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Originally Posted by tafische
I was watching Marks RV Garage today and he was featuring the DirectLink. I wish he had gotten into more detail on it, but looked like a neat system. He had the hydraulic version.
http://www.youtube.com/user/rved101
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I wasn't all that impressed with it. Disk brakes on a trailer that sized seems to be overkill. The electric over oil actuator seemed a bit laggy. From the sounds of it, it took a second or two to build up full pressure. If the tow vehicle driverr slammed on the brakes and the trailer was a second or two behind, the driver might be surprised to see the trailer whipping around and passing him up. I suspect the biggest reason he installed the system was he got free from the sponsor.
I've been following this series from square one and, frankly, Polk doesn't impress me too much. Granted, he has forgotten more about RVs than I will ever know but I saw himself doing things that even I know better to do. Things like using a piece of pipe, sideways even, to pound in the seal on the hub, finishing it off with just the hammer. Sure, it
can be done that way but even using a block of wood and a hammer is much safer. The way he was doing it is a good way to distort the seal. It doesn't take much to cause those things to leak. Since he is supposed to be a pro, one would think he would have a press and a set of seal installers (even a press and a block of wood would be better than just pounding away at it with just a hammer). My Daddy and I would have ripped him a new one if he did that to any of our iron.
I wasn't even impressed with how he packed the bearings. Disposable gloves aren't that expensive and may be healthier to use instead of bare hands (certainly easier to clean up after). He was pushing the bearing too far into the glob of grease, getting much of it in the inside diameter of the inner race instead of inside the bearing area. My Daddy tought me how to pack a bearing and I can do a far neater job than Polk did. Probably just as fast, too. Grease packers are nice (I've used them) but unless one uses them frequently, they are messy to clean up and/or just take up space. They may or may not be faster than hand packing, depending on the type of packer.
I would have yanked the springs, taken them apart, cleaned them up completely, then painted them. That way, I would have known for sure they weren't cracked or the spring eye (or spring eye bushing, if it used one) wasn't worn. I also would have put in a wet bolt at the spring eye hanger (the other end was a slipper). All Polk did was wire brush it a bit and spray paint it.
I can't believe how he installed the hydraulic lines. First, why have custom flex lines made up? There is a huge selection of factory flex lines in use alresdy of which several dozen would have worked and would have been less expensive. If he had used one of those and kept track of what it was supposed to have been used in, if one should fail while on the road (even new ones can fail), scarfing up another one would be a lot easier, faster, and less expensive. The mounting clips he used were too large for the line which would allow a lot of vibration which will eventually fret at the lines, causing failure at some point down the road. He also connected the flex lkine directly to the steel tube without any kind of a bracket to support the connection. That will stress the steel line, eventually setting it up for failure.
I'm curious about the WD system he used. I like the way it clamps to the trailer frame instead of bolting to it. It appears it may be less prone to failure than the Reese DC. I downloaded the instuctions for it and it seems there is a bit more flexibility where one can mount the frame clamps to avoid the propane tanks, etc. than one can with the Reese DC. Still, I wonder if Polk actually knew if the Equalizer is better than the Reese or not since he was parroting the company literature pretty much word for word. I'll be looking into this a bit more later.
I noticed this in an earlier episode but since one can see it in this video, I'll bring it up anyway. Did anyone notice the water heater being right under an openable window? Nice way to let fumes into the TT. That should have been a fixed window.
I could come with a long list of questionable things the guy did, episode by episode, but I'll spare you. Besides, I have errands to run (drive, actually). Besides, I've bored you all long enough.