Well we have returned back to the barn in one piece and no worse for
wear! I am happy to say that all things worked as expected on our rig
but there was a bit of a learning curve. Thanks to all who replied to my
request for 1st trip equipment as with your help we were prepared and
just had to pick up a few final items.
Our dealer CanDan RV was great and our walk through with Nathan went
very well. They set up the hitch and with a little tweaking we got
everything on the level and with a quick gain adjustment to the trailer
brakes we were on our way! Trailer seemed a little heavy and once we got
to the campground we found out why, they had filled the freshwater tank
so there was 400 extra lbs of weight in the front of the trailer.
Trailer towed well although it was a bit of a white knuckler as I
haven't towed anything that large with our truck before.
As I said all worked as expected while camping although it took a bit of
searching to figure out we had to burn in our furnace to get that
wonderful smell out of it. Also found that the furnace seemed to cycle
alot. After covering part of the floor vent that was blowing right at
the thermostat the problem was solved and furnace heated up to proper
setting before shutting down. Thanks to the forum we figure out how to
get our movies back to color and not black and white. Still working on
getting an iPod to work with the USB hookup but we muddled through with
the AUX setting and still had camping tunes. Thanks to all for
suggestion to update the stinky slinky and the Rhino worked flawlessly
with no Robin Williams from RV imitations
. All in all with a little help from you folks all went well.
Now on the trip home we drained the freshwater tank after arriving at
our campsite so there was no extra weight up front. Trailer felt much
better weight wise towing but seemed to have a little bounce on the back
of the truck. Driving on the highway was fine but started to notice a
little tail wagging as we got close to our exit. Seemed the wind had
picked up a bit and due to the height of our rig that was probably the
issue. Long story short I did not enjoy that feeling to much so my
question is should I be investing in a WD hitch with some sway control?
The hitch we received from the dealer was adequate and seems to work but
I would really like to have all sway eliminated. As I said it was very
slight but enough to make me pay attention. I also assumed that since we
had drained the freshwater tank there was not as much weight on the
tongue and I know from what I have read that that can cause sway issues.
Problem is we don't want to be traveling with water up front as that is
just added weight that we don't need with our truck. Another difference from the trip out was that I had one less link hanging on
the way home. On the way out I had 6 links and the way home I had 5.
Could that be the issue as we noticed a little more bounce in the truck
on the way home.
Now I know that I am right under the limit with the size of out trailer
and tow vehicle but updating to a bigger TV is not an option at this
point. I am willing how ever to spend a few more bucks to update our
hitch to eliminate any sway issue.
As always thanks for any and all responses,
PS can anyone give any more detailed instructions as to how to post a pic in signature? Kinda proud of our rig after all
.
Ian and Miyra