BlueLghtning

Are you familiar with RAM mounting products? I've used these to mount ham radio detachable heads in cars before including my FT-8800. Even a windshield mount is possible, but then you may end up taking it down all the time. 

On 8/14/2017 at 3:40 PM, BlueLghtning said:

I can finally jump in on this thread.

We left Peachtree City, GA yesterday on Sunday and drove around Atlanta on 285 up 75 to 24 past Chatanooga. We took Hwy 27 & hwy 127 to I-40 and are staying at Davy Crocket CG. For future reference W16 is a great spot for an HDT with plenty of room to back in. W15 is very narrow so skip that one. I haven't got a chance to walk around to look at others.

In a couple days we will be headed to Shoshoni, WY to watch the Eclipse so we'll doing a long cross country repositioning.

We'll be in Silverton, CO at the end af August and then Taylor Park, CO after that. 

We ended up having to stay in TN longer than we had hoped which killed our plans for WY. We left TN on Friday, Aug 25th and made a 1500 mile drive to Silverton, CO over 3 days. That was a long haul, but the truck did great. Silverton of course is right in the middle of the Million Dollar Hwy (Hwy 550) between Durango & Ouray and is avoided by many RV'rs. I had driven and ridden it before, so I knew what to expect, but it was still a bit nerve racking. We came in from ABQ and made the drive north to Silverton. I was a little nervous about taking 550 being so new at this, but I took it slow and the truck did great. The downhills were a non issue with the jake brake and the right gear. I did find myself having to drop gears on climbs sometimes on steeper climbs with my manual, but I never missed a gear. I pulled over when I could to let faster traffic by although 550 has some pretty low speed limits.

Once we left Silverton, we headed to Taylor Park Resovoir where we are now and of course that meant going the rest of the way up 550 through Ouray, to Montrose, then hwy 50 East to Gunnison, where we grabbed Hwy 135 north to 742 to Taylor Park. I actually found Hwy 50 a bit more challenging in spots due to all the construction they are doing including one very bumpy gravel section and trying to slow the rig down when you notice the huge bumps they left on bridge transitions in several places. Since Cotton Wood Pass is closed to Buena Vista this year, our only way out of here is back to Gunnison and Hwy 50. We are probably going to stay somewhere East of Salida on Hwy 50 until it's time to head to the Rally in KS. 

I can finally jump in on this thread.

We left Peachtree City, GA yesterday on Sunday and drove around Atlanta on 285 up 75 to 24 past Chatanooga. We took Hwy 27 & hwy 127 to I-40 and are staying at Davy Crocket CG. For future reference W16 is a great spot for an HDT with plenty of room to back in. W15 is very narrow so skip that one. I haven't got a chance to walk around to look at others.

In a couple days we will be headed to Shoshoni, WY to watch the Eclipse so we'll doing a long cross country repositioning.

We'll be in Silverton, CO at the end af August and then Taylor Park, CO after that. 

I called them and spoke to Joe.

For new boxes, they charge $8500 and they don't mount them there. The box dimensions are around: 

• door opening is - 58" wide x 64" tall
• Outside dimenisions are 64" width (front to back from side view) x 80" tall x 97" deep (width across truck frame) 

They do have a door on either end and include the e-track shown in the pics. They are built to miltary spec. 

3 hours ago, Stan Wright said:

I sent one last week, but haven't heard anything.

That's disappointing, who did you e-mail? I emailed the two listed as parts mgr & parts sales. I found some numbers I might try next. 

Has anyone contacted this Joplin trailer sales yet about their pre-made drom boxes? I just sent an e-mail and we'll see what I hear back. 

I just looked up those ones at the Joplin Trailer Sales. That looks great for what I may need. http://joplintrailer.com/?page_id=260. If you get more info including the dimensions and cost, please do share here. 

I'm going to be following this because a small motorcycle garage on the back of my 610 is on my wish list too. 

37 minutes ago, Cotreker said:

Congratulations on your purchase, I have been following what you have been writing.  I am also in a 10 speed Eaton and learning more everyday!  We should compare notes on taxes and plate fees, I was scared but came out pretty well in Colorado.  Insurance is something like $30.00 per month.  Now I need to sell the Powerstroke$

Yeah, CO is one of those states that my wife and I looked at moving to at some point. I'm curious how they do taxes and plate fees in CO?  You did really good on insurance. Mine is closer to $70/mo on the truck. 

Up untill about 2013, GA had a yearly ad valorem tax on any vehicle/trailer you owned. It was based on a certain percentage of what the vehicle was worth so it went down each year. This was often called the Birthday tax as your tags renew on your birthday, although at least you could write it off on your taxes each year. Having owned many bikes, vehicles, & trailers and the fact that my wife and I have a birthday only 1 day apart Sept was always a rough month for us sometimes owning 10+ vehicles, motorcycles, trailers at tag time. The nice thing about this setup was if you purchase a vehicle private party, there was no sales tax where as If you bought from a dealer, you paid the sales tax at the time of your purchase based on the rate in your county plus you still had to pay the advalorem each year. I used to buy and sell bikes a lot through private sellers and I could work it where I would sell them before my birthday and buy new ones after. If you had a current tag to register, you didn't have to pay the advalorem tax until your birthday the next year. 

Then a few years back GA went to what they call the TAVT (Title Ad Valorem Tax). There is no longer a sales tax on vehicles, but now you pay the TAVT on any vehicle purchase regardless if it's private or dealer. It's currently set at 7% and based on the fair market value or what you paid, what ever is higher. I got hit with a little over $1k TAVT on this truck. Now the good thing is going forward it will just be a $20 tag fee each year vs an the previous going tax so once you own it, you are good. But that ininial purchase does bite. This really took a dent out of me buying and selling bikes because you had to pay this each time you bought something. 

The sucky thing about the TAVT though is it hits anyone moving to GA. Even if you bought your vehicle in a state that you paid Sales Tax on it, when you come to GA, you basically have to pay what is effectively another tax on the value of a vehicle you already own. This could get costly if you have several high dollar vehicles you are bringing with you. I'm sure that is where this really makes money for the state. 

Now here's the really confusing part. When the TAVT tax came out, you had the opportunity to "opt in" on any vehicle you owned at the time meaning you paid the TAVT right there, then never paid a tax again. If you opted out, you would stay on the old system and continue to pay the yearly ad valorem until you sold the vehicle. The break even point was about 7 years so if you would own it less, it was best to opt outt. If you planned on keeping it, better to opt in. I have 1 car and 2 bikes I opted out on as I didn't think I'd keep them that long, but still do. It's getting a lot closer to that 7 year break even point.  

Something else I just learned though is that the TAVT only applies to vehicles you drive. So 5th wheel trailers and stuff still fall under the old Ad Valorem tax system, so my 5th wheel was around $400 ad valorem, but I'll have to keep paying that each year (it goes down some each year). I guess though that's better than maybe the $2500-$3000 tax it would have been for a TAVT purchase. 

1 hour ago, Cotreker said:

I just completed my tags today in Colorado and will start a new thread, I had good luck.  I learned a great deal and will share.

Good to hear! I'll look forward to seeing your thread. 

On 4/19/2017 at 5:36 PM, BlueLghtning said:

Hopefully, you can add another one to the list. I went in today to the DMV office in Coweta and applied for my GA title for my HDT and walked out with my registration & license plate. I had chatted with GeorgiaHybrid a few times and although his was a little different since his was new, it certainly helped to chat with him and I was armed with lots of info if I had issues. However, I decided to approach this with the "less is more" attitude and see how that went first. I was going to just go into it like it was no big deal and not bring in pics and extra stuff that would just confuse them and maybe add suspicion that there was anything different with this transaction. I was just there to title and register my Volvo Motorhome which is basically as close as you can get in GA to the classification that we want. My HDT came from CA and although it was no longer registered commercially, it also didn't say anything about an RV on the California Title. My CA title just said it was a Volvo 610 automobile, but that didn't seem to be an issue.

I went in and just said I need to register my Volvo Motorhome and handed her the CA title and my Bill of Sale. She asked some questions like if it was the drivable type, color, and a few other things that weren't listed on the CA title. I realized the first time, she put it as a trailer so we had to go back and correct that and then noticed she put it as Gas instead of Diesel and left the mileage off the title which I wanted so got her to add that. In the end the title shows 2000 Volvo VN "HC" and HC is the code for motorhome in their system which she printed out and showed me. My registration shows the same thing at the top next to the VIN#. 

I should have the title in my hand in 7-10 days so I'll let you know. 

 

My GA Title showed up today! It looks like I'm good!

46 minutes ago, Pat & Pete said:

You guys are making this way too complicated .

Why not simply ride the bike into place , carefully . We know a fellow that loaded a Goldwing into his toyhauler . He made a couple of short 'ramps' for his feet and placed on both sides of the bikes entry path . They gaped the area of where the hauler ramp met the ground . He used those more for unloading than loading . 

From my understanding, it's not so much the loading as it is the unloading, although as mentioned above in either case if you get stopped on the ramp, things can get interesting quick if you start to slide backwards. A Goldwing, although a big bike, makes unloading a breeze because it actually has reverse so it controls your descent speed and it keeps you going backwards once your back wheel hits the ground even if it's uphill. I don't know Chief916 physical attributes or overall health, but it sounds like dropping a full dresser harley on him would cause him some grief as those are not light weight motorcycles. Backing anything that heavy down a ramp and the front wheel starts to skid is a scary situation to be in because it only takes a few seconds for you to lose your balance and have it toppling over on top of you. That's where the clutch trick with the motor off comes in handy to slow your descent. The next part he mentioned is the transition from the ramp to the ground. Depending on your height and your backwards speed, you could end up with a few seconds there where you can't touch the ground on either side of the bike. Using some ramps as you mentioned or small step stools on either side could help, but that just adds another thing that could move on you and you could still fall over. Securing the bike to some sort of device that he can use a winch cable on is probably the safest bet for him.   

21 minutes ago, Ronbo said:

Just a thought. Glue and screw a rubber diamond plate strip to the door. Should give the traction you need. 

When backing down a hill on a motorcycle, especially cruisers as the front wheel is usually raked out more, motorcycles have very little weight and traction on the front wheel. Even my cement driveway which is fairly steep, if I'm backing down and get any kind of speed and grab the front brrake, I'll skid my front tire. You can't really get any better traction than cement and a rubber tire, but it happens.  So while the rubber diamond plate strip might help, it's really not the source of the problem. The main issue is all the weight and most of the traction is on the rear tire in that situation. 

I've learned the trick of using the clutch with the motor off back from my dirt biking days. It was always amazing to watch someone trying a steep hill climb and not make it and as they started sliding backwords, they would be holding in the clutch and grab that front brake but the front wheel would just skid as they would pick up speed backwards. They would be afraid to try to reach the rear brake since it involved lifting your right leg they were trying to balance on, but if they would just pop the clutch and stall the motor, the rear wheel would lock effectively stopping them. 

10 hours ago, Hot Rod said:

I load my Street Glide (loaded up like an Ultra) in our toy hauler.  The original steep ramp angle was a bit much for my middle aged comfort level.  I could dirt bike it up without too much sweat, but backing out was very hairy as the front tire did not have enough grip to do much but skid down completely locked up.  Those toy hauler doors just really aren't designed for a full dress harley.

I added 10" blocks to the door to elevate it with 3' hinged extensions to effectively lengthen and reduce the angle of the ramp door.  Now, no sweat at all.  I can zing right up with no worries.  Backing out the front wheel will just barely hold it as long as you keep it to creeping speeds, let it get going too fast though and it will still slide.  When backing out I always have it running in gear with the clutch in, If you get a little crooked and have to pull back up it is ready to go.  You'd never be able to start it and get it in gear without losing balance otherwise.

 

Have you tried backing out in gear with the motor off. That way if the front wheel looses traction, you just let the clutch out in gear to act as a brake. In fact you could use the clutch instead of the front wheel brake and never have a traction issue even if the ramp was at a steeper angle. 

What problem are you running into? Just the larger size of the bike and heavier weight plus the angle of the ramp? Can you mount some sort of winch in the garage to pull you in? That would be at a very slow controlled speed and you would only need to sit on it and balance it as you pull yourself in?

I just decided to e-mail them back and request that they delete my newly created account and purge all my personal indentifable info from their system. It's not worth the hassle to get your personal info stolen from a site like that that breaks the most basic internet security protocols. 

I just did the simple registration on their site (not actually bought anything) that you would need to do see their online version and right away I see something I don't like and that is they e-mail you your username/password in plain text back to you. As an IT person, that irks me because they are just asking for someone to hack them and steal that info. If you do sign up, don't use a normal e-mail/password you usually use, because it sure isn't secure. 

That definitely gives me pause about sending them my money and more info.

39 minutes ago, GeorgiaHybrid said:

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Definietly! Thanks again for all the chats and assistance! 

Hopefully, you can add another one to the list. I went in today to the DMV office in Coweta and applied for my GA title for my HDT and walked out with my registration & license plate. I had chatted with GeorgiaHybrid a few times and although his was a little different since his was new, it certainly helped to chat with him and I was armed with lots of info if I had issues. However, I decided to approach this with the "less is more" attitude and see how that went first. I was going to just go into it like it was no big deal and not bring in pics and extra stuff that would just confuse them and maybe add suspicion that there was anything different with this transaction. I was just there to title and register my Volvo Motorhome which is basically as close as you can get in GA to the classification that we want. My HDT came from CA and although it was no longer registered commercially, it also didn't say anything about an RV on the California Title. My CA title just said it was a Volvo 610 automobile, but that didn't seem to be an issue.

I went in and just said I need to register my Volvo Motorhome and handed her the CA title and my Bill of Sale. She asked some questions like if it was the drivable type, color, and a few other things that weren't listed on the CA title. I realized the first time, she put it as a trailer so we had to go back and correct that and then noticed she put it as Gas instead of Diesel and left the mileage off the title which I wanted so got her to add that. In the end the title shows 2000 Volvo VN "HC" and HC is the code for motorhome in their system which she printed out and showed me. My registration shows the same thing at the top next to the VIN#. 

I should have the title in my hand in 7-10 days so I'll let you know. 

6 minutes ago, hdonlybob said:

Very nice truck.. Good for you..

I really miss my 610. A great all around HDT.

Enjoy

Thanks, I think we are really going to enjoy it. I keep looking out my front window seeing it sit there and thinking, wow I really own a HDT now. haha.

This site was instrumental and educating me on everything about them. 

4 hours ago, rbertalotto said:

Great story... how is your friends health? Anything serious?

He's fine, It was just sinus congestion stuff that hit him suddenly. I saw him last night and he was still sounding a bit rough, but feeling better. 

3 hours ago, wild wolf products said:

If you were closer. I would offer my air ride hitch to you. And let you use it for a few months. Or until you found one, but its around 5 hours one way between us. As I'm in West Tn, 24 miles west of Pickwick Lake.

Pete

I appreciate the offer, but yeah that's quite the round trip. I'm not even sure at this point the truck will be all ready, so probably best not to rush all that. I'm definitely excited about getting it all ready. 

45 minutes ago, JPL said:

BL   Great pictures and loved the dtory ride back. Glad everytihg was good to go. we spent 5 years stationed at Kings Bay so we are kind of Ga people. Spent a great weekend in Albany visiting old shipmates in Oct. The truck looks great. Will you be able to get to the ECR? Yes or no be safe and keep those pictures and smiles coming.   Pat

 

 

The Old Sailor

The ECR is really up on the air. I would love to make it, but getting my hitch sorted may take more time than I have and I really shouldn't rush all that. I'm going to try to get the truck sorted this week. Maybe at the very least I can just drive the truck and stay in it. I'll need to work some of those days though for my job on my computer as I can't take the whole week off and not sure how that will be in the truck.  

I'm sure I'll meet up with you guys sooner or later! 

3 hours ago, wild wolf products said:

Was telling my wife that you were flying to Ca to pick up a truck.  And here you have made the trip. As for the fun in the sleeper. I used to make that run from West to Tn Ca. Every week, and every 8 hours I was in the sleeper. Across Ar in I-40. I felt like a jumping jack. But on the bright side, never any issues of bed sores. Because you were never on one spot for longer then a minute or so.

Back in the 80's when all the trucks I was driving. Only had air ride on the seat. That trip was fun fun fun.

As for shifting, after a few trips. You will never even have to think about what gear. It should get where its natural. I had not driven a 10 speed in 8 years or more. But jumped in one and it was just like being at home. I would rather have a 13 or 18 speed.

 

Pete

I bet that was a bumpy ride back then. I was really hoping for a 13sd too and with the space between 8-9-10, I could see where it could help split that a bit, but I'm just happy to have a manual. I love shifting and I'm glad I went this direction. 

1 hour ago, dblr said:

Congrats an your new ride and glad all went well on your trip home. If you were a UPS yard dog that far back you must have shifted in a old day cab Mack I know that was fun as I am retired from UPS after 37 years and know what their trucks are like, I learned on the real old F model Macks and even really older cab over Diamond Reos. You didn't get a good chance to run up and down the gears in the yard much. Good luck on the truck and waiting to watch your progress.

I wasn't at a big facility, so it wasn't my dedicated job. We only had 3 doors for tractor trailers so I did that on top of fueling and parking all the package car trucks and smaller trailers we had too. We did have one of the old day cab Mack's when I first started doing it with an air clutch and brake, but then I got to start using the Feeder driver's truck before he came in for his shift. I couldn't tell you what type of rig that was today though. I was only moving a couple trailers a night, but I got really good at backing them up. You are right I didn't get to go through the gears too much, but I started learning the basics and the feeder driver taught me a few things. Around peak time, they would bring in the big Ryder rental sleepers and even though they were so much larger, I would jump in those when I had the chance just to see how nice they were.