The Age Old Question, How Many Pounds Of Air Shall I Put In My Tires?
July 21, 2008 by Brad Sears · 13 Comments
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Well sir, I have never been accused of being terribly smart and politicaly astue, so here I go jumping from the frying pan into the fire on a subject that some have said in the forums is a dead horse and beaten to death. But there is more to the tire pressure story than just when will it fail or blow up. Or how much pressure to ad and when.
We all know that a tire that is under inflated will use more power to make it roll than a properly inflated tire. That is because of these factors:
Innovative Future Fuel Savings For Motor Homes
July 6, 2008 by Lug_Nut · 16 Comments
Through the years we have seen motor home manufacturers continue to up the bar with new and innovative ideas. These ideas and new features have attracted buyers, both new to the lifestyle and those trading up. But, unlike the auto industry, no one quoted expected fuel mileage, or in many cases, cared, for that matter. That may be soon to change. You can just imagine the potential buyers now. Even though they are not expecting an economic fuel consumption figure, there will be more people than ever asking “How many miles per gallon”.
Unsprung Weight, Unlocking The Mystery
May 12, 2008 by Brad Sears · 3 Comments
Lug Nuts latest blog on Aluminum Wheels was, as his usual product is, great. I have aluminum wheels on Rover, our 1990 Foretravel DP, and they are great. But there is one great advantage and that is that they are lighter as Lug Nut said. And as he said that reduces unsprung weight.
With Lug Nuts permission I would like to expand a bit on the mystery of unsprung weight other than the general weight reduction of the rig. Unsprung weight is the weight of the components between the springs and the ground. That includes the tire, wheel, bearings and hub, brake rotor or brake drum, caliper and pads, brake shoes and springs, wheel trim rings, lug nuts, and suspension members between the springs (or air bags), and the ground.
Are Aluminum Wheels Worth It?
May 11, 2008 by Lug_Nut · 3 Comments
A great majority of “A” class motor homes today come standard with aluminum wheels. This is in contrast to coaches sold in the 90’s when most were purchased with the conventional steel wheels with the optional trim rings and hub dressings. But, for those that are contemplating a new rig purchase, and find the aluminum rims to be an option, are they worth the extra dollars?
Well, to attempt to answer this we should look at the advantages of these over the tried and proved steel rims.
Lighter Weight: - When comparing a 22.5″ X 8.25″ motor coach wheel rim, the aluminum wheel is around 35 pounds lighter than a similar constructed steel one. This weight difference many vary depending on the manufacturer of each, but this is using Accuride Corporation product specifications. This reduced weight contributes to better ride and handling by lightening the un-sprung weight. While you might think that 35 pounds per wheel should not make that much difference, it is reported that each pound taken off the un-sprung weight reacts to four times that, or in this case, 140 pounds. It further would reduce the gross vehicle weight by 140 to 210 lbs. for a single rear axle or a tag axle type respectively. (Based on the majority of motor homes that used a steel wheel on the inner of the duals)
Stronger Construction: - Some aluminum wheel sizes are rated for higher running air pressure and carrying capacities.
What’s a Super C? plus some Q & A
April 23, 2008 by Brad Sears · 1 Comment
A question was asked if those spring loaded lubricators with external grease fittings were ok to use on his trailers wheel bearings. As far as I can see these are great gadgets. I have four of them on my car trailer. I have no scientific facts to support the use or not use of them but over nearly 100,000 miles I have never lost a wheel bearing on the trailer and being as I am prone to haul home an errant elderly tractor or steam engine or other old iron, the trailer has not had an easy life.
After the blog about weighing a trailer several of you wrote with suggestions and concerns. One concern was that scales operators such as truck stops frowned on unhooking the trailer and moving to several different positions. This is why I try to make a deal with a local sand pit or private scale and then try to show up at a slack time in their schedule.
Vinyl Sided Tent Trailer Maintenance
April 22, 2008 by Mike Steffen · Leave a Comment
Howdy !!
Tent trailers are not that much different from their hard sided brethren. They both have refrigerators, liquid propane (LP) gas ranges, water heaters, forced air furnace, power converter; and in some cases, even an air conditioner ! The largest difference is that tent trailers are built with an eye for light weight construction and materials including the appliances, accessories and running gear. One result of this effort to achieve such a light weight trailer is the increased amount of preventive maintenance for the basic trailer and the care and repair of the vinyl walls and bed roofs
Let’s review the basic checks common to any RV. The LP gas system must be tested once a year for leaks, rubber hose abrasion and that the system has the correct gas pressure of about eleven inches water column. The electrical system includes the 12Volt Direct Current (VDC) and 110Volt Alternating Current (VAC). The 12VDC side of things operate the 12VDC lights, the control electronics in the appliances and, in combination with the towing vehicle, the tail, brake and clearance lights.
Trailer Weight
April 13, 2008 by Brad Sears · 4 Comments
How Do I Weigh My Trailer?
Now, Sean asked the following question. “Can you pull a travel trailer across a set of weight station scales to get your weight, or what do you have to do at a truck stop to get your trailer weight? ”
Well I would want four weights; the towing weight, dead weight, tongue weight, and the side to side weight. This can be done in three steps. The first weight is the full weight of the trailer, that is disconnected from the tow vehicle and sitting alone on the scales. Then hook up and move the trailer forward until just the wheels of the trailer are sitting on the scales. Subtract that weight from the total weight and you will have the tongue weight. One note here, do not engage the load distributing bars when weighing.
Load Up the Back, What Happens Up Front?
January 31, 2008 by Brad Sears · 2 Comments
What does the load in the back of your rig or truck do to the way that the front wheels sit on the ground?
That is the question that Curt asked; “It would be neat to know the difference between pickup front ends when pulling that 16,000 lbs. down the road.”
Wow does that open Pandora’s Box. There is no one answer as it effects the front wheels in different ways and not just depending on the style of front suspension, IFS or beam axle. One thing that effects it more is the type of load and where it is placed on the chassis.
The first thing that we need to know is that the alignment angle most effected by load or rear chassis height or deflection is caster. Caster is forward or backward tilt of an imaginary line drawn down through the center of the king pin or ball joints. The best indication of caster is the swivel wheels on a super market shopping cart. When you push the cart along the wheels trail behind the pivot between the wheels and the cart. This means that the center line down from the pivot point leads the wheel and it trails so it is positive caster.
Wantta Get Hitched ?
January 27, 2008 by Mike Steffen · 4 Comments
The forgotten link may be right behind you as you tow your trailer down the road. That tow hitch is every bit as important as the tow vehicle and the trailer, however it is often given the least amount the thought. No process seems more involved and protracted than the selection of a towing vehicle and the perfect trailer. We spend literately hundreds of hours researching, reading, looking, discussing and even worrying about the decision of which vehicle and trailer we want. However, we all too often go through this selection process and then when we pick-up the trailer we tell the RV dealer to “put a hitch on’er” for the tow vehicle without really considering what that means.Hitches come in three general types. The tow-bar hitch, the 5th wheel and the stock hitch. The sub-classes of each general type would take a rather large book to describe fully, but there are several basic things that fall into the “Must Know” category.
Towbar hitches come in two major types. The simple ball or weight-carrying hitch where the entire hitch weight load is placed on the ball at the rear of the towing vehicle. These are generally used for lightweight towing vehicles pulling trailers of 3,000 to 3,500 pounds GTW. Larger towing vehicles can pull higher weights but care must be taken not to exceed the vehicle manufacturers recommendations. Weight-distributing hitches come with torsion or spring bars that distribute the load from the ball forward to the frame of the towing vehicle. These hitch systems are capable of pulling up to 15,000 pounds in a class-5 receiver hitch and 1,200 pounds of tongue weight. I’ll do more on conventional hitches in a latter article, but for now let’s concentrate on 5th wheel hitches.
What Came First?
January 20, 2008 by David Kurtz · 5 Comments
The title of this article is well known as it relates to the chicken and the egg. Well, I ask you, what came first? The Travel Trailer or the Tow Vehicle. For me it was the Travel Trailer and then out of necessity the Tow Vehicle. Maybe it’s just me, but I had to learn the hard way that some RV salesmen are not all that honest. When we did our shopping for our travel trailer, we really liked the Four Winds Express Lite 18B. It is not too large, just 24 feet long. It has windows on all sides to let the light in. It was affordable for what we wanted.
So, I asked the salesman, “will my Explorer pull this thing?” We sat down with him as he pulled some books out of his desk. He asked us “what engine?”, to which we replied “the 4.0 V6”. He asked which model, we replied “Sport”. He then looked in his book, then looked over his glasses at us, then back to his book and then the verdict, “Yep, yours will pull it just fine”. We were excited that we had enough power to pull the trailer.
The day of delivery; Okay, so we go to the RV Dealer and the service gang were just fantastic. They spent two hours with us going over all the details of how to operate all the features of our new travel trailer. Then, as part of our session, they taught me how to hook up the trailer to my tow vehicle. With that done, we pulled away with our new toy!
Our first long trip was about 450 miles and oh man, it was a white knuckle drive! We learned, (the hard way) that our tow vehicle just wasn’t enough. So, I had to upgrade! I know some of you are reading this and nodding your heads, because you did the same thing.
My new tow vehicle pulls the trailer just fine and you would think I would have no more problems. Well, all this took place in June of 2006. Here we are in January 2008 and I find myself itching for a trailer upgrade or maybe a Class C or even a Class A. Will the madness ever end? Nah….that’s one of the great aspects of this ‘hobby’!
Happy Camping and see you next Sunday!
