Star Dreamer

How did you keep the screws from falling in door? I took a pair of doors apart to get the power windows from them but after the screws kept dropping into the door, I decided not to take my door panels off to install them but I have a door latch that is starting to act up and cracks in my panels, so I may be forced to do in the future!

Pretty soon you will lose your driving privileges as she will want to drive it all the time! My has driven ours with our old trailers when I needed a break but now since we keep our travel days to shorter hours with our new trailer, she hasn't needed to drive it, but it is good to know she can.

We haven't slowed down yet, like others we remember when it was $5 per gallon for diesel. It will just be less money our kids will get when we pass on.

Consider looking at Dune Sport Toyhaulers. They custom build to what you want (or course you have to know what you want first). They will add a wall to separate the garage from the living area, add the drop down beds, do larger showers or bathtubs, and they can arrange the garage to handle a Jeep or other heavy vehicle. We put our full size van or SUV in ours. If you go with their larger ones they can get heavy and may need a larger truck to safely pull it. 

You need make a list of what are the must haves and what are the nice to haves and then work out what might be your options to achieve your mission profile.

81°F in South Central Florida today!

It looks like you have a couple of options and alot depends on what your budget is. 

1) Since you are currently using the truck bed as your camper, any trailer over 8' long is going to give you more space. Weigh your truck loaded to see what capacity you have left to pull a trailer and get the smallest one that will work for you. Then get a good hitch and sway bar attachment and keep your speeds down.

2) Go to a motorhome and pull your truck behind it.

3) Go to an HDT and build whatever storage you need on the truck and then go with whatever type of trailer you want either bumper pull or 5th wheel. You could even do a Toyhauler like ours and be able to fit a full size van to use as your work vehicle but you may have to transfer heavier tools to the truck when traveling. 

I personally think trying to make your current truck do double duty to pull a 5th wheel and securely hauling your tools will severely overload it and will cause you lots of set up time. 

17 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

Today, the TSD/ open Roads card arrived and I activated it.  I downloaded their phone ap and it shows prices of the fueling stations within the radius I chose (125 miles).  All the stations that show up are available for use with the card as fas as I can tell.

Does anyone know if the price that shows up in the Open Roads ap, is the same as what is charged when using the card? 

How often are the pump prices updated in the open road ap?

I ask, because when I looked at Gas Buddy for the same station and it was .20 more in Gas Buddy than the Open Road ap. The Gas Buddy report was supposedly 3 hours old.

 

The Open Roads App shows you the discounted price before fees. The pump price will still be the same as retail and the pricing gets adjusted when TSD takes the money from your account. You can sometimes see a transaction breakdown shortly after filling up but usually won't see the email for a few days especially if it is a weekend. 

2 hours ago, sandsys said:

We did that but it only told us half the story. It did not tell us what effect a low ceiling or a small black tank would have. We did learn we could live in that size area otherwise, though.

Linda

Yep, the small black tank would be hard to simulate!

Our old trailer, I replaced that item I think twice before I just taped it shut. Our house range vent did not vent to outside and we rarely even turned ours on in the trailer. In our new trailer, the microwave over the range has a fan on it and it is the same as the house and just vents it back into the kitchen at the top of the microwave towards the ceiling. There is no outside vent. If it breaks again, try just taping it shut.

A couple of items, do not rely on a campgrounds wifi to get internet access if needed to do your work from remote. Most barely work if at all. You will want to check out various other connections and your stops my be limited by places that you can get good signals.

To get an idea of if you can survive with a small minimalist camper, try taping off and area in your living room the size of what you are looking at and then move all the items you want to keep into that area and see if it will work for you. 

Next rent a camper about the size you want for a couple of weeks and go somewhere local to see how it works. Being stuck in a small area due to bad weather for a few days can be an interesting experience! 

Yep, I would do want Linda suggested and then ask the lawyer if it is worth it to take them to court to try to get it back.

1 hour ago, franco-bolli said:

RV Trip wizard  and Gas Bubbdy show the LOVES in Ontario, Oregon at $4.20 and the flying J/Pilot at $4.25 ( Gas buddy doesn't have any information for the flying J closest to me)

The TA just down the road still in Oregon is $4.15

 I think the prices reported in Gas buddy and RV Trip WIzard are the consumer price. The sign out in front the station facing traffic (HUGE you can't miss it) will flash the P.U.C. (public utilities commission) price for a lot less, usually .15 to .20  and then the Credit price probably what shows in Gas Buddy, for a lot more than the PUC, then the CASH price somewhere inbetween the Credit and PUC price sometimes.

Other stations, less than 5 miles away and easy access from route I-84, usually less than a mile from the exit, like Chevron, Sinclair and Jacksons fuels (local provider high volume) are between $3.61 and $3.89 with Chevron on the high end.

So if the discount is .16 / gallon at LOVES, then the price I would pay is $4.04 / gallon.
Which is still roughly .40 more than other stations near by.

Common sense and some quick math may save more than the discount card in this case.

If the discount with the TA is ~.35 then the price is $3.80 / gallon which is OK  but still on the high side and may be worth the stop considering the access and convenience of easy off, easy on.
 

If you're not familiar with the Oregon PUC:
On-road diesel (P.U.C. diesel). If your vehicle is above 26,000 gross vehicle weight in Oregon, you pay a weight mile for your vehicle's state diesel tax. This cost per mile depends on your registered vehicle weight with Oregon.   https://www.andersonyamada.com/news/transportation/how-oregon-calculates-p-u-c-diesel-taxes/

 

With the Open Roads TSD discount, Loves is currently at $.28 per gallon. We got a $.47 discount at a TA near Tampa FL yesterday. I have seen them as much as $.60 per gallon. 

A couple of advantages with using the TSD discount is

1) you are not limited to $75 like when using a credit card. The limit is 400 gallons in one day. 

2) the stations typically all have dual high speed nozzles as you have to use the truck pumps to fill. 

3) since it is a truck fuel station, usually it is easier to manuever a larger set up (class A pulling a trailer or toad or a truck and 5th wheel or long bumper pull). Vs taking a chance and getting to a station via gas buddy and finding out you can't fit. If I have to drive more than a few miles out of my way to get cheaper fuel, I will use up more fuel than what I saved.

4) TSD on the app, does let you know that you will pay an additional amount for the taxes in Oregon.

The newer version came out in 2016 in the USA even though Wikipedia shows it came out in July of 2014. I believe 2017 was the last year for a gas version.

12 hours ago, Av8r3400 said:

We're coming out of northern Wisconsin 🥶.  The rig is fully winterized with dry tanks.  We can't put any water in it or un-winterize it because it will freeze on the return trip before I can re-winterize it again.  So, we are hotel-ing it...

It will hopefully be quieter at the hotel! 

When we lived in MN and did winter car shows, we carried a 5 gallon jug of water in our shower that we used for drinking and clean up and carried a couple of RV antifreeze jugs that we used for flushing the toilet with as our trailer had been winterized too. We just tried to use rest area and truck stop bathrooms when possible as we also knew that we would not be able to dump the tanks until it got warmer.

They only took about 3 days to do our triple axle 5th wheel the week of Thanksgiving a couple years ago. One nice thing is once they have your unit inside, after working hours (shift ends around 3pm) you were able to go back into your trailer for the night but there are some shifts working thru the night so there is some noise to deal with and you have to be up early before the suspension shift starts around 5am if I remember correctly. 

Typically you wire the inverter to the batteries and wire the alternator to the batteries to recharge the batteries while the engine is running. Sizing of the wiring between the various items is critical and should be sized to handle the load. 

The alternator typically will only put out the maximum voltage it is designed for and what the batteries can handle, typically around 13.8 to 14 volts DC. You do not mention what the startup amps are on the AC unit. That is usually the limiting factor on if an inverter can power it. Installation of a soft start on the AC unit will help that. The amount of amp hours on the batteries will determine how long the AC will run which of course will be extended by the alternator recharging the batteries. But if the wire size between the alternator and the batteries is too small, it won't recharge them fast enough and eventually the inverter will shut down due to low voltage.

We haven't replaced any of our orings on our TST 507 sensors in the 10 years we have been using them. Usually changing out the batteries about once a year, sometimes longer. We have 12 sensors and in those 10 years, I think I have replaced 5 sensors and three of those were for breakage. I did on the beginning put a little bit of RTV sealant on the threads but haven't lately.

Each state is different. According to the Florida website for drivers license, the class E license is good for the tow vehicle GVWR up to 26001#. GVWR does not include the trailer weight. That would be GCWR. 

3 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

He's tried everywhere around here.  Do you have a dealer near you that can provide one?

Wayne & Jinx
2017 F-350 diesel, dually
2006 Carriage Carri-Lite 36KSQ

I have this horizontal regulator I took off our trailer to go with an auto switchover regulator for dual tanks. It is about a year old. We are in SC and will be heading to Florida in January if you want it

We had a custom built Dune Sport trailer built by them in AZ in 2019. They arranged financing thru a credit union in Wisconsin and at a great rate and we live in South Carolina. We did not need a construction loan as all we paid up front was our deposit and the balance wasn't due until the trailer was completed and the loan was finalized at that time, (we had pre approval done at the time of ordering.)

One item to be aware of, at least on our Freightliner, that as the suspension drops, the truck will move slightly. Be careful that it does not fall off or tilt the jack stands when it does. Ours will lose some air overnight to the point the suspension drops, but it varies based on air temperature. The warmer it is the slower it runs low on air. 

Typically, if I am not going to unhook for an overnight stop, I manually drop the rear suspension using the dash switch (I have to do it a couple times as my switch automatically defaults to the up location and so it airs back up the suspension when you take your figure off of it. This way I don't have to hear it bang when it lets the air out itself in the middle of the night. 

On 11/17/2021 at 5:33 PM, SuiteSuccess said:

Dave, 

All those downsides I’m aware of and am willing to accept. I need something comfortable for a family of four but more 4 season for DW and I. Arctic Fox fills that bill but they are heavy in the fifth wheels. I’m not buying a new truck so TT comes into play but safety is forefront. Does a good anti sway hitch mitigate some of the safety issues?

I do believe a good anti sway device is worth the money. We used one with our weight distribution hitch when we pulled a bumper pull trailer with a 2500 truck but that was over 12 years ago. My son uses the hitch and attachments now but doesn't travel long distances with his. I was not aware of the Hensley units that trailerttraveler mention but sounds like they may be worth looking into.

In most cases a 5th wheel will handle better than a bumper pull trailer. Bumper pull trailers can sway much more easily than the 5th wheel but alot also depends on weight distribution. 

A bumper pull trailer in our opinion is also harder to hook up than a 5th wheel. You have to get the ball lined up almost exactly in position and it is easy to overshoot it. Then you have to hook up the load bars and anti sway devices along with the safety chains none of which are needed for a 5th wheel. 

It will be interesting to follow the install, thanks for your help! 

Unfortunately all the high fuel prices will do is either reduce how much money our kids when get when we die or will have to put up with us when we move in with them when the money runs out. As long as our health allows us to travel, we plan to. When we bought our first diesel pickup and trailer, diesel was at $5 per gallon and we survived then.