Dennis M

X2

You can tow a fiver with the commercial hitch, same pin size, but it will beat up the fiver as there is not enough pin weight to activate the truck suspension. I suppose you could mount an air hitch behind the commercial fifth wheel. Mine is on a stinger behind the smart deck. One advantage of having it so far behind the rear axle is that it backs like a flat tow.

BigFoot x4. DW said no way she was laying boards to level a fiver with duals! Put the BigFoot on in 2007 a week after we bought the trailer, never regretted it.

Nice old cabover Pete on Barn Finds https://barnfinds.com/daily-driver-reliable-1987-peterbilt-362/

2005 Newmar Mountain Aire 35 BLKS fifth wheel. We bought it off a repo lot in Virginia in 2007 for 50% of MSRP. As far as we (and an independent RV tech) could tell it had never been used. We've done some interior cabinet modifications to make it fit our lifestyle better (Focal Wood Products), Winegard Trav'ler, and upgraded our recliners (Bradd & Hall). We have lived in the fiver for about six month a year since 2010 and full timed for one year. Have towed it over 100k. The Mountain Aire has duels on two axles - 8 tires - and weighs 18.5 ready to travel. GVWR is 20k. We ran the OEM BFG tires for 3 years, then put on Michelin XPS Ribs. Just put on a new set of XPS Ribs last summer. Never a tire issue. Ours is a four season package with two furnaces, heated belly compartments, dual pane windows, and one ducted AC unit. Coldest we survived was a night at 18 Below and three days with a high below zero. Filled a 40 lb propane tank every other day! The single AC unit has been more than adequate. Only problem we ever had was a continual problem with broken spring hangers. Finally broke down and put on a Mor Ryde Independent Suspension in 2016. Wish we had done it sooner! We can tell from the way things no longer move around inside that it rides much better. Also increased our GVWR since we upgraded from 8k to 9k axles. The Mountain Aire has held up amazingly well. Ten winters in Arizona have taken their toll on the outside which is starting to show it's age, but the inside still looks like new. We have been contemplating a paint job. We would highly recommend Newmar fivers, but they quit building them in 2007. If you can find a well maintained used one grab it!

4:11 gears? Seriously?

We loaded our first smart in 2006 and are on our third - 1-450 and 2-451's. I have always winched up using the rear tow eyes with no issues. Not sure what the tow eye config. is on the 453. I do drive off though.

X3 I'll chime in again. Ever since I started driving - long, long time ago - I have always told myself that every other car on the road is trying to kill me. I try to be doubly alert in the truck and react to anything odd. Case in point, years ago in southern IL a car towing a small U-Haul passed me, the right rear tire was 6 to 8 inches outside of the fender. I immediately kicked off the cruise and slowed down. Sure enough less than a mile down the road that wheel and tire came off completely! Car and trailer came to a pretty quick stop on the shoulder, but that wheel and tire must have gone anothe half mile, bouncing off the guardrail!

We've had 2005 ( a 450 gray market - 64th smart in the US), a 2011 (451) and now a 2013 (also 451). Each has been an improvement over the previous, primarily in ride comfort. The 451 is a few inches longer due to European pedestrian impact standards and has a Mitsubishi engine, the 450's had a Mercedes turbo-charged engine. Really not much difference in performance. We have carried all three crossways on the Volvo deck. Loaded the '05 in March of '06 and have been carrying one ever since. You often hear comments about safety concerns and most of the people in this forum know there is no reason to be concerned. The reason we bought the 2013 was because the 2011 saved my life (and my passengers) in 50 MPH head on hit from a Chevy pickup running a red light. Seat belt broke my sternum and my passenger had cracked ribs, also from the seat belts, so the smart lived up to my beliefs. The drivers door still opened and closed. When we are not traveling the smart is my wife's daily driver and she loves it. We prefer the look of the 451 versus the newer ones, but that is just an opinion, all of them are fine for carrying on your HDT.

I use the Flying J RV card which gets me pump start and cash price using my Visa. Sometimes pay at pump, more often just pump start and go in to pay. We always give our CC company a heads up when we are traveling and rarely get a kickback on 200 gallon fill-ups. On the rare occasion they will text my wife to approve the purchase.

X2 on Desert Trails & Tucson! We spent ten winters at Desert Trails and only stopped because we built a winter home in the area. Reasonable prices, great residents and friendly owners.

Same here and it's still going strong after 14 years and 100k miles plus.

Mark, Not sure if this is the right place to post the info but had a good repair experience in Barstow, CA American Towing & Recovery 2520 E. Main Street Barstow, CA 92311 760-256-5200 Had an air leak, they took a look at the truck right away, found a leaking cab air bag. No parts available in Barstow so they capped off the line to stop the leak. (Had cab air bags replaced at TEC Volvo in Reno two days later.) Took less than an hour and they only charged us 1/2 hour labor. Dennis

Just had the MorRyde IRS installed on our Newmar in July. A bit pricy, but well well worth the money. We have towed about 5k miles since install and really happy with the result. Added a bit of weight to the trailer, but we went from two 9k sprung axles to two 10k IRS, so we gained capacity.

Me too! 63-64 MPH is the comfort spot for us. Often see the same four wheelers, and some RVs sailing past us 2 or 3 times in a day! I try to keep reminding myself that we are 65 feet long and weigh 37k, over and over!

There is some BLM land just North of the casino on the NE corner of Ajo Highway (AZ 86) and San Joaquin Rd. Almost always a few boondockers in there.

Fiver comes out of the barn on Monday and we hit the road Wednesday. Ten days in Denver to visit the rellys, then on to Desert Trails in Tucson for the duration!

Great idea Jack, it will interesting to watch it grow.

Just received this note from our financial advisor today, sent to all his clients, not us specifically. Others might find it interesting. We've been working with him for about 10 years, he got us through '08 in pretty good shape and we have recovered everything lost then, so I have a lot of confidence in his opinion. "A bad day on Wall street today. Many are wondering, “what should I do?, should I sell some things? Make some change?” The answer is … Maybe. Many people experienced a large decline in 2000, a recovery, and then another large decline, then another recovery. So it is natural to ask, “will this be another large decline, because I sure don’t want to go down a 3rd time. “ If you have thought that, then good, that means you are normal! I am concerned of course about the market, but I am even more concerned that people may sell stocks here only to see the market recover (possibly). That would be devastating and very dangerous for your financial plan. If you feel like this risk is too much, then what that tells me is that your long term asset allocation may be wrong, and we need to talk about that. I believe a key to a good long-term plan is having the right balance between stocks/bonds. It has been tempting to leave virtually everything in stocks the last 3 years as the market was going up. That may have lulled some into having a higher percentage of stocks than is appropriate. If you feel that way, then we need to talk, please call. My opinion is that short term we are possibly in for more volatility, but it is not 2008 all over again"

We are at Desert Trails in Tucson through the first of March. Pretty good sized park, but we are the only HDT as far as I can see. Beautiful and sunny here, temps into the 70's this weekend!

We're in Roswell, NM this AM. Headed for Tucson, but there is snow between here and Las Cruces today so we will sit tight for a day. Forecast says sunny and 50 degrees tomorrow.

Leaving chi area tonight for Fla for Mom's day (DW staying home & working ) Leaving tonight around 10 PM and will run down I 39 to I 74, then I 57 to I 24; will sleep awhile at the J in Oak Grove, KY, then I 24 over to I 75 in Chatt and down to the Tampa area. Give a shout on chan 19 if you see me going by. Oh yeah, I'm going to try to hold it to 60 MPH to see what it does to gas mileage - we'll see how long I can keep my foot out of it - 65 is a lot more comfortable. Dennis

Boy, you guys know how to make those of us still working feel bad! We're home, Bud and the trailer are in for the winter. Saw a "motor home" with a custom bed going through St Charles, IL last Saturday around noon. Only caught the back of it so I don't know what it was. Anyone here?