Star Dreamer

6 hours ago, geodog said:

Is the trailer going to be completed for you to make the Rally in Hutchinson?

 

ShortyO

Trailer has been completed, we picked it up Friday. Unfortunately we have to be back in South Carolina the first week of October and won't be able to head back to Kansas to go to the National Rally this year.

19 hours ago, tyates007 said:

That is a great looking trailer

Thanks

We just bought 4 new batteries for our Freightliner at the Freightliner dealer in Chandler AZ for $69 each as they found one battery with a dead cell and I knew our batteries were over 3 - 4 years old and were Interstate blems to begin with. 

Bobtail with just the smart car on the back of our Freightliner Century with a Detroit 14l, Ultrashift 10 speed and 3:55 gears, I saw just under 11 mpg at one fill up and in the 9 & 10's on the other two from South Carolina. With our old trailer at about 23k# we got about 7-9 mpg. Most of the issue with the trailer is the large gap between the truck and trailer. For a few years we closed that gap up and got an extra mpg. You are probably losing some MPG because you do not have an aero truck and your rear end gearing. If you can buy new and spec one out with what would work for your loads you could probably improve mileage into the double digits but you probably would also have a large truck payment too. It is all about compromise.

Here is an updated photo showing current progress, looks like it should be completed sometime next week.

I do have a facebook closed group with various build pictures and other information if anyone is interested, just message us and I will send you the link to join.

We have about 1 year and 10,000 miles on our 17.5" Sailuns and they still look great. We are moving them to our new trailer since they worked well on our old one.

If you have a torsion axle and you are only want to lift it a few inches put blocks between the axle mounts and the frame. Also you may able to change the angle on the torsion axles, I know they be be setup with different angles to get different ride heights but it also changes the location of the axle to keep wheel centered in the wheel well. 

A couple of progress pictures from yesterday.

Roof is almost completea and interior walls are being installed.

Bedroom cabinets are in.

Electrical was being worked on and various other tasks were being worked on.

16 hours ago, noteven said:

Star - good looking project keep us in the peanut gallery posted. 

2gypsies - I think Star’s tow mobile can handle a little ol 47 footer...

Yep, I think our little Freightliner will have no issue pulling or stopping it. 

Our current set up.

Dave

On 8/30/2019 at 4:37 AM, Danandfreda said:

Do they make their own frames? How long is the build time? 

No, unfortunately at this time they use Lippert frames. There is a welding shop at their location that helps them correct issues that Lippert didn't do so good on. In our case, that shop modified our frame to have the dove tail end which was missed by Lippert.

Build time once they get it in the shop is about 2-1/2 weeks but they do a lot of pre-work. We put our deposit down about 3 months ago, do total time should by about 14 weeks but varies based on what units are going thru the shop. They had a few large builds before ours that slowed them down but worked great for our timing to get here to see it built.

Dave

Our custom 5th wheel toy hauler build has started. It is just under 47' long, three 8k axles, designed to handle a 6000# vehicle in the 20' plus garage, has 2 slideouts and will have residential appliances. It is being built in Arizona by Dune Sport RV.

Picture of hitch camera, also shows extra plug for trailer cameras next to our 7 pin connector.

Picture of the 9" monitor mounted.

I just bought a system off of Amazon that has 5 cameras and a DVR, you can view 4 at one time and I can switch to the 5th camera for hitching. Is it the best, I doubt it, was it in my price range, yes. So far I have the monitor mounted in the truck, all wires and cables run and the hitch camera working, the trailer cameras have been sent to the trailer manufacturer for installation in our new trailer, so won't be able to try them out yet. Hitch Camera works but I may need to raise it up some to get a better perspective of the hitch. I used a Swift Hitch magnet mount camera previously but monitor is pretty small and because it is wireless it can have signal issues. 

507# payload so guess that means four smarts to do 2000# or you could pull a trailer as long as max trailer weight is 727# and tongue weight is 66# you might only need three but you would also need three trailers!

There is a way to release them by banging on the drums but I don't like to climb under the truck with the brakes released, fear of the truck rolling once the stuck pad released is usually why. Guess you could block the tires. I have heard that some use a pipe and go thru the wheel openings. I just move forward or back till it pops loose 

9 minutes ago, oldbutspry said:

So this is one thing I wondered about.  Are the length restrictions due to the size of the campground sites or the curvy, twisty nature of the roads going into the park?  I guess it would depend on the NP, but I'm thinking if most parks allow 27' TT's then the road shouldn't be too tight, right

Usually it is site sizes. We have a 48' trailer and are 75' long with the truck so I do a lot of looking at satellite view on Google maps to see if I think I can make the turns to get to the sites. With your shorter length I doubt you will have an issue but you also need to be aware of your height and low hanging branches as a 5th wheel is typically taller than a TT. That is very hard to see in satellite view.

As Kirk says usually no one will measure you. You however Ned to be aware that if you made a reservation and then find out you cannot fit in the spot you chose when you arrive, you may forfeit your payment and they may or may not have another spot that accommodate you. 

If you were looking at 25'TT an equivalent length 5th wheel might be about 32-34' long but each manufacturer measures differently so be sure to bring your tape measure.

Also a 5th wheel will cut corners more than a TT so tight turns could be an issue but overall they are easier to manuever.

Dave

The OP tire size of 225/75R15 has very few options on the market and most are not made in the USA. We had this size on our previous triple axle trailer and we went thru at least 21 tires and 9 blowouts. We found the best brand that would get us about 30000 miles was Hercules and we had our trailer tires individually weighed to make sure we were below the rating on the tires. We also learned to keep our speed below 65 mph and if the tire temp started getting high we slowed the speed down even more. We used a TST 507 TPMS system that let us know what the tire temps were. We wanted to change to 17.5" diameter but we only had 6 lug wheels and could not get rims to work. Our new trailer came with 16" Goodyear Marathon's but before our first trip they were changed out to Sailuns 215/75R17.5 and have been great for over 10000 miles so far.

If you are looking for a toy hauler, check with Casey at Dune Sport RV in Mesa, AZ. They do custom builds and if the parts are available (you might need to ship them to them or advise what you want) they may be able to build it. They can put doors on both sides if you want.

Dave

1 hour ago, FL-JOE said:

Dave, we have been in AZ all week, came down US-89 and are staying just off I-40.  We will be moving closer to Phoenix in a couple days and staying there several days prior to heading down and over to NM.  

We are right at 73' and have passed a couple Troopers and one or two Deputies.  Just like all the other states we have visited, if you aren't driving like an idiot they just don't pay attention to RV's length.  The only issue I have had was parking in rest areas.  Since I am slightly longer than most commercial truck-tractor-semi-trailer combinations I have to be careful they don't clip me when they pull out.

Congrats on your upcoming new unit and safe travels!

Thanks, we are at 75' with our current set up so I know what you mean about the rest areas and parking spots.

We are hoping it cools down just a little by the time we get there at the end of August. Hopefully the AC's will be able to keep up.

4 hours ago, Kirk W said:

What are you getting? Is it a custom build?

We are getting a Dune Sport toy hauler and it is a custom build. They pretty much only build to order.

Sounds like our frame is arriving this week so we are getting closer.

Dave

I hope AZ does not enforce their length limits, we are picking up a  5th wheel trailer that is being built in AZ that is 46'-10" long and I am expecting when hooked up to our HDT we will be around 74' long. We will find out at the beginning of September when we pick it up if the build goes good.

Dave

31 minutes ago, lockmup68 said:

The square hole on the short handle is what is hitting the side rail on the trailer saver hitch. I have to bend it up a bit or shorten it about an inch and then it would not hit the side rail. Truck is at the shop getting a wheel seal and airbags right now. When I pick it up I’ll take a pic. That handle would totally work if it would just clear the rail another inch when loaded. 

I just relooked at your pictures and your handle that is on the hitch head is longer than ours as it stickers out the side beyond the hitch head, ours must be one of the shorter versions. Maybe Henry or Young's have some of the short ones still available and you can swap it out and then use a extension handle like ours.

Dave

Here is a picture of our extension handle which I can also use a breaker bar on

In this picture the hitch is all the way down on air and the handle just clears our bed