Drive Truck From Under 5er Every Night?

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

We have stayed hooked up for 8 days and nights from SE Michigan to the Rio Grande Valley. We did grocery shopping, and many fuel stops to get 1700 miles with a gas engine (7 MPG, eh??, on the average).

Level pull through campsites, every other night (once you are out of freezing temps) we hookup water and sewer. Other wise we hook up power, prefer 50 AMPS so we can run 2 electric heaters, etc.

Al puts down front jacks and back supports, he is not real fond of rocking n rolling, that is a personal thing, eh??? I don't complain cause if he is walking around and I am sitting back here in the rear at the computer, it does BOUNCE!!

He does not unhook the truck and trailer 7 pin cord, cause we have electric, but, I chatted with him about this, and he says, if we were to boondock, say a Walleyworld stop, it probably would be better to unhook that 7 pin.

He prefers sites that go down in the front, but we have had difficulty finding those, and then, well, he grumbles.

[rvghostdriver]

We do like the others and drop the front and rear legs. Sometimes I can adjust level a little bit by lifting the front legs a little but not enough to be a problem for the hitch. If it is not too far from level we are okay with that for one night. The refrigerator is okay if not too far from level.

If you have auto level will that raise it too much off the hitch and cause a problem? I would worry about that.

[klash]

We have been towing in various rigs for almost 40 years. We have a rule in our rig, no more than 250 miles a day, so we are usually out by 7 a.m. and in our next stop by noon. If we have relatively flat pull throughs, I do as the majority have reported. Drop all four jacks to take out the wiggle/jiggle and that is it. We have a 2011 duramax diesel and they are of the new quiet breed. Years ago we always tried to avoid parking next to some of the older Dodge Cummins diesels, if we could possibly ask for any site. Most of the guys with those older
cummins would start their trucks at 6, and then leave at 8.
We always try to get away with just one engine start, no talking - mostly sign language, just
two doors closing, and we are gone. We always consider those around us who may be able
to sleep until 9 or so. If one needs to let your diesel idle a bit to warm it up, go down to the exit gate, or down the road a bit to do it, rather than in your site. When we are heading north or south in the colder weather I always plug in my diesel. I know it doesn't need it, but I feel a lot better knowing that the engine is up to operating temperature before going to full load condition. We must remember our diesels are a heat ignition engine and it takes time for them to get up to maximum efficiency. However it doesn't mean that we should do that warm up in our site and ruin everyone else's sleep.

[sreigle]

If we are just overnighting and do not plan to use the truck then we only unhitch if necessary to get reasonably level. We don't even go for precise leveling, just enough to be comfortable. I was told by a tech that if we are comfortable, our refrigerator is also comfortable (that's a consideration when off level, for longevity of the fridge).

Note that you can drop the landing gear for stability and to raise the nose a couple of inches or so (just make sure not to lift it more than just a little off the hitch so you don't damage anything). Sometimes we also deploy the rear stabilizers for stability but otherwise we don't use any of the stabilizers.

By the way, I hope you'll find in this forum there is no such thing as a stupid question. If any of us doesn't know something and want to ask, then that's a legitimate question. Otherwise, I'd be the king of dumb.

[richfaa]

For a overnight in and out we do not unhitch and we do not lower the front landing gear... The camper is on the truck all day it can handle it overnight. May or may not lower the rear jacks..so it rocks for few hours. We do try to get sort of level side to side but have run the slides in and out at some severe front to back angles.

[Dave Nowlin]

When going to Topsail Hill Preserve outside Destin, we always sleep over for a few hours at a Wal-Mart south of Birmingham. We don't unhook and only put the bedroom slide out. We haven't had any problems doing this. The people we seem to have problems with is the Class A folks. We've camped by them many times at Topsail and it seems many of them crank the engine an hour before they leave and leave it running while we try and sleep. They also seem to like to leave real early. I'm not really sure why they see the need to run the engine that long.

[sreigle]

I used to complain about the Class A's doing that until a friend with an A told me he has to let it run to build up pressure in the braking system. I don't know if he's putting me on but it did make some sense. But surely they don't need more than a couple of minutes? Wayne and Doug, where are you?

[pbahlin]

Something to consider is the possibility of running smack into the morning commute if you leave at 7:00. I always thought I'd be like you, after a lifetime of getting up at 5:00 AM. Once I was retired for about 3 months I found myself getting up later and worrying a lot less about time.

My rule is out by 9:00 and in by 3:00. I make an exception if I'm going to overnite in a Walmart/Truck Stop/Cracker Barrel. For these places I like to drive until dusk or even a bit after dark because there's no way I want to roast on blacktop with nothing to do from mid afternoon on.

[Dave Nowlin]

I want to pull into a Wal-Mart about 9pm and then get up the next morning shortly after sunup and drive for a while before eating breakfast.