Shakedown 'Cruise' this Weekend

[DR Buck]

Last fall we traded our 5th wheel camper in for a toyhauler. The toyhauler was delivered in mid November and came winterized. This didn't really matter as we are not cold weather campers anyway. Fast forward to now....... warm weather has arrived and we are ready to do our first outing with the new toyhauler. I decided that for this 'shakedown' trip we would go somewhere close. We're going to Jellystone just over the mountain from home, about 40 miles. Our plans are to check out and test everything on the trailer. Heat, AC, stove, oven, and the 4 TVs hyea: Initially I thought about taking the :spyder2: along so we could sneek in a ride or two. But now I'm not sure if I should. It's supposed to be in the 60's with the possibilitiy of showers and I'm thinking I should get used to handling this larger 5th wheel before I add the extra weight. I'm taking the toyhauler out in the morning for state inspection. Since it was an out of state purchase it doesn't have a sticker. I'm only going about 10 miles round trip, but maybe that will help me decide if I load the :spyder2: berfore we leave or not. :dontknow:

 

[denviola]

Last fall we traded our 5th wheel camper in for a toyhauler. The toyhauler was delivered in mid November and came winterized. This didn't really matter as we are not cold weather campers anyway. Fast forward to now....... warm weather has arrived and we are ready to do our first outing with the new toyhauler. I decided that for this 'shakedown' trip we would go somewhere close. We're going to Jellystone just over the mountain from home, about 40 miles. Our plans are to check out and test everything on the trailer. Heat, AC, stove, oven, and the 4 TVs hyea: Initially I thought about taking the :spyder2: along so we could sneek in a ride or two. But now I'm not sure if I should. It's supposed to be in the 60's with the possibilitiy of showers and I'm thinking I should get used to handling this larger 5th wheel before I add the extra weight. I'm taking the toyhauler out in the morning for state inspection. Since it was an out of state purchase it doesn't have a sticker. I'm only going about 10 miles round trip, but maybe that will help me decide if I load the :spyder2: berfore we leave or not. :dontknow:

That's a good plan, and what I did as well. My shakedown cruise was for Pa state inspection and a side trip on the interstate just to try things out (about 35 miles), without the Spyder. I bought out of state as well, and had to wait nearly 2 months for plates/sticker. There was bad weather so the wait wasn't too bad. I then added the Spyder for a short cruise, and found that the extra weight behind the axles took some of the weight off the hitch and made the ride a bit nicer. I only have about 25 gallons of fresh water in front of the axles, instead of a full 110 gallons. No sense pulling all that extra weight when we are staying in a campground with supplied water. I'm adding air bags to the RAM tomorrow to keep the front end from feeling a little light. Only sags a couple inches without the Spyder and almost none with the Spyder. Heading for SF on Monday as our maiden voyage, little more than 1100 miles. We spent a couple weekends in it in the driveway making sure everything works. I'm in TV envy, only 3 in ours....... Bedroom, living area and garage (garage TV has an outside mount as well). The hauler is great for us as physically we can't do long RT trips, and we are just a few years from retirement. ENJOY!!!!

 

[DR Buck]

Survived the weekend with the new toyhauler! :yes: Despite my brake issues. :gaah: I haven't completely confirmed it yet but it appears my high $$$ brake controller went belly up. After leaving home Friday evening at some point into the first 15 miles into my 50 mile trip the controller set the trailer brakes into a parking brake mode. :gaah: I thought I was having issues pulling up hill. Then a car pulled up next to me and yelled out the window that I had brake issues. :yikes: So I pulled over the first chance I had to check. All 4 trailer wheels were hot and one had the brake drum glowing red! :yikes::yikes::yikes: After messing with the controller and "Googling" the owners manual I was able to figure out it was in the parking brake mode and get it back to normal. Then I drove slowly to a large empty parking lot about 5 miles down the road where I got out and inspected things. The wheels were cooling down and the brakes seemed to work so I continued up over the mountain. ray: I used low gear going down the back side and tried to minimize using the brakes after I noticed the controller indicating excess brake current. We made it to the campground at the bottom of the mountain and got set up OK. Saturday morning I unloaded the Spyder (which I wasn't going to take on this 1st trip) and took a ride out to Lowes so I could buy a multimeter to troubleshoot the brake issue. After a nice 100 mile ride we got back to the campground near dinner time so the brake trouble shooting had to wait until Sunday morning because it was getting cold.

Spent a portion of Saturday night searching the web for tech info on my controller, trailer brake system and wiring. Fast forward to Sunday. Hooked up the truck to the trailer and measured brake current and voltage. I kept getting intermittent and changing readings. :gaah: I ended up tearing the dash out of my truck so I Could get to the back of my controller to reset it. After resetting I was able to consistent reading and with help of the multimeter I determined that one of the electromagnets was shorted. I cut the power lead to that brake and the braking current came into line so we headed home. Then part way down the mountain the brake controller started acting up and sometimes I had brakes on the trailer and sometimes I didn't. :yikes: Fortunately we made it home without incident. ray: Later this week I'll hook the controller to one of my other trailers to see if it acts up. I may end up buying a new one just to be on the safe side. Then I need to pull all 4 wheels off the toyhauler to assess the damage. Minimum I suspect will need to replace brake shoes, electromagnets and at least one drum. Again, I may just replace it all to be safe.

Oh yea, I learned something about hauling a Spyder..................... but that's another post.