the increase so, 2 squared = 4. You have 4 times as much energy to deal with at 60 MPH than you did at 30 MPH. The engine brake can absorb most of the energy at 30 MPH and you won't have hot brakes. Increase your speed to 60 MPH and you will have one terrifying ride and you'll be lucky to make it to a runaway truck ramp. There is a reason trucks over 18,000 lbs. have a speed limit of 35 MPH.
 
You got the same cost per mile as we did on our little xc trip, interesting.
My average fuel cost with the TSD fuel discount card was about $2.80/gallon. Without the card the average cost would have been about $3.25/gallon. TSD charges 10% of the discount, which is a great deal. The best discounts are usually at Petro/TA and with the extra fuel tank we can eyeball the best prices on their app and fill where it's cheapest.
 
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