deserteagle56
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Joined 12 years ago
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Re: 31 below zero, RV antifreeze failed?
I must be doing something wrong...twice now I've tried just blowing out the water lines on my Bigfoot and using antifreeze only in the p-traps. Both times there was enough water left somewhere in the system that it was frozen and I had to put heat in the camper until it thawed. Condensation, maybe, as it was a few months before the camper was used? So I've gone back to pumping the RV antifreeze through the lines and then flushing everything when I've ready use the camper.627Views0likes1CommentRe: Design ideas for a platform to lower camper onto...
My solution was 4 - 55 gallons drums with lids that I had sitting around. An undamaged drum (no dents) can hold a lot of weight! I stand one up at each corner of the camper. On top of each drum I placed some short sections of 6x6 timbers I had, aligned with the edges of the camper. This allows me to just leave the camper at the correct height to reload it onto the truck (my electric jacks are old and struggle). To be on the safe side I do run the camper jacks down so they just rest on the ground - not holding any weight but for stability. We have a lot of earthquakes here in Nevada!2.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Rieco Titan 2500# jack is binding.......
ssthrd wrote: Thanks NPJ. The inside of mine can't be much different than that. Time will tell......... I took the Reico-Titan jacks on my 1996 Bigfoot apart a couple months ago and took some photos which you might find helpful. Posting pics on this site is such a pain that I'd rather not go through the procedure but if you'd like to see them, PM me. There are also some YouTube videos out there that may help.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Aluminum Camper Cradle
adamis wrote: My next project will be to service all of my very tired jacks. They just barely lift the camper these days, I think the motors are just about shot. At least I won't be needing them for a while now and can likely remove them indefinitely to work on them! Let me know the results of this. I'm in the same situation...jacks barely able to lift the camper off the truck. A month ago I completely disassembled each jack, thinking perhaps the screws in the jacks were dry or dirty, making it hard for the motors to turn them. But they were all very clean, all lubed. Gearbox gears were fine also. Checking around, I don't see replacement motors for my jacks (1996 model Bigfoot, Reico-Titan jacks) available so I'm not sure where to go from here. And I don't know if these little motors can be rebuilt. Brushes on the one motor I pulled apart were in good shape.491Views0likes0CommentsRe: Suggestion for trip to desert southwest
DWeikert wrote: I'll have to take my chances with the smoke. Hopefully it'll be towards the end of fire season. I live in Nevada so all those California wildfires you've heard about, that smoke comes across Nevada first. In California "fire season" doesn't end until the winter storms put the fires out, and that's usually in November. Hopefully this year, with the huge snowpack still mostly intact in the mountains, there will be minimal wildfires.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Steep Off-Road Grade with Truck Camper
I have a DeeZee mat which is about 3/8" thick in my dually that works great for me. If you want something thicker go to your local farm supply store and get some horse stall mats which are 3/4" thick. Either will provide a great "sticky" surface to hold the camper in place.1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Truck tires
jimh406 wrote: I like Toyo tires. They aren't the cheapest, but last well. I had the Toyo H/T "Touring" tires on my dually. Shortly after I had them put on I got a recall notice as some batches were having tread separation problems. So I took the truck back to the dealer who checked and said my tires were not part of the recall. A year later, the driver's side front tire tread separated. A few months later, the passenger side front tire tread separated. But the rear tires, put on the same time and carrying the weight of my Bigfoot camper 90% of the time, have had no separation problems. There were no abnormal wear problems with the front tires, and no issues with the truck's front suspension so I don't understand why the separations on fronts only unless it was just coincidence.353Views0likes0CommentsRe: DRW vs SRW safety, tire blowout
jimh406 wrote: That tread separation is pretty strange. I agree that it's time to change brands. Absolutely the brand. A few years ago I put 6 new Toyo H/T Touring (same as shown in the above pics) on my dually. A few months after installation I got a recall notice, told me to bring the truck back to the dealer so they could check the batch numbers because certain batches were have tread separation issues. Which I did; dealer told me my tires were not covered by the recall and I was good to go. Since then I've had tread separations on two of the Toyos. I had to pay for the replacements - no warranty coverage at all. Dealer and Toyo refuse to replace the other four tires even though they have barely 20,000 miles on them, and I expect they will fail also. But it is just this particular model of Toyo tire. I've run Toyo Open Country Mud Terrains for years now on my very heavy 4x4 van; they are all chewed up now because of rocks but I've never even had a flat on one.429Views0likes0CommentsRe: Frame Stiffing to reduce Porpoising?
adamis wrote: 5. Getting back to the expense of strengthening the frame. Even if I spend $3000 to $5000 to have it done, I'm still way ahead of buying a new truck. The other thing is, my truck is only two wheel drive. Fine for California but my plan will be to start going to areas where there may be snow and ice and I don't want to be doing that in a 2 wheel drive truck. So the longterm plan is to take the truck to a 4x4 shop and have them do a 4x4 conversion on it and while they do that, they can add rigidity to the frame. Yeah, I know, it's extreme measures but even if I put $10k to $20k into this route, I'm still WAY ahead of a $70k to $90k new truck (and used trucks aren't all that much cheaper these days). Methinks you would be money ahead to take your time and find a newer used 4x4 truck that's in great shape instead of converting the one you have to 4wd. I've been following conversion projects like this for some time and most end up spending a MINIMUM of $15,000, and that's doing the work themselves. Can't even imagine what a shop would charge to do the conversion. There's a lot more involved than just adding a front axle and a transfer case...little things like speedometer and odometer that will no longer work properly because a transfer case has been added.403Views0likes0Comments
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Prefer to camp in a travel trailer? You're not alone.Jan 28, 202544,029 Posts
