Pushing a fiberglass

[Darlene M]

Hello everyone,
My DH and I are considering a fiberglass rv. We have a pop-up now and we are able to push it around. My questioned to you is...are these fiberglass rv's easy to push around? Is there one out there that has a queen size bed? What is the longest size can you get? I've checked, I think, just about every brand out there. Any help....especially with pushing it around by hand.
TKS,
Darlene

[Bigfoot Mike]

Our 25’ Bigfoot has a Queen size bed in a separate bedroom. Our 17’ Casita Liberty had a King size bed and could be pushed around on level pavement.

I hope this helps.

[peterh]

I can move our vintage 1976 14' Surfside around on its caster as long as it's parked on a blacktop or firm gravel. Even pick the tongue up (with effort) if I have to. It has a dinette that converts to a 75" long bed that's about 54" at the "head" end and 48" at the "foot" end.

I can't move our 2005 19' Scamp 5th wheel without a truck. Our 5th wheel came with a 60" X 72" loft bed that was somewhat cramped, fenced in on all but one side. The dinette bed was slightly larger. ("Was" this way because we have extensively remodeled the inside.)

--Peter

[Joseph Domingos]

I don't know about the larger rigs, I can only speak for my little Compact II.
I am not so good with backing up my trailer to get it into my garage. But it's so darn lightweight that I'm able to back it in as well as I can with the car and then wiggle it around by hand without too much trouble. Its really great because I can scoot it TIGHTLY into the corner of my garage, and have that much more useable space. Could you do that with a sticky trailer? Probably not...

I've even changed campsites with mine, after a 'neighbor' at a campground left, by just unchucking the wheels and pushing it across the road to the better spot! It DOES help to have a little help here though, maybe someone at least being your eyes for you so you don't run into anything/one.

I would imagine even with the larger trailers like a 16 or 17', if you have a pretty flat area, or even a nice concrete pad that it would sit on, you could probably move it around a bit by hand.

I do aim to move up at some point in the future to a larger rig, say a 16'er, so I wouldn't mind hearing about their movability myself...
Joe

[Donna D.]

Well, I can't pickup the tongue on my Scamp, but with a dolly I can push/pull it around under the carport. Don't think I could do that on gravel tho.

[Roger H]

Most of the 13' trailers weigh under 1500 lbs and can probably be pushed around on a tongue jack dolly wheel on flat pavement. Some of the 16' trailers, depending on weight an parking surface can probably also be pushed around, although most of them come in at 2000 lbs or more and are likely to be more difficult. Anything larger than that is probably not going to be pushed around by hand, at least just using a tongue jack dolly wheel. There are electric powered gizmos out there that will do it though.

Roger

[Darlene M]

Tks for the info. We are the same way with backing up. We don't do it enough times to get the hang of it. Besides, we have a driveway with an incline with a ditch on both sides. We pull straight into our garage and push our popup, which weighs over 2K #'s to the side of the garage.

[CindyL]

The hubby backs our 16' UHaul in as far as he can on our parking pad. We push it the rest of the way. It has one of those wheeled jacks and just pivots on it and then is light enough for the two of us to maneuver.

CindyL

[Angelo F.]

I can push my trailer around all I want.

I'm the boss of it.

It always does what I say.

[Pete Dumbleton]

I added a tongue jack with a wheel on it so I could push my 1,700 lb Scamp 13' around on level garage floor. For serious pushing uphill, consider putting a front receiver hitch on tow vehicle; with that, one can do some very precise maneuvering.

[james kent]

My 13 ft Boler, at about 1250 lbs loaded, pushes quite easily, and I can lift the tongue without too much effort if my backing is off a bit. I used to have a Starcraft crank up tent trailer that weighed in at 2000 lbs before loading it with all of our gear. Took two to move it about and had to add airbag shocks to the tow vehicle. One of my friends has a big pop up that when open is over 24 ft long. All I'm saying is that there are big and small trailers in all catagories. One of the dollies made to lift the tongue on trailers will help move a heavy load.

[Darlene M]

I added a tongue jack with a wheel on it so I could push my 1,700 lb Scamp 13' around on level garage floor. For serious pushing uphill, consider putting a front receiver hitch on tow vehicle; with that, one can do some very precise maneuvering.

something to think about.
Darlene

[WadeW]

I bought a trailer mover/dolly from Princess Auto for about $40 on sale. I have a truck so I throw it in the back every time I go camping. My surfside is really easy to park with the dolly that I often just drop the trailer right in front of the spot and put it where I want it using the dolly. Especially in tight camp grounds. Way faster than trying to get it in the spot with my truck.

[pjanits]

Our 13' ft Burro was about 5 feet short from the power plug. I just used a regular extension cable ( it was just too hot to mess around with it on Friday night.) The next day I put the wheel on the tongue jack and the wife and I moved it around into a perfect spot so we could use the 30 amp plug.
Very easy to roll around even on dirt.

On the driveway if I put the wheel on someone has to be there to stop it. It just rolls by itself down the driveway.

[Doug Mager]

I bought a trailer mover/dolly from Princess Auto for about $40 on sale. I have a truck so I throw it in the back every time I go camping. My surfside is really easy to park with the dolly that I often just drop the trailer right in front of the spot and put it where I want it using the dolly. Especially in tight camp grounds. Way faster than trying to get it in the spot with my truck.

Wade, just a word of caution about that (cheap dolly) ....
We have two of them BOTH bought at P.A. out here on the Best Coast. There is a big difference in the two. The first one was on sale for around $90 so I bought it. A year or two later, read this spring, I bought another one. A SCREAMING deal at about $40!!!

This spring, after building the cheapo one and airing up the tires ad installing a ball we FINALLY got to use it. On about the third or forth tug on it, pulling around in a tight circle, I noticed something was odd with one of the wheels..... Turns out I had pulled too hard (for the quality of the wheel anyway) and bent one of the wheels!!!

Closer comparison of the two (dollys) showed a difference in dolly axle width.
Wheel construction .....older one is a one piece wheel (cheapo wheel is a two piece bolt together unit, no bearing OR grease fitting) with a bearing AND a grease nipple)
Yet another difference is that the newer (cheaper one) has smaller diameter wheels n tires which makes it just a little harder to move the trailer around with.

So, a word of caution, IF you can return and or exchange it (P.A. is usually REAL good at return policy) for better (prolly more $$ too) version, I'd do it IF I were you. Otherwise be real (gentle) CAREFUL how you pull on that l'il sucker!!!

[WadeW]

Wade, just a word of caution about that (cheap dolly) ....
We have two of them BOTH bought at P.A. out here on the Best Coast. There is a big difference in the two. The first one was on sale for around $90 so I bought it. A year or two later, read this spring, I bought another one. A SCREAMING deal at about $40!!!

This spring, after building the cheapo one and airing up the tires ad installing a ball we FINALLY got to use it. On about the third or forth tug on it, pulling around in a tight circle, I noticed something was odd with one of the wheels..... Turns out I had pulled too hard (for the quality of the wheel anyway) and bent one of the wheels!!!

Closer comparison of the two (dollys) showed a difference in dolly axle width.
Wheel construction .....older one is a one piece wheel (cheapo wheel is a two piece bolt together unit, no bearing OR grease fitting) with a bearing AND a grease nipple)
Yet another difference is that the newer (cheaper one) has smaller diameter wheels n tires which makes it just a little harder to move the trailer around with.

So, a word of caution, IF you can return and or exchange it (P.A. is usually REAL good at return policy) for better (prolly more $$ too) version, I'd do it IF I were you. Otherwise be real (gentle) CAREFUL how you pull on that l'il sucker!!!

Thanks for the heads up. Mine seems pretty solid. I have only used it a few times though. Seems okay so far. I'll keep an eye on it.

**** GO RIDERS!! ****

[CarolnJim]

We purchased a QuikWheel EZ Hitch .. You turn the crank to move the trailer. It works great.
It's pricey but it sure makes backing our trailer around a bend into the yard. Not recommended to use on an incline.

Here's a video. http://www.quikwheel.com/Video/pw/video.asp

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Not recommending that you buy, only letting you know that we do own it and we like it.