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Old 05-21-2013, 04:52 AM   #1
Alwims
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We made it to Santa Fe NM but not without problems

This trip, 1080 miles, started out interesting from the beginning, to say the least. First off, we pulled the Monty out of the spot we had set in for 6 months onto the paved road in the park and politely blew the steel brake line from the master cylinder to the valve. Took until noon to find someone who knew how to double flair a steel line. 1pm finally on the road.

Back hurt so bad from working on truck that we only made it 300 miles and stopped. Next day, Sunday, pretty uneventful, except we fought the wind all day and paid almost $4 for Gasoline just about everywhere we stopped. My truck has a V10 gas engine that loves gasoline, so fighting the wind, we stopped a lot for gas. We only made it 500 miles so we stopped for the night.

That's when the fun began again. We setup and decided to just unhook the truck and go get gas as we were leaving at 3am and didn't know if there would be anything open at that hour. We unhooked and everything looked great until I pulled out from under her and discovered, you guessed it, I forgot to lower the tailgate. I have watched people do that for the last 7 years and thought, "how stupid do you have to be to forget that?" Well I apologize to all I have thought that about. Didn't do a lot of damage, but if you know what you are looking at, you'll know what club I joined.

Anyway, we are in the Roadrunner RV Park 15 miles north of Santa Fe if anyone wants to stop by for a cup of coffee.

On a side note, I just saw a guy pull out with what looked to be a newer 38' Alpine pulling it with a 1/2 ton Chevy pickup. He had airbags on it and was still squatting badly. Heck our F350 1 ton was a handful in the wind on this trip. What are people thinking? That is just an accident looking for a place to happen. I'm also not sure how he gets it up and down the mountains up here. We are at 7000' and can see snow capped mountains out our front window.
 
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Old 05-21-2013, 06:52 AM   #2
Art-n-Marge
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That broken brake line would have been a big showstopper for me. I wouldn't have been able to get a fix by Noon! Good job on that recovery, then drive 300 miles after that and got tired. The next day you drive another 500 miles and only stop because of wind. 500 miles is my limit, wind or no wind. And with a gasser, too! I'm very impressed since I prefer slower, less distance and NO problems.

Unless you always get up at 3 a.m. it's easy to miss a step and forget something like drop a tailgate. I did that once during a normal day and the only reminder is a nick in the plastic on top of my tailgate. I've not replaced it to keep as a reminder.

After all that, then to see someone who will probably be in worse shape with that oversized Alpine and that undersized Chevy. It's sad knowing there's many like that citizen traveling around. What would worry me the most is that if I personally witness this accident-waiting-to-happen is that I am now close enough to be in harm's way if it does. Air bags DO NOT fix this problem!!! Just cuz you can hitch it up, doesn't mean you should. I wish this were better enforced. I think it will change when some law-maker loses a very close family member, but anyone else's family member, or if it's only property loss, then who cares.
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Old 05-21-2013, 07:18 AM   #3
dieselguy
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Thinking out loud if one has a bumper mount power cord plug ... although I don't have a tailgate as originally equipped (I have a webbed tail gate similar to Pro Net), my powercord plug is located right on the rear bed pillar. Some worry about damaging it there, but I've never had that issue. It's near impossible to unplug the cord and not lower my webbing as I always also stuff the cord, breakaway, and rear view camera wire up inside the pinbox which is extremely hard to reach without lowering the net. But ... maybe there will be a someday ...
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Old 05-21-2013, 07:28 AM   #4
Alwims
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Our truck is no ordinary pickup by any stretch of the imagination. Everything that can be beefed up has been, air bags, extra leaf springs, 22,000lb Reese hitch, tires, banks stainless true dual exhaust, etc. etc. etc. We probably could have bought a new truck with all the upgrade we've done to this one. The 2001 Ford V10 is one of the stoutest Gasoline engines anybody makes. I bought the truck when diesel was about $5 a gallon. Back then, cost per mile was cheaper with my 13 mpg empty truck compared to a diesel that was getting 18 mpg. Now that diesel has come back down it's about the same.

Even up here in the mountains, this engine keeps amazing us at how well it performs. It just don't like to pass up any gas stations. We try to do 1000 mile trips in 2 days, but that is without any problems or bad wind. I do not like pulling this 5th wheel in the wind. The motorhome we use to travel in was bad enough, but it was all one unit and it was bigger than the GMC Envoy we pulled behind it. The monty makes our pickup look like a toy when it is being pulled.

We got up at 3am because the wind was supposed to get real bad by afternoon and we wanted to get here before it. We didn't, but it did get worse yesterday afternoon. We got here yesterday moring around 11am.
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Old 05-21-2013, 07:40 AM   #5
Alwims
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by dieselguy

Thinking out loud if one has a bumper mount power cord plug ... although I don't have a tailgate as originally equipped (I have a webbed tail gate similar to Pro Net), my powercord plug is located right on the rear bed pillar. Some worry about damaging it there, but I've never had that issue. It's near impossible to unplug the cord and not lower my webbing as I always also stuff the cord, breakaway, and rear view camera wire up inside the pinbox which is extremely hard to reach without lowering the net. But ... maybe there will be a someday ...
You know, that's a great idea as I'm needing to replace the plug under my bumper before our next trip. Having to lower the tailgate to unplug it would sure help to not do this again. We've looked at the 5Th wheel louvered tailgates a 100 times and just can't make our selves buy one. We use a cover on our bed and would need to fabricate something to cover the gate when not pulling the Monty and I'm just tired of making mods. There comes a point when you just have to stop remodeling.
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Old 05-21-2013, 10:57 AM   #6
DQDick
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Sorry about your troubles. It sounds like you've arrived in a great spot now, however. Hope you have a wonderful time.
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