Foolish Mortals, The travels of Truck 999, The HDT.

[PaHunter]

How far back are your rear Jack's? I've been looking at the auto leveling jacks. The install directions from Lippert show them just behind the rear axle. I have quite a bit of trailer behind that.

j

As you can see in my profile picture they are located behind my back door, about 3 ft behind the rear axle. I have about 9 feet from them to the bumper. Our yard to RV pad has quite the angle and I usually drag one of the jacks. It has holes where they can be moved up or down if needed. The others seem to be ok for the most part. I mean the middle ones would only really be a problem on a huge washboard road.

 

[Teamubr]

As you can see in my profile picture they are located behind my back door, about 3 ft behind the rear axle.

I just checked out the pic. That's where Lippert says they should go, but your rears do seem to hang down quite a bit. I'm not sure if I'll pick them up this Spring or not. I also want slide awnings. The tops of the slides and the seals are really getting messy with leaves, dirt and everything else that blows on. I may do the awnings when it warms up and do the jacks latter.

j

 

[PaHunter]

I just checked out the pic. That's where Lippert says they should go, but your rears do seem to hang down quite a bit. I'm not sure if I'll pick them up this Spring or not. I also want slide awnings. The tops of the slides and the seals are really getting messy with leaves, dirt and everything else that blows on. I may do the awnings when it warms up and do the jacks latter.

j

We had the awnings on the travel trailer and really liked them. They wanted a small fortune to place them on this one, but we would like to add them. The auto level system, well it is pretty sweet, hit a button and let it do it's thing when it beeps, level. Then punch out the slides and make connections, done.

Headed out to run the snowblower. We got less snow than our nuisance storm on Thursday but wet so gonna use the machine to toss it out of the way before the frigid temps set in. Then I will get the truck plugged back in so she is ready when we want to run her.

 

[PaHunter]

So today was the day to pick up our tiny trailer from the shop. If you have seen the weather it is a bit windy. Windy enough to rip the shingles off our garage roof and the roof of the neighbors. Gusts upward of 50mph and constant about 20-25mph, and a whopping 34 degrees out. So not the best day.
Got it hooked up and home, luckily with no issues. Saw some poor fella on Interstate 81 with a SRW and a 5er, ouch. Everyone can pick on my yellow tow vehicle, but today did she shine. Towing today she proved that with her size, I have very little to worry about, and once I get her tucked up closer with the new pin box, I think it will be awesome. Wind will just flow right over top of us.
Handled the side winds like a champ. Now if it warms up a few degrees and the wind slows below hurricane strength, I will get the pin box swap done.
More camping for work coming up. Oh yes.

 

[PaHunter]

So, not thrilled with Camping World for service. I went to pick up the trailer, they had left all the lights on while it was there. Have to see if they killed my batteries completely or not.
It is currently plugged in and covered in snow, awaiting camping season.
It appears that our GFCI issue is due to our Surge Protector. I have the trailer plugged in directly and no issue. If I install the surge protector the GFCI trips.
Looks like we may have to change the protector we are using, or install an EM system.
So if we can take a break from vehicle bills, we could use that money to address issues in/on the trailer, or camping.

 

[PaHunter]

 

[PaHunter]

So the other day in the trailer I noticed that the front of our bathroom closet had some 'water' spots. It is of course located in close proximity to the toilet, and we have two nephews who travel with us, one younger. So I decided we needed to make an adjustment to our bathroom.
First we removed the access panels on the floor by the toilet.


Low and behold, there is a huge space beneath that is totally wasted. So we are looking to remove the center post which is secured with screws, I will reinforce the front edge, like the back. And we will be able to place some totes in there with stuff that travels with us, but we may not need as much.

So to make cleaning of this area easier, I mean after all who wants to spend forever cleaning the trailer.


I installed two sheets of plexiglass. The first one covers the openings, and goes up to the slides for the door. The piece attached to the door overhangs the lower one by a couple of inches and moves freely with the door. They are installed with command strips rated to 16 pounds, if we need to remove or reorient them. But cleaning should be a lot simpler, spray with a cleaner and wipe.

 

[tigger92662]

Low and behold, there is a huge space beneath that is totally wasted.

A big empty void. Not the most accessible spot, but storage nonetheless.

 

[PaHunter]

A big empty void. Not the most accessible spot, but storage nonetheless.

I know we have some stuff we carry with us, that I do not need to access on a regular basis. I mean we carry all kinds of spare stuff, to be able to fix things if they break, this would be a great place for that.

 

[PaHunter]

So this weekend the nephews are here to visit. Today before the weather turns bad, we did some work on the trailer.



This is the trailer front and pinbox as it comes from the factory, rated at 15.500lbs.



This is our new pinbox, as you can see it is shorter, which is not a problem with our truck. It is rated up to 320000 lbs, twice my GVWR on the trailer.



It will pull the trailer up closer to the truck, reducing the gap we had and help improve airflow. It will also increase our pin weight, but that is not a worry either.

Update 4/18/19: So we purchased a torque wrench to finish the pinbox install. DW helped me torque all bolts. We are now ready to hook up and take a test drive.

 

[PaHunter]

So today was my day off. I was up early and drove Foolish Mortals down to the shop for an inspection. I was the first one there, yea me. So they did the state inspection and we were good, then they worked to find the coolant leak we have had for a year. Mind you now that the Volvo shop had it and could not find the leak, but my new shop did.
So it turns out, we need a new radiator. Yep, it has a hole in the bottom corner on the passenger side and appears to be a hot only leak once the system warms up. So they are currently stripping off all the hoses, and other parts to replace it with a brand new one. This should mean we will not be overheating and should make for a nice cool smooth camping trips.

We have been loading the trailer, it is almost ready to go on it's first trip and so are we. I guess I need to get some clothes moved out there. Then pull out my checklist and start checking.....


This is the leak when pressurized to 15psi. You can see it on the plastic air dam. Coming right out of the corner, maybe a bad weld at the factory, or just got old.

 

[PaHunter]

So we hooked up yesterday, and well it took a bit more to inflate the air bags on the trailer. Well within the hitch specs, and hoping that this settles the trailer some. Maybe remove some of the bounce from the rear end. I will have to get pictures once we hook up and are on the road. We are as short as we can get now, the only way left to shorten up our overall length is to remove and axle from the truck. I need to find a way to secure our electrical cable from the fiver so it is out of the way, and has enough slack for turning.
I want to move our trailer jacks on the back up a set of holes to increase the travel height on the rear. But other than that we appear to be ready for camping season and GSP.

 

[tigger92662]

Where does the electrical cable from the trailer at? Is it high or low near the pin?
I'm just wondering if you could use a spring post like they would use for the air brake lines for standard semi trailer, and that might keep it up out of the way but still be enough for turning?
Curious to see could be a good solution

 

[PaHunter]

Where does the electrical cable from the trailer at? Is it high or low near the pin?
I'm just wondering if you could use a spring post like they would use for the air brake lines for standard semi trailer, and that might keep it up out of the way but still be enough for turning?
Curious to see could be a good solution

If you look at my post above, you see the cable in the first picture, in the short box you only see the break away cable but the large cable is also in there. Unlike a pickup where the extra cable can just lay, I have to worry about it falling down in to my driveshaft, and that would end badly.

 

[tigger92662]

I see that now. Yes that would definitely end very badly. Could you possibly do some sort of grating to keep it from falling through?

 

[PaHunter]

I see that now. Yes that would definitely end very badly. Could you possibly do some sort of grating to keep it from falling through?

They make one for the front have to see if I can make up something for the backside. But that is a good idea.

 

[PaHunter]

There were taken after we got the truck and trailer washed. First time towing with the new pinbox and radiator. Doing well, so far. More to come when we return.

 

[Teamubr]

Looking good, Chris. The new pin box has the trailer sitting much better.

Hopefully everything stayed cool on the way up.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Good ole Blue Beacon

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

How are you liking the new pin box?

Btw the Foolish Mortal wont be the only big truck at GSP, Stitch will be there too.