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Old 11-11-2016, 09:10 AM   #1
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Talking Rookie with a 5th wheel!

Hello all and thank you for having me! I recently bought a 1989 Jaycrane 32 to begin our family camping adventures. I have also recently made every rookie mistake you can make from bringing it home after purchase of the camper to our first family camping trip...
Mistake #1. The camper had been sitting for a few years at a friend of the familys house, is in immaculate condition for the year, including i thought the tires. They looked great from ground up. So I pull out and head home, only to have a blowout 10 miles down the road... turns out the tires were beuatiful all the way around but were dry rotted where the were touching the ground.
Mistake #2. First time towing a 5th wheel. No sliding hitch on my short bed pickup... As you can imagine, one small turn too sharp... BOOM goes the back window in the pickup! UGH!
So I lick my wounds, fix the pickup and make the few minor fixes to the camper that it needed before our virgin trip... new tires all the way around, new tail light lenses, and a few interior fixes.
Decided to make the first trip a local one, only about 50 miles from home... Thank God!
Mistake #3. Apparently my beefy 33" tires on my TV arent meant to haul a 10k+lb camper... 4 miles from destination, making a wide sweeping turn, we roll the bead right off the rim of the the rear tire. Again, very loud BOOM, no idea what had happened until we got pulled over and inspected.
After sitting on the road for 3.5 hours waiting for my buddy to bring me up my 4 stock rims and tires we NASCAR pit crewed the 4 tire swap, battened everything down and made our 5 minute remainder of the trip to the Jellystone campground. I was already a little nervous of my first docking experience and now it was dark to boot! Got her all backed in, leveled and hooked up with no issues... Then comes..................
Mistake #4. All docked and hooked up, ready to sit down and crack a cold one, just gotta pull the TV out and park it. Pull hitch lever hop in and start creeping out... CRUNCH. Forgot to put the tail gate back down! Thankfully it was still operational, just a little banged up. Jump out, put it down, tell myself that I dont even care, gonna make the best of it, sit down and crack that cold one!
Its been quite an experience! I am hoping we got all the bad JuJu out and it will be smooth camping from here on out!
Hopefully some other noob will read this before venturing out and learn from my many rookie mistakes! Happy camping to you all and look forward to learning more from you all!
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Old 11-11-2016, 09:34 AM   #2
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Welcome to the forum and thanks for telling us about your (mis)adventures on your first trip. Hopefully everything is going smoothly now.

Keep an eye on on the weather and read up on winterizing your trailer. You could have a whole batch of new problems next season if you don't winterize.
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Old 11-11-2016, 10:01 AM   #3
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Thank you, and yes I will be winterizing this weekend! I definitely dont need any additional problems!
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Old 11-11-2016, 10:02 AM   #4
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Welcome to the JOF group. Sounds like you have no where to go but up! Just kidding. It may be a good thing that you got all that out of the way on one trip cause it takes most people years to do all that.

Reading forums and talking to folks with experience can prevent a lot of camping problems.

Hope you will join in.
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Old 11-11-2016, 12:50 PM   #5
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CONGRATULATIONS on the JAYCO!!!

...and WELCOME TO JOF!!! The members here are GREAT!!! There is a lot of GREAT information to be found here. I am sure that you will have information and pictures to share with us... so please do! !

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You are not the only one.. in one way or another we all are members in the club below... enjoy reading it

http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f2...ment-1576.html
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Old 11-11-2016, 02:06 PM   #6
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Hahaha those are some good ones! Mine just all came in 2 trips! Thanks for the insight!
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Old 11-11-2016, 02:19 PM   #7
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Don't feel too bad. I think many have made the same or similar mistakes with 5ers. I even managed to make the dented cab corner and 5er corner by turning too sharp while backing up with long bed. Hopefully this wont jinx you. I think the only mistake you didn't mention was the one where you forget to put the landing gear down but remember to chock the wheels and then unhitch and pull away only to feel the 5er crunch down on your truck bed rails.

I would suggest an easy to understand checklist. one for hooking up and one for parking and unhooking.
Congoratz on the new rig. I hope you enjoy many grand adventures.
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Old 11-11-2016, 02:29 PM   #8
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LOL nope I havent done that... YET! And hope not to!
I did upgrade to a sliding hitch the next week after the crunch, so that should take care of one of the stresses!
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Old 11-11-2016, 03:40 PM   #9
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I have dropped another rig twice. I don't like to talk about it to much!
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IMG_1987 (Small).JPG   IMG_1989 (Small).JPG  
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Old 11-11-2016, 04:45 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by norty1 View Post
I have dropped another rig twice. I don't like to talk about it to much!
It takes a BIG man to admit to that........especially with pictures to prove it!
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Old 11-11-2016, 06:56 PM   #11
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Oh man! That is a bummer, doesnt look like too much damage... hopefully! I too have pics of my follies, strangely enough... reminders of how not to do it again! lol
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Old 11-12-2016, 03:32 PM   #12
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Welcome! Hopefully the "bugs" our now out of the system and you can enjoy the camping experience
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Old 11-14-2016, 03:47 PM   #13
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sounds like a step learning curve. but now you know what to look out for in the future.

Happy camping!
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