Overthinker

Our new Volvo has finally arrived after a year of waiting. I've seen older posts on brake controllers but I wanted to see if there was something new or better available. Jackalope has been sitting in the garage waiting for quite sometime and I'll take any tips you have on that too. I'm very pleased with how the truck turned out looks wise and I appreciate all the advice I received on here although its been about a year ago. I've stayed away because I didn't want to be jealous of everyone.

We were reviewing our final build sheet of a Volvo VNL 740 mid roof with a 215" WB and while looking at the predictor I noticed something interesting. The turning radius curb to curb is 63.89' which is almost 7' more than my GMC crew cab dually. When we first started this journey everyone said our HDT turns better than a dually pickup. What am I missing? 7' more is a huge difference and that's with a short WB HDT most HDT's are even longer, at 225" WB the turning radius is 10' larger than our 2020 Duramax. When everyone says their HDT "turns better" are they referring to something other than turning radius? I'm really concerned if we order this truck I'm going to have a difficult time maneuvering in campgrounds.

I agree. I used to rock crawl a lot and you typically aren’t pulling the entire weight of the vehicle. It’s more of an assist of sorts. I was looking at a Warn 16.5ti today, just need to figure out a method to mount it. Often if you can get a vehicle to advance a few feet you can get rolling.

You are correct, can’t have liftable drive axle. Learn something everyday.

Let me check with the dealer again but I’m almost sure its an option even in 6x4 configuration but I’m easily confused😀

Your point brings me to another question that I have been pondering. Would it be best to have the ability to lift one of the axles?

It’s almost 40k! I think we need to reach another income bracket to afford that😀

Thanks for the info, I’ll check it out. I don’t understand all the info either, just a farm boy trying to figure things out.

We will not be hauling a car but will camp in the truck and haul UTV or Jeep without the trailer attached. This will require driving off road and we will also be driving off road with our trailer. I’m equipping the truck with a fully locked rear end so we will have 8 tires pulling in the forward direction. We also plan to build a very heavy bed to add weight to the back. Since we are ordering dual 150 gal fuel tanks and a 217” WB with full fairings we won’t have room for tool boxes. Our trailer has a lift kit for pulling it off road so it can accommodate a high pin height. I’m considering building the bed from 2x10 1/4” wall steel and adding full width sliding drawers under the bed in front of the hitch. It’s a work in progress determining hitch height too. The steel weighs about 20lb per foot plus my decking, side fairings, bumper, gear, drawers, and bumper pull hitch. With the bed and fuel we should be in the area of an additional 8k lbs over the rear axles. This will also lower the center of gravity of the truck which is never a bad thing. I plan to use this truck a little different than most people on here. We have no desire to stay in campgrounds all the time keeping the wheels on the pavement. We expect to have the truck in situations most would never consider. I used to build custom rock crawlers and we still off road with our Jeep and UTV’s and want to continue to enjoy that lifestyle. We are trying to build the truck in a fashion that will mitigate the risk of getting stuck while performing well on the road. We are also exploring self recovery options if anyone has any experience with that. The main point in the hitch question was to get some real world and scientific evidence on the difference in handling characteristics based on hitch location. When you single your truck you have created a fulcrum and the further back you move your hitch the more weight is removed from the front of the truck. We are trying to find a happy medium and keep the weight distribution more equal and still have it maneuver well in tight spaces. We stay in campgrounds occasionally and it seems most campgrounds aren’t equipped for big rigs. I might be looking at the hitch placement completely wrong and that’s why I joined the forum to get advice from those with experience. I feel like I’m coming at this from a different angle than your typical RV hauler and that might be a good thing or a bad thing. We can all learn from each other. I’m trying to accomplish the shortest rig possible with the best turning radius, off road traction, and on road handling possible.

Thanks that’s what we are looking for. We don’t live far from Crossville and might head over in April.

No way would I consider a commercial hitch. We currently have a TrailerSaver BD5 and will continue to use an air ride hitch possibly switching to ET in the future but TrailerSaver is giving us a deal trading our BD5 in because we hardly used it. We also plan to add a heavy bed (approx. 4K lb plus gear) to increase weight on rear axles.

See below

Thanks for the responses everyone. That’s interesting about the trailer tracking better. I forgot to mention we hooked our trailer up to the commercial hitch on the test drive truck and we had plenty of clearance with the hitch moved backwards or centered. We didn’t attempt to slide it forward. Prior to hooking it up I went through a series of maneuvers in my 1 ton with the trailer and then attempted to replicate them in the HDT. I attempted every maneuver I could think of on the lot and didn’t have any problems. I honestly couldn’t tell a huge difference and I think this particular HDT had a 239”WB. The most notable difference was the ability to see the front of the HDT and the sides with the hood mirrors. Those things are amazing because i can see all the way down the side of the trailer and I can easily tell where my front corner is for clearing things. The 2020 GMC HD’s hood is so big you have no idea where anything is at. You have to open the front camera app which is a pain.

I’m not smart enough to figure out how to search the HDT section instead of the entire site for my question, so I’m just going to ask. It seems 99% of the HDT’s have the hitch behind the axles which makes no sense to an old farm boy. I was alway taught to install my hitches just in front of the rear axle. With practically everyone placing their hitch well behind the axle, I would really like to have a better understanding of the rational as well as the pros and cons. I’m really concerned about overall length and weight distribution. Some of the singled trucks appear to be squatting even while driving so I doubt their bags are dumped. We have a 40’ 5th wheel with about 4K-5K on the pin and will have tandems on our truck. I was thinking the best solution might be to place the hitch 1” in front of the rear most axle to split the difference between most setups and true axle center but I also want to know how it effects maneuverability. Our crew cab long box dually is difficult to maneuver in tight campgrounds especially when there are campers or trees are on the other side of the road from our site. The HDT has about 4-5d more wheel cut than my current truck which will help but we are ordering a 217” WB which is about 27” longer WB than our truck. We aren’t going to be hauling anything so we can place the hitch as close to the cab as clearances will allow, which in my mind will help with aero as well as shorten our overall footprint. I would really appreciate hearing from someone that has pulled/backed a 5th wheel with the hitch in both locations to get an accurate comparison. Thanks so much for your input.

I’m happy to hear of someone else going off road and having lockers. More than a few have looked at me like I’m crazy or ask why I would want to take it off road. Do you have any idea what your bed weighs? Any thoughts on off road tread or putting wider tires on the steer axle (OEM on Mack Dump Trucks)? Thanks fo the info and well wishes, Randyretired.

Chad, according to the dealer they discontinued factory sink option in the truck we are ordering a couple of years ago (maybe he is wrong and I'll ask again). Due to our family situation the potty will get used with all the kids and my growing prostate😆. I'm used to cleaning up their messes so no big deal. I expect the potty and sink will be of no use once the kids are gone that's why we want something well concealed and with a factory look.

Thank you! Your truck looks identical to what we are thinking, we are also considering Smoky Mountain Blue as a color option.

I haven't formally introduced myself but we are new to the forum and the HDT community. So, why are we here: We used to have an underpowered class C which wasn't capable of pulling anything. We entertained the idea of a ShowHauler for sometime, then decided on a class A. After searching for a class A capable of pulling our toys and a trailer large enough we realized we would be excessively long. While searching for light trailers to pull behind the class A we stumbled upon an ATC toy hauler and decided it was perfect for us because we already had a GMC Duramax Dually. Just prior to purchasing the trailer I got some bad fuel and the truck quit on me multiple times (used biocide and a couple of fuel filter changes and it cleared up). This was enough to freak my wife out (afraid of getting stranded in the desert) and we purchased a 2020 GMC Duramax Dually. We pulled our trailer almost 6k miles last year with the Duramax and it pulls the trailer extremely well but as you know pulling is only part of the equation. We had several instances of the trailer demonstrating who was really in control (hard braking, cornering, wind, dragged us backwards down a gravel hill). We have 3 daughters and safety on the road is a major concern of mine. We decided to look at M2's and found some new Sport Chassis for not much more than our Denali. We took a test drive and found out they were loud, underpowered, didn't ride or sit well, but they could turn on a dime. I was very disappointed and decided we would keep our truck until I got a really dumb idea, why not look at a semi. My dad was a truck driver and I've been around them all my life, plus I knew it was the same chassis used by ShowHauler. We took a test drive in a 2018 Volvo VNL 760 with almost 400k miles on it, my wife even drove it and she is afraid to drive my dually. The truck rode much better than the M2, the power was much better, the blind spots in my truck were completely eliminated, you could see everything around you, we could drive to CO and back without stopping (Instead of every 200-250 miles), the kids could sleep in the bunk or eat at the table, no more bathroom stops (every stop ended up being 30 minutes minimum), the truck would stop my trailer even if my trailer brakes failed, and the Mid-Roof will fit in my garage. We looked at used trucks and haven't found anything that we really like and I spoke with Jack about our options and he suggested new if you planned on keeping it longer than 10yrs. We really expect to keep it until we die so hopefully we will have it for at least another 20-30yrs. We also looked at what some of the places are charging to convert used trucks and by the time they get finished people are paying a lot of money even when purchasing a used truck with nearly 500k miles. We decided we could purchase a new HDT and I could build a custom bed for about 20-30K more than what a used conversion will cost us. We should be able to finance it as an RV based on my research and discussion with our bank and it would have full factory warranty plus all the options we want. We are looking at a fully loaded VNL 740 Mid-Roof with 6x4 both diffs fully locking. I want a short wheelbase and we spec'd it at 217" with a 500HP Eco-Torque motor, I 12 tranny with overdrive, 2.64 ratio, 40k rear axle and 13,200 front axle, disc brakes all the way, and dual 150 gallon tanks. We off road and boondoc frequently and I'm scared of getting this thing stuck if we get off the highway, hence the locking diffs. We will be parking in dirt, gravel, and grass lots/fields and I have enough experience to know they sink and don't do well on wet grass. I've also considered super singles (off road tread) and wide tires in front to keep it from sinking as bad as well as building a 3-4k lb bed for added traction when bob tailing. I saw one guy building his bed out of aluminum (looks awesome) saying you needed to save weight so I'm not sure about that but I like no rust quality of aluminum. Our trailer is generally around 21k loaded and the total weight on my drive axle when hooked to my dually was 8980, so I'm not sure what my pin weight is. I would guess around 4k since the truck weighs just over 10k and factory pin weight is 3k. I apologize for the long intro but I'm just throwing everything out there for everyone to critique our thought process and we also would like some input on the conversion. We are hoping you guys have some ideas for the sink and toilet. The sleeper is 70" and there is a cabinet behind the passenger seat that I would like to utilize. I'm hoping for a built in factory look and I figure this site has a tremendous amount of expert opinions. Also please let me know where we are going wrong in our logic, build spec, and design. This is our dream truck and we want it to be the right tool for the job. Thanks for letting us join your forum! Mark