Rotorhead

51 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

Doesn't matter how many you carry, cuz you'll blow out one more than that.  We have blown three at once, and have actually had to replace six at one time due to a brake controller malfunction.

RVing ain't cheap.

You're right about that.

Someone on here said something like "If you ain't payin' you ain't playin'" hahaha.

Awesome thanks for all the replies. I haven't thought of the rubber snakes. We do have a lot of black racer snakes. I like the idea of turning lights on at night and looking for the entry points. As far as moving I don't have a lot of options. We are in the boondocks, haha. I have tried spreading mothballs under the camper and in the wood line closest to the camper. I'm not sure if that actually helps, but it makes us feel better, haha.

I am going to have to find all the entry points and seal them up. Hopefully those boogers won't chew through. But I think they are tenacious.

We have been getting an occasional mouse or two when our Class C is parked in our homemade campsite on the side of the house next to our fire pit, which of course, is next to the woods.

I finally got out there and opened up the cabinet doors in the bathroom, which is where we caught most of them. I removed a piece of the cabinet that was installed to cover up the plumbing and wiring. Low and behold, there was a wide open hole in the floor for the P&E to run through. I had bought some spray foam to fill these types of holes. I used the one that bugs don't like to chew on hoping that the mice won't like it either. I still need to get under the rig and see what I can find from down there.

Any other thoughts on mice entry points? Fixes for said points? I now have the radio playing hoping that that will deter them, but I have my doubts. The rig is hooked up to 30 amp service.

5 minutes ago, mr. cob said:

Howdy Chuck,

I have used a toy hauler for the last ten years hauling anything from many motorcycles to the Smart Car, and now the CAN AM SxS.  Max weight I have carried would be close to 3,000 pounds of vehicles.  In my opinion the BIGGEST mistake most folks make when buying a toy hauler is they get one with too SHORT of a garage.  I have had an open style trailer with a 16 foot garage and for the last 8 years have had one with a wall and door between the living quarters and the garage, the garage on my present trailer is 18 feet long.   A point to remember, MOST toy haulers have very little storage space, they are not made for full time living.  Having a larger garage gives you some place to store stuff that you would be able to put into the under and side storage areas of regular travel trailers.

MOST toy haulers will have gross weight LESS then 20,000 pounds, many the two axle type much less.  My triple axle trailer has a gross weight of 20,000 pounds and a TOTAL cargo capacity of 4,200 pounds.  REMEMBER that cargo capacity includes ALL of your camping gear, cloths, groceries, tools, spare parts, water, gas in the toy fuel tank.

If your going to be happy with a toy hauler you have to keep in mind that ( one ) you have to have ROOM to get around your vehicle to tie it down and ( two )you have to have enough side room to open the door of the vehicle to get in and out of it.  My toy hauler is the wide body style, it has 98 inches between the walls, 96 inch wide ramp door opening.

You can buy an enclosed car hauler type trailer that will carry a full size car, small truck or SUV but it won't have living quarters unless your willing spend a very considerable amount of money.  Most toy haulers are NOT built to live in full time, they don't have the insulation and condensation protection of a full time live in travel trailer.  There are toy haulers out there that are built like travel trailers for full time living, they are very expensive.  So if your going the toy hauler route make sure that the vehicle you want to carry will FIT, allows ease of tie down FRONT as well as rear and won't overload your trailers gross weight requirement.  Unless you buy a premium top of the line toy hauler or unless you make a deal for it to come equipped with GOOD QUALITY tires be prepared to lay out substantial money to replace the junk tires and wheels that most toy haulers come with.

I hope this has been of some use to you.

Dave

Thanks Dave.

It sure is of great use. There is certainly a lot more to consider that I thought. There are always the details that you won't know unless you own one. So glad I have asked.

With six tires how many spares do you carry?

Chuck

16 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

We've hauled a smart in two different t/h.  Round Boy had a hard time getting out unless the car was far to one side.  Tying down was difficult too, as we had to lie on the floor to reach some points.  We cut our load/tie time in half when we started to haul on the truck.

That is a good point. I don't want to spend an excessive amount of time packing up. But then again, I am starting to transition into the "I'll get where I'm going eventually" mode. hahaha

Thanks for all the replies.

I am just thinking through some options. I still have some work to do on the truck before I start converting it.

I am hoping to be all done with the work by next spring, including the jack-a-lopee. I am going to hold off on the hitch until I know more about what trailer and kingpin vs the goose neck with a ball.

Planning, saving, and doing.

2 hours ago, dennisvr said:

Just a thought.  Just because you can drive one in doesn't mean you can get out of the car once its inside.  It must be narrow enough or a convertible.  

Yes, that would be a problem. haha.

20 minutes ago, Scottiedot said:

We have a 2017 Heartland Cyclone 4113, I’ve loaded a 1987 Mini Cooper in it with no issues. I winch it in

That is one that we would consider. Or a Toyota Corolla

21 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

It's not just the tie downs that are of concern. I have heard of some cases where the ramp on the toy hauler can not handle the weight of the car. Make sure that you have a reinforced ramp to load the vehicle you intend to tie down once inside.

Ah, I did not think of that, glad I asked.

Hello All,

I have not seen a fifth wheel interior yet. I am doing some research to see if some toy haulers can carry a small car. I have found some information that says there are approximately 23 small cars that can fit in the right trailers. I was wonder what the weight rating is for the tie-down points in a typical toy hauler? I have seen a rig out here in Virginia going southbound on the 95 pulling a trailer pulling a car. However, I would rather not do that. If I can find the right hauler I can sell my class C and be one step closer to completing my rig. My wife enjoyed her first two hour ride in the truck so she may be in

So, for everyone with fifth wheel experience I would appreciate all you input.

Thanks,

Chuck

8 minutes ago, Danfreda1 said:

That’s what we thought also. A lot of trees in that area to get through. Plus it was right after an over pass. Probably never know. 

Only if someone has some time to kill and do a stake out. Or trail cams.

On 5/13/2022 at 1:46 AM, Chad Heiser said:

As some of you may know, I had a bit of an issue on my trip home from the ECR.  I left the ECR on Monday May 2.  I was trying to work my way to Colorado on my way home to California so I could stop in and see my mom before Mother’s Day.  I was heading west on I25 about sixty miles into Kentucky from Tennessee when a random tire came rolling across the interstate from the center median.  It literally came out of nowhere after I passed under an overpass.  Of course the tire was rolling right for the front of my rig and there wasn’t much I could do to avoid colliding with it.  

I was traveling in the slow lane with my cruise set to 65 mph.  I was towing my 21000 pound DRV with my Kenworth T2000.  Luckily I was alone in the truck as my DW didn’t attend the rally with me because of her work schedule.  I’m glad she didn’t have to experience the situation first hand.

My only thought once I saw the rolling tire was to try to avoid taking it head on and putting it through the radiator and into the engine, or worse, bouncing it up and into the cab.  I had two choices, swerve left or swerve right.  Well I guess I had three choices, as taking it head on was also a choice.  I immediately negated that choice though because I knew that was going to cause severe damage and I hoped my other options might give me a chance of avoiding damage (to bad hopes aren’t reality).  

My decision making process next negated swerving left into the fast lane because I didn’t know if there was another vehicle along side me or coming upon me in that lane.  My rig is nearly sixty five feet long so there was a lot of potential space for another vehicle to be occupying alongside me.  The situation happened so fast that there wasn’t time to check my mirror for another vehicle or vehicles in the fast lane and also asses and then react before the collision with the tire.  This all lead me to the decision to swerve right to try to take the collision with the tire to the side of the truck rather than the front.  This whole process was within a second or two.

Once I swerved, unfortunately I ran out of pavement quickly and got the right steer tire in the dirt.  I knew trying to correct back to the left in that situation would be bad and I also knew the trailer momentum was trying to catch up to the truck’s change in direction and another quick change in direction would have been bad.  Once the truck touched dirt at an angle, I really didn’t have a choice other than to ride it into the ditch and do what I could to keep things in line.  There was a bit of a downslope going into the ditch and then another pretty good up slope on the other side of the ditch.  I did my best to get the truck into the bottom of the ditch and keep the trailer in line behind me.  Once I knew the truck was doing what I wanted it to, I checked my driver mirror for the trailer.  All I saw was the trailer leaning at an extreme angle to the driver side.  It was at such an extreme angle that I thought for sure it was going over.  Rather than slamming on the brakes, I kept the truck moving forward in the hopes it would pull the trailer back into line.  Thankfully it did.

Once I came to a stop, I took a second to asses myself and then the truck interior and then I got out to checkout the trailer and truck exterior.  The truck didn’t look bad at all to my surprise.  Unfortunately the trailer didn’t fair so well.  I walked around the whole rig and the trailer had significant damage on all four sides.  I could see from damage to the front cap and damage to the truck bed rails that the trailer had articulated enough in both directions to slam the front cap into the rails.  I was pretty dismayed at the damage, but was happy I was ok and no one else was hurt.  Unbelievably, no one else stopped to check on me though.

i did have a dash cam running at the time of the incident and it caught everything.  Unfortunately it doesn’t show what the trailer was doing behind the truck.  I called the state troopers and eventually got a tow there to get me out of the ditch.  Then I got roadside assistance to bring me two new tires as both passenger side tires and one rim were destroyed when the trailer ran over another bare wheel that happened to be laying in the ditch.

Once the trailer had the ability to roll again, I drug it to the next exit to see how it would do.  I assessed it at the scene first and it looked towable.  Most of the damage appeared to be to the structure above the frame but I was trying to be as cautious as possible.  After another inspection, everything appeared to be roadworthy so I decided to turn around and head to a truck stop I had passed a ways back.  I got there and had a mechanic assess things as well.  The mechanic also agreed things were roadworthy so I made the decision to head to my DRV dealer (Rolling Retreats) in Elk City, Oklahoma.  I got through Nashville late and found another truck stop where I could get some sleep.  The next morning I got on the road again after another assessment and started making miles.  The trailer was crabbing slightly to the passenger side, but otherwise was serviceable.  I made it to Rolling Retreats Tuesday evening and had some friends there who helped me out.  

I’ve been sitting here ever since.  I finally got the word from my insurance company this afternoon (Wednesday a week and a day after I arrived) that the trailer was a total loss.  Now I am moving forward dealing with that.  Jim and Kellie Stockman (fellow HDTers, full timers and friends of mine) have been here since before I arrived and have shown me great hospitality (along with others).  They have a YouTube channel (as some of you may know) called Suite Travels.  Jim asked me about participating in a video about HDTs and safety and I agreed.  The video posted today and it includes my dash cam footage, footage from the tow company who got me out of the ditch (who also have a YouTube channel) and an interview with me about the incident.  I thought it might interest some of you.  Here is the video.  

 

Man that looks scary. Glad you are alright. Handled it like a professional. I wonder if someone was in the woods and rolled that tire out on purpose?

I bought mine with 894,000 miles. It has needed quite a bit of work. Starter, tie-rod ends, drag link, shocks, overhead set, and very soon a new clutch. The throw out bearing and pivot bearing are bad as well. I also replaced about 6 of the engine sensors so far. So, expect to put some money into it. If it's worth it to you then it's worth it. My wife kind of complained when I got mine and about how much I was spending on it. I told her there are other habits I could be wasting my money on. Now that I have taken the family on a short day trip they all love it. 

I tell people, "It's the funnest waste of money I ever had". We only live once so "Why not".

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully next time. 

On 4/17/2022 at 8:12 PM, Darryl&Rita said:

Take the extra IMG tags off the URL to have them post. 

 

 

That looks really awesome. Now to stock it. 👍

I have been getting a check engine fault last couple drives. I hooked up my scan tool and it showed a low/high or short to the differential pressure sensor for the DPF. I ordered an aftermarket part that said it was from kmdeisel. It was 45$ vs 210$ for a Cummins one. Well after I ordered it I checked the tracking a day later. No surprise I suppose but it was shipping from China. Anyway today’s first trip I got no check engine fault. 

Chuck

Finally got my 780 complete enough to do a short trip with the family. I put my seatbelts in the sleeper and borrowed cushions from my class C. We drove about 80 miles over to Harrisonburg VA to Liberty Truck Stop and ate at Joe’s Griddle and Grill. Me and the wife got the Trucker’s Skillet. It was really good. Just a short trip to see how they liked it and eat at that diner I had heard about. It’s worth visiting if your in VA on the 81. As is The Pink Cadillac Diner near Natural Bridge and Virginia Safari Park. If you like KOA they have one right there to.

Getting there one step at a time.

Chuck

26 minutes ago, Darryl&Rita said:

The first thing to learn: try the cheapest, easiest things first. Don't plan an engine tear down, when all you missed was a dirty air filter. Most of the time, logic will guide you correctly, but occasionally the collective wisdom here will be willing to help.

Roger that, thanks.

10 minutes ago, Jaydrvr said:

Sounds like you have a good handle on things. Hope it all goes well. Jay

I don't know about that. Chasing noises and learning. You guys have all helped tremendously.

A little history.

After buying the truck the clutch was intermittently hanging up. Took it in and the grease line was disconnected from the throw out bearing (previously posted). The shop took it off for me. There is another grease point on it but you have to reach in the inspection window. After it was removed I have greased it a couple times with a couple squirts as everyone stated. The clutch was getting pretty sticky again so I got to thinking. How long had the grease line been disconnected? Not know that and having seen how much grease was plopped in there I think it had been a LONG time and the bearing is probably dry. So I decided to pump in a bunch. I did 4 shots and worked the clutch. Then I did 5 more and worked the clutch. After that I was wiggling the parts below the TOB. There is a pivot type lever (probably clutch cable goes to to move the TOB right?). Where that pivot point is looked like the seal was out from where it should be. I took some lithium grease to spray in the crack just to see. It sounded like I was spraying into a can. So I am now assuming that the grease/bearings for that pivot point are non-existent.

GOOD NEWS THOUGH. It was a lot quieter when I drove it. So that is certainly some of the noise I am trying to eliminate.

The pivot I am talking about is in the picture in the lower left below the silver bolt head. Throw-out bearing is just above that.

Just wanted to share that information. Won't be too long before I take it in for the new clutch and transmission input bearing (and who know what else in there, haha) Just needing to save up a little more.

Happy and Safe Traveling to All.

13 minutes ago, Vegas Teacher said:

I am leaving my truck tandem too.

Roger that. I need to spend money on the clutch. I'd rather spend money on a vacation though, haha.

1 hour ago, Jaydrvr said:

At least you'll only have to pay one labor charge if you work on the transmission while changing the clutch... With the expense of pulling out the transmission, it makes sense to do whatever work it needs while it's out, rather than just a bandaid repair. Likely, the rest of the transmission is not in much better shape than the offending part. It's not that big a deal to replace all the bearings. Jay

I wish I had a shop. I would love to do the work myself. But I don't plus I would have to buy a lot of tools and things to pull the transmission out. And do a lot of reading and watching videos.

When I get around to dropping it off I will have them assess the transmission and do that bearing like you said. 

9 minutes ago, Jaydrvr said:

When the clutch is engaged while the transmission is out of gear, the input shaft is spinning at the same speed as the engine. When you disengage the clutch, that shaft stops spinning. The input shaft is the shaft going from the clutch into the front of the transmission. Jay

Thanks Jay.

I have been saving up for a new clutch. I guess I will get it in this summer and get it taken care of. I am sure they will let me know what they find. I hope it hasn't been too worn out for too long and requires a new transmission. OUCH.

10 minutes ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Throw out bearing or input shaft bearing.

Thanks Darryl.

16 minutes ago, Jaydrvr said:

Based on your specific symptoms, the transmission input shaft bearing is the source of your noise. Jay

As in the backside of the transmission where the driveshaft is? Or the transmission to engine side?