Category Archives: Travel Trailer

Towing Attitude and 10,000 Mile ProPride Update

Travel Trailer,

Attitude

No, I’m not going to discuss the behavior of people when they are towing a trailer. Behavior isn’t the only kind of attitude.

The attitude of an airplane is its orientation relative to the earth’s horizon. Airplanes have an Attitude Indication that shows the craft’s bank and pitch. Bank is the side to side tilt and pitch refers to the nose of the plane; nose up, down, or level.

Over the Christmas holiday we drove quite a few miles along I-5 and there were an unexpected large number of people towing trailers. I was surprised how many of those trailers were being towed not level. Most of those trailers were being towed with the nose up, similar to an aircraft’s pitch. This is not a good thing.

Continue reading Towing Attitude and 10,000 Mile ProPride Update →

2016 Recap: Favorite Gear, Blog Stats, Favorite Trips, Blah, Blah, Blah

Backpacking, Backpacking Gear, Camping, Travel Trailer, , ,

Well, it’s that time of the year again when many backpacking bloggers create a list of their favorite new gear from the prior year. How on earth (or why) can these folks have a slew of new backpacking gear year after year? Methinks they are focused on gear, not getting out often and walking. But I digress…

Then some of these bloggers publish web stats for their blog during the prior year. Really? How boring.

A few backpacking bloggers may only post some of their favorite pictures taken during the prior year or do a simple recap of some trip reports – I like what some of the “few” do. The rest, meh.

What is interesting is that campers and full time RVers who blog generally don’t do this. They simply keep writing about their adventures.

My backpacking gear hasn’t changed much in the past 4 or 5 years, so nothing to write about here. Same goes for our camping gear. Somewhere on this website are lists of the gear and equipment we use. You should be able to easily find those if you are interested.

Given this pessimistic outlook on gear, there is one piece of equipment that has been critical for every single backpacking or camping trip I have done since 2003.

Continue reading 2016 Recap: Favorite Gear, Blog Stats, Favorite Trips, Blah, Blah, Blah →

It’s Probably A Bad Day When Your RV Slide-Out Breaks

Travel Trailer, ,

Milan Maiden Voage

After a 250 mile drive to our campsite in Nevada to enjoy a week-plus Thanksgiving vacation and escape the Black Friday insanity, we unhitched the camper and began our quick set-up routine. As I was outside beginning to lower the stabilizers, I heard some funny noises as Joyce was extending our powered slide-out dining room.

Entering the trailer, I saw that one side of the room was partially extended and the other was still in the closed position – the slide out room was cocked and wedged against the frame. Oh, oh. Smartly, Joyce had stopped trying to open the slide. I pushed the button to retract the slide so I could investigate the problem and unfortunately, as I discovered, the drive chain on the working side created extra slack and wrapped itself backwards creating extra force and breaking one of the cables. As Trump would say, a Disaster!

Our slide-out was one of those things you just don’t think about until it breaks. So I thought I would share some thoughts on what I should have done (e.g., learn how it works mechanically and inspect/maintain it) and what pre-emptive steps I could have done.

Most important learning was I didn’t have a spare cable and if I had, I didn’t own the necessary tools to repair.

Continue reading It’s Probably A Bad Day When Your RV Slide-Out Breaks →

RV Roof Maintenance

Travel Trailer

Two Kyocera 140 Watt Panels

 

Yes, RV roofs need maintenance!

I suspect most RV owners don’t realize they need to do maintenance on their roofs. With our two tent trailers, which had aluminum roofs, it was fairly easy. Just wash with soap and water, rinse, and check for any problems where the center seam was covered with a metal trim piece.

Our Milan, like most newer RV’s, is different. It has a thin membrane that requires more attention and maintenance.

Continue reading RV Roof Maintenance →

Tire Pressure Secrets for Camping Trailers & Tow Vehicles

Tent Trailer, Travel Trailer, , ,

“What should the tire pressure be when towing?”

expedition-p-metic-tireThis is a common question. If there is one subject among trailer owners that is wrought with misinformation and voodoo, it is tire pressure and load capacity. A discussion about tire pressure is, well, a numbers discussion. Ah, numbers are our friends. Just in case you dislike technical stuff and a bunch of numbers, let me pique your interest with a couple commonly asked but rarely correctly answered questions.

Q. Tire pressures are always shown as cold. Can I set my tires after driving on them and what should I set them at?

A. You should add 5 – 6 psi above the specifications. For example, if the specification is 35 psi, then set your warm tires to 40 or 41 psi.

Q. My SUV/Light Truck came equipped with passenger tires. Is there anything special I should know?

A. Yes. The load carrying capacity of P-Metric tires when used on SUVs, light trucks, and vans is 91% of the stated capacity.

Continue reading Tire Pressure Secrets for Camping Trailers & Tow Vehicles →

How to Change a Trailer Tire without a Jack!

Camper Upgrades, Travel Trailer,

Camco Trailer Aid

This is not a Gear Review

To properly review a product it needs to be put to extensive use over a period of time. Perhaps a couple of years. Twenty-five or forty-five years would be better such as my camping chairs or some of my older backpacking gear. Based on a limited test, I recommend it.

Continue reading How to Change a Trailer Tire without a Jack! →

Trailer Tongue Weight Voodoo

Camper Upgrades, Travel Trailer, , ,

Almost three years ago I wrote a 3-part series titled, How Much Trailer Can You Tow? 

You can read them here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 contains the information on Weight Distribution Hitches (WDH)

I have received many inquiries from trailer owners about Weight Distribution Hitches and there is a lot of confusion out there in trailer land. I have always advocated weighing your tow vehicle and trailer periodically to ensure everything is within specifications, and herein lays the confusion. People try to interpret the scale readings and assume a WDH will subtract weight from the tow vehicle’s rear axle and add it to the front axle; that is: the front axle of the tow vehicle will weigh more with the trailer hitched. We do not want this to happen. After completing my yearly maintenance on Monday, I loaded everything up, to include full water tanks and temporarily filled the refrigerator and headed over to the local CAT scale. I’ll use those measurements to hopefully explain how to weigh your set up, what weights you should be looking at, and how to interpret them.

Continue reading Trailer Tongue Weight Voodoo →

Heat and the Art of Trailer Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Travel Trailer

… with an apology to  Robert M. Pirsig

Yesterday was the first day of summer. The first day of summer is a good point in time to perform the annual trailer maintenance, which most importantly includes cleaning, inspecting, and re-packing the wheel bearings along with the periodic maintenance of the waste & fresh water tanks, and fresh water, and battery maintenance.

The first day of summer is of no consequence, it just was a point in time where I was home, it needed to be done, and the summer camping season is upon us. I knew it was going to be a hot day, hotter than normal for this time of year. Poor planning on my part found the job extending into the afternoon – not completion before noon as planned. Which found me outside in the sun working in this… it seemed hot so I checked the weather on my iPad…

How hot is hot?
How hot is hot?

In case you have embraced the Centigrade scale for temperature measurement, I was working in an ambient temperature environment of 50.6 C or 123 F for us mere mortals. But hey, the humidity was only 5%. Dry heat as we desert dwellers like to brag.

Even the ravens dislike the heat -- several took a break from the heat to gather around this puddle at the end of our street
Even the ravens dislike the heat — several took a break from the heat to gather around this puddle at the end of our street

But let’s get back to the maintenance. No matter what the temperature, one must take their time and do maintenance properly.

Continue reading Heat and the Art of Trailer Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values →

ProPride 6,000 Mile Update

Camper Upgrades, Travel Trailer, , , ,

The more I use this, the more I like it! Hitching up the trailer takes seconds, not minutes. But a while back I ran into a small problem.

Propride upper caps dented
ProPride hitch removed from the packing box

When I unpacked the hitch, the upper dust caps were dented. The dents didn’t affect the functionality of the hitch, and was really just a cosmetic issue. However, they caps really should have fitted a little more snug.

Eventually one fell off, lost in the wind while traveling.

Continue reading ProPride 6,000 Mile Update →

Dometic Sunchaser Awning & Other Stuff

Camper Upgrades, Travel Trailer, , , ,

Dometic Sunchaser Awning

For us, a trailer awning is a critical piece of camping equipment. The awning extends your living space, or as it should, it limits the need to spend time inside the camper. When we are at camped, we spend most of our campsite time outside talking, cooking, working on a suntan (me), or just napping. If it is raining, you can sit under the awning staying dry and enjoying the percipitation, although the camping goal should be to spend most of the time hiking, biking, boating, or even fishing.

Continue reading Dometic Sunchaser Awning & Other Stuff →