Height of 3400RL

[JandC]

I know this has been addressed in prior posts but thought maybe I could get some updated information from owners of 3400's. In March I had my hooked-up height measured right at 13'4" after having the second air installed. But since then I have installed Firestone rear bags and tires on my TV (went from 65 series to 70 series). Getting ready for the long haul south and will be measuring it again in 9 days.

What have some of you measured for your height if you have a 3400. And what TV do you have? Do you have the second air?

[Jay Bird]

The 3400 we just traded in had a height of 13'6" on a 2011 F450 with no additional air

[Montana Sky]

My 3400RL was 13'4" to the top of the MaxxAir Vent Cover in the kitchen. Did not really notice a change between hauling it with the 2500HD or the 3500HD as it rode level on both trucks.

[richfaa]

Our 06 3400 was the same as Montana Sky.

[Rainer]

Here's a trick I remembered from my old science days:

If you want to measure the height of something and it's too difficult to measure the actual "thing", one can measure it's shadow on the ground and using 4th grade math determine what the height is.

What you'll need is a yardstick and a tape measure.

Measure the shadow of the yardstick as well as the shadow of your Montana. It's best if the Montana is 90° to the sun and the sun is about 45° high in the sky, so that you'll be able to see all the stuff you have on top of your Montana. Make sure you measure the longest shadow the Montana casts.

Now here comes the 4th grade math. For instance, if the yard stick casts a 2 foot shadow, and the Montana's shadow is 8 feet, then the mathematical formula is 3 is to 2 as X is to 8 (3 is the height of the yardstick in feet). As a formula it's written 3/2 = X/8.

Remembering that 4th grade math might be a little tricky, but here we go: by multiply the nominator of one side of this equation with the denominator of the other, and also vice versa, we get 2X = 24 (2 times X equals 2X, and 3 times 8 equals 24; and we also remember that both sides of equation on opposite sides of the equals sign have to be equal).

Now we need to solve for X in the equation 2X = 24. We can simply divide both sides of this equation by two (because anything we do to one side of the equation, we have to do to the other side to keep it equal). so we end up with 1X = 12. so X = 12, and in our hypothetical example our trailer is 12 feet high.

You can do the same using inches which would be much more accurate than feet in the above example. Keeping everything the same but just converting everything to inches, we find that the yardstick casts a shadow of 24 inches and the Montana casts a shadow of 96 inches we get the following equation 36/24 = X/96. (re)Learning what we did above, we get 24X = 36 * 96, which becomes 24X = 3456. Dividing both sides by 24 we end up with 1X = 144. So in this example the trailer is 144" high, which is the same 12' in the previous example.

Now go and try it yourself, you can do it with your house, a tree, or even a radio tower (but I'd just walk the shadow length for ease of measurement).

And remember to show your work. Neatness counts. Have a great Christmas!

[sambam]

So..........that's the easy way??

[Art-n-Marge]

I did all this, then my dog ate my paper. Bad doggie. Great tip, Rainer.

[TLightning]

You'll have traffic blocked a few miles by the time you find "X."

[jlb27537]

Now I have a headache. I do have to try that. I remember nothing from 4th grade.

Funny, I ended up in accounting, not engineering. I can add, just not compute.

Jim

[JandC]

Rainer, are you sure it just wouldn't be easier to climb up the ladder and drop a tape measure over the side? When I did that before I think it took me less than 90 seconds. But that was several months ago and I am older now.

[Artemus Gordon]

When we bought our unit, part of PDI was backing unit into repair bay, which was exactly 14 ft tall. Our 3750 with two 15,000 Air units was exactly 13.9. We had to sign off that we knew it for a fact! Bridges and power lines can be an issue. Been diverted several times. I think you measure no matter what the Keystone spec states.

[JandC]

Well I finally got to some warm air (Nashville TN). While the truck was still hooked up I made the measurement for height. It was exactly 13'3". I set my Rand GPS at 13'4" and called it good.

[HOOK]

We were in St Louis following our faithful gps when we came to a R/R bridge , clearance 11 ft. We backed the Monty about 1/4 mile to a place to turn around. I've measured many for customers. All are around 13.4 to 13.6. I use 14 ft as a rule for myself.