Save Back end dragging - Casters and Skid wheels - Montana Owners Club

parksjanda · 10-17-2018, 02:00 PM

Yup, we did it on our first camping trip to a Good Sam family campground with our Montana 3750fl. The back end drug on uneven pavement at the entrance and damaged two support beams, tore off the spare tire and broke the bottom of the ladder. Minimal damage considering other campers tore off their hydraulic jacks, ripped open the back end or bent and damaged the frame. This incident discouraged us from camping and towing the montana. However it has encouraged us to look into installing skid wheels at the back of the camper. This video explains something about choosing the correct caster and skid wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8cGG4j5Y8

. Has anyone else installed any skid wheels on their 5th? Any suggestions or recommendations?

CarWin · 10-17-2018, 03:59 PM

Sounds like a good campground to AVOID,until they fix the entrance to it. Sounds like this has been an issue with other campers, if I`m reading your post correctly.

Don't get discouraged with this incident, just learn from it, use it to better your skills by knowing the limits better. We are all human and make mistakes/have incidents. Those that say they have never are either telling a fib,or just haven't had it happen to them yet!!! Travel long enough and it WILL happen.

**scottz** · 10-17-2018, 05:28 PM

I welded skid wheels to the bottom of the factory hitch.

The installation on the light weight factory hitch is not ideal, but anything is better that dragging the back end. At some point I might install a real hitch.

beeje · 10-17-2018, 06:54 PM

I have towed my current 2011 Montana and 2 previous campers on some really nasty campground roads and never did damage from the rear hitting the ground. In fact twice had to be towed up the same off road trail (not knowing it was one) because the truck could go no farther (wheel spinning). It was sooo bad that when we stopped going forward the truck and camper were sliding backwards with ALL the brakes on the truck and camper locked up (not spinning). Had no choice but to spend the night at around a 35 degree uphill position. Wont do that again. LOL . Still no damage.

rohrmann · 10-17-2018, 07:12 PM

On our rig, the frame extension is the same, and we ground off half the horizontal tab getting into and out of the inlaw's property, so I had these skids welded up from 3/8" thick steel, cut off the remainder of those tabs and bolted them up with longer bolts through the hitch mounting location on both sides. I figured that wheels weren't needed for the occasional dragging of the trailer and these would not have a chance of folding up during a hard contact.

**DQDick** · 10-17-2018, 08:05 PM

Don't be discouraged. That campground is unique. In 8 years of full timing I've had to go in at an angle on some sharp entrances and the worst that's happened so far is that I ground off the wire ties I was using to hold an antenna cable to the back bumper.

parksjanda · 10-18-2018, 07:21 AM

We had reservations for that campground for several days, however we left the next day because we were upset over the damage. It had thunder-stormed earlier that morning and when we left the campground we experienced similar hills. Our truck did slide some but had enough power to overcome and go up a slippery winding road. Thanks for sharing your experience.

parksjanda · 10-18-2018, 07:30 AM

Excellent pictures. We learned a valuable lesson and that is to look at the campground on google earth and google maps to observe elevation and surrounding geographical layout. We will also tend to stay at resorts off main interstates and highways, not back road campgrounds. As a point of interest, I did ask the campground before making the reservation if they are able to accommodate large rigs and they said "yes." They lied! We did issue a detailed complaint to Good Sam Campground services with detailed pictures of all the deep ruts and scrapes in the hardtop pavement from past 5th wheel and rv scrapes. The entrance to this campground was littered with deep ruts and scrapes. Thanks again!

parksjanda · 10-18-2018, 07:41 AM

Check out the album with pictures of the deep ruts and scrapes from past 5th and motor home back end drags at Tusquany RV campground in SE PA.

dhuhn · 10-18-2018, 09:23 AM

I had these installed by a welding shop they have saved the back end of my 5er several times

parksjanda · 10-18-2018, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhuhn

I had these installed by a welding shop they have saved the back end of my 5er several times

What brand of caster and skid wheel did you use?

dhuhn · 10-18-2018, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by parksjanda

What brand of caster and skid wheel did you use?

Here is a link to the ones I bought from e trailer
https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels...48-979013.html

parksjanda · 10-18-2018, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhuhn

Here is a link to the ones I bought from e trailer
https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels...48-979013.html

I told my husband about all the posts to my thread concerning installation and types of casters and wheels. He cannot wait to get home and see the graphics. THanks for the link, which we are familiar with etrailer.com.
Alexandra Parks

WeBeFulltime · 10-18-2018, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DQDick

Don't be discouraged. That campground is unique. In 8 years of full timing I've had to go in at an angle on some sharp entrances and the worst that's happened so far is that I ground off the wire ties I was using to hold an antenna cable to the back bumper.

We have also been full timing 8 years and never a problem with dragging. I always go in/out at an angle unless it's pretty much level much like I did while trucking 20 years.

Davebright · 10-24-2018, 04:33 PM

I have the same wheels as dhuhn that I purchased from etrailer because I sometimes had problems with dragging my bumper and rear jacks. I moved my spare tire because of it. Here in WV there are many places not always in campgrounds that can get you in trouble including my driveway.

Renegade1LI · 10-29-2018, 01:39 PM

This is our third 5er,1st two I installed skid wheels on & plan to do the same on this one. Our campers have always been toy haulers & we tend to go off the beaten path on occasion, so its good insurance to have skid plates or wheels, there's no down side. I will say our 381TH does have pretty good ground clearance but why chance it. If you pull a line or place a straight edge from behind the bottom of the rear wheel up to the back of your camper you will see what could get damaged if you bottom out. Once the skid wheels are installed I check this & see if anything else needs to be moved.

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