Sidekick

It seems like a good time to introduce my copilot, Timmy. He's logged 35,000 miles with me since we set out on our fifth wheeling adventure 2 years and one day ago. Much of it was from the shotgun seat beside me, with his long ears flapping in the wind. Timmy is just a bit of a nervous traveler, especially if the weather is so bad or cold that he can't have his head out in it. He's gotten better about it as the miles have rolled by.

Every so often you see folks posting questions in the forums about taking pets on the road. My experience with Timmy has been so good, that at least for dogs, my response would be "Do it!" I've seen RVers walking their cats from time to time, so that must work out too, at least for some. I couldn't imagine it myself.

If I don't identify Timmy as a Löwchen, I'll probably get lots of questions, so there you have it. It's German for Little Lion. If you want to know more about this wonderful breed, visit their AKC page: Löwchen.

Blowout security

Instead of a photograph
Click here

Staying with tire safety... I happened across the Tyron product profile in the RVBusiness.com pages. As described there, the real danger with a catastrophic tire failure is that the tire can come completely off the wheel. If that happens, you are rolling on the rims -- a dangerous situation. It's bad enough if it happens on a dual axle trailer, but it can be disasterous on a motor home or tow vehicle. You would have no control.

Tyron makes a safety band that is installed on the inside of the wheel and which prevents a tire from leaving a rim. I'm not promoting this, just passing along the information. The bands are probably expensive, but then safety is never cheap. Tyron is a UK company and they are just now arranging to market in the US. The article stated that they have signed a deal with Camping World and are shipping to 20 stores. I checked the CW web pages and didn't find Tyron bands listed yet.

The background of this product is interesting. It was developed to keep Brittish military vehicles on the road after an IRA sniper shot out their tires during the "troubles" in Northern Ireland.

Check your tires

That trailer tire only had 12,000 miles on it. Fortunately I caught it before it blew and replaced it with my spare. Not long before, I had watched a disintegrating tire on a trailer being towed by a diesel pusher directly in front of me - rubber flying everywhere. It got me to thinking about tire safety. At my next stop I checked my tires and noticed the wear pattern that ended in the tread failure in the photo. Before that I had not been checking my tire pressures regularly, as is recommended. Also I was towing a trailer that was right at its gross vehicle weight rating. I was asking for trouble.

So if you're looking for a New Year's resolution, how about this: Resolve to check your trailer tire pressures at the start of every trip. And while you're there, take a look at the tread too.

Q just around the bend

With Christmas just around the corner and the new year just beyond, my thoughts have started to turn to Quartzsite. Now mention of the "Q" may bring mixed responses from you folks out there. True, Q in January is a zoo, with tens of thousands of RVers converging on a tiny town with no other real excuse for existing than to try to host them. But as I wrote in RVTravel.com earlier this year, the big RV show there is pretty amazing. And as I am also a part-time rockhound, the big Rock and Gem show and displays in Q are a further attraction.

I'm sure that the Long Term Visitor Areas around Q are already well populated with this year's flock of snow birds. I enjoyed meeting up with some of the Class of 2005 fulltimers out in South Laposa last January. But after visiting with them, I was glad that I had camped farther away from Q in the BLM lands to the south. The LTVA was crowded, dusty and the long lines at the dump facilities would have stretched my patience. Yes, I was limited to staying two weeks at a time in any one place out where I was, but the privacy and tranquility were wonderful. The sunrise photo above is from my time near Q.

Fiver book

I've decided to write a book devoted to fifth wheels - The Fifth Wheel Bible. I know there are a lot of books about RVs and RVing, and there is useful information about fivers in many of them. But as I look back on my own experience, much of the information I needed didn't seem to be available in book form. I learned much more about buying, towing, parking and using fivers (not to mention tow vehicles) from the various RV forums and from the old school of hard knocks than I did from reading books.

The book is actually coming along nicely. I'll post here when it's available at RVBookstore.com, sometime early next year I hope. But I thought I'd ask you folks out there in cyber-land if you have any input. What have you learned that you'd have liked to have read about in advance? What would you like to share with future fifth wheelers? Feel free to post your ideas here.

Sun tracking

I'm a big fan of solar energy. With my solar panels I've dry camped for weeks without needing to hook up to electric power. This photo shows my roof panels tilted, essential for winter use, as well as my "remote" panel that I can move around to squeeze out a few more watts early and late. This setup worked well, but with short winter days, I had to ration my power consumption. Then I put together swivel mounts for the roof panels so I could track the sun. It's still manual, but with pull cords I'm able to move them without climbing up on top. The swivels have made a huge difference, maybe as much as doubling my solar energy supply. Now the only limitation is weather.

The ultimate solar setup would be panels that track automatically. It might be possible to set up my home-built swivels with a motor drive, sensor and servo mechanism, but that seems like a big deal. Then I saw in a reply to recent post on the RVTravel FifthWheel Forum that a gentleman had an auto sun tracking frame for his panels. Cool! I've checked it out and the only problem is the cost: $2500. Wow! I guess I'll be pulling on my cords for a while.

On the level, Part 2

In a recent post in the Fifth Wheels area of the RVTravel.com Forum, a new fiver owner requested information on how to level his rig. A couple of the responding posts were very helpful. Anyone new to fifth wheels would find this information quite useful.

I wrote a little about leveling in a recent post here: On the level. The challenge there was a rather severe slope down toward the front of my trailer. In the photo above the problem was reversed. I lowered the front of my fiver until it rested on the spare tire (carried under-belly) and I was still high in front. I rehitched, backed the trailer up on every block and plank I carried including my Trailer-Aide tire ramp, and then tried again. The spare was on the ground again, but at least we were level.

This photo was taken in a meadow in Pike National Forest. That's Pike's Peak in the distance.

Road damage

Sticking with the theme of back roads and byways, here's a photo of a paved county road in Pike National Forest northwest of Colorado Springs. Next 31 miles?!! Undaunted by both sign and threatening weather, we proceeded on. Yes, the road did deteriorate somewhat as the miles passed, with frequent patching and a few potholes. But we weren't in any hurry. Taking it easy on the winding road just provided more opportunity for enjoying the scenery of the alpine valley and the mountains beyond.

Our destination, Spruce Grove State Park, was only about 20 miles up the road. Arriving after about 45 mintutes, we were glad once again that we had ventured off the beaten path.

Back country roads

I just read The pitfalls of taking a large RV on unpaved roads by kindrid spirit and fellow RVTravel writer Gerry Bruder. Gerry perfectly captures the white knuckle aspect of back country exploring with a 30 foot fiver in tow. His cautionary Nevada tale brings back some of my own ill-advised adventures. Gerry's article also summarizes the reasons that we venture off the beaten path and why he, like I, chose a fifth wheel rather than a probably better suited truck camper for his RV.

In last month's post "Room with a view" I shared my thoughts on the subject and used a photo of our camp at Chama Canyon to illustrate the payoff. The photo above is also at Chama Canyon, showing the last section of five miles of gravel and dirt roads leading to our campsite.