Bought a trailer

kb0zke · January 27, 2023

On Wednesday Jo Ann and I started the process of buying a new 2022 Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS. We are scheduled to pick it up on Monday. If all goes well with the PDI and first night in it we'll bring it back to The Ranch on Tuesday.

Kirk W · January 27, 2023

Great news! Keep us posted on how things go. 😊

NDBirdman · January 28, 2023

Congrats! We love the Grand Design RVs. Thought about getting that model until we decided to go another direction, toy-hauler with room for a Tri-Glide and alot of telescope and accessories.

kb0zke · February 2, 2023

Monday morning we headed out for the four-hour trip to the dealership to pick up our new trailer. The walk-thru was scheduled for 1:30, and started pretty much on time. While we were being shown all sorts of things a tech was busy installing the hitch on the truck. Pretty soon he warned us that there would be some motion in the trailer from outside as he figured out where the hitch needed to be set to allow for level towing. By 5:00 we were backed up to the fence to spend the night in the parking lot, hooked up to electricity and some water in the tank.

Tuesday we gave the service people a small list of things that needed attention. Most were very short (less than five minutes) but two took longer. Those were done early in the afternoon. We elected to stay at a commercial campground a few blocks away, hoping that it would be quieter than the dealership's parking lot. It was.

The weather guessers on television were talking about a possible winter weather issue, so we decided to get up a bit earlier than normal and head out as soon as we could. We drove past the dealership just as the employees were arriving for the day. The trip back was a little longer than four hours (closer to five) as I was relearning pulling a trailer. By the time we got back to The Ranch, though, I was pretty comfortable with it.

Parking at our lot took longer than anticipated, mainly because we wanted to be as square with the world as possible. Also, we're going from a 40' Foretravel with no slides to a 38' Reflection with opposing slides in the living area and a bedroom slide. I wanted to be able to get to the sewer without running into a slide and park the pickup in front of the trailer if at all possible. We managed to accomplish all of that.

Yes, there are some minor issues that need to be addressed. We've already talked to the dealership about returning in early March for those items.

I'll get a SmugMug album going with some pictures one of these days (after we get all moved in) and include a link in my signature.

kb0zke · February 10, 2023

I brought over the last load from the Foretravel into the Reflection today. Tomorrow we'll start cleaning the Foretravel in preparation for the new buyer. New items that are needed are arriving, so we should be ready to hit the road in a month.

Still lots of questions and things to learn, but we're enjoying the new adventure.

Kirk W · February 10, 2023

10 hours ago, kb0zke said:

but we're enjoying the new adventure.

And that is the most important part! ☺️

kb0zke · February 24, 2023

Update: The buyer for the Foretravel arrived yesterday. We spent today going over things and going to Walmart for more supplies. He heads out tomorrow.

We've had only a couple of very minor issues with the Reflection. Now that the Foretravel is all but gone we can concentrate on getting ready for the summer's travels.

The Reflection came with an optional king bed. The dealership was willing to sell me a queen mattress and take the king mattress off of our hands, but we said no to that. If we have to pay for a queen we'll get one that we want, not whatever they happen to have on hand. We found a local store that was having a mattress sale, so we ordered a new queen mattress. They may have someone that needs our king. If that happens we will get a bit of a trade-in allowance on that. I'll still have to trim the plywood platform down to 60", but it will probably take longer to get out the circular saw and mark it than to make the actual cuts.

On a related note, the F350 we bought has a lift kit in it, about 6" or so. That makes for quite a step up for two old people, so I started asking around to see what it would take to bring the truck back to somewhere close to stock. I found a shop in Artesia where they never throw anything away. Several years ago they lifted a 2016 F350, so they have all of the parts needed to return my truck to stock. Tuesday it goes in for the surgery, which includes new tires, as the ones currently on it are too large to remain. They are only a bit over a year old, and still in very good condition, so they are hoping that they can give me a decent trade-in on the new tires. The quote, though, is without any trade. so the price I was given is the most it will cost me.

Chad Heiser · February 24, 2023

6 hours ago, kb0zke said:

I'll still have to trim the plywood platform down to 60", but it will probably take longer to get out the circular saw and mark it than to make the actual cuts.

Take some measurements of the storage space below the bed before you make any modifications. I had a king bed in my last trailer and swapped it for the queen bed that came in my new trailer (we wanted a king in the new rig). The queen bed and platform from the new trailer were narrower than the storage area under the king bed in the old trailer. In other words the queen platform didn’t work over the king storage area (at least not without some significant modifications).

kb0zke · February 25, 2023

Thanks for the tip, Chad. I just raised the bed and measured the base. 52" so there will be 4" overhang on each side if we make both sides the same. That gives us a bit of room to adjust things if we decide to give one side or the other a bit more space.