Well we hit the rd tomorrow and make some 300 mile a day trips untill we get to Utah for a month . This weakened at the park were at now is crazy with the holiday. I do have to say though, this place has hundreds of sites and as we walk around checking out everybody's rig, I'm not jealous of any one of them and i have to say I've got the nicest rig in the park. At least in my very biased opinion. Makes me very happy with the decision i made. She's 1 month old with 750 miles and I love her just as much as when she rolled out of the saltillo dessert.
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What happened to Rich?
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I do plan on before we take off but after I get hooked up. I'm going to set my second person settings switch on the door with the Bullwinkle mirrors adjusted . I always use to hate every time that id go to tow and flip em out , having to re-adjust the mirrors and spots, now just hit a button. Then i need to measure my new height on fiver with this truck. Don't really expect that to be much different than last truck. But my main measurements I have to take since I lifted fiver head up 1 round of holes, is new clearance over bed, how many inches away from bak FLIP when its folded so 1 panel is still laying down, make a jack knife turn and see how close fiver comes to and goes over bak FLIP. Then of coarse set my brake box. Hopefully it's not raining, and ill try to get some clearance pics.
All right guys, help me out a bit, i feel like I'm going a bit crazy.
1: on my 16 2500 it was a ram box so the RV pin box had to be able to be high enough to go over the bed rails because with the ram box it was very narrow inside bed. Correct me if I'm wrong and make me sure that I'm not going crazy. Isn't the camper pin box ( on a full size bed) supposed to be able to completely turn inside the bed w/o having to worry about going over the rails. I think my pin box may extend out to far because I can't jack knife it with out smashing into the bed sides. No worries, I did no damage, but at this point all I know to do is to either jack my fiver head up all the way and see if it clears or get a shorter pin box. Never thought that would be in issue.
2: when your trailer is plugged in, does everyone tow/ haul mode come back on Aster a restart or not. My exhaust brake came back on but I had to keep resetting the tow/ haul switch.
3: the truck stopped awesome. In saying that I've got it set on 10 at brake box and heavy electric. I started off on 6 but I kept adj it up until it hit 10 and it never would lock up the wheels. Does this sound right, trailer weight its around 13k.
4: on the trailer setting, what is the advantage to setting it on fifth/ goose mode vs conventional pull behind mode. The reason I ask is as we all know that blind spot doesn't work on fifth/ goose mode, so what's the reason too set it at that and not just set it on conventional so you would have blind spot. Do the brakes apply at a different pressure for what mode you have it in.
Currently between my bak FLIP and pin plate there's 14". Currently there is 7.5" clearance from camper over bed rails and camper rides level but pin box won't clear bed sides. Camper clears bak FLIP cover at a turn by 3.5"
1: on my 16 2500 it was a ram box so the RV pin box had to be able to be high enough to go over the bed rails because with the ram box it was very narrow inside bed. Correct me if I'm wrong and make me sure that I'm not going crazy. Isn't the camper pin box ( on a full size bed) supposed to be able to completely turn inside the bed w/o having to worry about going over the rails. I think my pin box may extend out to far because I can't jack knife it with out smashing into the bed sides. No worries, I did no damage, but at this point all I know to do is to either jack my fiver head up all the way and see if it clears or get a shorter pin box. Never thought that would be in issue.
2: when your trailer is plugged in, does everyone tow/ haul mode come back on Aster a restart or not. My exhaust brake came back on but I had to keep resetting the tow/ haul switch.
3: the truck stopped awesome. In saying that I've got it set on 10 at brake box and heavy electric. I started off on 6 but I kept adj it up until it hit 10 and it never would lock up the wheels. Does this sound right, trailer weight its around 13k.
4: on the trailer setting, what is the advantage to setting it on fifth/ goose mode vs conventional pull behind mode. The reason I ask is as we all know that blind spot doesn't work on fifth/ goose mode, so what's the reason too set it at that and not just set it on conventional so you would have blind spot. Do the brakes apply at a different pressure for what mode you have it in.
Currently between my bak FLIP and pin plate there's 14". Currently there is 7.5" clearance from camper over bed rails and camper rides level but pin box won't clear bed sides. Camper clears bak FLIP cover at a turn by 3.5"
So I guess I figured out the trailer rev guidance, that's just the side mirror cams. Duhhhhh.
My pinbox mount is not square on the bottom like that , it's angled up so I don't have any clearance issues.
This pic is on my old truck, but I expect the same on the new one give or take 1/2" in adjustment.
carlrx7
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Good job testing and catching the issue before it did any damage! Can you raise the fiver hitch any higher? What suspension is your 5th wheel riding on? may need to get a 2" lift to her. Also, where you using alt ride height on the truck?
I walked around thus cg last night and they're are some like mine and some like yours( angled at the back) that's what I need to order. I got the same clearance from top of bed to bottom of camper over hang
Im Currently at 1 set of holes raised up ( which I did9 for more bed clearance) and can do another 3 holes up if needed, wich would be around 2.5-3" more clearance, wich would probably be enough. Im a bit reluctant to just keep jacking up the hitch head and making the RV ride un level. I can definitely see how swapping out the fifth wheel suspension and lifting the camper would help, not sure how many inches that would equate to, to know if it would clear with the amount of work involved, wich we plan on selling and trading in rv in about 18 months so i dont really want to put any more money or work than i need to on it. yes the alt ride height was active on the truck. This doesn't seam to be something that i can controle as it does it on its own snd hitting the button doesn't seam to change anything. Also not to be a smart Alec but I'm not sure how the alt ride height would change any clearance for pjn box inside bed, maybe you can explain.
At this point I'm considering taking the hitch pin box off and cutting it up at an angle towards back half where it's currently flat. I'll have to think more on that. can't do anything right now with a bunch of day trips planned, will have to wait until we settle for a bit.
carlrx7
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The alt ride height lowers the bed, for which you can then raise the hitch more without unleveling the trailer. Try engaging the alt ride height after loading the trailer weight on the hitch.
I also would not recommend hacking up the pin box. If you do, make sure to add those side wings back on.
I'm probably going to do some research into purchasing a shorter pin box, my current one has supports and cutting into it would be a whole thing, then you'd have to add structure back, not worth the time.
1:Am i totally way off on thinking that the pin box is supposed to turn inside the bed w/o coming in contact or going over the bed rails?
2: on the alt height air susp., i guess I just look at it as, that's my truck towing height when a trailer is hooked up. I don't even have to plug in electrical, as soon as I back under it, it starts it's whole process of judging the load. I have and did just today also hit the button before we pulled out but no sound of adjusting was made, so I look at it as that I dont have an alternate ride height because i font have a (choice) of ride heights, just the one setting that i can not adjust to higher or lower. Is this how ever one else's air suspension works?
3: I did not remember to try the conventional trailer setting with a fifth week attached so the blind spot wad enabled. Has anyone tried that and what was your findings?
Ps: i do have too comment on, the truck ride while traveling is way way way better with the air ride drw Aisin, vs my old trade in, 16 2500 srw rfe. That truck would throw you around inside while traveling like a washer machine and it would break your back down on a trip. The only thing about the old 16 truck was because it was bouncing all over the place, i guess it took all the shock out of the camper because when we got to were we are going, inside the camper looked neat and clean and everything still in its place. With this new truck riding do nice and cushy, i guess the camper is taking the brunt of the rd because these first two hauls, inside the camper has been destroyed, and I mean everything is out of the cupboards and on the floor. Yea it pi$$=$$ us off. Anybody else have that scenario happen where inside there RV is a total mess? We do not have a cushioned pin box and the suspension is standard.
So I learned a couple things today.
1: while using the acc when you go to pass someone and you over ride the acc by hitting the accelerator, once you've passed them and let off the accelerator and it takes controle back. If your going a pretty good amount over your set spd, it's like putting the brakes on while it slows you back down to your set spd.
2: while using the acc. If your set at lets just say 78 and you come up on a construction zone that's only 45. Know this, if you just hold down the - minus button to decelerate instead of pushing the button a bunch of times, it will put the brakes on hard. Lol, yup , i did that.
3: so I tried the whole thing of changing my trailer setting from fiver/goose ( wich is what I'm hauling and your blind spot don't work) to conventional pull behind ( where the blind spot will work). So my findings are this.
A: BLIND SPOT works with the fiver hooked up but set on conventional
B: it did not change brake settings, stayed on heavy electric & 10.0 at brake box
C: On the rt side of vehicle with attached trailer, if someone is passing you, it will pick up that vehicle just as soon as it gets at back bumper of trailer. Now the nice part is, while your passing a vehicle ( and your on the lt) , the rt blind spot will stay on until the bumper of your trailer just passes them. Sweet help. Now the down side. You can't rely to much on the drivers side, the passing vehicle would not be picked up in lt mirror until the rear of passing car was at trailers rear bumper. Which on my camper put the car at the door on the camper. So that kind of sucked but I'm as worried about the drivers side as I an the passenger side.
D: I will be leaving my fiver on conventional mode, much better, unless anybody had any negative scenarios by doing this. Fyi, My camper is 37'
4: I've been averaging around 10.5 mpg with the 13k trailer running around 70. Well today it sucked it down. Part was my fault, i dropped the hammer and kept it around 80 but we were heading into a head wind the whole way and our mpg dropped to 7.5. Holy shiitake, that sucked @$$. Hope every trip isn't like that.
1: while using the acc when you go to pass someone and you over ride the acc by hitting the accelerator, once you've passed them and let off the accelerator and it takes controle back. If your going a pretty good amount over your set spd, it's like putting the brakes on while it slows you back down to your set spd.
2: while using the acc. If your set at lets just say 78 and you come up on a construction zone that's only 45. Know this, if you just hold down the - minus button to decelerate instead of pushing the button a bunch of times, it will put the brakes on hard. Lol, yup , i did that.
3: so I tried the whole thing of changing my trailer setting from fiver/goose ( wich is what I'm hauling and your blind spot don't work) to conventional pull behind ( where the blind spot will work). So my findings are this.
A: BLIND SPOT works with the fiver hooked up but set on conventional
B: it did not change brake settings, stayed on heavy electric & 10.0 at brake box
C: On the rt side of vehicle with attached trailer, if someone is passing you, it will pick up that vehicle just as soon as it gets at back bumper of trailer. Now the nice part is, while your passing a vehicle ( and your on the lt) , the rt blind spot will stay on until the bumper of your trailer just passes them. Sweet help. Now the down side. You can't rely to much on the drivers side, the passing vehicle would not be picked up in lt mirror until the rear of passing car was at trailers rear bumper. Which on my camper put the car at the door on the camper. So that kind of sucked but I'm as worried about the drivers side as I an the passenger side.
D: I will be leaving my fiver on conventional mode, much better, unless anybody had any negative scenarios by doing this. Fyi, My camper is 37'
4: I've been averaging around 10.5 mpg with the 13k trailer running around 70. Well today it sucked it down. Part was my fault, i dropped the hammer and kept it around 80 but we were heading into a head wind the whole way and our mpg dropped to 7.5. Holy shiitake, that sucked @$$. Hope every trip isn't like that.
1,2. Yup. Just watch out for it braking when someone in the next lane slows. I've learned to keep my go-fast foot at the ready.
3. Good to know, but can it be trusted?
7.5 MPG at 80 hauling ass with a 13K fiver in a headwind. Yeehaw!
P.S. I hope your trailer tires are rated for that speed. My gawd, if you posted that on an RV site, the Karen's (including the male Karen's) would lose their freakin minds and call you a baby killer.
Kimo7
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All the Karen’s would lose their minds...I love that. It REALLY annoys my wife when I call her that. “Lighten up Francis” is my main go to though, that’s the launch code !!!
Ughhh man, your a smart @$$ and hilarious tonight.
I was surprised at how much it applied the brakes. I hope it works that good when I'm not paying attention to what's in front of me.
I would say a big negatory on trusting the rt sd con. Trl. Blind spot arrow in mirror when you clear a vehicle to and it goes out to drop over, but it's s nice tool to have.
Being an old professional truck driver, i just worry about all the turkeys around me. My wife always says, why are we the only person in the lt ln passing everybody and with our house to boot. That's normally when i get the ( RICHARD), but we've been married long enough, i don't hear very well anymore. Hehehe. I told her when I had to leave work, just don't try to change the way I drive. That's normally when I have a close call is when I'm going slow because my heads just not in the game. And fyi, the only thing I've ever killed was a huge German Shepard in a manufactured home community when this lady just let it out the front door. That thing ran right under my tandems and exploded like a trailer load of melons. She stopped me in the culdisac and said you killed my dog, and i said no mam, respectfully, you killed your dog. Then she wanted me to clean it up, I said, there's nothing to clean up.
Fyi: I'm a dog lover and an animal activist and did rescue for decades. People, if you love your animals, don't let them run loose.
As Far as rated mph on tires, can't find it in the small print. I just watch for lug nuts wobble, temp, psi and wear.
I also have to add , she ran and handled like a champ in that head wind and taking off up the interstate ramps ( cuz the wife weinner dogs have to pee) , she literally pulled the 13k from zero to speed like it was ( seriously) not even there.
ST tires are rated for 65MPH.
Listen to me, I sound like the speed police... I can tell you that we had our fair share of blowouts on RV and boat trailer tires running too damn fast.
If you're running a trailer up to 12K-14K GVWR with factory E rated tires, I recommend Goodyear Endurance. They're popular, well liked, and Grand Design started putting them on the Reflections this past year. They tow great and may even help mileage a bit. They're also US made and rated to 87MPH. I pulled the Westlake factory tires off my RV when I got it from the dealer and put on the GY's. The GY's have more load capacity than the wheels so there's plenty of margin there. They also have a 235/85R16 which picks up another 1/2" of height if needed, more load capacity, and less revs/mile (might run 1F cooler LOL). I'm still kicking myself for getting the 235/80R16 size.
If you're running a heavy trailer with G rated, then G614's or Sailuns are highly recommended the G614's are pricey. G or H rated are overkill for anything lighter and will just (IMHO) beat the trailer and your gear up more than you already are even if you do run the pressures lower per load charts. Wheels and valve stems also need to be rated over 80PSI if going that route.
I know folks swear by running LT tires on their rigs but I'm not a fan and don't believe they support the side loads placed on a trailer tire like an ST rated tire does.
That new Luxe will probably have H rated commercial tires so no worries there.
your right on the luxe, everything about that rig is over kill, but can't wait to have 3 axles of disk brakes. I have the st load range e, the brand is provider, wtf that is. I fill them to 78 cold, mine are also the 235/80/16. If we were going to keep this thing, then I would definitely get the 85s and put the mor-ryde 4" suspension up grade on. Cant believe how much the camper is taking a beating now that we're riding around in something that don't buck yah every bump in the rd. The air suspension is great for the truck travel but the fiver has taken a bad turn for the beaten up blues. Knock on wood she holds together. I don't see how it will. This thing is in pieces after just traveling 300-400 miles, and the first two trips i didn't go over 67 to try and help break everything in on the truck. I really would of thought the air suspension in this truck would of made the RV ride even better, but not the case at all. We feal like were riding around in class and the fiver feals like it's getting hauled with a John Deere , of wich I'm very partial to, just in the field, not on the Hwy
I still haven't hooked up to check fit because the trailer sits on a very sloped pad and I need to pull it out onto the street to really check. However, the truck is actually 1" lower as it sits than my 2500 rear end (had air-lift bags) was and I expect will be the same once the air leveling alt ride height is set. Both trucks have slightly taller than stock tires, although the 2500 was +2 and the 3500 is +1.
I just hope the dang front compartment door clears the tailgate. It caught on the tailgate handle on the 04, which cost me a small dent last summer. The one time in 16 years I forgot about it at the dump station and left it up.
I would like to upgrade the suspension on the fiver, but it works well enough for now and we just don't travel so far so often. Our worst road travelled is probably NM104, a 2 track that runs from Las Vegas, NM towards Tucumcari. There's a stretch of that sumbitch that will rattle your teeth out running over 50MPH.
Kimo7
HDRams' Official Greeter
Rich,
If you go to etrailer.com and check out the Providers you’ll see they are rated/reviewed as one of the better made in china tire brands. I had them on our previous trailer and never had a problem. I was also guilty of driving too fast while towing, I just forgot the TT was behind me. I ran 75 - 80 mph on I-95 without issue but was just lucky nothing happened, I shouldn’t have been going that fast. I had the Boss Lady as my co-pilot monitoring the TPMS and to remind me to slow down. The tires held up great. If you go to YouTube and find a guy that goes by Big Truck Big RV he does a segment on tires. He does a good job and it’s pretty informative but he also advocates for the Sailun and Good Year lines.
We traded for a new TT in February, Rockwood 8329SB, which specs out a little over 11k lbs fully loaded. It came with Castle Rock tires. My friend had them on his 5ver and had 2 separate blow out incidents a year apart both significantly damaged his trailer. The second time he replaced all 4 with the Good Years. Knowing that and I had read so much about them popping we went directly from the RV dealer to the tire shop and replaced them with the Endurance tires. We have a little more peace of mind. Good luck with your search for replacements.
If you go to etrailer.com and check out the Providers you’ll see they are rated/reviewed as one of the better made in china tire brands. I had them on our previous trailer and never had a problem. I was also guilty of driving too fast while towing, I just forgot the TT was behind me. I ran 75 - 80 mph on I-95 without issue but was just lucky nothing happened, I shouldn’t have been going that fast. I had the Boss Lady as my co-pilot monitoring the TPMS and to remind me to slow down. The tires held up great. If you go to YouTube and find a guy that goes by Big Truck Big RV he does a segment on tires. He does a good job and it’s pretty informative but he also advocates for the Sailun and Good Year lines.
We traded for a new TT in February, Rockwood 8329SB, which specs out a little over 11k lbs fully loaded. It came with Castle Rock tires. My friend had them on his 5ver and had 2 separate blow out incidents a year apart both significantly damaged his trailer. The second time he replaced all 4 with the Good Years. Knowing that and I had read so much about them popping we went directly from the RV dealer to the tire shop and replaced them with the Endurance tires. We have a little more peace of mind. Good luck with your search for replacements.
We're pretty close to your back yard today, gonna be running through Colorado up to Cheyenne for a2 day stay. Vey unfortunite on the compartment door. One thing is about doing this is that your always going to forget to do something, there's so much to do.
Thanks for the leg work on the providers, they have been pretty good, only had one that hasn't worn like it should, but all in all they have carried the load at spd well. Now as far as the spd with a tt behind me. No way, those things are dangerous enough at spd limit. That death wiggle is the worst gut wrenching feeling. I had a buddy at work who lost controle of his tt and it jack knifed on interstate and he lost his wife to decapitation. He is extremely messed up in the head because of it. As a truck driver, there's not to much of a worse feeling than your trailer getting out of controle. I personally don't trust pull behinds because of my personnel experiences, but thats just me. To scary. Of coarse if your a rule follower you would probably be ok, I'm just not a big rule follower and I acknowledge that. Thats why I know for me to stay away from the tt
I was looking for brutal, while we were coming through Colorado today. All i saw was snow coveted mountains and wind turbines u till we went through Denver, and then i had to pay attention so i didn't get oon the toll rds, you aint getting my money brutal. I know ill get some grief about thisbut i don't( G.A.S). So i made a fuel run and ended up putting 49 gallons in it, yea yea i know. The concerning part was the low fuel light illuminated on the dash when there was the 3.2 gal left and only stayed on for a few seconds and went out and I never saw it again. I honestly didn't think I wad that low because the light came on up a step grade then went out, do I wad waiting for the light to come back on again, nope, unless I don't know we're to look.
I eeould like to comment though m this is kind of what I was talking about the other day when we were discussing the big 3 up and down the gauntlet in a comparison and I commented on , but we will never know all underlying conditions and drive styles. Yesterday I drove 75-80 mph pulling 13k into a strong head wind and only got 7.5 mpg. Today i drove 70-80 mph with no wind, 13k and got 11 mpg. Huge difference. Weather and 5mph made 3.5 miles per gal difference and I want babying it.
I eeould like to comment though m this is kind of what I was talking about the other day when we were discussing the big 3 up and down the gauntlet in a comparison and I commented on , but we will never know all underlying conditions and drive styles. Yesterday I drove 75-80 mph pulling 13k into a strong head wind and only got 7.5 mpg. Today i drove 70-80 mph with no wind, 13k and got 11 mpg. Huge difference. Weather and 5mph made 3.5 miles per gal difference and I want babying it.
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