Woo-Hoo! Picked up new 27DSRL Whitehawk today!

[mikmurphy]

A buddy and I left Austin, TX early Monday, and arrived at Indiana RV Connection in Middlebury, IN this morning to pick up the Whitehawk my wife and I ordered in February. We did a very thorough PDI/walk-thru; and waited about an hour while the Equal-i-zer 1K hitch I brought with me was installed and adjusted. We left Middlebury mid-morning, and are settled for the night in Blythesville, AR. The trailer tows quite well, very little sway evident even with big semis passing. (Sidebar: we were barely 15 miles from the dealer on westbound I80 when an Indiana State Trooper pulled us over. He barely looked us over, asked if we were hauling the trailer for a fee; when we said no, he just waved us on. Fastest traffic stop ever!)

We made a stop at a CAT scale enroute to get the TV scores; and also on the way back to get TV/TT scores. Total combined weight was 12, 910; will make a separate posting later when I have time to properly digest and sort weights out.

Once home, we'll spend a week or two making the trailer "ours," then head out for a weekend journey.

[LongIslandCamper]

Congrats, but I'm confused by the traffic stop. What warranted a stop?

[RoyBraddy]

Probably TEMP TAGS on the trailer would be my guess....

I guess you swung over to 57 at Effingham IL from Indiana and shot down thru southern ILL on your journey... My home town is Bonnie just south of Mount Vernon. The REND LAKE area south of Mount Vernon ILL is some great camping locations... Both modern camp grounds and some that give you the big feel of Camping off the power grid. This is hugh lake. It ate up our little small acre farm when it was being built.

We was just talking about another route down from Ill thru AR to get to Texas being the Arkansas run on US67. Used to run that road back and forth from Little Rock to home alot back in my Air Force days (mid 60s). It is slowly becoming a big four lane now all the way up to the NE corner of Ark from Little Rock...

Congrats on the new trailer - I remember when it was first coming out by JAYCO and they took what seemed like forever to finally get their protoype built for pictures to the public. Out of the whole new WhiteHawk series they only had two of the models prototyped with photos and specification. All of the other models in the new series would all say TBD. We all bugged the heck out of JAYCO trying to get info on the new WhiteHawk series trailers... I've got a whole folder here of all the early photos of the WhiteHawk series you really had to dig the Internet for.

Seems like the general word now is still a thumbs up on their new WhiteHawk series. Going lightweight does have its down side.

Roy Ken

[mikmurphy]

Originally Posted by cm11599ps

Congrats, but I'm confused by the traffic stop. What warranted a stop?

my buddy, a retired Austin police officer, speculated that the Indiana State Police may be trying to crack down on unlicensed RV haulers. He thought that maybe licensed haulers must have at least a 3/4 ton or above truck; and have the proper paperwork. (I did have to sign an affidavit when getting the trailer that said I was NOT buying it for use in IN, and specified I was taking it to TX for registration.)

FWIW, we did note that most of the northbound RVs on I57, as we headed south from the Chicago area, seemed to be winter folks heading home. Most of the southbound RVs seemed to be hauled by transport services. Since IN seems to be the manufacturing hub for many RV companies, I guess this makes sense!

[thomasmnile]

Originally Posted by cm11599ps

Congrats, but I'm confused by the traffic stop. What warranted a stop?

The State of Indiana needs money?????????????

[mikmurphy]

Okay, I've had time to get the new Whitehawk ensconced in its covered carport area, and am slowly filling it with the necessary stuff for camping.

In the meantime, I'd like to report that we hauled it just under 1,300 miles from Middlebury, IN to our ranch north of Dripping Springs, and averaged 8.44 MPG over 7 tanks of gas. We hauled 'er on Interstate highways almost the entire distance, and drove between 65 & 75 mph depending on the speed limits. (We averaged 15.2 to 16.2 MPG enroute to Middlebury, driving a wee bit faster.)

I weighed the truck on the way north in Elm Mott, just north of Waco, TX at a CAT scale. Not knowing how the process worked, I parked the truck across #2 & #3 weigh sections, and stood on #1 to reach the call button. Consequently, the steer axle weight reported at 240 lbs, the drive axle (front of truck) reported at 3960; and the trailer axle (rear of truck) reported 2720 for a gross of 6920 lbs. This startled me, I figured the truck would weigh far less. But after discussing it with my buddy, we decided that my "typical" ranch truck had quite a bit of extra weight. Things like boomers, 16' tow chains, Ranch Hand headache rack and front end replacement; tool box full of tools, etc. Plus us at 200 lbs each (actually, I weigh around 217 according to last physical), which made me wonder about accuracy of the #1 weight.

On the way back, we weighed in Marion, IL at another CAT scale, in the exact same fashion. This report showed 220 lbs for steer axle (me) 3820 lbs for drive axle (front of truck) and 8580 lbs for trailer axle (rear of truck and trailer). Gross weight of 12,620 lbs. Sticker from the Jayco factory showed weight of trailer to be 5,933 lbs.

So far, we're well within the parameters listed in the owners manual of 8,300 lbs for gross trailer weight; and 15,000 gross combined vehicle weight. And, the truck/trailer drove/pulled very well. The difference in towing between my previous TV (2000 Silverado, 5.3 & 4-speed automatic) and current vehicle with the 6-speed Allison is huge.

Thus far, I'm well satisfied with the TV/TT combo, and look forward to making some trips on non-Interstate highways at a slower pace.