By Greg Illes
My RV is a 2003 Itasca model, and it came equipped with some simple skid bumpers bolted to the back ends of the frame rails. I would often notice the horrific Wham! of the skids hitting solid pavement while negotiating a driveway, drainage or other significant ground undulation. I learned to approach those disturbances slowly and “bash” the chassis as gently as I could.
Despite my care and caution, the skids were nearly ground away in less than two years and 20,000 miles of wandering. In addition, I noticed that my driveway (sharp deflection at the bottom) was showing some scarring. The skids were pretty narrow, only about 1.5 inches wide, and sharply pointed. So they would tend to dig into any softer surface and cause a lot of drag when I least needed it.
Along my travels, I also noticed that not every RV was equipped with any skids at all. The lower-cost units would usually show the consequences of lack of skids with various degrees of damage to chassis, body, bumper, hitch and even tow bar.
The “proper” solution came to me after a diligent hunt across Amazon, eBay, and quite a few RV suppliers. Various manufacturers produce roller-skids for just the purpose of protecting the rear ends of heavy vehicles. These rollers range from small 2.5-inch diameter units, some of which can attach to a tow hitch, to big 6-inch and larger wheels like you see on the back of dumpsters and cargo trucks.
Being a proud extremist, I chose a pair of 6-inch wheels rated at 5,000 pounds each, and welded their brackets up onto the ends of my tow hitch. The wheels are heavy-duty enough to support the entire weight of the rear end, although of course if this happened the rear wheels would be off the ground and I’d be going only downhill. But the idea is to be fail-proof, and that’s what they are. I’ve added only about 15 pounds to the back of my rig, and there is no longer any driveway or drainage culvert that causes me any grief.
Whether you decide on a simple, single roller on your tow hitch or an aggressive setup like mine, you’ll be happy to “hear the silence” from the back of your rig when next you go through a V-shaped road.
photo: Greg Illes
Greg Illes is a retired systems engineer who loves thinking up RV upgrades and modifications. When he’s not working on his motorhome, he’s traveling in it. You can follow his blog at www.divver-city.com/blog.
Get out your magnifying glass and you’ll quickly learn the active ingredient in this product is sodium hypochlorite. In other words, bleach, as in laundry bleach. Do you need to add bleach to your RV fresh water tank? Much depends on how you use your water. If you fill your tank with clean, fresh tap water and use it within a few weeks, you’ll likely find it works just fine without any additives. Water left in a tank unused for long periods of time can go “stale” and some fear that algae could grow. Yeah, maybe, but algae growth requires light and most RV fresh water tanks are locked away in a compartment, away from light, so the real chance of algae growth (which isn’t harmful, anyway) is pretty slim.
PASSING A CEMETERY: Hold your breath when passing a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who recently died. Tuck your thumbs into your fists when passing a cemetery to protect your parents.
WITCH: A witch must be buried face down to prevent the community further supernatural spells. If this doesn’t work, unbury her and turn her clothes inside out, then re-bury her face down. This should do the trick.
Dear RV Shrink:
Here is a quick checklist of lifestyle items (not including techie stuff like checking your tire pressures, oil level, hoses and “framistans” [i.e., thingamajigs]) that you may miss when preparing for your spring camping trips..jpg)
You’re no doubt familiar with smoke detectors— the RV industry requires them in all recreational vehicles, and most of us have struggled to keep them “shut up” when burning breakfast in the morning. Putting an additional smoke detector in a basement storage area is a simple thing to do — but if it goes off, will you hear it? A smoke detector with a “remote reporting” capability would sure be the ticket.
One of the short cuts folks like to use when resealing the seams on their roof is sealing them with EternaBond tape, rather than re-caulking them with Dicor. Unfortunately, like most short cuts, unless the edges of the EternaBond are sealed with Dicor self-leveling caulk or something similar, they often pull free, allowing water to enter the RV.
Above is what I typically see when EternaBond has been applied to seal a seam. If allowed to continue, the edge of the EternaBond will lift and allow water to penetrate under the EternaBond and into the seam.
To the left is the rear roof seam with the ladder shown where it fastens to the roof. The pending breakdown of the seal is readily apparent.