RV Mods – Life En Route

Fifth Wheel Towing With New Tires

by James on July 23, 2018 0 Comments

Yesterday I grabbed the trailer I was concerned about, and took it for about a fifteen mile ride @70mph (probably 73mph if my speedometer were calibrated for the new tires) up and down TX130 Toll. After that, I took a somewhat twisty backroad to the house and performed some maintenance.

This was the maiden towing voyage for the Method Racing MR305 NV HD wheels I bought, rated for 4500lbs, and the Cooper Discoverer STT PRO tires I paired them with, which are massive (measuring 35×12-3/8″ with a tape) and rated for 4080lbs. I was worried about the stability and handling when towing this pin-heavy trailer. We usually run with a rear axle weight of around 7500lbs, loaded.

Towing felt a little less stable than the 19.5s, but not as much as I expected, and everything still felt comfortable enough for me to take on the road with confidence. If anything, as we add weight, we may need to slow down to 65mph and relax a bit. This trip was with an empty aux tank (which holds approximately 350lbs of fuel) and no passengers in the cab.

This was with 75PSI rear and 65PSI front, and the rear tires, despite the weight on them, didn’t seem to bulge that much. It does ride a little pin high and the hitch is adjusted as low as it can possibly go, as is the pin box, so it will either have to ride a little nose high or I will need to try lowering the truck a little bit to make it ride level. It is probably fine as-is, but I need to measure the height to the top of the AC unit and see what we’re actually dealing with.

While it was here, I replaced the Anderson 4-way valve cartridge and one of the toilet’s flushing mechanisms, both due to leaks. We had a hard freeze over the winter that damaged both of them, and because we don’t usually have freezes like that here, the RV wasn’t properly winterized. I ordered spares as well. Then I moved on to the underbody storage. I pulled everything out of it and lumped it into a huge pile in the garage. The pass through storage had inflatable kayaks, paddleboards, a telescope, and all sorts of things we thought we would use often but rarely did. I went to Home Depot and bought a few plastic totes to organize the remaining items and then stacked our new fence in there.

Wait, fence? When we were out at Lake Georgetown a couple weeks ago, there was a couple across from us with two dogs that set up all of their seating and pavilions inside a large, portable fence. We’ve seen lots of creative solutions for fencing, but nothing as nice as this looked. We talked to them about it and they were extremely happy with it, showing us how it worked, how it packed down, etc. They found it on Amazon. As this is something I’d been casually looking for, it piqued my interest greatly and we ended up ordering it.

The fence is actually a modular play pen by a company called BestPet. It consists of 8 40″x32″ panels that connect together using thin rods that essentially work as hinge pins between the panels. You can drive them into the ground for support, or depending on the shape of the fence you build, allow the fence to be freestanding. Since they act as hinges, you can set them up at any angle, and due to the hinge design, you can set them up on moderately uneven ground. They said they never had to drive them into the ground, using four sets (85ft of fence line) in a large circular shape. Each set contains one gate panel. We ordered four sets on Ebay (much cheaper than Amazon) and set one up in the back yard to test and now it is still out there because it worked really well to keep the dogs from fence fighting the neighbors. The other three sets are stacked in the storage above. They do take up a fair bit of room, but I think they are practical and we will get a lot of use out of them. They beat tie outs that just get tangled.

Ultimate RV Router

by James on July 12, 2018 0 Comments

We’ve been using a Verizon Jetpack for the last couple of years as our primary source of Internet in the RV. We also have a laptop that we take with us and use for media streaming, which we had issues with when working over wireless. So to work around that, we now have the hotspot, and our UBNT devices rigged up as our internal WiFi router, using the Jetpack SSID as the egress, and providing a single ethernet port which could be used for the laptop. To add to the fact that it’s an overcomplicated mess, the signal strength is abysmal at best and half the time doesn’t work at all from the bedroom (which means we can’t stream media there, most of the time).

There are some commercial solutions that I’ve long believed would be the perfect solution to the RV router dilemma, but they cost a lot of money and I’m unwilling to spend that much. Fortunately, Ebay came to the rescue as I was browsing around last weekend from the RV, and found a steal on a Cradlepoint MBR1400v2 and MC200LE-VZ, at $90. The Cradlepoint MBR1400V2 has recently been discontinued, so hopefully we’ll see the market flood with low cost models that make this reasonably affordable for the average RVer. The MBR1400V2 used to sell for $349, and the MC200LE-VZ for $299. The MBR1400V2 will continue to have commercial support through 03/01/2021, and the MC200LE-VZ through 03/01/2020, so they have a couple few years of life before you have to worry about unaddressed firmware vulnerabilities.

The Cradlepoint MBR1400v2 with MC200LE-VZ attached (top), USB MiFi (bottom left), and a Jetpack (bottom right)

What makes this device special is that, properly configured, it will allow you to prioritize different types of Internet connections and automatically failover between them. For instance, we can use our Verizon SIM cards in the MC200LE-VZ for cell-based Internet, and prioritize fixed connections above it. If we’re full-timing and have a cable modem somewhere, for instance, we can have it configured so that as long as the cable modem is plugged in, and an address over it is reachable, it is the primary Internet connection. If that health check fails, it will automatically fall back to the cellular data. We can also use our UBNT NanoStation M2 to pick up campground WiFi and supply another alternate, prioritized connection with similar functionality.

It uses a straightforward GUI interface, but you probably should understand some network terminology before attempting to configure it.

It also provides client WiFi that is comparable or slightly better than most integrated home routers, with a ton of flexibility, as well as five configurable Ethernet ports (by default one is used as egress for one of my examples above) that can be used to plug things like our laptops into.

I anticipate that this will be a large improvement over our current setup and am looking forward to installing it in the RV.

Reese Sidewinder Update

by James on July 8, 2018 0 Comments

We’re about eighty miles in with the new Reese Sidewinder… just a few quick trips to the house and a trip to Jim Hogg Park in Georgetown. Enough for a general idea of how it’s going to work.

First, on the install, I ran into several issues. The pinbox is heavy, and I can’t get it into place by myself. I thought putting it in the truck bed and using the hydraulics on the RV and/or air bags on the truck to get it into position would work, but that proved only somewhat successful. I had to add a bottle jack to the mix to get the holes lined up, and get it bolted on. Since part of the routine maintenance with this is removing it annually, I’m going to have to find another solution. The leading contender right now is to pick up a cheap transmission jack from Harbor Freight, and using my truck bed as a platform.

Aside from the weight, the pin box brackets on the trailer frame did not clear the Sidewinder when turning. I had to take an angle grinder with a cutting disc to the brackets on the trailer – not the most confidence inspiring move – and reshape them accordingly. Then used some spray enamel to coat the raw edges to keep them from rusting. The material I removed is really non-essential, being that it facilitates lowering the factory pinbox but does little else. We still have four 1/2″ bolts holding each side of the pinbox – eight total, as designed, with plenty of material around the holes the bolts run through.

I went back in after this and added large backing washers before the lock nuts – highly recommended.

The last hiccup we ran into is the pinbox requires a custom wedge to hold the king pin still and allow the trailer to pivot at the turret. You do not want any sort of movement at the pin, or else you risk multiple pivot points, and a dangerous experience. I chose the B&W hitch partially because there is a custom wedge designed specifically for the B&W hitch, but either due to the hitch tolerances, or the wedge tolerances (the wedge cost an extra $60 or so), the wedge would only lock against the left side of the hitch head, leaving a gap on the right. And while there wasn’t enough movement with that gap to cause issues in my limited testing, it wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring. Fortunately, the SideWinder comes with a “Universal Fit” wedge that works great and has full contact with the hitch head, so we eliminated that issue as well as the custom part that fits worse than the generic.

Now, onto the great parts: we can turn a full 90°, and actually a little bit more. There is no longer any concern about hitting the cab of the truck. Stability when towing seems to be about the same as with our old hitch, and surprisingly, so is the ride. I was expecting a notable change in ride quality going from the Trailer Saver BD3 to the B&W hitch with AirBorne pinbox, but honestly didn’t find much difference – the truck rides like it is unloaded with either hitch – which makes me wonder how much my Kelderman suspension is to blame.

The new hitch makes more noise than the old hitch, but even in the distance so far, has quieted up a bit. I expect that it will become progressively quieter as the wear plates break in. I didn’t feel comfortable that the turret bolts are only torqued to 45ft-lb, even though they aren’t load bearing, so I used some Loctite Blue to ensure they don’t back themselves out. Reese recommends checking them with a torque wrench before every outing, something I may do a few times but I don’t usually make it a habit of checking all the numerous nuts and bolts with a torque wrench every time I hook up. The Loctite should keep them from backing off, but I’ll follow up with the wrench for a while to be sure.

Overall, the install was a pain and I wouldn’t really recommend it as a DIY install for most users. It isn’t particularly difficult, but the process may involve some fabrication that a lot of people aren’t going to be comfortable with. My preliminary findings of the handling are excellent, though, and I do suggest this as a viable option for anyone with a short bed truck who doesn’t want a slider taking up room in the bed.

A Retrospective: Best and Worst RV Mods

by James on July 7, 2018 0 Comments

We’ve made quite a few changes to the RV. So far, the best two really are a tie. One is safety related, and the other is convenience. On the merit of category, the safety one probably wins, but the convenience one is a strong runner up.

Safety: Titan Disc Brake Conversion by Performance Trailer Braking

This modification seems like it would be unnecessary, but I have no idea why they ship 40ft and 15K-lb trailers with drum brakes (except as a cost cutting measure). The disc brakes allow us to stop on a dime, probably in the same or possibly even less distance than with an unloaded truck. They’re that good.

Convenience: RVLock V4.0 Door Lock from RVlock.com

We wouldn’t own another RV without this. It seemed like a pricey investment at the time, but the convenience of not having to carry or use keys is huge and it was well worth the money.

On the other hand, I have to say that the worst modification we made was the whole-RV RO system. It’s great in theory, and having clean drinkable water from nearly any source sounds great. However, we’ve had nothing but problems with leaking seals – which pop up randomly after weeks of properly functioning. We’ll get a month of leak-free use before having to tear apart the system and rebuild it, then we’ll find a pool of water in the storage area where the system is installed. I’m not sure if we’re just getting poor quality O-rings (tried a few different sources) or the manifold is cheap (it wasn’t), or if we’re over or under-tightening (don’t think so)… but at this point it just takes up space because we’ve essentially written it off, and will be removing it in the near future. Maybe we have a bad manifold, but YMMV with this mod and our experience has not been great.

Moving forward, we’re going to be ditching a lot of the things we carry in the RV but don’t use: a large telescope, an inflatable SUP board, tons of smaller items that together take up a lot of space, and try to optimize our payload based on the last two years of use. We’ll be looking for some sort of fencing so that we don’t have to keep the dogs on tie-outs, we’ll be keeping the pop-up shelter and hammocks and folding table and chairs. But it’s time to look at how we’re using things, and get rid of what we’re not using to make room for what we will.

New Antennas & Tailgate

by James on June 1, 2017 0 Comments

I love having the ham radio and communications gear, but antennas can look unruly. Especially when you have five really tall ones. I’ve changed the antenna setup several times trying to find the right compromise between range and aesthetics, but ultimately decided to err on the side of aesthetics for daily driving. I can keep the other antennas behind the back seat of the truck for times when I might need the additional range. I opted to replace the CB antenna with a Firestik II, which is 2′ long. On the opposite side of the headache rack, I replaced the scanner antenna with a Browning BR-137, which is 22″ tall, and an adapter that converts the stud to NMO, and adds another inch or so. That antenna is seriously impressive. On the front of the truck, I replaced the factory FM antenna I never use with a stubby 4″ antenna, and the scanner antenna with a Comet SS-450SBNMO, which is 18″ long.

Also dealing with aesthetics, I wasn’t entirely happy with the appearance of the fifth wheel tailgate. I love not having to deal with opening and closing the tailgate when hooking up, but that’s about the extent of my appreciation of it. I’ve been looking for quite a while for a new tailgate, and found one for $425 shipped on Ebay, already painted black, with “a few minor blemishes”. I ordered it and swapped the hardware from my old tailgate over. It does have a couple areas that don’t look perfect, but from a few feet away you would never notice. I also removed all the graphics from the sides and back of the truck.

San Jacinto Riverfront RV Resort and Steadyfast

by James on January 8, 2017 0 Comments

We wanted to spend Dec 26 – Jan 2 out in nature, but waited too late to find a site. Our top choices were Big Bend National Park, followed by the State Park and Maverick Ranch out there; if those weren’t available we were going to hike up to Palo Duro Canyon State Park or go out to Garner State Park. But alas, none of them had any availability when we tried to book them at the end of November. We had waited too long.

Changing directions, we found a “luxury” park outside of Houston called the San Jacinto Riverfront RV Resort. It advertised being on a river, with hot tubs at each of the individual “Deluxe Riverview With Spa” sites. They had one of those sites left, so we booked it and headed there the day after Christmas.

It is a very large park with approximately three hundred sites, and though I don’t think it is planned, the nicest rigs tend to be the ones nearest the river. They supposedly have strict requirements for newer and nicer rigs only, but outside of the few rows nearest the river, we saw several poorly maintained trailers, some in considerable states of disrepair. We didn’t speak to everyone in the park, but didn’t see any rigs coming or going, and the few people we did speak to assumed that we moving in long-term. It didn’t feel like a destination park and though it is nice to have the hot tub and river view, we probably won’t go back. It has the distinct feel of a residence park that just happens to accept destination travelers.

The park was nicely landscaped, with a lot of palm trees and nice grasses for dogs, though we didn’t see any off-leash areas, like we’ve seen at other similar area parks such as the Rayford Crossing RV Resort. It has some very neat colorful cabins near the water, and some smaller cabins in a tiny house like community on the other side. Laundry facilities and bathrooms were clean, but nothing to write home about. The pool was closed, even though it was plenty warm to swim this December, but looked beautiful and we would have loved to see it open. The gym facility needs a lot of updating: it consists of a treadmill and an elliptical (if I recall correctly) that worked fine and some old, mismatched consumer grade weights. They had a Bowflex that had worn out bars, at 210# it felt like 80#. The one redeeming piece of equipment was a plate loaded weight machine with a nice dip station in the corner. If they’re not going to spend $10K for properly functioning commercial gym equipment, I’d almost rather them not have a gym at all. The store had a basic selection of necessities, but there is a full grocer about a mile down the street that we opted to go to when we needed odds and ends.

As for the site we rented, it was nice. It was probably the widest pad we’ve ever had; it consisted of a gazebo with hot tub, plenty of space for the RV and the truck to sit side by side. The roadside of the trailer was facing the river, so we didn’t benefit from the river view unless we were in the hot tub. The hot tub was nice, and rather than run treatments they seem to flush water out between guests. Unfortunately that means that after a few days the hot water of the tub under the insulated cap got a little stale, and we requested that they treat or replace the water in it. They replaced the water and, the day we left, the issue was back. We had a bright light next to the hot tub that I can’t decide if it was nice to have, or annoying. It was almost blinding when sitting at the wrong angle in the hot tub, but it was also nice to have the light. This is nitpicking, but I’d rather have rope lights on the gazebo and that the light moved to the other side of the roadway.

The river itself has a boat launch and nice 150′ fishing pier. We saw a lot of people fishing off of it, but didn’t partake ourselves. The river appears to be a shipping channel with several barges across the way and tugboats moving them in and out of dock. While they were far enough away that the noise wasn’t disturbing, it was interesting to watch, and a telltale sign of the condition of the water. Additionally, several signs announced the swimming in the river was prohibited. There were fireworks on New Years, on both sides of the river and off some of the barges. While it wasn’t a focused, collaborated show, it was a great view for bringing in the new year.

Overall, it was a decent park but after discussing it, we’re unlikely to go back. Even given the complaints we mentioned above, we’d probably give it four out of five stars if not for the price. We can mostly overlook the older trailers and the “permanent” resident nature of the park. But $379 for the week ($359+$20 extra for the third dog, which is ridiculous since the third dog doesn’t require anything additional from them) it is simply too expensive to overlook the fact that the park is full of poorly maintained rigs and is more mobile-home community than destination resort. Three out of five stars.

Until this resort, we’ve rarely used our washer/dryer combo. But after finding that air drying our bathing suits on the shower door was insufficient, we took to washing or at least drying our bathing suits daily in the unit. We have the Level-Up hydraulic system on our RV, and have been happy to date with the amount of motion that the RV has. I have looked into king pin tripods and JT Strongarm stabilizers, but the tripods have mixed reviews and the JT Strongarms don’t work with our hydraulic rams, and it just wasn’t that important to us. The laundry machine introduces a lot of motion though, and if we start using it with any consistency, as I think we will after getting more familiar with it, we definitely want something more. So I found a system similar to the JT Strongarms, named Steadyfast that does work with the rams. They were running a good deal for new years so I ordered the set. I haven’t installed it yet, but will detail the install in a blog post in a couple weeks. I doubt I’ll get around to installing them until the 20th.

Disk Brakes Installed

RV Mods

by James on November 6, 2016 0 Comments

Finally got around to installing the disk brakes. This is something I’ve been trying to get to for some time, but considered a two person job and didn’t have an assistant to use in the area. I contacted the owner of the company I bought them from to ask if he had any installers in the area, and he arranged to come out and assist me with the install. Since it was an assisted install, rather than a full install, the pricing worked out to be pretty fair. The installer came out and worked on the wiring while I worked on the brake assemblies, and assisted where needed for prying and such.

These look really nice. Far nicer than the rust bucket drums I pulled off.

All said and done, though we haven’t done a road test yet. We tested them in place to make sure the bearings were working properly, then that the brakes were actuating properly when engaged by the truck.

We’re hoping to take it out next weekend and see what kind of difference they make.

Hitch and Storage

RV Mods

by James on October 13, 2016 0 Comments

We added a hitch for a bike rack, and a BAL spare tire carrier this week under the RV to hold the portable waste tank. We wanted to hold the spare tire for the truck on the carrier since there is no longer room in the factory location, but it is too wide to fit. This works out great too, though, because after cleaning out our basement storage it is almost empty.

The hitch and carrier hang down pretty far under the RV, but there is still plenty of clearance.

The bike rack we ordered (Swagman XTC2) is way too wobbly back there so we found a stronger one (Swagman Dispatch) made of 2″ stock instead of 1.25″ and advertised for RV use. I would have bought it initially, but didn’t know it existed. Unfortunately our initial rack was out of the return window, so it will be going on Craigslist.

Weekend RV Progress

RV Mods

by James on October 10, 2016 0 Comments

This Saturday I went up to the RV lot to grab the RV and bring it back to the house to tackle some of my projects. While at the lot, I decided to test my turning angle so backed to about 82° where the RV began hitting the antennas. I inched back slowly, trying to find exactly how sharp I could go, and stopped when what I believed was the antenna hit the truck. I got out and checked, and the trailer had actually met the cab at around 84°. With the dent it left, I could go to 85°. So I ordered a paintless dent repair kit off Amazon to see how that works. Kelly said she didn’t even notice the dent, but it’s fairly sizable and going to bother me as long as I know it is there.

When I got back to the house, I pulled the rear underbelly cover off and began installing the Curt receiver hitch I bought. I ended up drilling four 17/32″ holes in the frame of the trailer on each side (eight total) and bolting the hitch with the supplied 1/2″ bolts through them. I went through two bits for these eight holes, they seem to wear out fast using WD-40 as a cutting oil, so I need to look at either a sharpener or another oil of some type. I still need to grab a torque wrench to tighten them to spec, but the hitch is installed. The mounting bracket for the freshwater tank interfered with the ideal location for the hitch brackets, and rather than modify them or the interfering bracket, I decided to mount the hitch about 6″ further towards the front of the trailer and buy a receiver extension.

Next, I installed the Progressive EMS in front of both the generator and the shore power. I mounted the display in the underbody storage for now, though there is plenty of line if I ever decide to move it. It is the only thing I took a photo of, and it didn’t come out very good, but you can see that it is just a little black box with power cords going in one side and out the other.

In addition to detecting several types of electrical faults, it displays the voltage and current on each leg, as well as any faults, on the panel that I located just inside the storage door. It’s nice to have that information available. Working with the massive 50A wiring was somewhat difficult, but once I found a method to it went pretty quickly.

Next, I mounted the BAL spare tire carrier under the RV. I used five #12 x 1-1/2″ self-tapping screws on each side. Unfortunately, I couldn’t actually mount the spare from my truck on it, as it was too tall. Fortunately, it does a really good job of holding the Barker 32 gallon portable waste tank that we carry, allowing us to move it out of the basement. I used two ratcheting tie straps to anchor it to the carrier.

The next thing I tackled was adding LED lights under the awning. I used 3M double sided exterior adhesive tape for this, and they seem to hold well. I ran the wiring down along the channel for the awning arm and into the vent for the battery compartment, where I mounted the control module. These change colors and pattern according to a RF remote.

We’ve had some issues with the refrigerator cooling properly, so I added two additional fans to move air over the condenser fins. They are controlled by a simple thermostat and kick on only when the needed. I bought this as a kit online.

Last, I started working on the RO system. This included drilling two 1-1/4″ holes in the freshwater tank, one at the top and one in the middle. These holes are used for float switches that work off continuity. They can share a common wire, but each need their own lead running back to the boost pump controller, requiring three wires total. I drilled the holes and mounted the sensors with a ton of silicone. I still haven’t added water yet but am hoping there will not be any leaks. I ran the three wires 25′ to the basement storage and spliced them into the controller. I wired everything up and found the components that needed to be ordered. I should have the RO system mounted and working by the end of Tuesday if everything goes well when the parts come in.

I have a couple small fixes to take care of today; the closet door in the master bath needs to be adjusted so both sides can open and the drawer under the fridge needs to be reinforced because we put heavy pots and pans in it. Other than that, I’m waiting for parts to come in tomorrow and will hopefully be taking it back to the RV lot on Wednesday, to install the brakes over the upcoming weekend.

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