First Tow with New Trailer

[BurbMan]

Picked up the new-to-us trailer yesterday, a 2008 Heartland Big Country 3250TS. Towed like a dream with the Hensley Trailer Saver BD-3 hitch.

I wound up going with the Curt in-bed rails, they make a no-drill frame bracket kit for the Rams that made the installation pretty straightforward. I added an in-bed 7-way plug using the Curt prewired harness. The dealer installed a TrailAir Rota-Flex pin box on the trailer. Ram factory brake control worked well.

First trip is scheduled for the end of March, and planning to hit the scales then and see how much junk we manage to load up.








Looks like it sits a little nose-high, but at least I have good clearance between the 5er and the truck. Also thankful for a long-box truck at the angle I need to back into my driveway.

The brakes seem to work good, but I don't have any service history on the unit, so I plan to go through the suspension later in the summer and service the bearings, shackle bushings, equalizer, etc, and I may decide to add a Correct-Track system to give me an extra 2" in height.

[Curly2001]

Congrats on the new fiver. I am towing my Heartland about the same nose high as yours with no problems. You have a great fiver which should work well for you.
Curly

[BurbMan]

According to Hensley, the later production models have been adjusted to be OK with standard 1/4" plates. I got a standard Reese 10" plate and it works great!

[Durb]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Durb wrote:
Have a TS3 instead of BD3 but the concept is the same. I air up my hitch so it tows to the line at the beginning of the season and leave it alone all year unless I need more clearance. You will find you will have to raise your front landing gear more than usual to unload the air bag pressure on the head when hooking/unhooking. You will also find there is a small learning curve on the Holland Binkley head. The thick jaws combined with my narrow kingpin groove (non typical) require that I have pressure on the plates to ensure a smooth hookup. This takes a couple of times to learn and will become second nature.

I assume a 1/8" slip plate works best as it does with a B&W's thick jaws.

I actually had to machine my own lube plate to center the hitch jaws. I used 3/8" high density polyethylene and took it down to 5/16" on my planer.

[ReneeG]

Durb wrote:
Have a TS3 instead of BD3 but the concept is the same. I air up my hitch so it tows to the line at the beginning of the season and leave it alone all year unless I need more clearance. You will find you will have to raise your front landing gear more than usual to unload the air bag pressure on the head when hooking/unhooking. You will also find there is a small learning curve on the Holland Binkley head. The thick jaws combined with my narrow kingpin groove (non typical) require that I have pressure on the plates to ensure a smooth hookup. This takes a couple of times to learn and will become second nature.

You'll know too when you are locked in with the BD3 and I suspect the TS3!

[ReneeG]

BurbMan wrote:


Question for BD3 owners: do you deflate the airbags when not towing or leave them at whatever pressure they were at?

Leave them at whatever pressure they were at, and recheck each trip.

[Cummins12V98]

Durb wrote:
Have a TS3 instead of BD3 but the concept is the same. I air up my hitch so it tows to the line at the beginning of the season and leave it alone all year unless I need more clearance. You will find you will have to raise your front landing gear more than usual to unload the air bag pressure on the head when hooking/unhooking. You will also find there is a small learning curve on the Holland Binkley head. The thick jaws combined with my narrow kingpin groove (non typical) require that I have pressure on the plates to ensure a smooth hookup. This takes a couple of times to learn and will become second nature.

I assume a 1/8" slip plate works best as it does with a B&W's thick jaws.

[Durb]

Have a TS3 instead of BD3 but the concept is the same. I air up my hitch so it tows to the line at the beginning of the season and leave it alone all year unless I need more clearance. You will find you will have to raise your front landing gear more than usual to unload the air bag pressure on the head when hooking/unhooking. You will also find there is a small learning curve on the Holland Binkley head. The thick jaws combined with my narrow kingpin groove (non typical) require that I have pressure on the plates to ensure a smooth hookup. This takes a couple of times to learn and will become second nature.

[rhagfo]

BurbMan wrote:
Good idea! I have a horse stall mat that I got to use under the truck camper, so I may just cut that so it fits behind the rails! We have a shakedown trip scheduled for the end of March, so my plan is get the trailer packed with all of our camping gear, fill the water tank, and stop at a scale and get some weights.

Right now, the hitch is at its highest setting, and so is the pin box, so dropping both of those one notch will probably get the trailer pretty level, but have to see what it does for truck clearance.

Question for BD3 owners: do you deflate the airbags when not towing or leave them at whatever pressure they were at?

Nice looking rig,Congratulations!

I think you have a great plan on getting it loaded up before making any changes. Something to take into account is how much travel the BD3 has down. Looked up the specs on your 5er nice payload at 3,400#.
We installed the Correct Track on our 5er to get the last 2" to level.
Enjoy your new rig.

[BurbMan]

Good idea! I have a horse stall mat that I got to use under the truck camper, so I may just cut that so it fits behind the rails! We have a shakedown trip scheduled for the end of March, so my plan is get the trailer packed with all of our camping gear, fill the water tank, and stop at a scale and get some weights.

Right now, the hitch is at its highest setting, and so is the pin box, so dropping both of those one notch will probably get the trailer pretty level, but have to see what it does for truck clearance.

Question for BD3 owners: do you deflate the airbags when not towing or leave them at whatever pressure they were at?

[Durb]

Nice. Get yourself a BedRug Mat and cut out holes for your rails. Stuff like lumber will slide right over the rails without catching and it makes the bed easy on your knees.

It looks like your hitch is adjusted high. In an effort to level your trailer more, you might try lowering the hitch adjustments and reducing your bedrail clearance. This is what I do with my Trailer Saver and I have had no problems towing 99.9% of the time with less than 6". If I need more clearance, I pump the hitch up with some more air; real easy and a no cost fix.

[ford_truck_guy]

That looks like a great combo match ! Like already stated, a bit nose high, but I've seen worse.

GOOD LUCK with it and Happy camping ! ! !

[larry_barnhart]

BurbMan wrote:
Picked up the new-to-us trailer yesterday, a 2008 Heartland Big Country 3250TS. Towed like a dream with the Hensley Trailer Saver BD-3 hitch.

I wound up going with the Curt in-bed rails, they make a no-drill frame bracket kit for the Rams that made the installation pretty straightforward. I added an in-bed 7-way plug using the Curt prewired harness. The dealer installed a TrailAir Rota-Flex pin box on the trailer. Ram factory brake control worked well.

First trip is scheduled for the end of March, and planning to hit the scales then and see how much junk we manage to load up.





have you looked to see if it has adjustable spring shackles? Your ideas are what I would do so you have a new history. chevman






Looks like it sits a little nose-high, but at least I have good clearance between the 5er and the truck. Also thankful for a long-box truck at the angle I need to back into my driveway.

The brakes seem to work good, but I don't have any service history on the unit, so I plan to go through the suspension later in the summer and service the bearings, shackle bushings, equalizer, etc, and I may decide to add a Correct-Track system to give me an extra 2" in height.

[BurbMan]

Lwiddis wrote:
2008? Looks in NEW condition to me.

The dealer shined it up pretty good, this is what the car guys call a "10 ft. paint job"...it looks great if you're further than 10' away!

It really is in pretty nice shape, but its shows wear here and there as you would expect from a 14 yr old trailer. We decided that we wanted to look at older, higher-quality units with a budget of what we sold the truck camper for. It would be great to have a 2022 Heartland 5er, but sadly $80k is not in our budget right now.

We're looking forward to updating and customizing it!

[Lwiddis]

2008? Looks in NEW condition to me.