Brand New Member with a question

[Jersquared]

Hello everyone, the wife and I are planning on purchasing a 2019 3270RL in the next month or so. The question I have which I hadn't put any thought into it.. We just excavated land to put our shop up to store it in. Our original plan was to go with 14ft doors. According to the brochure and Keystones website the 5th wheels are 13'3". A friend of mine was over last night telling me his friend bought a new 5th wheel albeit not a Montana and the AC wouldn't clear with his 14ft doors. So my question any of you out there store your 5th wheels in shops and if so how tall of doors do you have?

Thanks everyone
Jer

[dieselguy]

My RV port has a roof peak of 13'2" and I have about a foot to spare clearing the A/C. I have a 3150RL with LT285R16 tires. I do have a Carrier low profile front A/C. Your friend's friend if his measurements are true will have a difficult time traveling some of the Midwest as there are a number of bridges and railroad underpasses under 14'

[BuilderBob]

First off welcome to the MOC family from Washington St! The only way to how tall your 5er is going to be is hook up to your TV and measure from the front AC to the ground use a 2x4 make sure the 2x4 is level go from the bottom of the 2x4 to ground that is your true height make sure your on level ground. Like diselguy said your friend going to have problems if he that tall.

[Jersquared]

Thank you both of you. The wife and I live in Oregon. I was assuming Keystone when giving the height dimension would give the tallest point. It wouldn't make a lot of sense saying our 5th wheels are 13'3 to the bottom of the AC unit.

(oops I just noticed in my first post I put 3270RL, I'm not sure where I came up with that. We are buying the 3120RL)

The main reason for the questioning our game plan was to get the shop built first then buy the 5th wheel. I suppose if need be we can make a drive to Portland with tape measure in hand.

I'm really hoping 14ft doors should work, I'd actually be shocked if they didn't. The price added going with 16ft eaves and 14ft doors was enough, I don't even want to know the cost of a 16ft door.

Jer

[Rcerne]

14' doors are all you need. If your 5'r was taller than 14' you would be in a world of hurt towing it down the highway. Most overpasses are 14' and up.

[BuilderBob]

Are 5er hooked up to are TV is 13' 6" you could go to the dealer have them make sure the 5er is level and check the height but keep in mind that it on a TV but at least you mite be close some TV tend to make the 5er high in the front.

[Texan]

The maximum height for trucks is 13.6''. My 2014 3402RL measures 13.5'' level on concrete hooked-up to truck. You would just about have your front axles off the ground being extremely nose high to be 14' high. I wouldn't pull out of the driveway being any higher than 13.6''. My rv door is 14' high and gives ample height. You should not have any worry with 14' doors.

[jeffba]

On your friend of a friend's 5er that was that high, did the truck have a lift kit?
Montys are high at 13' 5" per spec. I measured mine and it is 13' 3" hooked up. That is with my hitch at maximum height and a truck with high bed height for a stock truck.

My hitch is at maximum height to clear the bed rails.

My question is with a 14' door opening, with the door fully opened what is the actual opening? Does the door when fully opened block the opening any?


Oh and welcome to the forum and congratulations!!

[WeBeFulltime]

I'm not a building expert by any means, but should you also consider the type of building you are constructing/installing (pole/metal) and type of floor dirt/rock/concrete?

[Kyle and Lisa]

Welcome to the forum.

[CarWin]

Welcome to the forum !!!

Its a Federal(law) "standard" in this great country, that commercial vehicles not be over 13'6" high, if they are you need to get a special permit and drive a designated route.

With that said,I have NOT seen a 5th wheeled (camper) over 13'6" unless it is not set up properly to the towing vehicle of said camper. They have way too many adjustments to keep the height under the" federal standards" for height. IF you take down cable, phone or power lines and you are over 13'6" height, you MAY be responsible for the cost to repair those damages.

[cotter key]

If you have roll doors or barn doors you should be fine-- over head door depends on how much clearance you have as to how far the door is set to go up

[Jersquared]

Thank you everyone. This is everything that I suspected. I would be willing to bet that guy said he had 14ft eaves and my buddy thought that meant or thought he heard 14ft doors.

My tow vehicle shouldn't be an issue for height. We have a 2012 Silverado 2500HD duramax that's stock height... Well stock everything actually. Soon we are getting Airbags installed, the installer wants us to get the 5th wheel hitch in the bed first. I guess that determines how you run the air lines for the on board compressor.

[AZ Traveler]

Welcome to the forum!

If you have 14 ft of clearance and the entrance is fairly level you will not have an issue.

[jcurtis934]

My 2012 truck, not 4x4, is 6'4" to the top of its clearance lights on the cab and with the fifth hooked up and level...the top of the ac is at 13' measured by morryde. I now have 9" of bed rail clearance with the i.s. system installed. Newer trucks, 4x4's lot higher sitting than my truck....newer fifth wheels may be higher depending on model number. Take no salesman word for the fifth wheel height unless they measure it witnessed by you!

[jimandlaurie]

Welcome to MOC.

[h2ojocky]

Make sure that the opening to your storage place is 14 feet. If the door is 14' there may be overlap and the opening may be shorter.

[vipermanden]

I'm pretty sure everyone on this site is under 13'6" unless they are towing their 5th wheel in a jacked up 4 x 4 truck with the RV nose really high. But just to make sure, I nailed a good quality tape measure to the bottom of a "straight" 2 x 4 x 8', and taped a long level on the top of it. Then on as level a street as you can, hold the 2 x 4 so it is level on top of the A/C unit and have your wife read the numbers on the ground, and do this on both sides of both A/C units, and for safety use the highest number as your clearance for over passes. We were at 13'6" on our 4 x 4 truck, so I lowered the 5th wheel hitch down to it's lowest setting, and assumed we were 13' 5". We came upon an overpass in Arkansas on a rural highway that said 13' 6" so DW got out and climbed the hill on the side of the overpass and watched as we went under at less than 1 mph, and she said we had about 1" clearance! Phew!

[Baldicon]

Originally Posted by vipermanden

I'm pretty sure everyone on this site is under 13'6" unless they are towing their 5th wheel in a jacked up 4 x 4 truck with the RV nose really high. But just to make sure, I nailed a good quality tape measure to the bottom of a "straight" 2 x 4 x 8', and taped a long level on the top of it. Then on as level a street as you can, hold the 2 x 4 so it is level on top of the A/C unit and have your wife read the numbers on the ground, and do this on both sides of both A/C units, and for safety use the highest number as your clearance for over passes. We were at 13'6" on our 4 x 4 truck, so I lowered the 5th wheel hitch down to it's lowest setting, and assumed we were 13' 5". We came upon an overpass in Arkansas on a rural highway that said 13' 6" so DW got out and climbed the hill on the side of the overpass and watched as we went under at less than 1 mph, and she said we had about 1" clearance! Phew!

Dang! DW must have good eyes! Don't think I would trust my DW based on directions she gives me for baking our trailer up.

[Larry L]

First of all welcome to the forum from Idaho. Just an update on legal height. Commercial vehicl legal height was updated to14 feet before needing to buy an overheight permit. The only problem is many small towns may not have utility wires moved to that new height. That doesn't actually have any thing to do with your question but while traveling you should be able to clear any overhead structure that's not marked with a height restriction sign but it's always important to watch for overhead obstacles tree limbs especially. Happy rv ing