grashley
Well-known member
We got our new camper yesterday! HORRAY! We drove 5 hours to get to Somerset, then spent 2 hours going over things with the seller. After getting the new Andersen hitch set up we headed off to a campground about a hour away. While adjusting TBC gain, I find that full gain of 10 only slows the camper. I would need a gain of 40 to lick up the brakes. The seller said you could stop the truck with the trailer brakes. On my To Do list!
After a long day already and a new camper that was about 5 tons heavier than anything I had ever towed, 50 - 55 mph was all the faster I cared to go. 95% 4 lane road. This morning, with a decent night sleep and a full stomach, it was a bit of a challenge keeping it under 63mph!! It pulled great, but I was always aware it was back there. After an hour, I tried Cruise Control. It worked amazingly well! Set at 62, it maintained speed between 60 and 64 up and down hills, downshifting as needed. I found driving with TOW/HAUL OFF worked better for me.
At the camp ground, we set up, not planning to disconnect the truck. The sites were narrow pull through gravel and I did not get the camper centered on the gravel well. As a result, It was several inches out of level side to side. We decided that for one night, that was okay.
Crisis #1 No TV over the air reception in Russell Springs!! And worse, the remote batteries were dead!!!
Crisis #2 The stove would not light. Out of Propane. Therefore, no furnace, either. I do not know when my DW emptied the tanks, but we unhooked the truck and went out to eat.
I dropped the front landing gear extensions, and lifted the camper off the ball without incident, and out for supper. The overnight temp was only down to 33 F. ??? Thankfully, the camper has 2 fireplace / electric heaters, but was wired to only allow power to one at a time. We closed the bedroom door (tricky with a sliding door out of level!) I was cool, but fine. I have camped in much colder weather without solid walls in a much lighter sleeping bag. Wife, not so much.
Crisis #3 The wonderful Sleep Number bed did not work. Apparently no power, even though there was power to the receptacle. Thankfully, it was in a relatively comfortable setting.
Crisis #4 Everybody knows sleeping bags van be zipped together to make a double bed size bag. WRONG! When laid on top of each other in this configuration, both zipper pull tabs were on the same side! Somebody side sheeted the sleeping bags!
Overnight, I remembered I had only tried one propane tank. I switched to the other tank in the morning. No Go. Auto changeover. But it was a thought. We went out for breakfast.
Crisis # 5 When I lowered the landing gear to hook up, all went well. When I raised the gear OOPS!! Because I had dropped the extensions all the way to the ground, then we put stuff in the camper, I could not raise the gear high enough to get the weight off the extensions to lift the them. I raised the camper back off the Andersen ball, then moved the truck about 3 inches, and sat the camper pin box down on the Andersen ball and raised the gear. Raise the extensions, re deploy the gear to rehook to the truck, then the gear came up high enough to get everything retracted properly.
We drove 4 ? hours home with no problems.
Crisis # 6 When we got home, I pulled off the 16 foot wide road (far side) into our 12 foot wide driveway, and the left side FW tires missed the drive and went in the ditch. Blocking the road. Spun tires trying to pull it out. I put the truck into 4X4 LOW and pulled on into the drive. I did leave some deep grooves in the yard when I pulled it forward past the end of the drive. And it is off level side to side by several inches.
I will work on that - and others - tomorrow!
After a long day already and a new camper that was about 5 tons heavier than anything I had ever towed, 50 - 55 mph was all the faster I cared to go. 95% 4 lane road. This morning, with a decent night sleep and a full stomach, it was a bit of a challenge keeping it under 63mph!! It pulled great, but I was always aware it was back there. After an hour, I tried Cruise Control. It worked amazingly well! Set at 62, it maintained speed between 60 and 64 up and down hills, downshifting as needed. I found driving with TOW/HAUL OFF worked better for me.
At the camp ground, we set up, not planning to disconnect the truck. The sites were narrow pull through gravel and I did not get the camper centered on the gravel well. As a result, It was several inches out of level side to side. We decided that for one night, that was okay.
Crisis #1 No TV over the air reception in Russell Springs!! And worse, the remote batteries were dead!!!
Crisis #2 The stove would not light. Out of Propane. Therefore, no furnace, either. I do not know when my DW emptied the tanks, but we unhooked the truck and went out to eat.
I dropped the front landing gear extensions, and lifted the camper off the ball without incident, and out for supper. The overnight temp was only down to 33 F. ??? Thankfully, the camper has 2 fireplace / electric heaters, but was wired to only allow power to one at a time. We closed the bedroom door (tricky with a sliding door out of level!) I was cool, but fine. I have camped in much colder weather without solid walls in a much lighter sleeping bag. Wife, not so much.Crisis #3 The wonderful Sleep Number bed did not work. Apparently no power, even though there was power to the receptacle. Thankfully, it was in a relatively comfortable setting.
Crisis #4 Everybody knows sleeping bags van be zipped together to make a double bed size bag. WRONG! When laid on top of each other in this configuration, both zipper pull tabs were on the same side! Somebody side sheeted the sleeping bags!
Overnight, I remembered I had only tried one propane tank. I switched to the other tank in the morning. No Go. Auto changeover. But it was a thought. We went out for breakfast.
Crisis # 5 When I lowered the landing gear to hook up, all went well. When I raised the gear OOPS!! Because I had dropped the extensions all the way to the ground, then we put stuff in the camper, I could not raise the gear high enough to get the weight off the extensions to lift the them. I raised the camper back off the Andersen ball, then moved the truck about 3 inches, and sat the camper pin box down on the Andersen ball and raised the gear. Raise the extensions, re deploy the gear to rehook to the truck, then the gear came up high enough to get everything retracted properly.
We drove 4 ? hours home with no problems.
Crisis # 6 When we got home, I pulled off the 16 foot wide road (far side) into our 12 foot wide driveway, and the left side FW tires missed the drive and went in the ditch. Blocking the road. Spun tires trying to pull it out. I put the truck into 4X4 LOW and pulled on into the drive. I did leave some deep grooves in the yard when I pulled it forward past the end of the drive. And it is off level side to side by several inches.
I will work on that - and others - tomorrow!
