Easily check the road lights on your 5er with this new product

Checking the lights on your 5th wheel is a hassle and takes two people to do the job. Now you can check your lights easily by plugging in “Lightcheck” by Coil n’ Wrap. It uses the standard 7 pin trailer plug. This tool is about the size of a tennis ball can and is packed with trouble shooting information should you have a short or some of your lights are burned out. Besides checking the lights you can also use this as an emergency beacon should you need to leave your RV on the side of the road. It continuously flashes your tail lights and the Lightcheck has a flashing amber light so traffic can see your rig from both lanes. It will last as long as your house battery has power. Coil n’ Wrap has a good selection of innovative RV products like these and you can visit their website by clicking here: Coil n’ Wrap. Every 5th wheel owner should have a Lightcheck. Be safe and have fun out there - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

You Know You're A Red Neck RVer When You Do This

I was in Little Rock, Arkansas this week enjoying some delicious weather. Arkansas is the only state I know with a city as a National Park. I'm not criticizing just pointing out they do things differently down here. As I was walking the dog through the "trailer park" the other day I came across this example of how things are done differently in Arkansas. I'm not sure how well this works at stabilizing a 5er, but hey, my ball cap is off to Bubba for even trying. Well, I'm off to a family reunion to see if any more of my cousins got hitched. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

Trooper Says 5er Riders Not Illegal--But Not Safe

A Minnesota State Trooper says that while he doesn't know of any law in his state that prohibits riders in fifth wheels, if he catches you, he'll push for a citation anyway. Trooper Andy Schmidt, writing in the electronic edition of the Detroit Lakes Tribune, says, "In the event of a crash, camper trailers usually do not do very well. They have a tendency to come apart as if a bomb exploded and they offer very little (if any) protection to the occupants."

The fact that there's no specific law of carrying passengers in a fifth wheel doesn't stop Schmidt from taking an 'offending' driver to the dock: "I will push for charges of careless driving as a person should know that camper trailers are not passenger vehicles and therefore the driver is putting the occupants at a greater risk."

We haven't heard of anyone receiving one of Trooper Schmidt's citations; anybody out there got one and contested it?

Can You Weigh Before You Buy?

Here's another one of those "campfire topics" that come up among RVers. How much does your rig weigh? For those of us with fifth wheels, it seems like we can find plenty of places to put "stuff," and if you're a fulltimer, it doesn't take long to stuff, and stuff, and stuff--to the point our rigs look like overloaded thanksgiving turkeys.

Is your rig weight safe for your tow rig? Imagine the chagrin of the fellow whose story was related on an RV forum. After living in a motorhome for some years, he decided he wanted to swap over to a little fifth wheel. OK, little, meaning a 38' fifth wheel. He figured he had a plenty big tow vehicle--a one ton pickup with a 18,000 pound rated fifth wheel hitch. Having made his transaction with the dealer, transferred his possessions from the motorhome to the fifth wheel, then showed up to pull his new fiver home--and the dealer refused to let him tow it off the lot. Seems the dry weight of the new fiver was 17,000 pounds, and worried about liability issues, the dealer saw to it the trailer was towed to the buyer's home.

Every truck manufacturer sets a towing weight limit for their trucks. Go over the limit, what can happen? Truck systems, meaning engine, braking, and frame all figure into the picture. Too much weight puts too much stress on those systems. Get in an accident with an "overload" condition and you may well find out your insurance company isn't standing behind you.

Here's a tip from the Recreation Vehicle Safety Education Foundation: Weigh it before you buy it. Yes, new rigs are supposed to be equipped with a sticker that shows the weight of the rig and information on the total allowable rig weight, sadly that sticker can be "off" considerably when options are added. Ask the dealer to have the rig towed to a public scale and weighed in. THEN take into account how much "stuff" you're thinking about adding. The foundation also provides a few statistics on some things we all have to carry:

Water scales in at 8.3 pounds per gallon. Gasoline 5.6 pounds. Diesel 6.8. Propane 4.2.

How much stuff will you "stuff" in your rig? The foundation says their experience says the average RVer adds about 2,000 pounds of personal baggage. For us fulltimers, we'll typically tip the scales at 3,000 pounds. After moving "stuff" out of our fifth wheel into our new trailer, we'd have to say hard as it is to believe, that 3,000 pound estimate is probably pretty close.

Keep it to the limit. Keep it safe.

photo (in part) mandj98 on flickr.com

Ford Adds Storage Space on Pickup Truck As Option

Thinking about a new pickup for your lightweight fifth wheel? If you're thinking a Ford F-150, here's a potential solution to what to do when you lose storage space to your fifth-wheel hitch. Think MidBox.

MidBox is an optional storage compartment in the side of the truck, immediately behind the cab. Open the door, and slideout drawers provide safe, lockable storage for tools or whatnot amounting to over 26 cubic feet of space. It's a bit like a locking truck box, but with some advantages: Users access the box through the side of the truck, rather than climbing up to reach down into a conventional box. MidBox also claims higher security against break in and theft.

Sorry, MidBox isn't an aftermarket product. When you order a new Ford pickup from the factory, the truck is turned out by Ford, sent to the MidBox folks at SV Engineering where the box is installed. The truck is then returned to Ford and shipped out to your dealer. Check out the SV Engineering website for more details.

Do Ya Buckle Up That Pickup Truck?

For fifth-wheeling RVers, a pickup truck is the essential vehicle for RV travel. Most of us fiver-owners pride ourselves on driving safety--but how about personal safety in the truck? Most folks agree that wearing seat belts can reduce injury and death in vehicle crashes, but what do their actions say?

It seems like pickup drivers and riders have a little bit looser attitude about belting up--at least in Ohio. Researchers from the Miami University Applied Research Center say that while they found roughly 84% of folks in the front seats of cars, minivans, and SUVs used seat belts, at the same time only 71% of front seat occupants in pickups used theirs. While the reasons for the disparity weren't commented on, it is interesting to note that Ohio doesn't have a "primary" seat belt law--meaning law enforcement can't stop drivers and cite them simply because they see seat belts aren't in use.

Sadly, those same sort of statistics seem to work out on a national level. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says 70 percent of those killed in pickup truck crashes in 2003 did not wear safety belts, compared to 50 percent of the fatalities in cars. At the same time, statistics show seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45 percent in passenger cars and up to 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans.

Yes, we've heard the 'campfire argument' that, "A seatbelt can jam and trap you in a burning car, or drowning when you go off the road into water!" The NTSB looked into that, too. Only one-half of one percent of all crashes ends in fire or submersion. Most crash fatalities result from the force of impact or from being thrown from the vehicle, not from being trapped. Ejected occupants are four times as likely to be killed as those who remain inside the vehicle. Notwithstanding, if you're not wearing a seat belt and your rig tumbles off the road, or gets into a hairy crash, you're head is likely to hit something, knocking you out. Try and get out of a burning or flooded vehicle when you're "out cold." You don't stand a chance.

Yeah, we'll probably get a lot of reaction from this posting--and it won't all be pretty. But if just one more RVer buckles up after reading this, it's worth a lot of static.

Be Kind To Your RV Tires and Axles

If you haven’t crawled under your 5th wheel to examine your axles, leaf springs and leaf spring equalizers you should. As a safety precaution, be sure your RV is adequately supported with appropriately rated jacks before you crawl under it. Most axles will have a tag on them (usually centered in the middle of the axle) that will tell you the weight rating. Axles are made from steel and therefore are flexible. If you overload your 5th wheel it will bend the axle, stress the equalizers and tires (not to mention the brakes, bolts and frame welds). This 5er is overloaded because the axles are bowed making the tires meet the pavement at an angle instead of being perpendicular. This will eventually wear out the tires and can cause severe damage to other components. To be safe, you should put each tire on a scale by itself and make weight shifts accordingly. You should also weigh each axle to ensure you are not exceeding the rating. Some axles have zerk fittings as well as the leaf spring equalizers and bolts holding them (called wet bolts). These components require greasing at manufacturer recommended intervals. The 5er below is being towed so the passenger side tires frequently cross over the fog line and ride on the “wake-up” bumps as I like to call them. Most RVers will not wear out a set of tires on a travel trailer or 5th wheel from mileage, but will replace them due to expiration of time, tire failure or road hazard. When you pull your rig over the fog line you are exposing your tires to road debris such as screws, nails and shrapnel of all varieties. The “wake-up” bumps will also ruthlessly vibrate your leaf springs causing fatigue in your axle system. This vibration will also work it’s way throughout your 5th wheel simulating an earthquake inside while you continue driving oblivious to to what is happening to your tow. If you are not completely confident where your rig is when you're driving, I suggest you stop on a lonely road where there is no traffic and it's safe to stop, get out and go back and look at where you typically drive in the lane. If you are not centered get back in, drive another 30 yards or so until you think it should be centered then go back and check again. Once you’ve established your visual reference points inside your truck that will keep you centered as you drive, look at your mirrors and note where you are in the road in relation to your mirrors. That is what you should see when you’re driving to stay in the center of the lane and avoid damage to your tires and suspension. Giving it to you straight - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

It's a Fifth Wheel! It's a Yacht! It's Domani!

With all the noise about declines in sales and layoffs in the RV manufacturing industry, one player says they're bucking the trend and increasing staff for the spring production of its high-roller fifth wheel.

Carriage Inc., says they'll be putting more folks to work as they bring their high-end "Domani" line into higher production. With prices starting in the 70,000s, and factoring in the current state of the fuel market, it'll be interesting to see how many "Regular Joe RVers" will be towing these cappuccino-sounding rigs down the road.

Described as, "an innovative towable with yacht-like interiors and modernistic exteriors," the Domani line is relatively lightweight, the smaller 29' model scaling in at an unloaded weight of 9,000 pounds. Company puff says, "There isn't a straight corner on it. It's all curves, radiuses and angles. There is a feeling or more space in the 30-footer than any other 30-footer on the market.” Check out the company promo here.