First Trip in our new 139

[139Camper]

First, thank you Gwen for starting this site. I've never been a fan of the Yahoo groups.

We picked up our new Fun Finder 139 X this past week and are towing it with a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee. My husband was a bit reluctant to tow with an SUV, said it wouldn't be stable enough, the short wheel base, etc. So before we begin truck shopping we decided to give it a try this season with the Jeep. (I kept saying the only reason we bought such a small travel trailer was because we could tow it with the Jeep, but that is another story.) Anyway, we didn't actually go camping yesterday, but we took about an hour drive on the interstate to see how it would do. Let me saw that we do have a sway bar and weight distribution hitch. I am happy to say we did just fine. Not that we didn't know the Fun Finder was behind us... You can feel it back there, especially when large semis pass you at high speeds. But I never felt unsafe or that we didn't have control.

Now if it would just warm up enought to actually go camping!!!

Gloria

[Arn]

I pull my 24' X-210 with a short box pickup with no sway bar or WD hitch & I have no trouble. The wheelbase is only 118" so you shouldn't have any trouble with your Jeep. I will be adding a friction sway bar for peace of mind once spring really arrives .

I'm with you on the Yahoo forums. The FunFinder forum is great but it's the Yahoo layout that I don't like. I still use it though since the help there is very good. Thanks to Dan for the Yahoo forum & thanks to Gwen for this one. I hope the 2 can live in harmony!

Arn

[iloveblkcats]

I just bought a used 2005 T 160 Fun Finder that I will be pulling with a Jeep Grand. Do I "need" a sway bar or is it just a bit safer?

[J and J]

As posted elsewhere on this site, I pulled a FF 189 FBR for about 14,000
miles with a rear drive Toyota Previa and more recently for another
5,000 with a Nissan X-terra. I got a sway bar when I bought it and
drove the first 200 miles with it. Previously, had pulled a small 16 ft
Scamp about 20,000 miles with Previa without one. Turns out the
Scamp was more squirilly(sp?) than the FF. For the next 5000 miles
I carried the sway bar just in case but never connected it up. Finally,
put it on the shelf and haven't used it since. I'm careful on interstate
with big trucks and in bad weather keeping speed below 65 generally
and lower if conditions require it. Neither tow vehicle (both rear drive) has seemed to need weight distribution hitch. Both sit fairly close to their natual level. We keep the load well distributed and don't carry much
in the tow vehicle.

[kegbender]

My wife and I have a T139 and pull it with a 2004 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited that has a 4.0L 6 cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. We've had our trailer for two years now and the Jeep pulls it well with no problems. We do live in the Appalachian Mountains in western Maryland so we do have to drop the transmission into 2nd on some ascents but it does fine. The Jeep Wrangler Forum guys recommended keeping the RPMs at about 3,500 when in second on hills and we have done that. You'll have to slow down a bit but it saves the transmission. Hope this helps.