Maiden Voyage

mwest75 · 01-27-2014, 11:01 AM

This was the weekend of our Maiden Voyage. Started off the first day of the trip at 22 degrees with sleet and an ice covered truck and camper. After the temp reached 34 it was time to roll out. Took a trip up to Inks Lake State Park. This is always a great place to go. Clean, Quiet, and friendly staff.

The trip up was interesting. Lots of cars in the ditches. I just kept it about 55 and made my way up the road.

No major issues camping. I will be working on stabilizing the unit though. It did rock a bit more than expected. At home it did not seem to rock as much. Lots of good tips I have found on the site that I will try.

Found that the trailer pulls much better with the additional weight. Coming home we had 35 mile and hour gusts and I don't think it mattered how much weight you had it was gonna push you a bit.

So after this trip I am officially addicted and ready to retire. I could travel from place to place and make it back home once a year to make sure I still had a real piece of property. If any of you have some pull with the government please have the retirement age reduced to 39. I will have about 4 months then to prepare for retirement.

Feel free to give me some pointers on the stabilization!

Camper_bob · 01-27-2014, 11:12 AM

We found our unit rocked a bit too much as well. I ended up picking up some x-chocks from PPL on sale and they helped a lot. Later I found that a lot of people install a third set of jacks to the frame near the axles. If I had it to do over again, I would look closely at that option. Not sure it would change which direction I went, but I would at least consider it.

Something else I do is snug the jacks once or twice during the weekend to account for settling. But that's really easy for me with electric jacks, I just hit the switch when I'm walking by.

I'm glad you had a successful maiden voyage, even though it was a rough weather weekend for it. I towed ours back to storage 7 miles away during the worst of the gusting that weekend, and I'm not sure I could handle that for more than what I did; the trailer was leaning pretty hard which made me pretty uncomfortable...

I can't wait to get out to Inks some time this year! DW and I got married on Buchanan and we LOVE the area.

Heady · 01-27-2014, 11:56 AM

x2 on on the x-chocks, they make a big difference. They are last to go on and first to come off, or you may not be happy with the result.

Redhorse 823 · 01-27-2014, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heady

x2 on on the x-chocks, they make a big difference. They are last to go on and first to come off, or you may not be happy with the result.

Bit confused...My chocks are first to go on (before the TV is unhooked) and last to come off (after the TV is hooked up.)
Will setting them after leveling increase stability?

mwest75 · 01-27-2014, 02:06 PM

That is one thing I am a bit confused on. I always place the chocks before unhooking. Sure would hate to convert my trailer to a boat. I guess I could always place a couple of boards in there before the x-chocks.

Jagiven · 01-27-2014, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redhorse 823

Bit confused...My chocks are first to go on (before the TV is unhooked) and last to come off (after the TV is hooked up.)
Will setting them after leveling increase stability?

I have read to install the X-chocks after you have the rig leveled, and remove them before hooking back up to the TV. I always have them on before I disconnect, and remove them after I reconnect. Regular triangular wedge style chocks to keep the unit from rolling away are to be installed before unhooking and removed last after hooking up as a safety item.

Camper_bob · 01-27-2014, 03:05 PM

Yes, you definitely want to put your standard wedge chocks down BEFORE you unhook the rig. Plenty of humorous (at least later when you get over it and can joke about it) anecdotes about people not chocking the rig before disconnect. Just as a hint, I promise, you're not big or strong enough to keep your trailer from rolling away.

The x-chocks are different. They are meant kind of like stabilizer jacks. They're not meant to hold the weight of the rig, just to stabilize it. If you try to use them to hold the weight of the rig, they could bend and pop right off, and possibly damage the tires.

So to summarize: wedge chocks, then unhook, level and put slide out, then install x-chocks. Last on, First off.

Redhorse 823 · 01-27-2014, 05:01 PM

I was thinking the X chocks just replaced the wedge chocks as an alternative...
Thanks for clearing this up
"always a good day when you learn something"

robkelly · 01-27-2014, 05:12 PM

I read somewhere, possibly on this forum, that the tires need to cool before setting the x-chocks or they will loosen as the tires cool. Once that happens they obviously aren't doing any good.

Flyrotor · 01-27-2014, 08:21 PM

I was looking at your pics, and the first one you can see the stabilizer jacks are extended quite a bit, this in and of itself will reduce their efficiency. The stabilizers you have work best when they are about equally extended as they appear wide, about 2/3rds of maximum extension.

You can use blocks to elevate the contact point of the stabilizer at the bottom, this is probably why you noticed it being more unstable while camping than when you had it at home.

Kave&Lucky · 01-28-2014, 06:59 AM

Congratulations on your first trip glad everything went well. Like you I soon want to retire from gov-ment too! I've 2.5 years before I'm eligible probably work a while longer till my TSP & I compromise on when's a good time to hang it up.

Hope to see you around the campfire

djalbrec · 01-28-2014, 09:48 AM

I installed a third set of scissor jacks right in front of the axles. Easy to crank down with my 3/8 inch drill and really do take a lot of bounce out of the camper. After setting the front jacks and back jacks on my camper I found that there was still a lot of movement. After installing the third set of scissors jacks, most of that movement was gone. Also, I agree with flyrotor that the further you extend your scissors jacks, the less stability you will have.

TCNashville · 01-28-2014, 07:13 PM

We use the between the wheels x-chocks and they really help with front to back motion, but do nothing for side to side. I've been looking at the JT Strongarm Stabilizers and was wondering if anyone had installed these and what you thought. They claim to remove 99% of trailer movement. Also, Cw has these things you can put under your steps to minimize movement when someone is coming into the trailer.

Camper_bob · 01-29-2014, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCNASHVILLE

We use the between the wheels x-chocks and they really help with front to back motion, but do nothing for side to side. I've been looking at the JT Strongarm Stabilizers and was wondering if anyone had installed these and what you thought. They claim to remove 99% of trailer movement. Also, Cw has these things you can put under your steps to minimize movement when someone is coming into the trailer.

I was looking at those stabilizer arms as well. They seem to get pretty good reviews wherever you look and don't look terribly difficult to install. I ended up with the x-chocks simply because of their price point at the time. I have a step saver for my bottom step. It does seem to help somewhat when people are going up and down the stairs, but that's not what I installed it for, I put it on to save the bottom step.

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