Brought home a nice 2013 200, questions (1 Viewer)

[John E Davies]

Hi, I am not new to the forum, but I am new to 200s. I just traded my Ram 3500 in on a cherry 2013 200 with 91K miles, and I paid just under $41K plus taxes. It's immaculate inside and out with the exception of a hand sized patch of peeling clear coat on the front bumper. It has a solid service record, dealer maintained with two owners, in NC and in WA. No Rust Belt worries....

I traded in my 2006 Ram 3500 Cummins and got a great trade in value. Pics at the dealer:

I plan to tow this trailer - it's an Oliver Legacy Elite II, 23.4 ft long, 7000 pounds GVW. Typical towing weight about 6000 pounds. It is an absolute sweetheart but I am sure it will not pull as effortlessly as behind my old full sized diesel truck.

It drops the back of the 200 2 3/8 inches without any equalizing hitch, I will try to pull it and see how it does, but I may end up using an Anderson hitch. My goal is to be able to park the trailer at a secure RV park and then go off and explore the mountain passes in comfort in the Cruiser. I got beaten to death in the Ram, and my wife and dogs hated the jarring. The 200 is so cushy, we all love the ride.

I am going to order engine and cabin filters, just in case they are needed, plus I was wondering:

How does one access the seat ventilator filters? I can't find a diagram or part number. Can somebody help? They air is flowing well, I just would like to be able to switch the filters if they are cruddy.

EDIT: never mind, they are wire screens, see here ... Seat ventilators, motors- video showing the guts of a stripped seat

I am slowly figuring everything out, it is certainly the most complicated vehicle I have ever owned.

Thanks, and I hope to contribute in the future.

John Davies
Spokane WA

 

[ikeb]

I can't help with your question, but congrats on the new (to you) 200 John! It looks great.

 

[Sandroad]

I'll bet the LC will do fine with the Ollie once you get the hitch set up right. Those are nice RVs! I see a rack on the front trailer A frame that could be tempting place to put a lot of weight. Hmmmmmm. Be careful up there. If you regularly load that heavy, put airbags in the rear LC springs. 2-3/8 squat is a lot to start with.

 

[FatHero]

It's immaculate inside and out with the exception of a hand sized patch of peeling clear coat on the front bumper.

That is the perfect excuse to obtain a ARB Bullbar or other front off-road bumper

Congrats on your purchase. I'm sure you will love the rig

 

[RS6tofj80]

Congrats - I agree with Fathero that the paint blemish jsutifies the front bumper .....!

cheers

 

[John E Davies]

No front or rear bumper in the near future. I will wait until I really damage it. I can live with a paint blem, I am not going to be totally anal about the finish.

The front tray on the Oliver is designed for a generator and is rated at 140 pounds. I would like to be able to carry two water cans and two fuel jerry cans there, but they would be empty pretty much most of the time. Full fluids would make this pretty heavy!

The fuel would be for my Yamaha 2400 generator, which would ride in back of the truck, and also for refuelling the 200 at a campsite, by syphon, if I wanted to top up before leaving to explore.

If I need to, I can add racks on the back bumper of the trailer for the water cans, and then I could use them as adjustable ballast to control tongue weight when carrying gas. Kinda like movable water ballast in a sailboat. If I emptied a front can into the 200, I could empty a rear water can into the Ollie's water tank, using its built-in water suction system and onboard pump ... .

I'm not sure of the actual tongue weight, I will weigh it shortly with my Sherline hydraulic scale... Ollies are quite light in the front due to their design (all four batteries are centered over the axles and the water tanks are centered under the floor). Typically they are around 500+ or - when fully loaded. They do not need to be loaded heavily in front to tow correctly. 8% is fine.

I am 90 % sure that I will have to add weight distribution, I am hoping to avoid the airbags, but will put them on if the WD is inadequate. I do not plan to heavily load the truck, most stuff will be towed. Only two adult passengers, and 75 pounds of labradoodles. No heavy toys or bikes, just a 70 pound canoe every now and then. And I already removed the jump seats (78 pounds)

John Davies
Spokane WA

 

[Haggis]

Congrats!

 

[marketShark]

Firestone makes load helper airbags to support the rear when hauling

EDIT: you said that you were looking to avoid bags. NVM

 

[fireball]

Hi John, nice 200 and nice Ollie! More pics of both when you have a chance please!

 

[John E Davies]

Hi John, nice 200 and nice Ollie! More pics of both when you have a chance please!

Thanks for the kind words. I probably won't post a lot here, most of my trailer activity is here at the Oliver Forum:

My Profile | Oliver Travel Trailers

I started a Towing with a Land Cruiser 200 thread there:

Land Cruiser 200 Towing thread - Oliver Travel Trailers

Tho maybe it makes more sense for the latter to be here at Mud. What do you think?

Here are a couple of trailer pics, but sorry, no 200... the first is at one of the three high passes on the Million Dollar Highway south of Ouray, CO.

This one is at the Chelan WA city RV park. It felt weird to be one of the very few RVs with no slideouts, or delaminated side walls.