Star Dreamer

We hope to be able to get there next year since I have retired and hopefully more stuff is open. It is all about time with family events!

We did a custom build with a company called Dune Sport. Ours was under $100k. We are liking it so far after having it for one year. We will be at the HDT rally with it. It is not in the same class as a Spacecraft or New Horizons but it has what we wanted. We have a 20'+ garage and we put the SUV (or a full size van) in the garage.

I use the resource guide quite frequently and refer others to use it. Mostly I use a lap top but I have been able to use it some on my Android phone but not everything shows up. I caution people it is best used on a computer and not a phone. I have not tried your demo yet.

I had gooseneck trailers and always converted them to 5th wheel for easier hook up both with our dually and our HDT. No need to climb in the bed or on the truck to hook up safety chains. Plus in some states you can ride in a trailer with a 5th wheel or only double tow if the first trailer is a 5th wheel. Gooseneck may not comply. If you have no problem hooking up and don't double tow or have any one in the trailer, then you can easily have a gooseneck ball on an HDT. Some actually have both a 5th wheel and a gooseneck ball.

In Florida you may be better off registering it as a private truck. Do a search in the forum as I believe there were so old topics on this.

You will probably find the 2nd or 3rd gear will be fine for creeping along at a slow speed. When we are a sitting in a traffic jamb I use 2nd or 3rd just to creep along so I don't have to hot the brakes or stop to often. I only have used 1st gear a couple of times, once to get us out of a deep hole when we stopped at a truck stop for the night in the rain and dark. Work up and trailer had high centered and actually had raised our air hitch up so had no pin weight on the truck. I thought for sure we were stuck but it pulled right out in 1st gear. The other times, was trying to break the brake drums loose where the shoes rust themselves to the drum in our high humidity. I was to lazy to get out the sledge hammer and pipe to break them loose.

Get a set of chains for the HDT, you may need them. Yes, 1st gear is very low but if you haven't weight on the drive axles, they will break loose easily. Suggest getting an HDT with a locking rear end and with the interaxle lock so you can tie both axles together. Many trucks just have the interaxle lock and not the diff lock. You can easily get stuck with an HDT on wet grass too.

Also, I would not use the trucks batteries to supplement power to the trailer. Your truck may need every bit of that battery juice to start. Maybe get solar and extra batteries for the trailer.

Yes you can add water tanks to your truck. Size would depend on your final configuration of your truck. APUs are not necessarily quieter than a Onan, go to a truck stop at night and listen to the trucks with them running next to you. One nice thing is they run on diesel and as long as you have fuel in the truck they will run. The Onan unless you pay the money for a diesel one, will either be gas or propane which means you need to find a way to fill it's tanks at the truck stop. If you want a longer vehicle than the smart, consider getting a Toyhauler with a larger garage. We can haul our 4 door SUV in our Dune Sport Toyhauler (we can fit a full size van if we want). A longer truck to carry a longer vehicle may not work as well boondocking. As others have commented, the front axle weigh a lot and can easily get you stuck if you are not careful.

Check your clearance when aired down. I believe Volvo's have 5" of upward travel, Freightliner's 2-1/2" of upward travel. You want to be able to get the tire off the truck if the suspension is all the way down.

8 tons (16k#) is nothing, our new trailer has a GVWR of 24k# and empty weighed 16k.

Our HDT has a tighter turning radius and was not much larger foot print than our dually and we used it has a daily driver. Just can't go thru many drive thru's and may have to park a little father out but the exercise helps us. Many of the HDT people (including us now) have a smart car for daily driving. Each MDT will have different towing capabilities so you need to verify what any that you might be looking at can do. They can be pricey for newer ones.

You can buy New trailers that are a better quality (not perfect but better) but it typically will be a custom build and at a higher price tag. Also most trailers use the same equipment so you really are relying to n the quality of those parts. When we had our trailer built, I went with all residential appliances to help get rid of some of those RV only items. We are heading back to the factory next month with just a few minor 1 year warranty items.

We had a 1ton Chevy Diesel Dually pulling an 18k trailer. It pulled it great, stopping was a problem. We had someone cut across in front of us to do a left hand turn and there was no way we were stopping in time, luckily they moved out of the way in time. This was with good trailer brakes. That truck also beat us to death and you were wore out after 6-8 hours of driving. We went to an HDT over 8 years ago. The HDT stopped the same trailer better and even one time when we only had one brake out of 6 working. We could drive easily 10 hours and still felt like we could go longer. The air ride is 100% better.

There are ways to smooth out the ride on a 5th wheel but they can be expensive, there are air ride 5th wheel hitchs and air ride suspensions. Also the location you put the fish tank will help with motion. Do not locate it behind the trailer axles, (think of riding in a school bus at the very back). The longer the distance is between the hitch and the trailer axles will give a smoother ride. You will find storage in a 5th wheel much better than an Airstream.

We lived just down the road from Whitewater in St Charles, MN, very nice state park. Be sure to check to be sure they or any others will be open after October as most close or at least shut off water by that time for the winter. We are now in South Carolina and we have been traveling off and on all year without too many issues. Some campgrounds have been closed (mainly state run ones) and we had to camp in Northern Indiana as Michigan's were still closed when we went up that way. Stopping to eat at restaurants is also an issue as you do not know if they are open until you pull in and with a big truck and trailer that can be a waste of time as we don't exactly fit in the drive thru. We have a trip planned to go to AZ in September for warranty work, so far all of our night stops are open but we did have some state ones in NM close but was able to get a private campground that is operating at 50%. We use gloves when fueling & hand sanitizer frequently after stopping at places. We are self contained and have our own washer & dryer. We can carry about 2-3 weeks of food with us, so we shop only when needed and use masks. The biggest drawback is missing out on many site that are closed due to the virus precautions.

On the Lippert electric jacks there is a spot on both the top and the bottom of the jack motor to put a socket on and then crank the jack up or down (using a drill works best) depending on which way you turn it. It might help to know what brand jack she has or post a picture of the jack.

Each brand of truck will probably be different. On our Freightliner, I came up through the passenger side floor board with a hole and large grommet right below the dash cover on that side and ran it up into the dash from there. It was convenient as I could also access the fuse panel which is on the passenger side dash for the power supply for the monitor.

We try to empty our tanks every couple of days but can go longer if needed. Weight is a concern. I however do not drain my Grey water tanks until after I have drained my Black tank so that I can use the grey water to help flush the drain hose.

A couple of comments: I agree with others that you need to rent a unit and try camping for a couple of weeks, maybe do it at different times of the year to see what different temperature issues will be. Moving plumbing items around can be hampered by black and grey water tank locations. These typically are not easily moved and can affect weight distribution on the chassis. Size of the unit will affect how much solar panels you can install, the larger the unit, the more solar panels you can install. You also need to see how many batteries you will need for an extended time off grid. We have 400 watts of solar and 4 AGM 100 amp hour batteries and can only last a couple of days on just the solar panels recharging the batteries to allow enough charge to last through the night without running the generator and that is with only the residential fridge running. There are calculators available to help you size your system. If you plan on a generator then you also need to allow space for either fuel tank or propane to power it which takes up more space and weight. How long will the generator run before you have to refill those tanks? We have done winter camping before for long weekends. Our units were poorly insulated and required alot of heat to stay warm. Floors were the hardest and we had added 4" of Styrofoam where possible under the floor. Windows and walls had lots of condensation on them. We ran with no water in our tanks and used a 5 gallon jug for our water. One time we went to dump and the outside valve was frozen and took quite a bit of time to unfreeze (we were down south camping and was not expecting it to get cold before we reached the dump station). You need to see what kind of winter prep the unit will have for all plumbing and tanks. If the tanks and or plumbing are exposed beneath the unit you will have issues. A 5th wheel or class A with tanks in a heated basement would be better but still not perfect. I have not heard of too many outfits that will change a floor plan in a RV, so you may want to find them first and talk with them as to what they can and cannot do. If you cannot find one that works, you may need to consider a custom build but the cost comes with that too. One last item to consider, is if you need chassis or engine work on your unit, you lose your house. If you have a trailer, you only lose your tow vehicle.

One other option you might consider is to do a Toyhauler that can handle a jeep or other type of similar vehicle. Our Dune Sport 5th wheel can handle our smart, our SUV (shown in the picture) or our full size van in the separate garage area. This would help keep your HDT shorter.

We replaced our washer jug on our Freightliner, was a pretty easy job but we did not need to replace any of the lines. On the car, if you can work with carburetors, go for the old style V8, otherwise the thing to do now a days is to but a LS motor in it with fuel injection. We installed a 5.3L in a 65 Chevy Van that has a chopped top on it.

I don't think our fan clutch engages on our Freightliner at idle with the AC on. We have Detroit 14L.

I think there are some older posts or maybe in the resource guide, about the coolant lines going to the sleeper that corrode and leak. You may want to check those.

Some states also charge a property tax on RV's. South Carolina is one of them and can be very expensive each year. On the sales tax, South Carolina is actually pretty good as it Max's out at $500.00. Lots of different rules depending on what state you register in.