5th Wheel Owners..Help..

[MTboatguy]

Ya, the dip tube for the vent is at a level where the tank is 80% full, which leaves a 20% expansion factor for hot days, because propane under pressure will start to vaporize when above a certain temp, when below that temp the LPG is in liquid form, we actually open valves on propane tanks to freeze the top of the liquid, so we can replace the valves without loosing much propane.

 

[rbh]

Congrats Bud, nice home away from home!

 

[rbh]

Small 10 pound tank for the boat, 20 pound for the BBQ and 30 pounders for the trailer. I have 3 -100 pounders if I ever hook up the propane furnace in the basement.

 

[WIMUSKY]

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:...

 

[MTboatguy]

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:...

:sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping:

 

[WIMUSKY]

:sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping:

I'll tell the story later...... Been running around trying to get options for my current hitch. Every one is costing me $$$$$$$$. But, that's nothing compared to the whole story.....:facepalm:

 

[MTboatguy]

I'll tell the story later...... Been running around trying to get options for my current hitch. Every one is costing me $$$$$$$$. But, that's nothing compared to the whole story.....:facepalm:

Now you have my curiosity peaked, what is going on?

 

[WIMUSKY]

Ok....... Yesterday went well as he showed me around the trailer explaining this and that which I probably forgot 1/2 of before the day was done. He showed me how to hitch it up and the steps he took. All good. Ps.... He is a really nice guy. The wife kept on interrupting him in mid sentence, that he got tired off. It was annoying...Lol Finally, she took off with the money...

We're all hitched up and ready to move the thing. Of course he had to back thru a bunch of large spruce which he drove thru on the way in. No idea why he parked where he did. Anyway, game plan was to back thru the trees onto a very short drive and out on the county road. Heck, cars will stop if need be, sounded like a plan. Then the plan changed. He wanted to back towards the garage instead and drive straight out. I mention it was a very tight turn, over 90? easily. He said he could move back and forth and do it. Alrighty, who am I to say.... Jacked around for a long time. Almost out and I here glass explode and dropping. He jack knifed it, crunched the corner of the cab(he has a crew like mine) and the rear window is gone. I'm yelling at him to stop. He thought it was branches on the roof of the truck. Crunched the corner of the trailer. He pulled forward a little and the corner popped out. Great, except some gel coat is missing, some scraped and the decal destroyed. I'll attach pix. I felt really bad for him and not thrilled about the trailer.

We discussed the issue for awhile and we were going to haul it where it was purchased and get it fixed. Great. But it would be 2 1/2 weeks at least.. sigh... Then he mentioned about cutting me a $500 check to fix it whenever, I could still use it to camp..... Talked to the wife, fine......

Get to my place. Had a spot where I wanted it and it was wide open. He had to do a little backing, but no trees. Still took a little while. Finally made it. Go to lower the front levelers and only one was working. Great, broke a shear pin. No spare, I found a bolt... Works... Did I mention it is now raining and he's "about" at his wits end. I don't blame him. I would have been livid. A couple times he gave me an out to get my money back and call it a day. No, let's forge on. It's in my yard afterall and the money is in their bank.

Everything is level and we went in to open up the slides. Yep, one wouldn't move and still doesn't. You can hear the motor running and ratcheting. This happened before, I guess. If you hold the button for a split second to long once it's in this happens. Way too sensitive in my book. At the time he's starting to lose it and still gives me an out. But I figured he really didn't want to see the trailer nymore at this point even tho he never wanted to sell it, his wife did.

He called the dealer and they're coming out next week to fix it, on the previous owners dime. It's suppose to be an easy fix so I'm going watch what they do. The old owner wants to see it too. I slo want to get the proper shear pin for the levelers too.

What a day....... Here's a couple pix.... poor guy....

 

[MTboatguy]

Wow, sorry to hear that Wim, but I did mention the slides, those things can be a real pain in the rear end. Now being familiar with fixing these, been helping my buddy for over 7 years now, that fiberglass repair is going to be more than $500, so I would make sure and let him know, I suspect that decal will be over $125.00 and I see in reality about 10 hours of work to repair that correctly, which it will have to be to maintain that factory warranty on that unit. Shop rates around my part of the country are about $105.00 per hour. With shop supplies, 10 hours, decal and such I am thinking you might be looking over $1500 for them to repair it. As stated, the trailer is still under factory warranty, the landing gear jack and the slide ram should be covered under that. In reality, his rig should be covered under insurance and the trailer should be covered under insurance, especially if he still owes money on it, most finance companies will not allow you to drop insurance just because you are not using it.

What type of truck did he tow it with? You did say, he was going to give you the hitch with the deal right, is your truck the same truck as his? If not, you might need to pick up a install hardware kit for your Dodge, the newer trucks all seem to have different install kits for them these days. As far as wiring the best place to put the plug for a 5th wheel is on the drivers side of the bed, so who ever installs for you, make sure they are careful, I have seen to many guys get over zealous and punch a hole in the outside skin of the bed. Is the hitch a slider hitch? Is your truck a full long bed? If it is the 6 foot bed with the crew cab, then I strongly recommend the slider hitch, it help prevent what happened today from happening!

http://www.reeseprod.com/products/fifth-wheels/fifth-wheel-sliders/5da26gEDqm9PtbZ7yVsQUf!3uIeov4N6

The slider hitches allow you to position the trailer farther back when you are parking it, you mentioned that mine looked long in the nose and it is, as well as the pin on the hitch is in front of the trailer, I can actually have the trailer at a complete 90 degree angle to my truck without the overhang ever hitting my truck.

Again, sorry to hear of the misfortune before you ever got to use it, but I am sure things will get fixed up for you. Just live and learn from his obvious mistakes today so you never have a repeat. I suspect he did not have a lot of experience with it based on your description of today's events. I can't back my trailer up my driveway because of the steep portion when I enter, so I always have to pull nose in, then we leave to go camping, I have to back down the driveway, so I am pretty good at it. It is a skill that if you don't use it, it become difficult when you do the first few times.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Well, I hope you're wrong on the cost to fix. That would suck...... I do have the same truck as his except in a RAM. 6' box. Nothing is transferable except the main hitch. I also did look at those sliders as an option. They also make a Sidewinder hitch for the trailer side. We're stopping buy an RV place today for options. I'll ask them about fixing it too....

For now I put tub and tile caulking over the area to keep the water out. And it did rain last nite. If you look at he lower right of a couple pix you can see the trim and a screw got screwed up too. That's where the cap meets the main body I guess. I jammed caulk in there too.

Hopeully getting that slider is an easy fix. It makes a huge diiference s far as interior room to have them.

After seeing that guy start smashing everything up made me gun shy. Although, I'm pretty good at backing regular traailers. Been doing it since i waas 16. Just nothing quite this big. Hopefully, it still will be cake........

 

[WIMUSKY]

Wow, sorry to hear that Wim, but I did mention the slides, those things can be a real pain in the rear end. Now being familiar with fixing these, been helping my buddy for over 7 years now, that fiberglass repair is going to be more than $500, so I would make sure and let him know, I suspect that decal will be over $125.00 and I see in reality about 10 hours of work to repair that correctly, which it will have to be to maintain that factory warranty on that unit. Shop rates around my part of the country are about $105.00 per hour. With shop supplies, 10 hours, decal and such I am thinking you might be looking over $1500 for them to repair it. As stated, the trailer is still under factory warranty, the landing gear jack and the slide ram should be covered under that. In reality, his rig should be covered under insurance and the trailer should be covered under insurance, especially if he still owes money on it, most finance companies will not allow you to drop insurance just because you are not using it.

See my above post too.
Shop rates are the same. Crazy. Since it's cosmetic it shouldn't affect the warranty. The slides aren't covered because its considered a "wear" item. I bet he may have dropped ins. on it. He owed nothing. the original plan was, he was going to give my money back, I would give him the title(which we still haven't filled out on our end) and he would just pay the deductible and get it fixed where he bought it. Then we'd do the transfer again. The only problem, it would take at least 2 weeks to get it in and a few days to fix. I probably screwed up on that deal.

We have ins. on it already and joined Good Sam Club. I'm feeling old... I guess if we have a breakdown they will get us to where ever we need to be, including flying us and the dog home if we have major trailer issues. Roadside service etc too.

 

[GA_Boater]

Oh boy Musky. Days like that you and the seller can both live without. Way up there when you started telling about the seller's wife not liking the trailer and she thought it was too too big, she may have been right. At least for them.

If the option is still open, I would let him take it and the title back and get your cash back. Once it's fixed, do it all over again. That gives you time to get the slide installed and you can tow it away. 2 weeks to fix - You didn't have it the day before yesterday, so what's 2 more weeks to make it right. IMHO

 

[MTboatguy]

Well on the slide, he did say he would pay to get it fixed, right? Those slides can work forever or, they get out of adjustment and have to be lined back up, if you can hear the motor turning, then you at least know it is not electrical. I have seen problems in both types of slide systems, some use hydraulic rams and some use screw rams. If he is saying this happens sometime when it is ran in and if you hold the button to long, it won't go back out. That tells me it is probably out of adjustment. It is good that you covered it with some kind of sealer, in that one close up picture, it looks like a small hole in the middle of it, which would be complete perforation of the shell and could let water in. There are some products on the market available to the RV industry, that is a lot like the old fashion bondo, but updated to reflect current times and it holds up real good if the guy doing the repair knows what he is doing.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Yep. The previous owner is dealing with the slide. All tho, since I think this is the 3rd time, he's going to wait for the bill then light someone up at the dealership. He's going to try and convince them that he doesn't need to pay for it again. I don't blame him.......

The guys at Bullyan RV said it shouldn't be that sensitive. It's a different dealership that sells Keystone too. That's what's going to happen, another readjustment. There will be 6 legs coming out from under the trailer when he works on it. I want the mechanic to play with sliding it in and out after he's done. I'm hoping it fails so they can replace a part, or whatever to have more of a perm. fix.

I plan on having Bullyan fix the gelcoat. A ballpark estimate just from the guy behind the counter who doesn't do any fixing said $500-$1K. He just looked at our pix. Hopefully, the body super will see them today and give more exact estimate.

I went to the previous owners place just up the road to pick up a service like manual, Woodall's RV Owners Handbook 4th Edition. he said Woodall's is supposed to be a good reference manual. Haven't looked at it yet. . He gave us a tour of his lake place. Very, very nice. I mentioned the prelim esimate of $500. I knew better thAN TO BRING UP THE $1k. He thought $500 was high since the little gelcoat they would need at $30/can.

The nightmare still isn't over. If it's anywhere near $500, I'll foot the bill. I don't want this guy to have a coronary, literally....

I'm going to "summerize" it today. He has RV anti in the lines. Make sure the frig/heater/stove works providing I can run it all on 110. I know the air needs a 30amp circuit which I don't have. Well I do, but it's hardwired to the air in the house. Maybe I should add a 30amp. I have room in the box...

Still haven't filled out the title....... I'm holding off for now.......

 

[MTboatguy]

You can actually run the air on a normal 15 amp circuit for a while to test it, just keep a check on the cord to monitor how hot the cord gets, I have run mine for up to 4 hours with no problems at all, of course us a 12 or 10 gauge extension cord, not one of the spindly little orange ones from Home Depot. Don't try to run both the air and the fridge at the same time, you will blow a fuse for sure. If you are going to test the fridge, make sure the trailer is level, it needs to be level when running the fridge, if not, over a period of time, it will all the chemicals to concentrate and eventually put a hole in the cooling unit, which is real pain to repair. If you ever smell ammonia in your trailer, it means your fridge has failed. you need to leave the fridge on for a few hours before you will really notice it cooling. When you are getting ready to use the trailer, pre-cool the stuff you are going to put in it and pre-cool the fridge before loading it. The first place you will notice cooling is the freezer, I normally put an ice tray in there when I am getting ready to go and when it starts to freeze the ice cubes I know it is working and I can start loading it.

You will need to pick up a adapter to plug into normal cords, don't pick up a cheap one, the one I have is sealed, with a LED to visually see it is working and the cord is heavy, about a foot long, I picked it up at Wal Mart for about $10 and it works great.

 

[bruceb58]

Maybe I should add a 30amp. I have room in the box...

You can temporarily stick in a breaker and pig tail it out to an outlet. That of course is if you know what you are doing!

Like MTBoatguy said, you need a pretty hefty extension cord. I have an 8 ga cord that I use for stuff like that.

 

[MTboatguy]

I just wired a 50 amp at my power box, with the correct plug, so I don't have any problems and anybody that comes and visits with their RV has a place to plug in that I know, won't cause any problems in my home.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Just got an adapter and plugged it in. I believe it's currently charging the battery. I hear a fan in the fuse box running too. Other than that, I have nothing else on. I may play more with it tomorrow. I'm using 12 ga since that's what I have. So far the cord feels cool. Trailer is about 200' from the house.....

 

[MTboatguy]

200' Boy that is a long run, if that is where you are going to have to park it normally, I would trench in a 50 amp service out there and then you won't have to worry about it. In the mean time, I would make sure you are level, then fire the fridge up and see how it goes overnight, that way, you know it is working.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Yep. Going to keep it down by the shed and boat. It's the flatest part of my property that's around the house... I'm not going to crank up the frig tonite in case the cord heats up. I'll do that during the daylight hours. Start it before I go to work and if it's all ok, let 'er run...... It's been sitting level since we parked it...