White class 8 pulling a DRV 5th close to clear lake CA

[DynoDragn]

Was up yesterday near clear lake and saw a white class 8 pulling a DRV mobile suite trailer and was thinking he must have been on here asking what truck to get. lol seriously though if your here you have a pretty cool setup and pulling through those curvy mountains makes for some good driving.

[mike_kellie]

I was just out at Casini a couple of weeks ago testing out my new solar installation. I put 1410 watts on the roof going to a Magnum PT-100 charge controller. It is charging 1040 AH of AGM batteries. We were there for the weekend and I never plugged in. We ran LOTS of power through the trailer (intentionally) and my batteries were back to full charge every afternoon. We ran TV's, watched movies, ran the microwave, hair drier, dishwasher, etc all off the Magnum 3012 Hybrid inverter. It was a cool weekend so the heater ran at night as well. I was very happy with the performance of the system.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Chad Heiser wrote:

DynoDragn wrote:
Was up yesterday near clear lake and saw a white class 8 pulling a DRV mobile suite trailer and was thinking he must have been on here asking what truck to get. lol seriously though if your here you have a pretty cool setup and pulling through those curvy mountains makes for some good driving.

I give. That was me. This is my first post on this forum. Someone on another forum I participate in told me about this thread, so I decided to take a look. The HDT thing is not for everyone, but I love mine and wouldn't go back to a dually. I have a 2000 Kenworth T2000 towing a 2017 DRV MS 40KSSB4. The T2 is singled short and is only about 18 inches or so longer than my Duramax CC DRW was. It turns sharper and allows me to maneuver into tight spots way easier than I could with the dually. It is also more comfortable to drive on long trips than the dually ever was (and I loved my dually). I regularly use it as a grocery getter and driver while on trips. I also sometimes double tow my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon when I want another vehicle for specific purposes on a trip. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. I help coordinate the West Coast HDT rally held in Caldwell, Idaho. It is in June if anyone is interested. No HDT required, but you can get a lot of good info on HDTs and other general RV topics. I will be giving seminars on Solar installations and also on inverter installations. There will be other seminars by others as well. It is a free rally and is intended to be as much social gathering as anything else. I'm not trying to hawk the rally, just giving information out and trying to give a little background on myself and my RV knowledge as a way to introduce myself to this forum.

Chad, every one of your points you brought up was the same ones my buddy brought up.

I'm glad you like your rig. Sounds like a nice one. Enjoy and be safe!

[DynoDragn]

BarneyS wrote:

Chad Heiser wrote:

Snip...I have a full write up on it on the Escapees forum.

I enjoy doing solar/inverter/RV electrical work and have done several installs for friends as well.

How about doing a copy/paste from that forum over to our DIY forum. Solar is a very popular topic among our members. I am sure they would love to see what you did and be able to pick your brain. 🙂
Barney

I'm very interested in your setup as well. Definitely copy paste the write up or a link as I couldn't find the forum.

[BarneyS]

Chad Heiser wrote:

Snip...I have a full write up on it on the Escapees forum.

I enjoy doing solar/inverter/RV electrical work and have done several installs for friends as well.

How about doing a copy/paste from that forum over to our DIY forum. Solar is a very popular topic among our members. I am sure they would love to see what you did and be able to pick your brain. 🙂
Barney

[Chad_Heiser]

mike/kellie wrote:
Hey Chad, welcome to the forum. You're not far from me (Forestville). It would be great to have a solar and invertor expert around. Casini Ranch, Doran, Dillon Beach and Ocean Cove are our local get aways

I was just out at Casini a couple of weeks ago testing out my new solar installation. I put 1410 watts on the roof going to a Magnum PT-100 charge controller. It is charging 1040 AH of AGM batteries. We were there for the weekend and I never plugged in. We ran LOTS of power through the trailer (intentionally) and my batteries were back to full charge every afternoon. We ran TV's, watched movies, ran the microwave, hair drier, dishwasher, etc all off the Magnum 3012 Hybrid inverter. It was a cool weekend so the heater ran at night as well. I was very happy with the performance of the system. I have a full write up on it on the Escapees forum.

I enjoy doing solar/inverter/RV electrical work and have done several installs for friends as well.

[mike_kellie]

Hey Chad, welcome to the forum. You're not far from me (Forestville). It would be great to have a solar and invertor expert around. Casini Ranch, Doran, Dillon Beach and Ocean Cove are our local get aways

[DynoDragn]

Definitely true for Southern California. I turned around and went back to Arizona to fill up then came back across. The guy at the check station was like didn't I just see you and I was like yea I went back to get fuel.

[Chad_Heiser]

You can definitely go a long way on a fill up. I recently drove out to Oklahoma and back (to pick up my new DRV). I filled up once on the way out and once on the way back. Its nice to stop when you want rather than when you have to. Its also nice to have the capacity to go until fuel prices are more reasonable rather than get stuck with whatever is available when you need it.

[DynoDragn]

Chad Heiser wrote:

DynoDragn wrote:
Was up yesterday near clear lake and saw a white class 8 pulling a DRV mobile suite trailer and was thinking he must have been on here asking what truck to get. lol seriously though if your here you have a pretty cool setup and pulling through those curvy mountains makes for some good driving.

I give. That was me. This is my first post on this forum. Someone on another forum I participate in told me about this thread, so I decided to take a look. The HDT thing is not for everyone, but I love mine and wouldn't go back to a dually. I have a 2000 Kenworth T2000 towing a 2017 DRV MS 40KSSB4. The T2 is singled short and is only about 18 inches or so longer than my Duramax CC DRW was. It turns sharper and allows me to maneuver into tight spots way easier than I could with the dually. It is also more comfortable to drive on long trips than the dually ever was (and I loved my dually). I regularly use it as a grocery getter and driver while on trips. I also sometimes double tow my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon when I want another vehicle for specific purposes on a trip. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. I help coordinate the West Coast HDT rally held in Caldwell, Idaho. It is in June if anyone is interested. No HDT required, but you can get a lot of good info on HDTs and other general RV topics. I will be giving seminars on Solar installations and also on inverter installations. There will be other seminars by others as well. It is a free rally and is intended to be as much social gathering as anything else. I'm not trying to hawk the rally, just giving information out and trying to give a little background on myself and my RV knowledge as a way to introduce myself to this forum.

Welcome to the forum! I passed by you as I was headed east out to I5 in the early afternoon. Like I was saying it's a pretty cool setup and one that definitely stands out as unique. I'll be driving through again next week.
I actually had a similar setup towing a LQ trailer. One of the things I always liked was the twin fuel tanks. I could go forever before filling up. Makes you cry a little when you do though.

[Chad_Heiser]

DynoDragn wrote:
Was up yesterday near clear lake and saw a white class 8 pulling a DRV mobile suite trailer and was thinking he must have been on here asking what truck to get. lol seriously though if your here you have a pretty cool setup and pulling through those curvy mountains makes for some good driving.

I give. That was me. This is my first post on this forum. Someone on another forum I participate in told me about this thread, so I decided to take a look. The HDT thing is not for everyone, but I love mine and wouldn't go back to a dually. I have a 2000 Kenworth T2000 towing a 2017 DRV MS 40KSSB4. The T2 is singled short and is only about 18 inches or so longer than my Duramax CC DRW was. It turns sharper and allows me to maneuver into tight spots way easier than I could with the dually. It is also more comfortable to drive on long trips than the dually ever was (and I loved my dually). I regularly use it as a grocery getter and driver while on trips. I also sometimes double tow my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon when I want another vehicle for specific purposes on a trip. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. I help coordinate the West Coast HDT rally held in Caldwell, Idaho. It is in June if anyone is interested. No HDT required, but you can get a lot of good info on HDTs and other general RV topics. I will be giving seminars on Solar installations and also on inverter installations. There will be other seminars by others as well. It is a free rally and is intended to be as much social gathering as anything else. I'm not trying to hawk the rally, just giving information out and trying to give a little background on myself and my RV knowledge as a way to introduce myself to this forum.

[transamz9]

NC Hauler wrote:
I can use my 3500 Crew cab long bed dually all the time.. My wife had a hip replacement and I'm still recouping from a stroke.. MUCH , MUCH easier to get in and out of our truck than a HDT. Easier for our two dogs.. I can go through a drive thru, drive in town, use it for whatever... not just sometimes and I only pay insurance on my truck and 5er... don't need to tow around a itty bitty car.. I've gotten as low as 8.5 mpg upto 11, depending on terrain.. my 5er weighs in at 18,300#, I'm under my trucks 14K GVWR by 200# , and at total weight of 28, 250, under GCWR by almost 10K.. Course my 5ers length is only 37' , so tows like a dream in the mountains and flat land..surrounded in luxury in the Longhorn, it's loaded out and paid for(:.

Jim

Welcome back Bud. Hope all is finally turning your way now.

[Cummins12V98]

NC Hauler wrote:
I can use my 3500 Crew cab long bed dually all the time.. My wife had a hip replacement and I'm still recouping from a stroke.. MUCH , MUCH easier to get in and out of our truck than a HDT. Easier for our two dogs.. I can go through a drive thru, drive in town, use it for whatever... not just sometimes and I only pay insurance on my truck and 5er... don't need to tow around a itty bitty car.. I've gotten as low as 8.5 mpg upto 11, depending on terrain.. my 5er weighs in at 18,300#, I'm under my trucks 14K GVWR by 200# , and at total weight of 28, 250, under GCWR by almost 10K.. Course my 5ers length is only 37' , so tows like a dream in the mountains and flat land..surrounded in luxury in the Longhorn, it's loaded out and paid for(:.

Jim

YEA BABY!!!

[NC_Hauler]

I can use my 3500 Crew cab long bed dually all the time.. My wife had a hip replacement and I'm still recouping from a stroke.. MUCH , MUCH easier to get in and out of our truck than a HDT. Easier for our two dogs.. I can go through a drive thru, drive in town, use it for whatever... not just sometimes and I only pay insurance on my truck and 5er... don't need to tow around a itty bitty car.. I've gotten as low as 8.5 mpg upto 11, depending on terrain.. my 5er weighs in at 18,300#, I'm under my trucks 14K GVWR by 200# , and at total weight of 28, 250, under GCWR by almost 10K.. Course my 5ers length is only 37' , so tows like a dream in the mountains and flat land..surrounded in luxury in the Longhorn, it's loaded out and paid for(:.

Jim

[Bedlam]

larry barnhart wrote:
very few trucks come to our winter's resort towing with the med duty truck or bigger. maybe I saw 4 in the 6 months we stay. Not a good grocery shopping vehicle . We feel the same for our 3500 chev dually but it was bought for great towing. Same for the real large trucks is my guess.
chevman

My 5500 with crew cab and 9' deck can get around fairly well, but not as easily as my F250 with extended cab and short bed. I bought the 5500 for the payload and not for the daily drive (it is a dedicated hauler). We usually bring seasonal toys with us to putt around and only use the truck in the wet seasons.

The larger trucks have some expensive parts which scared me off. At least my truck has some common components that can be picked up anywhere instead of just commercial part houses and shops.

In my case, the taller cabs and frame rail of the bigger trucks did not work for my use. My truck camper sits at 13' and would be even higher on truck with 22.5" wheels or tall profile cab. I did not want to add length by having the cab over behind the cab (I'm under 26' nose to tail carrying a 20' truck camper).

Good luck finding a 4-door cab with 4wd in the larger trucks without paying a premium. Not having 4wd would limit access to where I currently travel.

[transamz9]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

transamz9 wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
It might have been my buddy. He had a red Volvo class 8 and sold it and now has a Kenworth. I think the Ken is white in color too? At the time he paid 28K for the Volvo. That's a whole helofalot less than a class 3 pickup. He told me the class 8 is a bunch cheaper to own too. If I was full timing that's what I would do.

Let's see.....How old was your buddy's Volvo so we can compare pricing on the same vintage Class 3. I don't know where your buddy is from but our Freightliner at work cost way more than my class three to operate or own. Never could understand some of the comments about class 8 trucks but my Ram is way more comfy and easier to get around in than any Class eight I have driven and I have been driving them for 20yrs now. Don't get me wrong, the Class 8 over the road trucks are nice once you are out on the road rolling but the other 75% of the time sux.

It was like 5 or 6 years ago when he bought the thing. The truck was either 3 or 4 YO at the time. I think it was 3. It had 750,000 miles at the time and looked like brand new to me. I checked it over real well because I was intrigued that you could get such a nice rig for under 30K.

I ask him how he liked it since he used to pull his trailer with a PU. He said the air ride seats were better on his back than the PU he had. He said he got better mileage than his diesel PU and it was just as easy to drive since it had an auto shift in it. Just stab and steer. I never rode in the thing so I can't say anything about the ride. The thing really wasn't that much longer than my 4 door LB PU.

The big rig places were about the same/ hour as a PU dealer around where I live. Some of the parts are way more expensive but also last 4 times + as long. My buddy said he will get a million miles + before his OTR truck needs an overhaul. It will take him a loooooog time to put 1/4 of a million miles on his rig towing a few miles here and there.

There is a difference between "overhaul" and "work on". My Cummins will go a million miles before needing an "overhaul". Believe me, there's way more to a Big rig than just a heavy duty drive train. Our Freightliner has just a hair over 300,000 on it and there is always something to be fixed. The air system alone will nickel dime you to death. Not to mention axle seals, transmission seals, front end parts and so on. Try going to the local Auto Zone to pick up those parts.

Big rigs go a lot of miles fast but like anything else, you park them and use them for short trips occasionally things are going to dry out and not last. Look at all these class 3 trucks you see going 500K-1,000,000 miles. Most of them are only a few years old and were used for long haulers.