Star Dreamer

Also, the mirrors in the later model smart fold in, (not sure about the earlier ones). I have the dimensions somewhere for them. I was lucky that I did drawings for work so had Autocad and use that to lay out our setups. I originally planned to hinge our fairings but then did the measurements and felt it wasn't worth the hassle to remake all the support brackets behind them. Only issue I had with removing them was our truck has a turn signal on the lower part of the fairings, but I solved that by making some small panels that mounted the lights but did not interfere with the car during loading and unloading.

As far as the side deflectors being hinged or pinned, it will most likely not work as the newer smart cars turned sideways are 106" and the dimensions from deflector to deflector will be closer to 102" and you would need to allow clearance for cab and car bounce. On our Freightliner Century Mid Roof, I ended up removing our side deflectors so I could get the car closer to the back of the cab. Also be sure to lay out the truck bed corners to allow the trailer to pivot at least 45 degrees with the straight down pin box. You may need to cut the corners at an angle to get enough clearance. I suggest drawing it all out to scale to make you have tried to cover all items and to see if you math holds up.

For us the only thing I did today to the truck was drive it! Start of our trip to visit family and go to the ECR rally in a couple of weeks.

Like the posting from California, South Carolina allows us to go to any DMV to get our plates and we always use the one in the next county over as it is less crowded and the people working there are friendlier! The only problem is, we have to pay our property taxes on the vehicles first in the county that we reside in so that means we have to go to either the courthouse or mail it in for renewals. Initial plates require two trips then, Courthouse first, then the DMV. For yearly stickers, they will give them to you at the courthouse when you pay your next years taxes or send them by mail if you do it online.

Volvos website has some dimensions on it, have you checked there? But remember that each truck can be spec with different WB and frame lengths.

It must either be raining or cold in Florida and Henry didn't have anything else to do! Just kidding! Henry did a great job of installing our ET hitch when he was building them.

The campground maybe sold out but you can still come to the ECR rally. There are other campgrounds nearby that you can use. Maybe Check with Carl (host) and see if he can recommend another one. If you do decide to come and want to stay the night at the rally, we will have room in our trailer for guests. Dave

Each state is different and sometimes you may need to try multiple agents as not all know how to do it. If they say you need a CDL, show them where you state rules say you do not if you are not doing anything commercial with it. We have State Farm which we had when we lived in MN. When we moved to SC the agent here did not know how to do it and had to go contact the agent in MN to figure it out. In MN we could drive it on our regulate car license as long as it was registered as a motorhome (which it was) in South Carolina I have to have a Class F license which is a motorhome pulling a trailer where combined weight is over 26k#. Surprisingly, the wife can drive just the truck with her regular license as it is still a motorhome but under 26k# by itself. Dave

Yes, if you can get her to a rally that may help her decide by talking with other spouses. Especially if you are considering a larger / heavier trailer or want to bring more toys with you. We carry a porta potty in our truck, it is one of the items to help us get our Motorhome registration and the wife has used it on occasion. It also comes in handy when we are using the truck as a mini motorhome. We have a refrigerator and microwave in there also. Just be sure to map out your mission profile so that you make sure you get the key items you want with your truck so that you buy it once and since you are going new, it should last you a good 20-30 years or more in RV use. We have had our used 2005 Freightliner now for 9 years and if all goes well we will get another 10 years plus out of it. Dave

Did you try the resource guide? I have the state rules for our state printed out from the DMV website that shows I need a Class F license on our state (SC) but not a CDL. Can't help you in Nevada. Good luck in your search.

I would wait. When they get older, you will be adding more stuff, like TVs, ipads, windows, stuff like that just so they keep occupied. Have fun.

If you have an air ride cab, for kids I don't think I would put air ride seats in. Regular seats should work just fine. My wife doesn't put any air in her seat unless she is trying to block the sun. She is short and does not like her legs just hanging there. I do not think kids would weigh enough to get a better ride.

We mainly wanted a 5th wheel for our needs. We haul a custom vehicle to go to car shows. When we were having trouble finding units that were not poluted with Formaldehyde (the wife was getting sick) we started looking at used Class A's that would be large enough to tow an enclosed trailer large enough for our show vehicle and our daily driver which is a smart car. That meant we needed a larger diesel pusher. A couple things we did not like about them that hasn't been mentioned so far, was most have a front access door in front of the passenger seat which we have noticed in many campgrounds puts you stepping out if the coach and into the road. The other was the cost for property tax in our state of SC. It was going to be $3-5k per year. Plus many of those units still had Formaldehyde issues. In 2019, we finally found a trailer manufacturer that would build a custom 5th wheel in our budget that could handle our show vehicle in the garage our our SUV if we were not bringing the show vehicle. If we do bring the show vehicle, we put our smart car as our daily driver on the back of our HDT. We have done some long site seeing trips in the smart. We can also use the HDT as a mini motorhome if we want to go to some smaller campgrounds. It is mostly all about personal choice. Maybe try to hit some of the larger rallies to see what some units in actual use are before you make a final decision. Also always check how much you can move around in a unit with the slides in. Many times important stuff like bedroom, bathroom, refrigerator, microwave are blocked.

We have just found out that the Cumberland County Playhouse with be doing a production of "Clue" on Tuesday April 20 at 1:00pm that we have bought tickets for. It looks like it is general admission and not reserved seating. Just in case anyone one else would like to go. I did not see anything on the schedule at that time on that day.

Is the thermostat on a slide where it moves in and out? If so that may be where the cable is having issues. We had customers that wanted us to use a regular Ethernet cable in their elevators and we always had to tell them it won't hold up to the constant bending of the traveling cable that goes to the elevator cab. Were you able to get the unit apart to see were the cable is attached and can you run a separate temp cable from there to the other connection?

If the error code does not reset or keeps coming back then you need to fix the problem that is causing the code not just resetting the code. May need to find out what causes that error code and then troubleshoot each item.

We have pulled a 44', 48' and now a 46'10" 5th wheel for over 13 years now, 9 of those with an HDT and in probably close to 24 states mainly midwest, central, south and southeast. No issues so far, so we must just be extremely lucky. We are legal in our home state of South Carolina which goes by a maximum distance from pin to center of rear axles and not by actual trailer length.

In the interview with the truck driver, he said the trailer was swaying and started on fire before it crashed. Good possibility it was a tire issue or wheel bearing issue that then caught on fire which then started the trailer on fire. Glad they got out alive.

Great, glad you found something

Discount Ramps have these and others https://www.discountramps.com/7ft_pet_ramp/p/DR15-Pet-Ramp/

We used a set of 6'-7' ramps we had made out of 2x6 wood with the alum ramp ends for another project and while it worked for our one time usage, I would probably come up with wider ones. The wife had to walk behind the granddog to keep him moving up the ramp as he was too scared. If the dog can climb stairs, maybe try the aluminum scissor style like Carl put on his truck for Donna to get in and out easier.

We turned at the intersection right by there and what we could see looked nice. It looks like they have around 80' pull thrus so should work for an HDT and trailer.

We are registered and titled as an RV. I had no issues going into Canada and it was on the return trip after we had already passed the Canadian border guards. Does yours go automatically back into neutral if you turn it off in gear? Ours does not as I still have to flip the switch on the shifter to Neutral for it to crank.

Mine was crossing from Canada into the US at the US border stop. When we pulled up to the guard at the RV/passenger gate, he was very upset and motioned for me to turn off the truck. So I set the brakes (some now say don't do that at the border crossings) and turned the truck off. After giving him our passports , he want to see the wife's face and she kept trying to jump up, but finally had to unfasten her seat belt to stand up. You could tell the guard was irritated! After he said ok we could go, he closed his window quickly. So I went to try to restart the truck, and get out as fast as possible, but the truck wouldn't start. Turned the key and nothing. Kept trying a few times, and finally realized I forgot to put the Ultrashift gear selector in Neutral. It was still in Drive and truck won't crank. Put it Neutral, start truck and leave as gently as possible! I don't think the border guy liked having to deal with a semi in the RV lanes. Dave

I think your issue is they show they are trailer turn lights. A semi trailer has separate circuits for turn signals vs brake lights. I think what is happening is when it gets a signal it starts flashing the lights (might have a built in flasher). You might have to get a different one on each side for the brakes and then use one flashing one on each side for the turn signal. You may have to get the wires from the trailer plug and not the rear tractor lights. Dave