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Progress on our Peterbilt


CrazyCooter

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Another call to Lippert yesterday since they never returned my call from earlier in the week....The call went strait to voicemail! Great customer service....... Luckily the rep from E-trailer followed up with Lippert so maybe we will be moving forward. They say that movement is not right and wanted a few more pics of the gaps.

 

Filled the truck up as fuel is on the rise here and calculated 7.55mpg for the entire 2500 mile trip. I think that's pretty good considering the speeds we were traveling, headwinds, and that the Dodge only gets mid 6's on the same trip. Heading down to AZ in the spring where we will be limited to 55-60 mph most of the trip and hoping for 8.5-10 mpg?

 

Got approval to send off the Gearmaster for repair/replacement. Hoping that will be an easy fix!

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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  • 1 month later...
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Never heard from Lippert, but Etrailer stepped up and sent a truck to pick the hitch up. I got a full refund, so nothing out of pocket on this deal except my time and agrivation! I can recommend future purchases from Etrailer without hesitation with the way they handled this whole deal. Wish it were possible to never own a Lippert product again.......

 

Pulled 850 miles last weekend with the Morryde and the ride and handling was much better!

 

Also got my Gearmaster back from Kent Monday. Looks like he sent me another unit along with $10 to cover my shipping to him. I have taken 2 trips since it's been out and don't need it anymore, but Tracie probably wouldn't drive at all if I didn't re-install.

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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Glad it worked out. We have had good luck with Etrailer and have been using them now for probably over 8 years.

 

Dave

2005 Freightliner Century S/T, Singled, Air ride ET Jr. hitch
2019 46'+ Dune Sport Man Cave custom 5th wheel toy hauler
Owner of the 1978 Custom Van "Star Dreamer" which might be seen at a local car show near you!

 

Check out http://www.hhrvresource.com/

for much more info on HDT's.

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  • 5 months later...

Been a while since at update, but up till now there has not been much to share.

 

We decided to just go for an update on the paint as the cost of a complete paint job was just not in the cards right now for this 17 year old truck. The hood and side fairings were in real bad shape since pulling out of indoor storage last year and the doors you could see the original lettering, so these are what we had painted. Changed the visor and lower color to a charcoal metallic and the shop was able to blend in to the older slightly faded light blue color. Now she looks goot from 5 feet away instead of across the freeway......

 

d84216b5-5bbb-4d69-886e-acb0c342cf48_zps

 

Thinking now the bed might need to change a darker charcoal color when I get back to working on it? Gotta get back on polishing that bumper too!

Edited by CrazyCooter

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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Thanks man!

 

Joe gave me the boxes with the truck purchase. I have been shopping/searching for door kits for the rear boxes as they will have to be custom for what I have in mind.

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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  • 4 months later...

After a year of trying different combos and measuring with the Cyclone front cap design, we finally gave in and purchased a different 5er. I originally wanted to go one year without using the garage in the toyhauler before making the decision.......the time came and the right rig came along. This weekend was the first trip with the Jeep on the deck and it worked out great!

 

20160923_113444_zpslemgd8jd.jpg

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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Thanks for all the pictures and additional info to think about for gearing to get those mpgs out of the tanks.

 

Excellent idea bout getting solar set up, we have 2 100 watt panels and they will put out 9.5amps at the controller, so if you set up with a 250w you'll have that with one panel above the sleeper.

 

Mine are for emergencies so I can't have them tied to the camper, etc. everything is fully portable in case we need it for the house as well.

 

Keep posting pictures.

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Definitely need to get on the solar! The last week long trip out, I killed the batteries by leaving the refer on. Wouldn't have been a huge deal if I had gotten around to installing the inverter that has a nice charger built in........

 

Thinking about the flexible panels so they could be glued down flat. Concerned with possible wind noise generated by a standard aluminum framed panel mounted to a fiberglass sleeper roof.

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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  • 4 years later...
On 10/1/2015 at 10:36 PM, bstark said:

CC; not doing this any more but when we were, it was with an IH 4400 530E full air, ten spd, a Gearmaster, 3:08 rearset with a GeneMcCall AirGlyder hitch with a Trailaire Pin box and if memory serves about 3400 lbs pin weight from a 38' Mobile Suites.

 

Running both the Trailaire and the Airglyder never once caused me any cyclical bouncing or dampening conflict. I had a Voyager two camera system with one camera mounted on a tall light tiara built behind the Harley barn on our truck looking down at the hitch area and it was a marvel to watch the trailer floating along sedately while the truck was giving our kidneys a beating,

 

You have a triple axle set up which should help mitigate "chucking" but that new design air pin-box looks like the arc of travel of that floating underplate would be about 6" from the pin to the center of the cross pivot bolt. I'm thinking that braking events would cause the trailer to forge ahead with that plate pivoting rearward along with your pivoting head of your truck hitch tilting forward making for some extra fore and aft movement until trailer brakes take charge. Not desirable with front cap so close to Jeep.

 

My other concern would be to keep a very jaundiced eye on your goose neck framework. Long-snout pin-boxes put enormous leverage on framing of heavier pin weight frames.

 

A Go-Pro Camera is going to give you very useful info indeed for future decisions. Mounting a flexible fiberglass stanchion screwed to a good plate magnet at the point duplicating your jeeps furthest rear point and mounting your Go-Pro to the side so it can see the interplay between the trailer and that stanchion while you put your rig through it's paces with curb, parking lot, driveway, transtions etc., might avert a later disaster.

 

PS. mounting the Go-Pro so it can view the gap between the top of your pin-box to underside of trailer cap might just cause you to assess the amount of frame flex going on under there as well. Just to be careful and pre-emptive.

 

Nice build-up and very enjoyable to read about. Good luck.

Hello bstark,please let me know when you decide to sale your GearMaster II. I seriously need one for my 13 speed truck. (619)-836-5203 

stephenagbale@yahoo.com  

Stephen 

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