Since I am the one who started this thread, I suppose I should wrap it up with a brief summary.
My camper is a 9.5 foot Northstar Igloo. It is supposed to have a wet weight of about 2500 pounds, but actually weighs in at about 4500 pounds. I have never been able to account for all that excess weight. I did upgrade the mattress to an 8 inch foam mattress. I have a Honda eu2000i, 2 AGM batteries, and 2 solar panels. My old 2010 Ram 2500 CTD, crew cab did OK after I added Supersprings and Rancho shocks. Due to a traffic accident I now have a 2018
a Ram 3500 CTS crew cab. Based on a recommendation on this thread, I am using a 4 foot pigtail to connect the in bed 5th wheel 7 pin outlet with the camper. I also did the installation for Torklift tiedowns. The rears went ok except one bolt hole on each tiedown was undersized by about 1/8 inch. I used a file to open up those holes. The driver side front tiedown was a bear. There is no room to work and the tiedown or frame was out of perfect alignment and I had to use clamps to hold and bend everything into shape so the bolts would work. I must have worked well over an hour on that tiedown. By comparison the passenger side front was done in about 15 minutes.
I just took the rig out for a run on local roads. Inspite of being a bit over the GVWR the truck did well and I am not planning on any additional suspension upgrades.
The Sirius radio did not work well with the shark fin antenna under the camper. I went to Dodge and ordered another antenna and wiring. If I am lucky there will be a connection under the passenger A pillar cover and the wiring will also fit. Dodge could not tell me if the parts will actually work.
I also decided to add a license plate mounting bracket and a couple of LED driving lights. The truck has fog lights that only work with the headlights on low beam. I want some substantial driving lights for those dark, middle of nowhere places. The parts just arrived.
During all of the other projects, I also had a Happijac freeze and break. I ordered a replacement from Tweetys which just arrived in record time...48 hours. So I am nearing the end with another day's work left before I can take off.
