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RE: Just got a call - they damaged our new truck in transit!
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Kimbearly wrote:
.......... snip ...........
What is the difference between GMC and Chevy? I see they have the same engine.
Nameplates and minor front-end sheet metal/grille/bumper only. Mechanically IDENTICAL
the difference is the quality they take in putting all together little details..otherwise same truck except for looks
Sheesh, that's the silliest thing I've read in months.
Anyhow, back on topic, Brand loyalty is one thing, but buying the right truck for the job is another thing entirely and should have a priority level above brand loyalty. That said, the Allison transmission in the Chevy is a big thing from the perspective of towing ability.
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PrivatePilot
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12/01/08 01:56pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Dual Motor Landing Gear
Agreed, 10 years of successful service up until recently would indicate that it's perhaps just worn out versus "inadequate".
As for the option of side-by-side control, it's a feature that I'd sure like to have - I lost track the number of times this summer where we were stabilizing or unhooking on uneven terrain and I had to fiddle with the legs (and extra shim boards, etc) to get the legs to take weight evenly - being able to control each leg independently would be a huge advantage based on my observations.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 05:41pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Bell Canada-AIR Card - AVOID if possible
An unadvertised feature of most Rogers data plans is that they are truly unlimited (in every sense of the word) for the first few months, after which the limits apply. Conveniently after the return period has expired.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 04:41pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: AC not cooling coach
Are you keeping it cool at night, or waiting for it to heat up to the point that it's bordering on uncomfortable and then turning on the AC?
If you are doing the latter, it's not uncommon - a trailer that size with a single AC unit will struggle to cool an already uncomfortably hot trailer. Any humidity in the air makes it even harder.
The only solution is to add a second AC (if you have 50a service and are willing to do it) or to ensure that you keep the AC on through the night to keep the temperatures (and also humidity) in check. The next day you'll find that instead of trying desperately to cool down the trailer, it should do well at maintaining the already cool trailer.
Of course, other simple things like closing blinds and ensuring doors are not left open any longer then necessary will also help.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 03:03pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Checking Brakes Before Trip
Other than sway or a brake check, there are few/if any other legitimate reasons to ever apply only the manual slide.
True, but that doesn't excuse the legal requirement for the brake lights on the vehicles to come on upon manual application. Contact your local DOT officer if you want clarification.
If all three of your controllers fail to activate the brake lights upon manual activation, then the vehicle(s) you are using them in are not wired correctly, or the brake light trigger wire is hooked up at a point in the circuit where the backfeed voltage is being inhibited.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 11:25am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: 30 amp to 50 amp service
We can overload our 30A circuit as well if I insist on having each and every item on 120, but like others have suggested, when things get tight I simply swap a few items over to propane (Fridge and hot water, as suggested earlier) and the problem is completely eliminated.
I'd not go through the hassle and cost of the conversion unless I was adding a second AC and *needed* the extra power.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 09:40am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Anyone changed a floor to Pergo or such?
I agree with the water issue, but disagree that Pergo (or other quality laminates) "scratch and chip easily". We've had laminate flooring on the entire main floor of our house (excluding the bathroom and foyer) for 6 years now and it still looks great.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 09:20am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Anyone changed a floor to Pergo or such?
I think we're using the term "Pergo" universally to mean "laminate flooring", when in reality Pergo is actually a specific brand.
Not all laminate floors are made equally. The cheap stuff can and will scratch, but the high-quality laminates are amazingly durable. It's not really fair to say that it will scratch "easily" when some of the high end laminates won't.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 08:20am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Checking Brakes Before Trip
Can you please show a link to the law? I think you are confusing large truck stuff with how a travel trailer works and what is required for a small trailer. I have NEVER seen a brake controller for a travel trailer active the lights and it is not wired that way.
Then I'm not sure who is wiring the brake controllers you've seen, but they're not wired correctly then.
If you look at virtually any brake controller you should see the following statement on the box or manual:
Meets NHTSA regulations for tow vehicle/trailer light activation
A quick Google Search and you'll see it's ubiquitous across virtually every brake controller manufactured today. For example, here's a random link to the Prodigy controller at Camping World's website where you can see it mentioned - it's also on every other controller they sell.
It IS law, not only via the NHTSA but universally - both the tow vehicles AND trailer brake lights must be activated upon manual application of the brake controller. There is no difference between a small trailer and a tractor trailer - the law is universal.
The four wires connected to a standard brake controller are:
- Power
- Ground
- Brake light signal wire
- Power out to trailer brakes
The third connection, the brake light signal wire is the one that is provided power only when you step on the brake pedal, and as such, activate the brake lights the normal way - at the same time this sends a signal to the brake controller to "wake up" and start providing trailer brakes.
When you manually activate the controller, the controller itself also sends power backwards through the signal wire, and if wired correctly, SHOULD activate both the tow vehicles brake lights, as well as the trailers.
If it isn't doing so, someone has wired the controllers signal circuit to a wire which isn't able to backfeed power correctly, either by wiring it into an incorrect circuit, or by having installed a diode or something that is preventing reverse power flow to the TV from the controller.
Either way, if it's not lighting up your brakes, your not legal, and frankly, not safe. Not having the brake lights come on when you manually activate your controller would be no different then not having the brake lights come on when you step on your brake pedal, and we all know that's not legal, and many of us have probably been on the receiving end of a panic stop caused by someone with non-functional brake lights before.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 08:15am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: RV Financing in Ontario (Canada)
Go and talk to your local credit union instead. Assuming you have a decent downpayment to put towards it and explain your situation, you might be surprised - credit unions are always more sane versus regular banks.
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PrivatePilot
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11/30/08 07:44am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: drinking water
Drink any campground water at your own peril.
Compare the number of people that do exactly that each and every day of the year to the number you hear getting sick because of it, then get back to me.
Like I said earlier - RV's have been around for decades and people who've been camping in them have been drinking campground water all those years. Bottled water, on the other hand, has really only been around for about 10 or 15 years.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 09:18pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Xantrex inverter/charger hookup.
The reasoning behind the gels is that, yes, I'm getting them for free - they were ex UPS batteries from cellular sites. Most have never seen a single deep cycle, they are only three years old, but are replaced by contractual obligation. They are *large* batteries with large capacities, so they are looking good in my eyes.
Currently I only have a single flooded deep cycle (dealer provided, so you can guess at the size) and there was plenty of times this summer where it just wasn't even remotely close to sufficient.
The whole reason I'm considering the Xantrex unit in question is mainly because of the price ($250 for a charger and inverter combo is decent) and also because it does have a setting for gelcell batteries.
BFL13: We did exactly that quite a few times this year with my small 300 watt inverter - it worked well and there's no worry about overheating the stock wiring to the batteries given the small wattage of the inverter. That said, it's a big PITA because of the fact that our converter/power-panel is about 8' in the air overhead the fridge.
I contemplated putting the inverter under the bed (the 12v wire length would be really short this way yet I could keep the inverter inside the trailer) but then there's the issue of heat dissipation - there's no ventilation under the bed. Any other locations I can think of that would be convenient are quite a distance from both the batteries and the 30a/120 wiring.
Hmmm..
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 09:11pm |
Tech Issues
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Xantrex inverter/charger hookup.
We're still contemplating a switch to Gelcell batteries in our fiver and as such, will need a new charger that will charge them properly.
I've found a Xantrex HF1000 that I can pickup for about $250 - it would fit our wattage needs for the most part which is really to just provide enough AC to power our TV and other misc electronics chargers when the generator is not running. I think it might even run the coffee maker, saving me the need to start the generator in the mornings while dry camping (assuming it's not already going for overnight AC), but that's not a necessity.
However, I'm wondering about the hookup.
The HF1000 has an AC transfer relay so I should be able to just completely replace our current converter/charger with the HF1000, utilzing the current 12v and 120v hookups at the location of the current converter to make the best use of the transfer relay and inverter features.
However, I'm not sure that the 12v cables running from the battery bank at the front of the fiver to the current converter are of a heavy enough gage to handle the heavy draw that a 1000w inverter at full load will draw. They were, after-all, really only designed to handle the charge push to the batteries (40A in our case) and the back-draw to the trailer which (even with all the lights on, etc) I'd figure wouldn't normally be over 50 amps or so. I know the inverter will draw quite a lot more then this.
I thought about placing the inverter up front with the batteries themselves, but this presents several issues in my mind:
1/ Inverters are spark hazards, so placing them in the same compartment as the batteries isn't advised...even assuming gel batteries which don't *normally* out gas.
2/ Running the control panel wiring back into the interior of the fiver would be a PITA.
3/ There's no way to utilize the transfer relay this way as the inbound 30A leg (from the cord) goes nowhere near the front of the trailer - it comes in at the back corner of the bunkhouse and runs straight to the converter which is midships above our fridge. Rerouting it to the front of the trailer isn't really realistic.
What are my options here? Will I need to replace the current (probably inadequate) wiring between the current converter/charger to the batteries with something of a heavier gage?
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 06:55pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Dually owners... Do your rear tires wear even?
I've put about 30,000K on our current dually TV since I bought it and the rears are wearing perfectly even. I run 80PSI constantly in all 4 mainly for fuel milage reasons - the rough ride doesn't bother me since I'm used to class-8 rides.
I could rotate easily (steel rims with a stainless steel cover) but I don't see the justification at this point.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 06:37pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Checking Brakes Before Trip
Don't be too sure about that! Mine does not. The brake light switch is located in the truck brake pedal area, and using the lever on the brake controller does apply the trailer brakes but the brake lights do not come on.
Barney
By law, manual activation of the trailer brake controller MUST light the trailer brake lights. If yours does not, then something is hooked up wrong and you really should get it fixed.
And that said, FWIW, add me to the list of people who use my hazard lights to check my TT's brake lights. If the signals are blinking, the brake lights are working as they're on the same filament. If your really worried about possible brake light switch failure, go step on the brakes in the TV and look for the reflection of the TV brake lights on the front of the TV to confirm the brake light switch is working.
However, if your trailer has a three bulb tail light system (our old Award had this) then the signals and stop lights can be completely different bulbs - you will in that case need to have someone step on the pedal to confirm brake light operation as the hazard lights will be lighting a different bulb.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 06:25pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Anyone changed a floor to Pergo or such?
I'd love to do this with our fiver, as frankly carpet just stinks when you have two kids (and a parrot) who seem to to dirty it as quick as it's cleaned.
That said, the living room in our fiver is half carpet and half linoleum right down the entire length of the living room/kitchen. I'm not sure what is at the underlying joint between the carpet and flooring, but it seems like there might be some sort of subfloor or something under there (based on what I can feel) so I'm afraid that if I ripped up the carpet I'd be in for a nightmare. Just doing half (the linoleum part) wouldn't really be worth the effort - it's the carpet that I really want to get rid of.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 06:15pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: drinking water
We do. We carry bottled water for our parrot (as large breed birds are more sensitive to water borne issues then humans) but otherwise we drink whatever is in the tap.
Remember, RV's have been around for decades longer the bottled water has, and it never really caused any problems for previous generations.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 06:09pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Replace TV
Our current 5er never had a TV when we bought it, so we picked up an LCD. The spot was clearly originally designed for a tube TV.
Like an earlier response, we have to "tilt" the TV to get it to fit into the opening, and it does sit a bit low (leaving a gap at the top) but it otherwise fit the bill.
I never actually even secured it and found no need - it stayed put for over 15,000K worth of towing this summer, but it does have a large base that makes it stable. If you have something with a small base, you may want to reconsider leaving it loose.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 05:36pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: 5'ver and a hydralift
I am looking to hear from anyone pro or con on using a Hydralift on the back of a fifth wheel. If you do not have any direct experience with this set up, please do not respond!
I don't have a Hydralift, so I won't tell you about all the issues you're going to have if you try this idea.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 05:30pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Skiing and RV-ing in Canada in Winter
It is indeed a busy schedule, but since we will only be there 2 weeks we want to see as much as possible.
Reconsider that thought. I was in Western Canada this past summer (Banff, etc) as part of a month on the road, and one of my biggest regrets was not spending more time at many of our stops.
I'd cut a few destinations out, cherry pick your favorite destinations, and spend more time at fewer destinations, instead of the other way around.
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PrivatePilot
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11/29/08 05:03pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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