First Trip in the books

[summitpower]

So we did our first trip over the weekend, love the camper, had a small water infiltration problem, water coming in at floor of kitchen slide, granite it was a monsoon out, thinking its just a rubber molding not sitting right, but have a few questions for you all

1) what do you all do for mattresses, my lord that thing is so uncomforatable.
2) Stabilizers, I have tt perfectly level and stabilizers down on cinder bocks, but thing still moves around a lot.
3) Tv, we get about 26 channels at site, but honestly they pretty much suck, what is everyone doing?

[RoyBell]

1) I deal with it. It's loads better than the pop-up was!
2) X-chocks help. Otherwise I have seen people put another set of stabilizers in the middle of the camper to help. I will do that....eventually. Just gotta go slow as to not wake the kids 😉
3) I think we have watched the tv one or two times when it's been raining out. Some campsites have cable hookups as well. When I go camping I sit in front of the camp fire till I am too tired to keep my eyes open and then go to bed.

[summitpower]

might need to look into that

[rbpru]

Our slide gasket needs to be tucked in to allow the slide gutter to drain. When the slide moves out, the wiper seal follows and the design allows it to block the slide gutter which cause the water to drain inside.

[rbpru]

We added an egg crate type mattress top also.
We carry a couple of 2 X 12s. We use one or two to get as level as possible.
We drop the stabilizers and snug them up. Not too bad.

Most TT camping is not known to be level or rock steady. It is hard to steady a frame mounted on springs and wheels with just a stabilizer in each corner.

Congrats on the first outing.

[Jframpey]

1) Bedinabox.com
2) X-Chocks or I made home made wedges that pinch between the tires, and like above snug rear stabilizers - raise front just a little and snug front stabilizers.
3) Redbox on rainy days or a good book/ebook

[abrister]

I have a Class C Minnie Winnie and don't have anything else to add to the first two questions you posted but as far as TV goes I would guess we are in the minority here. I love to watch TV after exploring, hiking, fishing, etc all day (especially during football season). I installed a DirecTV satellite on Winnie and then we take our boxes from the house when we go on the road. Not only great but DirecTV gave me a movers discount for a year. Reduced bill by 50 dollars a month. WIN WIN

[hbrady]

Congrats on a fun first trip 🙂 After our 1st few trips we noticed we kept getting water on the floor by kitchen slide and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. It would only happen just after opening or closing the slide. Then one day I theorized that when the kitchen slide moves one of the water lines is being bent or angled just enough to make it leak at a connection point. Sounds a little crazy I know but now I always make sure I only open / close slide when water is disconnected and system is drained (low point drains). Haven't had water on the floor in months (knock on wood).

Your questions:
1) what do you all do for mattresses, my lord that thing is so uncomforatable.

-Purchased a Sealy Posturepedic for our bed and toppers for the bunks.

2) Stabilizers, I have tt perfectly level and stabilizers down on cinder bocks, but thing still moves around a lot.

-Someone else here posted this so I can't take credit but this is the method I use, I just can't find the original post. X-chocks would help too but my wheels are too far apart. This method has worked well and here are the jacks I purchased. Jacks

Method:
The whole "SECRET" here is in the where and how you put and set these 4 jack stands. You might have to do a little experimenting based on the specifics of your trailer and it's living layout and who uses it. The first secret is to get the support much closer to the suspension points and I have found based on our 31'+ TT that about 4 to 6 ft in front and to the rear of each axle is a good target area. The second just as important step is in how you set these jack stands up. This is where that electric tongue jack is a life saver. You need to start with the trailer about 1" down by the tongue and put the rear jack stand in and "SNUG THEM UP" hand tight. Then you raise the tongue of the trailer about 2" "TONGUE HIGH" and put in the front jack stands and again "SNUG THEM UP" hand tight. Then you lower the tongue till all weight is off and then raise it again to just get a good pressure on it. Some will caution about "tweaking" the frame when putting pressure on these jack stands, but IMO that just is not an issue since we are only now talking about most support being across a span of between 8 and 12 ft and to the close to 30' if trying to support the entire span of the trailer on the existing stabilizer jacks. Also, you're not "LIFTING" the wheels off the ground you just need to get a real good upward force on the frame at those points. I actually measured the force when I dialed in my new system with my Sherline tongue scale and had around 400lbs of force on each jackstand. Now if once you find the best new locations for these jackstands you can remove and discard the old front jacks and depending on how well the overall stability is from movement in the rear of the trailer you might be able to also remove those rear stab jacks or if needed deploy them to just take out the "FRAME FLEX" component from that 10' or so span between your new rear jack stands and the actual rear of the trailer. As a consideration you might even store the removed jacks and put them back on when you get rid of the trailer so the next clueless owner won't feel he's not getting what is generally installed on trailers now days.

3) Tv, we get about 26 channels at site, but honestly they pretty much suck, what is everyone doing?
-My wife says 'we don't go camping to watch TV' but someday when she lets me I'm getting a Dish and bringing a DVR from home 😉

[ken56]

Welcome. The mattress issue is best corrected with a new mattress. I do not understand why they even make those terrible torture devices. We never even took the plastic bag off the one that came in our new trailer (habitat got a donation) and just replaced it with a decent foam one. You could try a good foam topper though, a bit cheaper than a whole new mattress.

I have never been bothered that much by the movement of our trailer when set up. Its a rolling home so its not going to be totally stable. I have the X-chocks that I use between the tires along with regular chocks and I think it helps out somewhat. I check the tightness of the stabilizers after a day or two because they do tend to settle in and need some tightening. Use pads under them too.

TV is hit and miss unless you are in a park with cable. Besides, you are camping, go outside and enjoy the place you went to. Happy camping to you.

[kknowlton]

Glad almost all went well! It might be worth checking those gaskets on the slideout, just to be sure. It WAS all the way open or all the way closed, right? Water may have pooled on the top of it too, and worked its way inside, especially in a heavy rainstorm.

Our answers: 1) We have an "eggcrate" foam mattress topper on our mattress, plus an extra-thick mattress cover. That helps, though DH still complains it's too hard.
2) Campers do wiggle around a bit; very rarely has ours felt absolutely rock-solid in a campsite. If you were on a dirt or gravel surface, especially with all the rain, the blocks could have sunk in a bit over the time you were there. If your campsite had a paved pad, sometimes stabilizers will slide around just a bit if not really snugged down. Do not try to level the camper with them - they aren't meant to hold up 1/4 of the camper's weight each.
3) We don't watch TV; we read. (Not the answer you wanted, I know.)