Midrsv

I have a travel trailer and I'm in it now as i write this. We use is as a winter home and not to travel the country. We started out with a used 28 ft trailer with a single, small slideout as a test to see if we would like the lifestyle. With that trailer we learned what we wanted in our next trailer. After the first winter in it we sold it and only lost about $500 and then bought what we felt was best for our situation which is a 36ft trailer with a rear living area and we are very comfortable in it for about 4 1/2 months a year. From talking with friends in our park many have switched from Class C and Class A motorhomes to 5th wheels with a suitable truck. Because we live in it full time during the season we wanted a living area which was comfortable for meals and watching TV. A decent pantry was a requirement for my wife. I wanted to be able to watch TV without turning sideways. We're just down the road from you on Hutchinson Island, between Ft Pierce and Stuart. Ride the bike down and I'll show you what was important to us. Dennis

I just use my iPhone on the rare time that I may need a compass. Seems to work OK. Dennis

Don, I doubt your mileage will be that much worse than your 5.3L. I had a 2003 Tahoe with a 5.3 and towed a 3500 lb boat back and forth to Cumberland. It got scared every time I hooked the trailer to it. It would hunt for gears at the slightest grade. I wanted my next Tahoe to pull so I found an 09 with the 6.2L and it will pull. I haven't found that the mileage suffered at all. The 6.2 actually does a little better at highway speeds. On the 5.3L I had to keep my foot in it to keep up with traffic even when not towing. I can use a much softer foot with the 6.2. I towed a 9000lb, 36ft trailer to Florida with the 6.2L and had no problem with the mountains. Now the mileage did suffer with 9000lbs behind it, about 7.5mpg for the trip. (Edit: Spelling correction- Was Dom,, changed to Don)

I feel the same way about the useless HF lift I have in my garage. Dennis

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/e239bde93880a4acf932c707877bfa88.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/e2a4a0194ed295abf160ba87b616f290.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/903d16dc037a62cd4b7bed627f2d165c.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/cb7e90bd56d87b16ddd953182542bbae.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/657ed54d95866991bf152f469b3d264b.jpg And here's how I found it the morning of my birthday in Hill City SD. If you can't trust your wife and friends who can you trust.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/2601a2515934fa23425ca01f02f9ad1b.jpg Thought I would add a photo of my wing to this thread too.

Just talked to the guy at redlinestands.com and he said the pump on their stand was similar to my HF unit but couldn't guarantee it would work. And, it was $195 plus shipping. I'd sell mine for scrap if I could get it to the scrap yard.

Thanks, the LD1K light duty lift looks very similar to the one I have. I'll contact them to see if the cylinder will work. But I'm not inclined to put more than $50 or so into it for a repair. I would rather put the money toward a more substantial lift and scrap this one. Dennis

I have the air/hydraulic version of the HF lift. I wish I had bought a better lift. The lift will only rise about 6 inches now when empty. Won't move at all with a load on it. It is out of warranty and the replacement cylinder costs more than the lift is worth. I wish I had spent $300 more on a quality lift. I would have long forgotten about the $300 and I would have a lift that works. Dennis

What a great ride. I've been over Beartooth a few times and Chief Joseph once. I really liked stopping in Cooke City and Red Lodge. Dennis

I just keep a cordless drill in the trailer for the jacks. Works great for me. I'm on a level lot and use the tongue jack to level front to rear and then just run the jacks down for stabilizing.

Bluesky, the Equal-i-zer brand hitch that I use integrates sway control into distribution bars. So no additional components are needed.

Here it is set up on our lot in Florida. We're not weekend campers. We only use the trailer as a winter home. Pull it twice a year. About 150 miles to put it on the lot in the fall and return it to storage in the spring. I really don't have enough tow vehicle because I am towing a bit over my limits. But we go slow and it is fairly flat in Florida. The Tahoe handles it fine as long as you don't look at the numbers. The short wheelbase of the truck helps when trying to back it between two trees on the lot. It's a fairly narrow street.

I have a 36ft bumper pull trailer with 3 slides. As others have said, slides are a must have feature. I use an Equalizer brand hitch and have no noticeable sway while pulling between 60 and 65 mph. Prior to this I had a 28 ft trailer that did have some sway when passing trucks. It also had a weight distributing hitch but I don't think it was as effective on sway control. We chose a bumper pull because I didn't have a need for a pickup truck and I already had the Tahoe. One major advantage to a 5th wheel besides the towing is the additional basement storage space for carrying chairs, grills, toys, etc. If I used my trailer to travel as most do it would not have enough outside storage. Your truck may be a consideration too. Seems most 5th wheels need a 3/4 ton truck due to the high pin weights.

It would have to be slow twisties. Their web site lists the maximum speed of 25 mph. Max altitude of 50 ft above your head. Still a cool camera. Dennis

A few years ago I would have agreed with you. I switched to AAA about 4 years ago from Safeco and when I did I saved about $1100/year on my home and auto insurance. I did drop AAA roadside assistance. I dropped that because I called them one time for a flat tire. Ended up changing it myself and after an hour they still hadn't shown up.

That's exactly what I do Sailor. Only I also use my Amex card for online shopping.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that I'm probably like a lot of others here, I've worked hard all my life and made it to retirement a couple of years ago. I've used credit over the years and acquired all of the stuff I need and religiously paid it off. Now that I am at a stage in life where I don't really need credit the system penalizes me with a ding to the credit score which then costs me on insurance. The insurance I am referring to is my auto policy which is with AAA. But I bet most other insurance companies follow the same practice.

Just need to vent here, nothing to do with bikes. I recently received a credit card statement that provided me with my credit score and it seemed lower, still a decent score but lower. So I took advantage of the links in the email to check my credit report and score and it was lower. First let me state that I have no long term debt. I use 2 credit cards (Amex and Visa) which are paid in full each month. While we have used credit over the years for our home and autos, all have been paid off for a few years. Now here is the part that burns me a bit. I checked my score with Transunion and it was lower, the reason given for the downgrade was that I don't have enough open accounts for them to adequately evaluate my repayment history. Give me a break! Ordinarily I wouldn't care about the credit score because I won't be needing additional credit for the foreseeable future. However, now insurance companies use your credit score for determining your insurance rates and on my last auto policy renewal there was a statement that my credit score had negatively impacted my rate. Something is wrong with this system and it's pissing me off. Vent Off now. Dennis

You're going to be very comfortable in that rig. Great White offers sound advice. We bought a 36 ft Keystone Laredo last year to use as our winter home in Florida. We're very comfortable in it for 4 to 4 1/2 months a year. The first thing we did was trash the original mattress and replace it with a memory foam unit. I had to add a couple of electric outlets. If you haven't done it yet, I would suggest you give the roof a good inspection to make sure everything is sealed well from the factory. Here's our trailer http://www.traynorphoto.com/laredo What are you pulling that monster with? Dennis

My wife and I just returned yesterday from our annual motorcyle vacation. This year we rode from central KY to South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. We took in Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park, Needles Highway, Spearfish Canyon, Devils Tower and Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a repeat visit to most of the areas. We had one other biker friend with us and some friends rode along in their car. It was a great trip overall and the weather cooperated on all but the day we left home. Photos can be found at http://www.traynorphoto.com/rushmore2015 Dennis

If you've got the time try to ride the "Million Dollar Highway" toward Durango. I believe it is highway 550. Dennis

RR, I believe BubblerGPS is for Android phones and SWconnect is for iPhone only. From what I've read they offer similar functions.

It does but that would require a cell signal to work and you would have to grant everyone permission to track you individually and they would need an idevice. With SWconnect if you are in an area without a signal the software will buffer the points and then transmit them when you get a signal. When we take our big trip each year we have at least 4 bikes. Everyone has their list of family and friends that want to track us. So our distribution list has grown to over 100 people. With spotwalla you just have to give them the url one time.

Thanks Saddlebum, I looked at GPS Tracker. It seemed that you had to individually invite each person to follow you and you have to restart the app periodically. I have about 100 people that follow us on our trips and I wanted one URL that would work for everyone for the duration of the trip. Actually it will work years later. SWconnect runs in the background and doesn't have to be restarted. Also, when you stop it will not retransmit your location unless you've moved at least a hundred yards since your last position. I do see advantages to the GPS Tracker if you only wanted to share your position with a select few people. Thanks for the reply. Dennis