# 250Rs Advice - Tv And Milage Help!



## fischnet (Aug 19, 2011)

Sorry if this is better covered in another thread.

We are 'future' Outback newbies looking at a 250RS, dry 5980, GVW ~7500 tongue 640lb. We currently tow a Trailmanor 2720SD (4300lb loaded, 450 tongue) with a 2010 RAM 1500 4x4 Crew Cab short bed, 5.7 Hemi (390HP/401 lbs trq), 5 sp auto trans, 3.55 rear end, 17" wheels $ LT 265-70C tires, w/ trailer tow pkg. Charts for the 2010 RAM show GCWR 14,000 and Max Tow Capacity as 8400. I use a Huskey wt dist. hitch w/500-800lb bars on only the 2nd link, but have not needed a sway control. We are in Idaho and do travel a variety of conditions out west and Canada, including some wind (Columbia R Gorge) and numerous passes and want to be sure that these figures are good in everyone's experience for the 250RS so I don't stress my RAM! We are also trying to reconcile the length difference for getting into the places we've accessed with the Trailmanor, and would not ever go to a larger TT .. but wonder if the 210RS is better suited to our rig or if the 250 will do it. We just retired and the livability of the 250 is fantastic!

Milage .. we do 13-15 mpg with the Trailmanor and know that will drop .. but by how much??!!

ANY advice is welcome!!


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

I have a 21RS and tow with a 2009 Silverado 5.3L 4x4 crew cab with 6-speed transmission, 3.42 gears and all the optional tow equipment. The specs on the truck are GVWR 7000 lbs, towing capacity 9500 lbs, GCWR 15000 lbs and the trailer specs are GVWR 6500 lbs, shipping weight per brochure 4720 lbs and tongue weight per brochure 340 lbs. As for towing the trailer, no problem. The combined gross weight of the truck and trailer is 1500 lbs less that the truck can tow. Where I have issues is the weight in the back of the truck. The 21RS has very little storage so I end up putting a lot of stuff in the truck. I normally exceed the rear axle GAWR of 3950 lbs even with the wd hitch trying to take load off the rear axle.

I may eventually install a rear trailer hitch for a bike rack so that I can use the area by the bike door for equipment. That would put the load in the trailer and out of the truck. If I had it all to do over again, I would probably get the 25RS/250RS in stead of the 21RS because with the side side you get a lot more living area and room to haul stuff.

In either case you will probably need a wd hitch with sway control and heavier bars than your Huskey. Because of the added height, you are going to be blocking a lot more wind both from the front and sides of the trailer which will increase sway. Your mileage is going to go way down because of that added height. When I look at my truck and trailer head on, it's obvious that I am adding about 100% more profile for wind resistance. I'm lucky to get 10 mpg when towing.


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## fischnet (Aug 19, 2011)

fulminator, THX SO much for the info sharing. If understand what your saying, you feel your TV would handle the 250RS just fine .. albeit with the low mileage. I figured pretty much what you said about the bars and sway control if we upgrade. Yes, we have spent the better part of two days looking these trailers over, notes and tape measure in hand and what you say about the room and living space is just where we're at. Do you figure your mileage would suffer any more with the 250? I hate to give up the truly easy towing, accessibility and mileage with the Trailmanor, but there are some real 'niceties' that come with these Outbacks!

Since you are here on the west side, do you have any concerns about access to camping areas if you were to upgrade? We like to hit the N.Cascades (Colonial Crk CG, often go to Lopez Is in San Juans, Mt Rainier, Olympic Pen and Lake Crescent, etc. Most of the OR, WA and ID State Parks can accommodate the 250, but we're concerned about many other areas. THX


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## Rooster (Sep 1, 2010)

fischnet said:


> Sorry if this is better covered in another thread.
> 
> We are 'future' Outback newbies looking at a 250RS, dry 5980, GVW ~7500 tongue 640lb. We currently tow a Trailmanor 2720SD (4300lb loaded, 450 tongue) with a 2010 RAM 1500 4x4 Crew Cab short bed, 5.7 Hemi (390HP/401 lbs trq), 5 sp auto trans, 3.55 rear end, 17" wheels $ LT 265-70C tires, w/ trailer tow pkg. Charts for the 2010 RAM show GCWR 14,000 and Max Tow Capacity as 8400. I use a Huskey wt dist. hitch w/500-800lb bars on only the 2nd link, but have not needed a sway control. We are in Idaho and do travel a variety of conditions out west and Canada, including some wind (Columbia R Gorge) and numerous passes and want to be sure that these figures are good in everyone's experience for the 250RS so I don't stress my RAM! We are also trying to reconcile the length difference for getting into the places we've accessed with the Trailmanor, and would not ever go to a larger TT .. but wonder if the 210RS is better suited to our rig or if the 250 will do it. We just retired and the livability of the 250 is fantastic!
> 
> ...


I have the almost exact same outfit you're talking about right down to the hitch, except my Ram has the 3.92 rear end instead of the 3.55. I have no trouble pulling the 250 at all. The only thing I really found was that the toungue weight will sink the rear end of the truck quite a bit. I ended up buying a set of Airlift 1000 airbags from SD Springs and shipping them to Canada for a total of about 140 bucks including duty. I installed them myself and it made a huge difference in levelling and ride. As far as sway control goes that is something I am thinking about but haven't really needed yet, but will probably end up throwing on a friction bar just in case. We also had a 2005 210rs and we would never go back to it just because it seems so small inside now. If you plan on spending much time camping it gets pretty cramped even with only 2 of you. The extra 4' is well worth it and it isn't really so much longer that you really notice it. As far as fuel mileage I found that we are about the 12mpg or in Canada about 21/100km. If you step on it gets pretty ugly but I try to keep it around the 2000 rpm mark and its pretty good. Hope this helps.


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

The 210RS and 250RS have the same gross weight and same front profile so your only issue is going to be length. The extra length shouldn't change your mileage noticeably.

We mainly stay at OR and WA state parks. What you have to look at with size of site is the length of the site with the rear slide in. Ours is about 22' and I like to back the trailer where the rear bumper is over the curb at the back of the site. Your rear slide hangs past the back of the pad but has rarely been an issue. By the way parking the bikes under the rear slide makes a nice place out of the way that keeps them dry. I use a cable and pad lock to lock them to the bumper when we are away.

The reservation site for Washington State Parks used to list sites by length. They have removed the specific lengths for small trailer, large trailer and extra large. If I remember correctly a small was up to 18', large 18'-34' and XL over 34'. This was a little deceiving. A small site Had to be long enough for trailers up to 18' but could possibly handle something up to 33'. If it couldn't handle 34' it couldn't be called large. There are a few parks that have either brush or fire pits behind the trailer pad. Usually it is fire pits but those we have stayed at usually have long sites so it isn't a problem. We are staying at Maryhill this weekend and most of the back in sites there have the pits behind the pad. We just pull up a few feet if needed. If the site is too short, I just park the truck sideways in front of the trailer. The WSP site also has photos of most sites which makes it a lot easier to tell if it is going to work for you. Another trick is to use mapquest or google maps and zoom in on the park. You can really get a good idea of pad size if there aren't too many trees in the way.

The first time I go to a park I get a large site. During our stay, my wife and I walk or ride our bikes around the campground and mark up a campground brochure with good sites for the future. We have only had one time where a site didn't work. I reserved a small site that I thought we had been in before but picked the wrong one. The pull through site was long enough but due to placement of trees on the other side of the road I couldn't make the bend into it. The park set us up with another site and we were fine.


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## fischnet (Aug 19, 2011)

I have the almost exact same outfit you're talking about right down to the hitch, except my Ram has the 3.92 rear end instead of the 3.55. I have no trouble pulling the 250 at all. The only thing I really found was that the toungue weight will sink the rear end of the truck quite a bit. I ended up buying a set of Airlift 1000 airbags from SD Springs and shipping them to Canada for a total of about 140 bucks including duty. I installed them myself and it made a huge difference in levelling and ride. As far as sway control goes that is something I am thinking about but haven't really needed yet, but will probably end up throwing on a friction bar just in case. We also had a 2005 210rs and we would never go back to it just because it seems so small inside now. If you plan on spending much time camping it gets pretty cramped even with only 2 of you. The extra 4' is well worth it and it isn't really so much longer that you really notice it. As far as fuel mileage I found that we are about the 12mpg or in Canada about 21/100km. If you step on it gets pretty ugly but I try to keep it around the 2000 rpm mark and its pretty good. Hope this helps.
[/quote]

Rooster, THX so much for the really valuable information, that helped a lot! As it turns out, after seeing your post and fulminator's and reading numerous other threads on this and other forums, I got to looking at the many places we like to camp, both here in the states and up your way in BC and Alberta. I was finding that at many CGs, we felt we would become limited by the "18 foot" space notations ... I know I can usually easily get 24 ft into that with room for the truck, by using up most of the usable parking pad .. but getting into the 28 ft realm with the 250 got us worried for some of your Provincial Parks and many of the National Park CGs as well. Hate limiting factors! For instance, Castle Mtn. just West of Baniff would not be accessible for the 250, and Manning Provincial in BC would likely not take it in many sites, Blanket Cr has some that would, but doubt we'd get it in many up at Rogers Pass or in Baniff NP and few at Waterfowl Lakes. And getting into Silver Cr Provincial (South of Hope, BC) would just totally be out, but figured we could likely get it up into Great Swan Provincial BC, as we remember there being several 5th wheels up there when there last. How have YOU seen your access up there? I know a lot depends upon what your expectations are for a good camp out ...

Down in States, most, but not all, of the State Parks will accommodate it, but the choices for the 'cozy' sites are limited, as they are at N. Cascades NP here and going to Glacier -- and some of Waterton - are just out.

So, we were going to hang it up for this year and just quit looking at the TTs for a while, until we came across a new model from Cruiser RV, the Fun Finder X-214WSD. It is only 6045 GVW, with a 3800+ dry wt, 24'6" ball to bumper with a single slide for the dinette. Very livable, towable and I'm sure can get into most sites I could with our TM.

So THX to both of you for your really great advice .. and I'll continue to stay on because there are so many goo discussions here!


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## funbikerchick (Jun 6, 2011)

thefulminator said:


> I have a 21RS and tow with a 2009 Silverado 5.3L 4x4 crew cab with 6-speed transmission, 3.42 gears and all the optional tow equipment. The specs on the truck are GVWR 7000 lbs, towing capacity 9500 lbs, GCWR 15000 lbs and the trailer specs are GVWR 6500 lbs, shipping weight per brochure 4720 lbs and tongue weight per brochure 340 lbs. As for towing the trailer, no problem. The combined gross weight of the truck and trailer is 1500 lbs less that the truck can tow. Where I have issues is the weight in the back of the truck. The 21RS has very little storage so I end up putting a lot of stuff in the truck. I normally exceed the rear axle GAWR of 3950 lbs even with the wd hitch trying to take load off the rear axle.
> 
> I may eventually install a rear trailer hitch for a bike rack so that I can use the area by the bike door for equipment. That would put the load in the trailer and out of the truck. If I had it all to do over again, I would probably get the 25RS/250RS in stead of the 21RS because with the side side you get a lot more living area and room to haul stuff.
> 
> In either case you will probably need a wd hitch with sway control and heavier bars than your Huskey. Because of the added height, you are going to be blocking a lot more wind both from the front and sides of the trailer which will increase sway. Your mileage is going to go way down because of that added height. When I look at my truck and trailer head on, it's obvious that I am adding about 100% more profile for wind resistance. I'm lucky to get 10 mpg when towing.


This may seem like a stupid question, but why not put the bikes in the back of the truck and use the front portion of the camper for storage. I would imagine the weight of the bikes is less than what you could put in the storage area of the camper. I have a 250RS and this is what I do. Of course, we are only bringing one bike - my grandson's.

From what I have read on this site, a rear bumper bike hitch might not be a good idea, but perhaps a front hitch on your TV??


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