Thoughts on a sonic x 211vdbx?

[chovyfu]

I just bought this today, was $61k out the door (califronia) -- I take posession in a week.

comes with water filtration so you can pull water from river or lake, it has a 300 watt panel on the roof for solar, and has off road suspension. and sleeps 4-6

I will be living in it and am currently looking for a spot in the santa cruz, ca area for the next month or two until I learn the ropes.

 

[bullfrog]

That is 3 times what my wife paid for her new similar sized trailer 3 years ago. Ours does not have slide outs as they all eventually cause problems or get damaged, same for the awning, ours lasted about 6 months before it jammed and the electric motor broke the plastic pieces. You need to be aware of maintenance required to maintain your roof warranty and check about how many claims and problems owners have had with fiberglass delamination especially if you will be staying in the sunny Southwest. Our poorly built trailer started showing problems caused by UV light causing plastic trim and metal side panels to self destruct after the second summer in Arizona sun. While you are at it check on how long a back log dealer warranty repairs are taking to get done In my opinion the off road package is a waste of money as torsion axles, slide outs and full time living which means you carry more weight in that size of trailer won't be going off road very far without problems. Does my wife like her trailer? Yes very much and she feels she got a great buy on it which she did. It sits uncovered on a rented lot so hopefully that will help as it won't get shook apart going down the road (It did get some damage coming in the 8 mile rough gravel road to interior wooden bed supports). I am trying to convince her to build a shed roof type carport over it to try to make it last till she gets it paid off. It is serving the purpose we bought it for and cost much less than it could have. I hope you have researched and done your homework because there can be some hard lessons coming if you haven't. Best wishes and good luck. Excapees Club Boondockers group might be something worthwhile to check out. Sorry if this sounds negative but really if you are unsure in my opinion you would be much better off starting out with a smaller much cheaper used trailer and spending a winter season at Quartzsite or with our caravans till you can educate yourself as to what works for you and make the decision to spend what to me is a very large amount of money on a rather large trailer that isn't very well designed to boondock with.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Is this an airplane?

:huh:

 

[bullfrog]

It is a bumper pull trailer that is 27' from the rear bumper to the leading edge of the coupler so a 24' or 25' box, slide out, torsion axles, rear folding rack, laminated fiberglass 3 piece roof and sides. Comes with some solar and built in water filter. It is listed as an ultra light with an off road package I believe at around 5,000 lbs and 1,600 lbs cargo with a light weight truss type frame. 72 gallons fresh water and 30 gallons each gray and black tanks. 14' awning I believe. All this is from memory which means in my case generally close to the specs. Just Goggle search Sonic x 211 fdbx made by Venture. At $61,000 that is 4 of the R Pod trailers that some person just sold for $15,000.

 

[chovyfu]

Yeah that sounds abihtbright. I didn’t get the water filtration system though.

 

[bullfrog]

Have you bought or camped in an RV previously? Escapees Club also has regular training sessions called RV "Boot Camps" where after finishing many travel together for a while or meet up at locations to see how each is doing and share experiences. The caravans here are much the same but more informal.

 

[tx2sturgis]

With 'sonic' in the name, all those alphabet soup letters and numbers, and 61 grand...this HAS to be an airplane. 

:dodgy:

 

[chovyfu]

I haven't heard of that club but it looks interesting.

 

[chovyfu]

one question i have is how much am i pushing the limits towing with my 2021 JGC (6200lb tow capacity)

 

[bullfrog]

The dealer delivered mine with a hired 1 ton dually truck as they were concerned about damaging their truck as they had to traverse 8 miles of dirt road and the driver said it towed fine down the highway till the turn off. Manufactures often over rate their vehicles as do trailer manufactures, I my personal opinion I would only hitch up to the trailer with that vehicle to move it around in the trailer park in low gear in an emergency, like the trailer next door was on fire. I always want a larger vehicle than is required as I find they give me fewer problems and last longer. Me personally I wouldn't tow it with less than a 3/4 ton pickup or Suburban/Excursion. How many JGC have you seen towing an over 25' trailer on the road? I pulled an 18' with my older JGC and ended up pulling it home with a UHaul as it had difficulty. A lot depends on where you pull it, where I live there are plenty of steep mountain grades.

 

[chovyfu]

Anyone know the width of the door?

 

[bullfrog]

It is always best to physically measure things like that on RVs especially with today's market things like doors and screens get changed during production based on supply.

 

[Scorpion Regent]

one question i have is how much am i pushing the limits towing with my 2021 JGC (6200lb tow capacity)

Not to sound alarmist, but you are over the limit.  Completely empty and dry you can tow that, barely.  Once you start loading that up you need a bigger tow vehicle.  Water is over eight pounds per gallon.  If in doubt go big, because if you do this wrong it's your funeral.  You want to be able to pull up steep grades and be able to stop on your way down.  Brakes are just important, if not more, than the engine and transmission.  Also the higher capacity your tow vehicle is rated for the better it will do it's job and in theory it will last longer because it isn't being pushed as hard. For something that big diesel engines make more sense than gas.

 

[wayne49]

Bumper pull?

Class 3 frame mounted receiver hitch pull.

 

[tx2sturgis]

What's a JGC? Jaguar Golf Cart?

I miss HDR reminding people to explain their acronyms.

:dodgy:

 

[chovyfu]

Jeep Grand Cherokee

 

[Cammalu]

Don’t do it. Get your money back. The dealer will tell you that the jeep is fine to tow it. It’s NOT. It’s really, really not. You will be sweating horseflies.

 

[Cammalu]

Here are some new ones. https://www.rvtrader.com/Venture-So...15&model=SONIC X|764981466&trim=211VDBX|70327

It’s also a Thor product. Very bad!!!

 

[Cammalu]

More

https://www.rvt.com/New-and-Used-Ve...enture Rv&brand=Venture&model=Sonic X 211vdbx

 

[tx2sturgis]

You tried to haul TWO tons of fertilizer with a ONE ton truck!

Ooops.