Star Dreamer

A couple of items: A new mattress in the sleeper area or proof it was replaced recently. Any maintenance records are also a plus. Seats with arm rests are important for long drives.

Thanks for the update. Safe travels! Dave

We have had copper tubing on all of our trailers including one that was a 2005 and we sold it in 2018 with over 100k miles on it. Never had an issue with the tubing getting damaged. If it is a concern try running the tubing in a piece of oversize PVC tubing to help protect it in areas that are exposed under the trailer.

You may want to make the ramps accessible from both sides. You may find situations where it may be better to load/unload from the driver's side in a campground. Better to have the capability and never need it, than need it and not have it. You can still use the extra space for storage, just don't build the wall.

They are 110v ac There are no 12 volt dc microwaves that I am aware of. Make sure your inverter is a pure sine wave type of you use it to run the microwave. Ours is just on an outlet that works only when we are plugged into shore power or a generator as we do not use ours going down the road.

Being that they were in AZ, they probably did not feel the need to have a heated belly. Dual pane windows may have been the same reason but we do notice they eliminate alot of excess noise. You can replace the windows with dual pane if you want. Our tanks and lines are exposed underneath but we did have tank heaters installed and I just got done installing heat tape and insulation on our fresh water lines that are exposed just in case we hit any 20 degree temps in our travels.

We sleep on a King waterbed at home, but since we couldn't get a trailer manufacturer to put a water bed in a 5th wheel we went to a queen bed regular mattress in the 5th wheel from the manufacturer to give s more space alongside the bed and then changed it out with a Queen size sleep number bed after we brought the trailer home. So far it has been good for us and we recently did a 7 week trip covering 5400 miles with it and slept good. Like others have said it is your personal preference, but either size works for us.

For Dish, you can go to the bottom of this web page and click on the channel line up for what package you have. I wish they had the list by satellite number and not by Channel name. I had to create my own spread sheet to make a list by the satellite number https://my.dish.com/support/dishoutdoors

Just in the past year, now that I retired, We have been to 16 different states, around 18000 miles. In recent years, we have been to total of 36 states, 6 Canadian Provinces, 17 different countries.

Do you have a auto switch over valve on your (2) 40# propane tanks to feed the generator? Have you had any issues with propane tanks freezing up? We were at that state park and the 10% grade was not fun! But we enjoyed the park so it was well worth it.

But larger horizontal tanks have their issues. One is space for them usually have to be located under the floor in the frame area. Two, they add a lot of extra weight, but maybe not as much as having multiple vertical tanks. Three, to refill, either we have to bring the trailer to a propane place or have them come out to a campground. With smaller tanks, 20# ones I can pick up at any gas station or Walmart and can carry spares. 30# ones fit it the back of the smart so I can run them to a local propane place. I will probably try a tank heater next. I was surprised that they are set to go to 90-100 degrees F temperature so tanks must really like it warm.

I can "Freeze up" my 30# tank for my generator in about 6 hours of running at 50 degrees outside temp. A 20# tank does it in about 3 hours. Basically the generator is sucking more gas than the tank can convert from liquid to gas. I may have to try a tank heater next.

With our dually I used a convex mirror mounted on the front of the trailer by the pin and aimed to see the hitch as I backed in. I could not see the hitch from inside the dually as the bed mounted fuel tank and tool box blocked the view. When we got the HDT, I used a magnetic mount hitch camera for many years and in the past year or so went to a permanent mount camera system.

Just get a Boaterhome! Recently a star in Little Cesar's commercial. https://youtu.be/TkrLQeyWBMs

If you were heading east it could have been the winds, we averaged only 5.75 from Oklahoma thru Kansas and partway thru Missouri and we had heavy cross and head winds all three of our travel days. I think it was the worst I have seen in 8 years with our HDT.

The Blue Trailer was Spacecrafts trailer for the show. New Horizons and DRV had trailers there too, parked just on the other side of the Spacecraft.

Some individual ones: Our trailer getting ready for open house: Some others:

Some from the campground area:

Here are a few pictures I took at the rally. Trucks getting ready for the line up: Truck line up, from HDT group.

The 730 is a mid roof style but like Parrfromance says it could have an extended air dam on the roof. Actually legal width is 102" (8'6") not the 8' indicated by Parrfromance. With rear end gearing, you also need to look at the transmission gearing to see it is an OD or 1:1 gearing, that has to be looked at in combination with the rear end gearing. With most of the light loads many of us are pulling the lower the number the better but it won't make a lot of difference. With large fuel tanks you can shop and buy fuel cheaper which may offset the fuel mileage gain so now you can also look at fuel tank size!

I usually just refer people on Facebook to contact you here on the Escappees forum. By the way, I have not downloaded the Facebook app, I just use the website.

A floor plan also depends on your intended usage. If you are not going to only stay in it a campground that can handle it and will also be stopping in rest areas or truck stops while traveling from one location to another and need access to certain features when stopping for lunch or dinner, then you also need to watch what you can access with the slides in. Things like being able to use the bathroom, microwave, refrigerator and bed with the slides in were important to us. In your plan that you drew up, are the bunks in the gooseneck area at the front of the trailer and the main bedroom with the bed in the slide is at the rear? If so you may not have a lot of height to get comfortable bunks in that area and you need stairs or a ladder to get to that area. If you ever plan to upgrade, you may also want to consider resale value, and things like TV hook ups can add to that.

We are in Santa Fe Skies RV park if you are headed there. If you get here Friday, stop by and say hi, we are in D19. Have a safe trip.

You wont be able to find a good value on what the truck is worth as there really are no comparisons as most are built to a specific need. The best way to get close, would be to find what similar trucks are going for on Truck Paper with similar mileage and then add or subtract for features not matching. The hydraulic smart car bed could easily add another $60-80K if you tried to have one built so if it is good working condition that could be a plus. If it has an ET airride hitch that would also be a plus. If it is not working then it is only worth what a standard bed would cost, maybe less if you want to try to repair it. The DD15 engine just came out in 2008 so you may need to check some truckers forums as to how they are. They have a good B50 life so that would be a plus. Any repair records is always a plus. We have a Detroit 14l in our 2005 Freightliner and we have 540k miles on it, 100K that we have put on it in the 8 years we have had it. Good luck!

If you are still in Albuquerque, NM, we are up in Santa Fe and I think I have my Prodigy brake controller that I removed when I went I went to the Direct Link. I was able to reuse the Prodigy wiring so not sure if I have the Direct Link wiring with me. Also I can't remember if it is the P2 or the P3. Let me know if I need to verify.