Chad Heiser

See above for answers in red.

We have a receiver hitch on the back of the 5th wheel. It works great for a bike rack and I also have a covered carrier that I put in it every now and then when I want to haul some firewood or my portable generator. I have also seen 5th wheel owners weld a receiver to the king pin box and install a bike rack in front of the 5th wheel over the pick up bed. This would most likely require that your pick up have a long bed to allow clearance for turning. Finally, I have seen a number of roof mounted bike racks on top of the pick up. Personally, I prefer the receiver at the back of the 5th wheel as the bikes stay the cleanest there (don’t get covered in bug splatter).

Then you should have no problem. I have a 2000 T2000 registered in CA as a motorhome and have never gotten a second look towing all over the state. I’ve never gotten a second look running bobtail either, but I don’t do that as often.

CA Carb specifically exempts RV’s. If your HDT is registered as an RV, you are exempt and will have no problem. CA Carb also specifically exempts tow vehicles used solely to tow an RV, so if you are registered as a private truck you are also exempt while towing the 5er (or travel trailer). The only possible hiccup is if you are registered as a private truck and use It bobtail as a daily driver. There is no exemption for this.

Really nice video Jim. Thanks for putting that together. Of course now you need to come every year as I have just appointed you our official videographer of the WCR!

I prefer motorhome registration/title over truck if it is allowed in your state of domicile. Technically, if you come across a scale house that has signage stating all trucks must stop and your HDT is registered as a truck (whether or not you are commercial) you would be required to stop at the scale. If your HDT is registered as a motorhome, then you would not be required to stop. This is a semantics thing really and I have yet to hear of anyone actually being cited for this, but it is possible. I have been chased down for passing a scale house that had signage stating all trucks must stop when I was running bobtail in my HDT titled as a motorhome. The trooper that stopped me apologized for taking up my time when he found the HDT was registered/titled as a motorhome. Had I been registered/titled as a private truck, I'm sure I would have had a nice written record of that stop and some followup to do to take care of it .

It has been a busy couple of days at work, which has been spilling over into my free time. Thanks for the kind words. The rally was a lot of fun. Hopefully those of you that couldn’t come this year can make it next year. It looks like some links were already posted for pictures.

I am a DRV owner and a fan in general of their product, but if I had the opportunity and means I would go New Horizons. The caveat to that is that New Horizons would allow me to have the exact trailer I want instead of one that is pretty close to what I want. I am talking about designing my own New Horizons, obviously. If I were in your shoes choosing between two used trailers, the New Horizons would start in the lead with me but it would come down to which one was closest to what I really wanted overall. Which one had the amenities and floor plan that best fit my needs. I would not be concerned about the size of the New Horizons over the DRV. Once you hit the 36’ mark, a few more feet isn’t going to make much difference in fitting into a site or not. If the 36 footer will fit, then more than likely the 41 footer will also fit. If both trailers were close to fitting my needs as far as floor plan and amenities, then it would come down to capacities for me. Without seeing either trailer, I’d be willing to bet the New Horizons is a triple axle rig and I know the DRV is a dual axle rig. The New Horizons will have much more carrying capacity than the DRV. You will also be eating into the DRV’s carrying capacity when you add solar and batteries and all the accompanying materials. These are the thoughts that are running through my head and what I would be considering if I were in your shoes. The money difference may trump all that (I know it would I’m my DW’s mind), but the other stuff would be more important in my mind. Look at the total package of each trailer and figure out which one best fits your needs and go with that one. It is a difficult question for someone else to answer for you because our needs may be different than yours, but the stuff above are the big things I would be seriously weighing if it were me. There are some other things as well, but those are the big ones.

Your plugging the wrong numbers into your formula here. The GCVWR (can also be expressed as GCWR) or Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating is the maximum your truck and trailer combination can be. Your truck should have a GCVWR rating listed for it. Take this number and subtract the actual scale weight of your truck from it to get the maximum trailer weight your truck can tow. Vehicle tow ratings are specifically dependent on how your individual vehicle is equipped. Gearing, tow packages, accessories added, axle ratings and many other things can affect your vehicles tow rating. Many places will list generic tow ratings for a particular vehicle model. If Ford has a website that gives a specific tow rating based on a VIN number, that is the number I would believe. It will be taking into account exactly how the vehicle is equipped based on the VIN information and therefore should be the most accurate information.

I have the SteadyFast on my rig and won't own another 5th wheel without them based on my experience. They make a big difference in stability in the rig. I like the Steady fast over the JT Stongarms personally because it has fewer parts to lock in when setting up and breaking down, but I have no actual personal experience with the strongarms.

Missed you guys this year. Hopefully you can make it next year.

If you have a rubber roof and just use dicor or and eternabond tape then you are only bonding your pipe to the rubber roof membrane. That membrane is in turn glued down to the wood roofing material below it. You have in essence now made the glue holding down your rubber roof also need to hold down the weight of the piping as you travel down the road. It was not designed to do this. You need to use screws to hold the piping down and then dicor or eternabond to cover the screw penetrations.

I have the Magnum AGS in my rig. If you have other Magnum products such as the BMK and a Magnum inverter, then I would highly recommend the Magnum AGS. They all work together very well and all use the same remote control panel. I use SOC to determine if/when my AGS will start my generator. I believe it is a much better indicator of battery charge than just voltage.

There are several different companies that offer RV awning screen shades. These shades are not full rooms, but extend to the ground from the the awning tube when the awning is deployed. Most of them have a piece that is permanently attached to the tube and hangs down a foot or so. This piece rolls in and out with the awning. The main piece then attached to this piece with a zipper or velcro or stretch cord (depending on the manufacturer. Here is one example: https://www.shadepro.net/product/vista-shade-for-electric-rv-awnings/

Sure

We made it home late this afternoon. We took two days to get home with a stop over at a friend’s new place on the way. We had a great time at the rally and I really appreciate the comments and kind words. I also appreciate everyone who lent a hand setting up and breaking down and also those of you who put on a presentation. I couldn’t do it without you. We are already looking forward to next year. For those of you who want to mark your calendars early, the park has blocked out Monday June 15 through Monday June 22 2020. If we don’t see you on the road, then hopefully we will see you there next year. For those of you that attended the rally, if you have any pictures or anything else you would like to share with the rest of the group, email them to me. I will put everything together and send out links to all the attendees (hopefully this weekend).

We regularly use 100 or more gigs a month through the Mobley it is our only source of connectivity for our equipment. It works great and we get nothing from AT&T other than our monthly bill.

The rally kicked off today with some more arrivals and a very nice happy hour. Met some new friends and reacquainted myself with some old ones. Looking forward to the rest of the week. Guess I should get some sleep so I can enjoy it .

We pulled in this afternoon. I didn’t have cell service or internet access for the last week. I’m trying to get caught up on everything electronic. We’ve already said hello to a few attendees. Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

We’ll be in Winnemucca Sunday evening (June 2) for one night (along with another forum member). We will be at New Frontier RV Park on the east end of town. We head out Monday for a week of SXS riding before heading to the WCR. Maybe we can say hi.

It is difficult to answer your question directly. I am not a fan of toy hauler interior layouts, so I don't stay up on which ones are good or bad. I do like their extra capacities though. My reason for posting here though is that in another thread you mentioned you are towing with a Dodge 2500. Most of the medium to large toy haulers are going to require a larger tow vehicle than that to tow them safely. I don't know if you considered this or not, but I wanted to at least point it out. I agree with rpsinc in that there are other ways to get around limited tank capacity. I have a 60 gallon water bladder sitting in my trailer right now. With an RV water pump mounted in a plastic tool box with some basic fittings and electrical connections, it is very easy to fill and transfer water to/from the bladder. It also gives you a back up water pump if anything ever happens to the one in your trailer. I will also add that it is very difficult to get kids to conserve water (depending on their age). When it is just my wife and I, we can go quite a while on our 100 gal fresh water capacity, 70 gal gray and 50 gal black. However, when we have our granddaughter along with us it is sometimes difficult to get a long weekend out of the same tanks.

One of our attendees pointed out some information that I thought I would pass on to everyone. If you are into rodeos, there will be several in the area around the time of the rally. Maybe you can fit one into your travel plans if you would like. June 1st, WPRA 1000, Girls Breakaway in Star Idaho June 6-8, Eagle Rodeo, Eagle Idaho June 28-29, Meridian Lyons Rodeo, Meridian Idaho June 28-29, Daniel Dopps Rodeo, Mountain Home Idaho. Here is a complete listing of the events in the area (thanks Pat).

Just a thought I wanted to add to this discussion. I listen to and read what people say about "RV Solar Systems" fairly closely. I have done a number of installs and assisted others with their installs. It is an area of the RV lifestyle that I am very interested in. In my opinion, some understand it very well and others, not so much. The major misconception that I see people have about these systems is what makes them up. Really they are four separate systems that interact to allow for off grid use of everything in the RV. One piece is the battery bank, one piece is the inverter, another piece is the solar array and the final piece is a generator. There are lots of other components within each of these groups, but these are the four main pieces. You do not have to have all four component groups to be a successful boondocker, but all four together do make things more convenient. The battery bank is the primary component of any system. It is what supplies reserve power when not connected to the grid or a generator. The larger the battery bank capacity, the longer you can run things in the RV when off the grid. The battery bank by itself though, will only allow 12 volt systems to continue to work in the RV when not connected to the grid or generator power. If you want to be able to use 120 volt appliances (like TV's, microwaves, hair dryers, residential refrigerator, etc.) when you don't have shore power or aren't using the generator, then you need to have an inverter. The inverter takes 12 volt power from the batteries and inverts it to 120 volts to power regular appliances. How long you can power these appliances is a function of how much power they draw and how much battery capacity you have. The battery bank does need to get recharged at some point and this is typically accomplished with a solar array or generator. The solar array will provide DC voltage directly to your battery bank to replenish/recharge it as long as the sun is shining. How fast a solar array will recharge the battery bank is a function of how large the array is, how depleted the battery bank is and how much sun is shining. The generator can be used as a means to recharge the battery bank or as a replacement for the grid/shore power or some combination of the two. You can run the generator when you wish to run 120 volt appliances in the rig and/or to recharge the batteries. How often you run the generator will be determined by what other components you have in your system. The generator is also handy to have to power high draw 120 volt appliances like an air conditioner (or two or three - depending on the size of your rig). You don't typically want to run these type of high draw appliance through an inverter because they deplete the batteries too quickly (although a large enough system can do it). You don't have to have all of these components, but some combination of them will make a boondocker's life more convenient. This is a very basic overview of the various components involved to make boondocking a possibility, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what you may need depending on your style of RV'ing. The system can be very large and expensive or it can be small and used for very specific needs or it may be somewhere in between. Only you and your budget and lifestyle choices can determine the best system for your needs. We can make suggestions but the decision will ultimately be yours. If you have any specific questions, I will be happy to answer them.

We are happy to have you for all or part of the rally. Hopefully you can make it work. Send me an email so I can get some information from you if you decide to come. chadheiser at att.net

I watched that this morning on my news feed. I'm glad that's not my motorhome.