Utility Trailers & Recreational Vehicles (RV's)

Next month we'll be getting our RVs ready for weekends and weeks of camping. Now there's nothing more annoying than having a break down and wasting precious vacation time fixing what ever broke. The frustration of setting up camp and your wife telling you that there's no hot water can ruin any outing. What if you have to leave the camp site and someone else has to hook up your rig and move it, would they know how? Here are a few of my "to do" check lists for truck and trailer. Since I pull a boat trailer behind my 5th wheel those check lists are here also. Comment on any steps that I might have missed or that are pertinent to your RV set up. These files are in Mic…

I just had to do it. Nick over there talking about his slide in camper so I hitch up and moved mine out from under the tree. Then started to clean up the inside from all winter of sitting. Lots of dead flies, and other little critters to clean up. Just to show off the mobile man cave. Nice and roomy with the slide out. Bring it back in well it's tight but you can still use it. Full size queen bed not one of those short RV queen beds. A better picture of the power cabinet with the inverter, solar controller, converter, fuse panel and breaker box. So I'm on task for getting the RV ready for another season o…

I bought a well used Pace enclosed trailer from a friend who was getting out of re-encting... I paid 600$. It has about a 10 foot long box, but not real wide. The fender width is barely wider than the truck... maybe an inch on each side. A single side swing door on the rear. During my adventures last summer, I had to tie tarps over my electric mobility scooter when traveling because I had only open trailers except for the huge toy hauler/camper... I know the scooter electronics are not waterproof. So I'm thinking an enclosed trailer is a step forward. Yes, this trailer turned out to be more of a fixer-upper than I expected... Surprise! Seems that way with eve…

Well going to close the deal tomorrow and bring home a new to me dump trailer. Been looking for one for several years but trailers hold their value big time around here and never move in price. I have not seen one of these in used condition for less than 6500 for several years so when I saw this one pop up I jumped. Needs a few things, brakes do not work but he thinks due to adjustment and I will do the new to me trailer tune up and repack and set the bearings and inspect the suspension while in there. It is 14' long and plenty big enough to haul my Kubota loader tractor around in now too instead of having to load that little guy on a 30' trailer looked pretty…

my 5th wheel has been getting hard to stop lately so I went to adjust them and the adjusters were frozen. Last weekend I opened 2 of them up and freed up the the adjusters. Those things were frozen. While I was in there I noticed that either I have pumped to much grease in there or the seal failed and I had grease on the magnets and a little on one of the shoes. I expect to find some thing similar on the other side. I figure they are 10 years old and I am just going to redo them all. I have been looking at parts and it appears new shoes are going to cost about $100 for a 4 wheels. But I have also found the whole assemblies for $50 a wheel. Then I found these on Amazo…

https://youtu.be/p87sZMeiC2U

Earlier this fall I finally had enough of the cheap fenders that came on my car hauler so I decided it was time for a new set. The stockers were cheap aluminum that would bend and break if you looked at them wrong so instead of buying new ones I decided to build a bullet proof set. Now I will admit these things are way overkill and didn't need to be built completely out of 1/4" plate but that's what I had so that's what I used. Out of gas in the wire feed on day one so I stitched them together with the stick welder. Fired up the wire feed and corner welded everything. Squaring up on the trailer. …

For light duty vehicles with good tires, I have always been of the opinion that if I need chains I shouldn't be making the trip. Sofar, through CO, WY, UT, ND, SD, MT & NM oilfield travel in all weather, I haven't been wrong. However, I don't normally tow in the winter. As an engineer, I didn't have to drive the 18 wheelers to location, and they were almost always chained on all drives, steers, and at least one set of drags. I am going to have to tow my household home from AR to CO this winter (Jan-Feb). I am on the fence if it would be a wise move to buy chains for my truck and the rear axle on my trailer. Pix of trailer below. The cost will be pretty st…

Man this sucks I just finally got back to the fuse blowing problem on the trailer and found out what happened. Standing at the rear of the trailer the 3rd right center marker light decided to spit the plug and allow it to bounce around and melt the wiring out. Oh Great... My yard mule for trailer work.

I just learned something about Ethylene Glycol verses Propylene Glycol that is used in the RV antifreeze. Check the ingredients for the Propylene Glycol not Ethylene because the alchohol type will dry out rubber seals and some types of plastic plumbing while the propylene type lubricates rubber seals and does not damage plumbing pipes. It costs a little more but well worth it.

I hate to tell on myself but this is to funny not to tell. i recently moved my 5th wheel from Augusta GA to Muscle Shoals AL. While sweeping off the roof before leaving I noticed my roof needs my attention. So I figure I can do it when I get set up in Alabama. i get there Saturday and and get pretty lazy and take the day off and pretty much sunday too. Bare in mind it rained on us so much in Georgia I really was not worried. Along about Wednesday it started raining here and I noticed a small drip at one of my roof vents. no big deal i will deal with it after the rain. Well it just rains harder and the leak gets worse and i end up with a 8 quat pot under it. Then I go up i…

I know this doesn't fit exactly with RV's, but it's close. I've got a 1975 Johnson 50 that leaks water into the lower unit. After a few trips the fluid is milky. I regularly remove the lower unit to change water pump. But how hard is it to replace the seals? I have a factory service manual coming from eBay. It's cool that I found one! There are 2 seals. One on the shaft going to the power head and one on the prop shaft. I've always been frustrated by the fact that these older outboards don't have a pee stream to see that water is circulating. Kinda like old men. But I found a mod for that. Drill out the head for a $3 fitting, run some tubing to another $3 fitting…

Happen on I86 in Idaho...

The family and I went to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho last weekend. In between all of the fun times that we had, the trailer gave us a few problems. The right side landing gear on my Fifth wheel decided to not go up or down with the motor...turns out the gears were stripped. Luckily I have an obsolete set which means the rebuild kit was more expensive that it should have been. I did get that put back together and it now works just fine. The camp ground we stayed in had full hook ups, never did this before. When I hooked up the pressurized water I noticed a steady stream of water coming out of one of the two pipe that hang vertical out of the bottom of the trailer. …

So, I recently drove from Oklahoma to Colorado only a month later move back across the country from home in Colorado to Arkansas. It's only temporary for work but hey, I burned a lot a fuel and got to play with my truck. Below is the truck and trailer combo, a 28' cargo trailer bought from some great folks in Tulsa. More info on that in the Garage Section. I was quite heavy (for me) on the way to Colorado... somewhere north of 22,000 lbs total. Heading to Arkansas on the second leg I dropped quite a bit of weight and was under 20,000 lbs. I fought 50 knot winds on the way to Colorado and ended up getting 8-9 combined MPG for that leg due to fighting winds.…

Well Gang... I broke out of the house hitch up the RV and hauled to St. Maries and back again. Little bit of adventuring and enjoying the travelling and seeing different things. The entire trip was done boondocking style no RV parks and no hook ups. The first night we found our home just about 15 miles south of St. Maries on Highway 3. The first thing that was brought to my attention is I lost a house battery after almost 6 years. The power just wasn't lasting as long as it should and dipping low enough to trip the fridge DC LO warning. So stopped in St. Maries and had the batteries load tested 1 failed. So not going to argue about it just replace both. I hav…

so on a truck i can pound these out. but on this it doesn't look like they do that. has anyone replaced the studs on a TT axle.? tips thoughts. this was a result of someone loosening the lugs before my week long road trip on friday.

I have to admit I'm from the boat world... which shares systems with campers but not the shell. This Trailer was a mistake. Besides the lack of title (which I should have walked away right there)... so the trailer can not be properly registered. The last title was a SALVAGE title out of California... and there are obivious signs of repairs. Besides all that... there has been a steady stream of problems. The biggest is the roof leaks & even after having a rubber roof put on ($1000), continues to leak. The leakage has apparently run down... and continues to run down... inside the walls, causing a bunch of problems. There are leaks in the main bed room, w…

When ever I go to hook up, I have to wiggle the plug all around in the socket. Usually I get continuity... eventually... but sometimes not even after vigorius wiggling. I think it's just oxidation. Over the years I've tried various things like emory on a tiny file, bagging the plug between uses, etc. Has anybody found a solution? Maybe dielectric grease? I took the landscapers trailer out yesterday. Put new LED tail lights on last fall. And one side refused to work. I went out with a meter & now it's on. WTF? I'm guessing that all my wiggling PLUS the road vibration, finially broke through the oxidation. I have one bulb marker light yet to get…

I know there was some talk on here about the 45 watt Solar Panel kit that Harbor Freight sales. In the flyer I got in the mail they have a sale on these, with a coupon, for $ 140. Here is the kit http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-68751-8527.html For those that have used it, do you still like it and thing it is worth the money?