Things we saw on the road today. 250 miles.

[Me_Again]

3 or 4 roofs bubbled up in the front. 3 or 4 bumper pulls riding extremely nose high or low. The roof issue is hard for the driver to know about.

A trailer extremely out of level is the dealer and/or the owners flaut.

[myredracer]

I saw a FW this summer somewhere on an interstate and a big section of the roof was puffed up into the air like a balloon as if someone pumped air under the membrane. Crazy! It's moments like that when I wish I had a dash cam. Would have taken a pic but it was gone in seconds...

[MNGeeks61]

easycamper wrote:

MNGeeks61 wrote:
I've seen a lot more F150's with fifth wheels this year too. Can't imagine they're all max payload.

Mine isn't.

That's true. You're not towing a 35-37 footer...

More than a few I see on Highway 169 north of the Cities are:

-Nose high by over a foot
-triple towing with a boat (yes I saw one with an F150, I was curious on his weight on that one as he had a short fiver, but sure it's possible he's fine)
-towing an older model and not a "light" version (even the "light" versions can be plenty heavy)

[CharlesinGA]

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Sounds like some RVers dont' understand everything that goes into RVing. Or could it be like people buying houses that really can't afford to own a house so things go unattended to?

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:
Ignorance is bliss !!

Both so true. In the past about 6% of the population was into RVing/camping in some way, today that number is up to about 8%. That means that suddenly there are a bunch of folks (like me) that have recently (past 4 or 5 years) jumped into RVing. Most don't spend much time on forums (I spend way too much), most don't understand the issues of a trailer or motorhome, and many could care less. If you were to tell someone with a trailer with torsion axles that nose high will damage the axles and overload the rear tires too, they would probably go "yea, right...." and walk away, unwilling to learn or understand what they don't know.

Right now RV's are holding their prices pretty good, but in a couple of years, you will be able to find some good deals on these "I'm tired of this, its not fun any more, just work" trailers and Motorhomes.

Charles

[mkirsch]

First off, the rule is, "Pictures, or it didn't happen!"

Not knowing something is ignorance, by definition. So by extension the 99% who don't visit the RV boards to "get OCD" are ignorant, and ignorance is bliss!

The reality is, even if you intentionally do everything wrong to the extreme, muntiple things have to fail in spectacular fashion to have a result any more serious than ending up on the side of the road waiting for a service truck. Having things set up badly increases your chance of having a serious issue, but it is far from a guarantee that you will have a serious issue.

[librty02]

JIMNLIN wrote:

Without weight numbers your also guessing and thanks for making my point.

Absolutely NO GUESSING at all when you have 2100llbs of payload and a trailer that has an empty pin of 2800lbs. Numbers are numbers which are the facts Period.

[BarabooBob]

I am amazed at the number of people that pull utility trailers with a 4x4 truck and a straight hitch. Yesterday at the home improvement store I saw a guy loading up a trailer and the coupler of the trailer had to be over a foot higher that the back of the trailer. The back of the trailer had to be only about 6 inches from the ground. I wonder if he has any idea what he is doing to his equipment?

[JIMNLIN]

Without weight numbers your also guessing and thanks for making my point.

[librty02]

If they are crossing the scales they were commercial rigs hauling for a living as RVs are not required to hit the scales as of yet...and it's no guessing weights when you see a 3/4 ton diesel truck with 2100lbs of payload hauling a 15k 5th wheel that specs pin weights of 2800lbs EMPTY. So they would be 700 over in empty pin alone PLUS what they have added into the trailer PLUS the 5th wheel hitch weight usually 200lbs PLUS the family of 5 in the truck weighing in at what?!?!

[JIMNLIN]

FMCSA home page at one time says the most overloaded truck they see across the scales is a one ton DRW.
Having hauled for a living I've always been amassed how RV folks can tell if a truck is overloaded. Guess I don't have "the eye" for guessing weights.

[librty02]

MNGeeks61 wrote:
I've seen a lot more F150's with fifth wheels this year too. Can't imagine they're all max payload.

As I've seen the 3/4 tons for the past 20 years now with 5th wheels that put them at least 1500lbs over their payload and GVWR also just with pin weight alone. :R

[Ralph_Cramden]

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:
Ignorance is bliss !!

In a lot of cases it's not ignorance. In the real world way less than 1% of people pulling trailers ever visit an RV board to get OCD about going to cat scales, adjusting or debating hitches, checking tire pressures hourly while adjusting them to the .5 of a pound, or some of the other general foolishness.

Even the most popular RV boards like FRF that claim 110K members might have 2500 active ones. They estimate 9 million registered RVs in the US.

[easycamper]

MNGeeks61 wrote:
I've seen a lot more F150's with fifth wheels this year too. Can't imagine they're all max payload.

Mine isn't.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

Ignorance is bliss !!

[Jayco-noslide]

Sounds like some RVers dont' understand everything that goes into RVing. Or could it be like people buying houses that really can't afford to own a house so things go unattended to?