New owner. Baby pictures.

[dedmiston]

About a month ago my wife was chatting with one of my pals and mentioned to him that we were on our way to an RV show down in Anaheim CA. He said that he has a buddy who is a salesman for the dealer who was putting on the show and that I should ask for him there. A few hours later his buddy the sales guy texted me that he was looking for us. By that time we had already seen all the Toy Haulers they had to offer and we were just about to take off. There was one that we really liked, but it was out of our price range. The sales guy met us in that trailer and saw that we liked it. He told us that he doesn't normally work the shows, but that he came down as a favor to my friend. Then he said, "Since it's my day off and I'm not supposed to be here, let me make this quick. This trailer is priced too high and we haven't been able to sell it. We've dragged it to too many shows now though, and it's time to get rid of it. I'll tell you the price that I know we'll take, and then you can decide whether you like it at that price or not. No negotiation: if the price works, take it."

The price worked. This friend of a friend made us an offer that we couldn't refuse.

So we signed the papers and put down a deposit.

Gulp. We didn't have a truck though. I mean, I had a truck, but not enough truck to tug this big trailer.

They told us it would take about ten days to prep it and repair a few things (shows are hard on the demo units). So I started shopping for trucks. I quickly realized I was over my head. There was no way I could afford a new dually. But the market for used duallies isn't that great in southern California either. The timer was ticking and I was starting to sweat.

Then a guy on my wife's staff told her about Texas Direct Auto in Houston. We found some GORGEOUS trucks on their website. Within two days I had found what I wanted and struck a deal for the truck. It was easily $25k less than I would have paid for a new one. So we flew out to Houston on a Friday, finished the deal by rush hour, and drove the new truck home to L.A. What a fun adventure with my wife. We don't like the drive west/east on I-10, so we went up north and caught the 40 west. It was a beautiful drive home and a nice quiet time with my wife.

There were some delays with the trailer, but we finally picked it up on Saturday. When we got there the sales guy had taken a photo that my buddy had evidently texted him of us so he'd know what we looked like. It's not what we really look like, because I was in a full tux and my wife was in a gown for a gala opening of one of her construction projects--not what we look like at all. Anyway, the sales guy printed the photo and framed it and it was sitting on the dresser in the bedroom of the new trailer. Very classy. Not what I expect from typical sales guys at all.

Here are the photos he took of us before we pulled off the lot: New (to me) truck, new trailer, vintage kid and wife.

I had never pulled a fifth wheel before and this one is way longer than our 30' bumper pull. The truck/trailer combo towed great and I was able to parallel park it in front of our house for a few days before we store it.

Next weekend will be the dreaded shakedown trip where we make some mistakes--hopefully none too costly. This trailer is taller and longer than I'm used to. I've never had a fifth-wheel, slide outs, pushbutton awnings, or leveling jacks. So much to figure out.

Yesterday was a challenge with the leveling jacks. I was trying to auto-level and then the system shut down because the battery was too low. I fired up the gen to restore power, but the dealer must have only added a few tablespoons of fuel enough to demo it for us. I filled both tanks with fuel I had in jugs, but I just couldn't get the gen to start again. I've used that same (or very similar) Onan gen for years, but I just couldn't start it. Finally I got worried because the coach was sitting pretty precariously when the power died, so we ran some extension cords from the house to where it was parked around the corner and dealt with the jacks. I put on my thinking cap and realized that the fuel tanks are at the far rear and the gen is under the front belly of a very long trailer. So I held down the primer switch on the gen for longer that I thought was needed until I finally heard the pump change from the weird gunk-gunk-gunk dry heave that I hadn't heard before to the familiar twiddle-twiddle-twiddle that my old gen made when it was priming the fuel line. After that it fired right up.

Baby steps.

I'm still having a really hard time getting the Autolevel to work with the jacks. I don't know if the ground has to be more level to begin with? My street slopes quite a bit and the road crowns to the gutter. I was able to manually level it out with the jacks, but Autolevel failed every time.

Anyway, we love the new trailer. We spent all day yesterday with both trailers at home and emptied EVERYTHING out of the old one and then judiciously moved the things we actually need into the new coach. Now I need to detail the old 2005 Weekend Warrior and get it ready for Craigslist.

And if anyone from Crossroads is reading, we absolutely love this new trailer. Thank you to the few folks who answered our emails and sent us the build sheet before our PDI. We have a few items for the suggestion box, but those can wait.

Happy camping,
Dave & Pam Edmiston

 

[dedmiston]

By the way, the two things that I need to figure out fairly soon are:

* What's up with all the keys? I'm surprised that the front door and the garage door are keyed differently, but I still have two more sets of keys that I can't find locks for. The dealer gave us four sets of purple keys and I can only identify these two sets. They also gave us a set of the ubiquitous CH751 keys that fit every cargo door in America...except ours. We got one key that fits all the cargo holds. I forgot to check to see if the fuel station uses the CH751 key.

* Water connections: The guy who did the PDI with us showed us what he thought all the connections were, but then he corrected himself so many times that we were in complete doubt by the time it was over. We identified the city water and what we think is the flush for winterizing right next to it. (We live in a warm climate where "winterizing" means we take it out and camp in it, so no anti-freeze for us.) We couldn't identify some of the remaining female water connections though. We're guessing that one of them might be a gray tank flush, but it's just a guess.

The guy doing the PDI was really nice, but he just didn't know this unit very well and nobody else did. Once he found out that I write user manuals for a living, he told me RTFM and wished me the best. I still haven't been able to find any explanation of those connections in the documentation that came with it. Still looking.

 

[coastn]

Dave-

Congrats on a very impressive combo (especially the Ram)!

I too had hair pulling moments with my autolevel system which is a Lippert Ground Control 3.0 four-point. Maybe you have the 3.0 six-point or the Level Up system? It took my calling Lippert customer support to discover that neither the Canyon Trail manufacturer nor the selling dealer had set the system to "Zero Point Callibration" which establishes the level point for the autolevel to work. After downloading the system manual from Lippert's website and following the instructions the autolevel works like a charm. Just suggesting this is a route to check if you have a Lippert system. You may already have been given a manual. I was by the dealer who said he downloaded it from Lippert but it turned out to be for a previous generation Ground Control system. Not nice to find out when you're on the shakedown cruise 75 miles from the dealer.

Another suggestion: could you post a pic of your water connections so the most excellent members of this forum can help identify them for you?

Happy camping!

 

[Travelin' Texans]

The 751 key probably only fits the level up door & any lockable drawers inside the coach, at least on my Redwood. The door key only works on the entry door & all the compartments should use the same key. You may also have a safe in the closet floor that some of those keys fit, if not they are in the safe.
You will have a black tank flush, not a gray, so one of the connections is for that, one is for city hook up, one to fill fresh water tank. The winterize connection will be a small capped hose end sticking out towards the bottom of the convenience center.
Once you get the coach level to your liking recalibrate the level up, as I recall, with the system off push the up button 10 times, down button 10 followed by the enter & should light up to let you know it's complete. You may also need some blocks under the one side so as to not over extend the jacks on the low side.
If we can help with anything don't hesitate to ask & if you have questions while camping, ask a neighbor they are usually always willing to help.
Nice looking 5er & truck, now go enjoy!

 

[TxCowboy]

Nice rig! And if that's the RAM 3500 Longhorn, that's my next truck. Currently have the 1500 Longhorn in that same paint scheme.

Love the RAMs!

 

[mark5w]

Sounds like got great deals on both the RV and Truck. Best of luck with both.

 

[dedmiston]

Another suggestion: could you post a pic of your water connections so the most excellent members of this forum can help identify them for you?

Happy camping!

Good idea!

Top row left to right:

* City Water Connection
* Mystery.
* Black tank flush.

Handles:

* Black tank dump
* Mystery
* Gray tank dump

Are there two gray tanks? Maybe those are gray 1 & gray 2?

Bottom:

* Mystery. Our guess was gray tank flush, but that's just a guess.
* Blue handled thing. Unsure.

 

[dedmiston]

I found two locks that take the CH751 key:

* Water service / dump handles
* Fueling station

 

[dedmiston]

Nice rig! And if that's the RAM 3500 Longhorn, that's my next truck. Currently have the 1500 Longhorn in that same paint scheme.

Love the RAMs!

It's one trim level down, Laramie.

Since I was shopping for used trucks, I couldn't be as picky about the trim. This truck is still more loaded than any truck I've ever driven. My 2004.5 was a Laramie and it was somewhat Spartan compared to this one, to say the least.

 

[Travelin' Texans]

Look underneath the coach in that same area & see if there are 3 - 1/2" lines sticking out from the coroplast underbelly. I'm guessing the little blue valve is the fresh water tank drain & is probably a blue line sticking out along with a red & a white with valves on them underneath which are the low point drains for hot & cold. There might be a 4th one which is the fresh water tank over flow/vent. That one on the bottom left is also a mystery to me, unless you have 2 fresh water tanks, some THs do in the rear with another grey tank for washing machine, might check that out.

 

[dedmiston]

Look underneath the coach in that same area & see if there are 3 - 1/2" lines sticking out from the coroplast underbelly. I'm guessing the little blue valve is the fresh water tank drain & is probably a blue line sticking out along with a red & a white with valves on them underneath which are the low point drains for hot & cold. There might be a 4th one which is the fresh water tank over flow/vent. That one on the bottom left is also a mystery to me, unless you have 2 fresh water tanks, some THs do in the rear with another grey tank for washing machine, might check that out.

None of the water/waste tanks are visible. Most of the underbelly is covered. The waste line pops out of the bottom liner without any other clues. The only visible tanks are the two fuel tanks in the rear.

There is a prep in the front closet for washer/dryer. You're probably right that one of the tanks would be for the washer.

We'll experiment with this on our shakedown trip this weekend. I'll empty all the gray tanks and then start sending water down various basins and see if anything comes out.

Any guesses for the lower left fill bib?

 

[johnboytoo]

While the helpful people here will answer anything,
if you have any 'puter skills - which sounds like you do...

do a google search of make and model of your stuff and you can download online manuals for 95% of it !

I made a folder called rv, then under that made folders for each subsystem and stored the manuals and pics there...

Too bad you didn't video the PDI and STUNNED that they don't have labels on the connections...

Spend $10 bucks on amazon prime and get you a label gun - that's what I had to do on my previous 5'er !

this ones all labelled from the factory even had the build sheet stapled to the closet wall and a soft copy of it with model and serial numbers for EVERYTHING - it made it a much better learning curve

 

[cowboy_71]

Hey Dave, really nice looking combo setup...yes probably two grey tanks...would like to see inside pics too!

 

[cw3jason]

With the level up system, In order for it to work flawlessly the starting position must be with the nose higher than the rear. when you disconnect from the truck ensure you are nose high before hitting auto level. if you are nose low when disconnected, manually raise the nose before hitting auto level. The auto level feature must be able to dip the nose first for everything to work right.

 

[dedmiston]

With the level up system, In order for it to work flawlessly the starting position must be with the nose higher than the rear. when you disconnect from the truck ensure you are nose high before hitting auto level. if you are nose low when disconnected, manually raise the nose before hitting auto level. The auto level feature must be able to dip the nose first for everything to work right.

Thanks Jason. I'll make sure to keep the nose up next time.

I finally got it to work when I parked it in storage last night. First it gave the same error, but I did the 10x up / 10x down reset and then it worked. It seems weird to have to do that every time. That's the only way we've been able to make it work though. Hopefully this improves with experience.

 

[Travelin' Texans]

Sounds like low batteries to me or a bad ground.

 

[dedmiston]

Sounds like low batteries to me or a bad ground.

I suspected low power too, so I tried it with shore power plugged in and another time with the gen running.

 

[Travelin' Texans]

The shore power or gen set will only charge the batteries, not bypass them & it will take a while to do so provided your batteries are any good. Next time plug it into your truck & see if they work, just don't park too close & hit the truck. Also check to see if the dealer put 2 good group 27 or 29 batteries in or left the POS no name shipping battery. I still suspect it's battery related.

 

[Travelin' Texans]

If you have a volt meter, disconnect from shore power for a bit & check the voltage at the batteries, should 12-13.5 volts dc. If your plugged into power with inventor running should be 13.5-14 volts dc.

 

[AbbaZabba]

Yesterday was a challenge with the leveling jacks. I was trying to auto-level and then the system shut down because the battery was too low. I fired up the gen to restore power, but the dealer must have only added a few tablespoons of fuel enough to demo it for us. I filled both tanks with fuel I had in jugs, but I just couldn't get the gen to start again. I've used that same (or very similar) Onan gen for years, but I just couldn't start it. Finally I got worried because the coach was sitting pretty precariously when the power died, so we ran some extension cords from the house to where it was parked around the corner and dealt with the jacks. I put on my thinking cap and realized that the fuel tanks are at the far rear and the gen is under the front belly of a very long trailer. So I held down the primer switch on the gen for longer that I thought was needed until I finally heard the pump change from the weird gunk-gunk-gunk dry heave that I hadn't heard before to the familiar twiddle-twiddle-twiddle that my old gen made when it was priming the fuel line. After that it fired right up.

Ah yes, the dreaded chain of events that seems to always happen and add unnecessary time to what started as a simple project. Surely there is a german word for this.

At least you have too many keys. I had 2 purple ones and sat there for 10 minutes trying to figure out why it didn't work. Took me forever to figure out, holy crap, a different key for each door. And I was only given 1 set of keys. Off to ACE to get more made immediately.

Nice set up. In for a penny, in for a pound. And you got a unplanned trip to Texas out of the process!