All 19's have the same basic floorplan. Ours was a Surveyor, it did not turtle comfortably. The sofa and dinette are not made for adults to sleep on. Plus, the folded up front mattress made them even less usable.
We live in Colorado...we can attest to not having enough tow vehicle. There are many, many wonderful campgrounds here to visit, but most are in the mountains with many high mountain passes. Our set up is at the limit at which I like to tow, and am already considering an upgraded tow vehicle and we are several thousand pounds under limits....Our tow/trailer setup would be ideal if we lived and camped in a "flatter" part of the country....good luck with your decisions...
I have a brand new Tow Vehicle that I use every day, so I don't think I will ger rid of that for a camper I will most likely use on the weekends. When I bought it, I wasn't even thinking about buying a camper, live and learn I guess. So let me frame the question like this? Would you buy the rental '06 Jayco 19' or a '07 Jayco 17' for $3K more?
if i was towing in Colorado, with a Ridgeline, i'd go with the 17.
it has 2 queen beds instead of a queen and a double like the 19. and it's over 500lbs. lighter in its dry weight.
but otherwise, it's up to how much room you need.
the 19 is a better buy, if it's in good shape, but not sure you'll be happy towing it.
Dan- Firefighter, Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur, Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever, 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LS, 2007 Rockwood Roo 23SS w/Equalizer and Prodigy, and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes
I'd ask if you could hook it up to your TV and pull it around a bit to be sure it can handle it. Don't take the dealers word for it, they will always say it'll tow.
The rough part here Red, is that you're truck is too new to be thinking about trading for a stronger TV. Problem is that having a set up that's just barely enough, makes for unhappy towing experiences. We started off with a pop up, and an 03 Toyota Tundra V6, tow rated at 5000 lbs. I could tell from towing the PU, that moving to the HTT was going to have to wait for a stronger TV. In NM, just as in Colorado, getting to the campgrounds often involves some pretty steep climbs.
Hi, I have a Jayco 19H (2010) and tow it with a Toyota Tacoma. The Tacoma is rated for 6500 lbs. While I love the 19H, I'm not sure I would want to be towing it with anything rated for only 5000 lbs in the Rockies. Also, check the tongue weight of the Ridgeline. The 19H is rated at 420 dry, but it very quickly gets a lot higher then that. I had to make a little cargo bracket so that I could keep all my cargo towards the middle and the back of the camper just to keep it under the 650 lbs of tongue weight my Tacoma allows. Even then, it is usually very close.
I don't see a problem turtling, but I wouldn't want to do it more then once in awhile. The couch folds out and you can get 2 adults on it, although it's a little tight, but the dinette is strictly for kids.
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, Shawn- Musician/Entrepreneur
, Zoe- Faithful Golden Retriever
, 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LS, 2007 Rockwood Roo 23SS w/Equalizer and Prodigy, and 5 Mtn. bikes and 2 Road bikes
