Bought my first HDT, feel excited

[Storx]

Well, today i just got home from buying my first HDT, i had an 2001 Dodge Ram Cummins Diesel pickup w/ 286k on the clock that i have been daily driving for many years converted on SVO, since im planning on moving on to become a travel nurse soon in the near future i figured it was time to sell the truck and buy something that could easily tow the 5th i plan on buying, so put the truck up for sale and got $8500 for it. I have not bought the 5th wheel yet because i was unsure still if i could find a HDT for me and after many weeks of searching one popped up online for sale and i won the winning bid on it for $8100. Its a 2006 Volvo 670 w/ 1,003,918 miles on the clock. The interior is in OK condition, it doesnt look bad and there is not a lot of staining inside, but there is a smell inside the cab that i need to get out, smells like old musk.. but i plan on leaving the windows open when weather gets better and cleaning the inside very well...

 

I bought this truck because i have been daily driving my 2001 dodge for some time now on SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) and after learning from my mistakes i have had nothing but reliable usage running it for over 3 years now without a single issue once i got the kinks figured out.. so the 16mpg average i was getting on the truck really didnt mean anything since on my parents property we have close to 5,000 gallons of old vegetable oil, because my father runs SVO on his 1995 Dodge Ram Diesel as well....

 

First thing i did was register the truck in the state of Florida that i live in as a RV, i followed others advice and added the minimal requirements for the inspection, then picked up the plates after registering it as an RV and went to get it and just drove it home. Insurance was a little bit of a hassle at first because many of the agents i talked to didnt understand what i was trying to say, but i found the list of agents who helped people get insurance before and called one of them and registered it without much of an issue. My annual premium is only $186 more than my 2001 Dodge was a year, so honestly not all that much to insure....the only requirement i had to do was remove the commercial 5th wheel from the truck so it can't be used to tow commercial trailers anymore, i told them i was planning on adding a RV 5th wheel onto the rear of it and they said that this was perfectly ok....

 

I bought the truck first, because i plan on building a custom bed for the truck with the help of my father. We are going to remove the factory 5th wheel and install one of the RV friendly units that people have installed on their HDT, just have not picked one out yet. I am also going to see about changing the gear ratio in it for better fuel economy. I only averaged 12.1mpg with it driving home empty, which in honesty is not all that bad i guess... i am going to gamble on trying to run this truck on SVO, since i found lots of post of people with this model truck running biodiesel on them without issues on farms and such..

 

I have an old tool box shaped aux diesel tank on the property that isnt used anymore, i am going to add heating to it and install this on the Volvo in a temp manner and test running on veggie oil on the semi engine before i go all out and build a custom tank and do a very automated detailed install.. the test setup is going to be all manual switch over compared to the automated system i had running on the 2001 dodge, because i have these parts already from a previous install i upgraded from.. if i can get this semi to run on the veggie oil reliably, then i plan on using it on SVO fully except during startup and shutdown.....last year i only bought 1 tank of diesel on my 2001 the entire year and i put over 15k miles on the truck w/SVO....

 

Once i have the truck all finished being modified, i plan on shopping for RV's, im waiting to do this step because the new semi increases my options for RV's to tow, as well gives me the time to mod the rear of the truck so i can tow an RV right away, it seems like the prices of RV's in florida are retarded compared to other parts of the country, if i have to i can then run to pick it up and go from there.. I am aiming to add around 200-300gallon capacity on SVO, so i can go a long distance between fill ups..

 

[Storx]

Congrats on the truck! I am curious how you got it registered as an RV if you told them you plan on putting a hitch on it. I understood that Florida wouldn't allow that..........

 

I had a lot of trouble at first finding someone who knew what i was talking about, but after explaining it a dozen times and my local dmv making a call, they allowed me to.. i just was required to remove the commercial hitch, any non-commercial hitch i am allowed to add on later for towing the RV was the word i got told...

[PSD_Tweaker]

Storx, congrats on your purchase, and I hope your seeming good luck holds.

Where are you in Fl. ?

 

 

Rick

[Storx]

Storx, congrats on your purchase, and I hope your seeming good luck holds.

Where are you in Fl. ?

 

 

Rick

Im in holiday, fl.. but the truck is being stored right now up at my parents property in zephyrhills, fl

[JPL]

Storx, Are you going to be able to get to the ECR? Even if you don't have a 5er or even drive the truck you can still get a lot of valuable info. We went to the 2011 ECR in Charleston SC and stayed in a hotel. Had a great time. 2 months later we had our 630. Now that you have one there are over 45 units planning on being there. There will be a wealth on info available. Hope you can make it. Pat

 

 

The Old Sailor

[Jim & Wilma]

Congrats and good luck with your SVO testing . . . let us know how that goes.

[lappir]

Congrats. I might be heading through there on Saturday. Hope to visit the event in Gibisonton (sic) and look at the new Semi trailer that Spacecraft is supposed to have there. Hope to ride the bike down.

 

Rod

[Storx]

Storx, Are you going to be able to get to the ECR? Even if you don't have a 5er or even drive the truck you can still get a lot of valuable info. We went to the 2011 ECR in Charleston SC and stayed in a hotel. Had a great time. 2 months later we had our 630. Now that you have one there are over 45 units planning on being there. There will be a wealth on info available. Hope you can make it. Pat

 

 

The Old Sailor

I am not familiar with the info on the ECR, i have been working my butt off lately trying to get stuff situated for the arrival of the Semi, my uncle is a truck driver, so he helped me a lot by going to check out the truck before i bidded on it. Could you pass the info over on the event....

[Storx]

Congrats and good luck with your SVO testing . . . let us know how that goes.

 

I will, i have had a lot of experience in the SVO world, been doing it for many years and have converted multiple cars and trucks, my first SVO conversion was a 1972 Mercedes 240D with 719k miles on the clock that i bought and converted and drove for a year before selling it off for something different, once you get the system up and running, the fact your running on SVO becomes a mute point in my opinion... My father has family in Anchorage, Alaska and we were invited to a wedding, instead of flying out there for thousands of dollars, we took his 1995 Dodge and drove from Florida all the way to alaska and back, we towed a trailer that we had filled with 55gallon drums of clean/filtered used veggie oil and made the entire trip using maybe 1 gallon of diesel total...

[Storx]

Congrats. I might be heading through there on Saturday. Hope to visit the event in Gibisonton (sic) and look at the new Semi trailer that Spacecraft is supposed to have there. Hope to ride the bike down.

 

Rod

heading through my area or the ECR event area?

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Here is a link to the ECR. It has several additional links for the registration etc.

http://eastcoasthdtrally.com/

 

SuiteSuccess also has a topic going on here for rally info. Look in the HDT forum, it usually gets shuffled back a page or two.

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=121844

[remoandiris]

 

i just was required to remove the commercial hitch, any non-commercial hitch i am allowed to add on later for towing the RV was the word i got told...

 

Towing a fifthwheel with the truck registered as an rv is illegal. A travel trailer is legal. It is all here in this thread;

 

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=117904&hl=%2Bhdt+%2Bflorida+%2Bregistration

[Storx]

 

Towing a fifthwheel with the truck registered as an rv is illegal. A travel trailer is legal. It is all here in this thread;

 

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=117904&hl=%2Bhdt+%2Bflorida+%2Bregistration

 

I am not sure what happen to you, but i was able to register mine as a "Motorhome", i called it an RV, my bad.. but they required that i remove the COMMERCIAL 5th wheel off the truck, so we did this for the inspection.. i told them i was wanting to tow an RV with it later on and they said i could as long as i dont put a Commercial 5th wheel back on, which they told me meant the 5th wheel has to have a tow rating of no more than 24,995lbs.... and it would have to be an actual RV, not someone elses RV that im delivering... I have this all written out on the paperwork in the truck for records...

[billr]

Sounds like you have a great start. Interesting project with the fuel. Wrknrvr has been wirking on that with his Volvo for several years.

 

Congrats on the reg and insurance success

Always a task to get past.

 

Enjoy the build

[billr]

We are on Davenport Fl fir winter. If your gonna be in the area you are welcome to come by. Visit things HDT!! Ha

[NoDirectionHome]

 

 

Towing a fifth wheel with the truck registered as an rv is illegal.

Is it possible this has changed or sunsetted? There are a lot of RV dealers in Florida. I could imagine they were not happy with this rule.

[remoandiris]

Is it possible this has changed or sunsetted? There are a lot of RV dealers in Florida. I could imagine they were not happy with this rule.

 

You'll have to look at the link I added from the other thread and research it. There is a document in the thread that clearly shows what the OP wants to do is illegal in Fla (post #4, 2d scanned in page, first paragraph and VERY clearly two paragraphs later). Unless he has documentation showing the Fl statues have changed, he can be cited and fined. Let the judge worry about it. I'm out of this thread. Best of luck to him.

[NoDirectionHome]

http://www3.flhsmv.gov/dmv/Proc/TL/TL-13.PDF

 

Here's a more recent copy (Oct 2015) Seems nothing has changed. They now show a legal RV version and truck version.

[RickS]

Congrat's on the new truck! I just looked at the link above and it does not mention RV hitch is OK.....it say "fifth-wheel connecting device". This would be very obvious to a Florida LEO. This is the same law that one of our Canadian provinces has as well.

 

"In other words, these heavy truck conversions may have a connecting

device on the back of the vehicle to tow a vehicle, boat trailer, etc.,

however, they may not have a fifth-wheel connecting device"

[Star Dreamer]

Congratulations on the truck. Watch out for sore face muscles from smiling too much and answering peoples questions everywhere you go.

 

As far as the Florida rules are for the others, could you convert to a gooseneck ball and now be within the rules since it is not a fifth wheel hitch?

[Pappy Yokum]

 

You'll have to look at the link I added from the other thread and research it. There is a document in the thread that clearly shows what the OP wants to do is illegal in Fla (post #4, 2d scanned in page, first paragraph and VERY clearly two paragraphs later). Unless he has documentation showing the Fl statues have changed, he can be cited and fined. Let the judge worry about it. I'm out of this thread. Best of luck to him.

 

 

It's like the CA "thing".

 

"FLfireman" did the Florida "conversion" - and knew he was under the radar and taking his chances.

 

Not sure if his threads/posts are still available - but he did an outstanding job on the interior seating for his kids.

 

He since sold the truck, which (IIRC) was purchased by an out-of state (not FL) buyer.

 

*If* there is an e-mail associated with his ID - he might be contacted that way - but he is no longer on the forums.

 

.

[Storx]

 

You'll have to look at the link I added from the other thread and research it. There is a document in the thread that clearly shows what the OP wants to do is illegal in Fla (post #4, 2d scanned in page, first paragraph and VERY clearly two paragraphs later). Unless he has documentation showing the Fl statues have changed, he can be cited and fined. Let the judge worry about it. I'm out of this thread. Best of luck to him.

 

I will call the person that i did the registration with again and talk to her about it again, if worse comes to worse, i will add an air ride goose neck setup to the truck and convert the rv trailer or buy one that has gooseneck connection, we ran air ride goosenecks on our horse trailers for many years and didn't have issue with them, so i imagine the weight of an rv being similar weight wouldn't be a big deal...

[lappir]

heading through my area or the ECR event area?

Heading to the Tampa area this Saturday. I think. Will know for sure Friday.

 

Rod

[Big5er]

 

I will call the person that i did the registration with again and talk to her about it again, if worse comes to worse, i will add an air ride goose neck setup to the truck and convert the rv trailer or buy one that has gooseneck connection, we ran air ride goosenecks on our horse trailers for many years and didn't have issue with them, so i imagine the weight of an rv being similar weight wouldn't be a big deal...

Good luck with that too. They simplify their definition by saying "no fifth wheel hitches" but what their law says is the trailer can not rest ON the vehicle...just like a gooseneck does also. Florida is real plain, look at the photo examples. Bumper pull yes, fifthwheel and gooseneck no. You may run for years and not get caught, but as HDT's get more popular and more common, enforcement is going to become more frequent.

[Jack Mayer]

What Big5er says is still accurate as far as I can tell. It CERTAINLY WAS in the past. I only did a cursory re-examination of the laws but to my mind it is still the same.

 

To summarize: you cannot tow ANY load bearing trailer with the truck if it is a motorhome. That leaves out 5th wheels and goosenecks. Totally. You CAN tow a bumper pull.

 

That is the FL law. Many people have circumvented it with no negative results. Some by getting the certification without the hitch on the truck and then putting a hitch on. That is rolling the dice, but it may work just fine. Outside of FL you are not likely to have ANY issue. And inside FL you are also not likely to have an issue unless you call attention to yourself.

 

All this is just my opinion based on the published laws.