*Truck and Towing thread........ask your questions here.*

[mickeyfan0805]

Ok! Yes this is confusing territory. We've had trailers for years before we bought our cottage in Muskoka Ontario but I'm kicking myself for never paying attention when dad was around. Part of me is seriously leaning towards a Dodge Ram 1500 which will have no problem towing the pop-up. But budget may make me choose something like a Jeep Cherokee or Ford Explorer (although I swore I would never drive one again after losing 3 trannies in my first one)



Front storage is strictly for the "outdoor stuff" like chairs, mat, and anything else that's light and sandy/wet. Never thought that it would affect tongue weight though so thanks for that!

You seem to be on track. Just remember that everything you put in or on your trailer AND everything you put in or on your truck has to be accounted for in your tow capacity. Some manufacturers account for a 150 pound driver, but nothing else. So, if you have a 225 pound driver, a 150 pound passenger, 2 kids, a dog and gear in a car, you could easily eat up 500 pounds of your 'tow capacity' with things in the car. Start adding bikes, canoes, whatever, and it could be more. All in all, I personally would want to be closer to 4,500+ in the tow capacity for that trailer, but we are a family of 5. Your circumstances influence that a lot. In our case, we have a 2017 Explorer with the tow package and I wouldn't blink at the notion of driving around the country with that trailer - no brainer!

 

[Sluf]

So I was finally able to pull my 5er out and work on it. What started out as a simple day turned into a nightmare very quickly.

A little backstory... I bought my camper at the beginning of August. I was waiting for my cousin to get his car out of the body shop before I could buy my truck from him. Before I got the truck we found the camper that fit EXACTLY what we were looking for. We went ahead and bought it and had a buddy of mine pull it to a storage area. I got my truck a week and a half later, and got the hitch in it a week after that. I had to cut a tree down and remove a fence in order to get the camper into the spot I needed to at my mom's house across the street. There's absolutely no way I can get it into mine. So I got the camper home, leveled it, and plugged it in. Fast forward to today...

I decided I'd pull it out and take it to one of our firehalls that has a large parking lot to adjust the brakes. Well, it rained here yesterday. Yep. I got stuck. Had to unhook and pull out. A buddy of mine lives next door, so off to the quarry we went with his truck and dump trailer. 5.7 tons later, I was able to hook to it and pull it out. I got it to the firehall and jacked up the rear axle and adjusted the brakes on both sides. Dropped it, and jacked up the front axle. Got the curb side adjusted and moved to the road side. THE BRAKE WIRES WERE CUT. I had absolutely no brakes on the front axle. Needless to say, I got it fixed up and ready to go. Then, on the way back home, it almost pushed me thru a stop sign. Looked at the brake controller, no light. Eased it the rest of the way home, about 1/2 mile. The plug had backed out because the door spring is broken. So, guess what's on its way from Amazon?

What a day...

 

[Sluf]

Here's my truck and 5er.

 

[PaHunter]

. Then, on the way back home, it almost pushed me thru a stop sign. Looked at the brake controller, no light. Eased it the rest of the way home, about 1/2 mile. The plug had backed out because the door spring is broken. So, guess what's on its way from Amazon?

What a day...

Happened to a friend of mine, with his grandkids in the vehicle, and he almost hit another family, when his trailer pushed him thru a stop sign. Scary stuff, hope the rest of your week is uneventful.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Sorry Rodney! Hope things turn better from here!

 

[Sluf]

Sorry Rodney! Hope things turn better from here!

Oh, it's all good now. I'm just glad all of these things are showing themselves now instead of 700 miles from home! I'm gonna go ahead and buy a new brake controller as well. Currently I have a Tekonsha Voyager. I'm gonna replace it with a Tekonsha P3. I don't like the way the setup and adjustment TS are made on the Voyager.

 

[PaHunter]

Oh, it's all good now. I'm just glad all of these things are showing themselves now instead of 700 miles from home! I'm gonna go ahead and buy a new brake controller as well. Currently I have a Tekonsha Voyager. I'm gonna replace it with a Tekonsha P3. I don't like the way the setup and adjustment TS are made on the Voyager.

You could also look at Direclink brake controllers, from Tucson RV. They hook in to your vehicles computer and use it to apply the brake instead of being inertia initiated.

 

[Sluf]

You could also look at Direclink brake controllers, from Tucson RV. They hook in to your vehicles computer and use it to apply the brake instead of being inertia initiated.

I'll do that. I've never heard of them.

 

[Sluf]

You could also look at Direclink brake controllers, from Tucson RV. They hook in to your vehicles computer and use it to apply the brake instead of being inertia initiated.

OK, so I checked out the Direclink controllers. The two controllers that I compared is the DL-50 and DL-100. The DL-50 lacks the ability to separately adjust for low speed braking (below 30mph), as well as it doesn't show trans temp. I already have a trans temp gauge, so that's a non factor. That leaves the ability to separately adjust for low speed braking. The DL-50 is $195 vs $299 for the DL-100. Can you justify another $104 for the ability to adjust low speed braking? I probably won't be pulling my camper more than 20 miles at a time except once or twice a year to the Fort.

 

[Sluf]

Well, I pulled the trigger on the Direclink DL-100. My wife talked me into it (it wasn't hard). It should be here one day this week. I've been working a considerable amount of overtime recently, so it wasn't a real big deal. I'm also going to buy a new set of tires for the camper this week or next. The date code on the current tires date them to July 2010. No way I'm pulling it anywhere significant with tires that old.

I'll post an update once I install the new brake controller.

 

[PaHunter]

Well, I pulled the trigger on the Direclink DL-100. My wife talked me into it (it wasn't hard). It should be here one day this week. I've been working a considerable amount of overtime recently, so it wasn't a real big deal. I'm also going to buy a new set of tires for the camper this week or next. The date code on the current tires date them to July 2010. No way I'm pulling it anywhere significant with tires that old.

I'll post an update once I install the new brake controller.

I know there are quite a few of us running the direclink in our hdt's which also requires an extra cable. They are nice units, and new shoes on the trailer are always good, as you don't want a blowout.

 

[Sluf]

Something I noticed about the Tekonsha Voyager is the inability for me to get it set "correctly" so it doesn't jerk as soon as I tap the pedal. It doesn't seem to do it at higher speeds, only at lower speeds. That's why I went with the DL-100 so I could have the low speed adjustment as well.

It seemed like the Tekonsha jerked as soon as the brakes were applied, but when I adjusted that out at low speed, it seemed like I didn't have enough braking at higher speed. The dual adjustment on the DL-100 should take that out, right?

 

[tiggerdad]

I'm also going to buy a new set of tires for the camper this week or next. The date code on the current tires date them to July 2010. No way I'm pulling it anywhere significant with tires that old.

Good call, I don't go over 5 years. My trailer came with new Goodyear tires on it and March of 2017 was 5 years for them. On inspection, I found a bubble on the backside of one of them. So, that just reinforced my mindset that at 5 years they getting replaced no matter what.

 

[PaHunter]

Something I noticed about the Tekonsha Voyager is the inability for me to get it set "correctly" so it doesn't jerk as soon as I tap the pedal. It doesn't seem to do it at higher speeds, only at lower speeds. That's why I went with the DL-100 so I could have the low speed adjustment as well.

It seemed like the Tekonsha jerked as soon as the brakes were applied, but when I adjusted that out at low speed, it seemed like I didn't have enough braking at higher speed. The dual adjustment on the DL-100 should take that out, right?

I would believe so, there is a setting for the weight of the trailer, and it reads your braking input thru your vehicle computer and applies the trailer brakes. The reason I went with Direclink was because of the truck having air brakes. Otherwise you have to tap in to the air system and it causes the computer to then apply the trailer brakes.
This seemed to be the best way, and so far we have really had no problems and it works well with our set up.

 

[bama_ed]

Good call, I don't go over 5 years. My trailer came with new Goodyear tires on it and March of 2017 was 5 years for them. On inspection, I found a bubble on the backside of one of them. So, that just reinforced my mindset that at 5 years they getting replaced no matter what.

I have been thinking I am due for new trailers on the Aliner (which is a 2014 model but was built fall of 2013). It will be time this fall to replace them before we take our next long trip.

ED

 

[mco65]

Where do you get tires put on your trailer...? Your friendly neighborhood tire shop or an RV Shop. i Suspect they can do it at the local tire shop... but may have to swap them with the trailer on the ground with a jack.. vs a lift??

 

[Sluf]

Where do you get tires put on your trailer...? Your friendly neighborhood tire shop or an RV Shop. i Suspect they can do it at the local tire shop... but may have to swap them with the trailer on the ground with a jack.. vs a lift??

Local tire shop. Called yesterday and they said they'd mount and balance all 5 for $100.

 

[Sluf]

So a little update. I got my Direclink DL-100 controller in Wednesday. I got home from work at about 7:20p. Whoever put the Tekonsha brake controller in my truck (2 owners ago) didn't use the factory plug and harness. They cut the plug off the controller AND the truck and hard-wired it in. The Direclink came with a harness to hard-wire in as well. I cut out the old controller and butt-spliced the new harness in. In hindsight I wish I would have use blade connectors. That way I could leave my Tekonsha in place as a backup and simply swap wires if need be. Total install was about 20 minutes. I may very well go back and add the blade connectors. I also replaced the faulty plug in my bed that allowed the 5er to come unplugged the other day. The last thing I did was to install a dual USB power port in place of the factory power port on the dash of my 2001 f250

Anyway, I pulled the camper for the first time today with the new brake controller. HOLY COW! I absolutely love it! Once I got it adjusted, you can't even tell the camper is there!

Buying it was a pleasure as well. The customer service was TOP NOTCH. Believe it or not, they changed a company policy because of me. That's usually a bad thing, right? I asked if they gave a first responder discount and was told that they didn't, but they DID give a military discount. After I ordered it on Friday, they emailed me on Monday and said they were going to offer a first responder (police/fire/ems) discount from now on, and refunded 10% of my order.

Today, I went and had all 4 tires changed from ST225/75r15 load range D, to load range E. Also had the spare changed. I also went and bought some clear storage totes to put all our stuff in. One sewer tote, an electrical/lighting tote, and a tote for supply water hoses, etc.

Now if I can just get the next 156 days to hurry up and pass!

 

[tiggerdad]

So a little update. I got my Direclink DL-100 controller in Wednesday. I got home from work at about 7:20p. Whoever put the Tekonsha brake controller in my truck (2 owners ago) didn't use the factory plug and harness. They cut the plug off the controller AND the truck and hard-wired it in. The Direclink came with a harness to hard-wire in as well. I cut out the old controller and butt-spliced the new harness in. In hindsight I wish I would have use blade connectors. That way I could leave my Tekonsha in place as a backup and simply swap wires if need be. Total install was about 20 minutes. I may very well go back and add the blade connectors. I also replaced the faulty plug in my bed that allowed the 5er to come unplugged the other day. The last thing I did was to install a dual USB power port in place of the factory power port on the dash of my 2001 f250

Anyway, I pulled the camper for the first time today with the new brake controller. HOLY COW! I absolutely love it! Once I got it adjusted, you can't even tell the camper is there!

Buying it was a pleasure as well. The customer service was TOP NOTCH. Believe it or not, they changed a company policy because of me. That's usually a bad thing, right? I asked if they gave a first responder discount and was told that they didn't, but they DID give a military discount. After I ordered it on Friday, they emailed me on Monday and said they were going to offer a first responder (police/fire/ems) discount from now on, and refunded 10% of my order.

Today, I went and had all 4 tires changed from ST225/75r15 load range D, to load range E. Also had the spare changed. I also went and bought some clear storage totes to put all our stuff in. One sewer tote, an electrical/lighting tote, and a tote for supply water hoses, etc.

Now if I can just get the next 156 days to hurry up and pass!

Always good when they throw us first responders a little discount.

 

[PaHunter]

Always good when they throw us first responders a little discount.

Oh yes we like discounts.....