And so it begins

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

X 2 on the new Ford 😎
What was the reason for switching from that awesome hitch you had before ?
Was it to get your bed space back ?

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porthole

porthole

Retired
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

jesstalkn said:
X 2 on the new Ford 😎
What was the reason for switching from that awesome hitch you had before ?
Was it to get your bed space back ?

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Jerrod

Bed space, 300 pounds and it is only OK, not awesome.

When those things wear out there is no repair path, just a complete head replacement, starting at about $700.
Just some poor design issues with the hitch.

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CarterKraft said:
Not to be a worry wort but I thought I would add my .02 for the sake of the group. If the bent cylinder rod is allowed to cycle into the can of the cylinder the extreme angle on the piston will likely cause the wear band to fail on the piston. When this happens the piston will act like a precision wood plane on the inside of the cylinder. The subsequent fine shavings of metal/aluminum will be pushed straight back to the hydraulic manifold and the tank where they will contaminate and seize all the solenoid valves in the manifold. Further contamination will ensue and embed the metallic wear particles into all the other cylinders piston seals and wear bands. Requiring at minimum a complete system tear down and cleaning likely with replacement of the manifold and tank and reseal of all the cylinders.

That would be a worst case scenario for operating with a bent rod but if it happens it can take only one retract cycle to start the process. Every subsequent raise and lower of the offended rod will elevate the situation.

My point is for the less mechanical type members is just because it retracted and didn't puke oil everywhere don't assume all is well. Retracting the bent rod would be the wrong thing to do. If you just took it off most machine/hydraulic shops could easily straighten the bent rod for you and not even require any parts, much like what Duane has done very creatively I might add.
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Where I bent the piston couldn't have been further from a convenient place. And I couldn't even move the trailer without retracting the rod. It has been a few years and I don't recall if I even noticed the bend right away. Seem to recall it was making some funky noise which was what got my attention.
 
Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

Thanks I'm glad I didn't go that route. That was the hitch I was looking at. But I already had the TrailAir installed and had already sold the Moryde hitch. So I went with the B&W 😎 love it !!!!!

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porthole

porthole

Retired
porthole said:
Replacing the pinbox I finally did something that has been a problem since buying the Ford and the 2011 Goshen rally.
The older style frame for the pinbox has more material in it then the newer trailers.

When backing into spaces and with a little uneven ground, the frame would hit the side rails for my roll top cover. Currently I would max out the air bags in the hitch to 100psi to raise the nose of the trailer as high as possible.
Previously I had also changed the height limit bolt in the hitch to allow an extra 1.5" of lift. Still it would get a little to close to the rails.

View attachment 51947 View attachment 51953 . View attachment 51954



So, I got out the Portaband and sawed away the ears :eek:

View attachment 51955 . View attachment 51956 . View attachment 51957

Still have some finish grinding to do, waiting for the monsoon to stop to go for a ride.

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Even without a roll top cover, the 2017 Fords with the higher bed rails can have an 'interference' between the pinbox frame and the bed side rails.

I saw recent evidence of this, so be aware. On the plus side, it is the plastic top cover that gets chewed up and is only about $70.
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With all the cutting, grinding and painting it still is an issue.
On the way to the Goshen Rally we did the PA rally at a very nice State Park in western PA.

The spaces and access was a little tight, compounded by a drainage ditch on either side of the site (had a culvert-pipe under the site).

So even with 100 PSI in the bag to get max elevation it wasn't enough. With the trailer level while backing in the truck was probably 30 degrees or so off side to side level, as the front wheel was partially in the drainage area. Was enough that I just took off some of the paint that I just applied.

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jesstalkn said:
Thanks I'm glad I didn't go that route. That was the hitch I was looking at. But I already had the TrailAir installed and had already sold the Moryde hitch. So I went with the B&W 😎 love it !!!!!

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Click to expand...

Had a MOR/ryde installed at the dealer when new. Bought a trail air tri-glide after the 2010 Nashville National (great Price).

Didn't like that with the way it worked with a PullRite Superglide I was using at the time. So I sold the tri-glide to another member with maybe 900 miles of use (almost all highway).
Still wanted an air option, so when I bought the Ford long bed I went with the ts-3.

Never liked the looks of the trial air as well, not that it doesn't work, just the looks.

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Although this thread has some age, take a look.

hensley ts-3 issues
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
Stinks that threads get closed and can't be edited, even by the originator.

On my Winegard Trav'ler antenna install

In case anyone is interested, there is a mounting plate that is screwed down, sealed to the roof. Then the antenna assembly is screwed down to that plate and sealed.

That bottom mounting plate was available at Goshen for $20.

If you are moving to a different trailer, it make sit easy to take your antenna with you.
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
The 6 volt batteries were starting to show their age after 6 years, especially after long days on the road, the truck just doesn't come close to keeping up with the trailer load.

As a matter of convenience I went with 12 volt AGM's this time. And as before, West Marine's top line of conventional AGM's. West Marine offers several different high end batteries as well, thin or thick plate, pure lead and a very expensive lithium ion 12 volt battery. The 12 volt, 360AH Li battery is $6400 !

These batteries didn't fit in the battery box, so I ended up using 2x2 poplar and "picture framing" the batteries.
 

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Bones

Bones

Well-known member
porthole said:
The 6 volt batteries were starting to show their age after 6 years, especially after long days on the road, the truck just doesn't come close to keeping up with the trailer load.

As a matter of convenience I went with 12 volt AGM's this time. And as before, West Marine's top line of conventional AGM's. West Marine offers several different high end batteries as well, thin or thick plate, pure lead and a very expensive lithium ion 12 volt battery. The 12 volt, 360AH Li battery is $6400 !

These batteries didn't fit in the battery box, so I ended up using 2x2 poplar and "picture framing" the batteries.
Click to expand...

I have trojan AGM's for mine and they have worked very well and no charging issues with the truck either on long drives. Nice job on the wires.
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
Trojans are nice, but I don't have a commercial account with a Trojan battery supplier.

And I prefer the AGM's over the conventional wet batteries.
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
KIASE 3000 watt inverter was almost a plug and play with the old one.

Still have to come up with some trim for the remote panel. Old panel was about 4" x 1.5" and the new is about 2 x 2.

As mentioned above, the KIASE has rear mounted fans, the xantrex had fans mounted on the bottom. Don't know if it really makes a difference, but with the larger reserve capacity and potentially better airflow and I haven't heard the fans kick in yet.

My inverter runs all the AV stuff and two outlets in the garage, running a dometic electric cooler and ice maker. The cooler is plugged in all the time, from March-April to the end of the season. The ice maker is running while we travel so we have ice when "we get there".
 

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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

Nice job. Let us know if you can notice a difference from the 6V to the 12V over time.
I'm running the 4- 12's and they've been doing good for us. But not much dry camping at all.


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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

Holy smokes nice unit, do you have more batteries somewhere else or are you running that from those 2 -12's ?

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porthole

porthole

Retired
Just the two 12 volts for now.

For the most part I had good luck with two 6-volts and the 1800 inverter. But the reality is the original inverter is really about an 80-85% efficient unit, and that decreases with heat. So you are really not going to get more then 12-14 AC amps.

Pure sine wave inverters tend to be rated at higher peak efficiencies and the above KISAE is rated at 90%

http://www.kisaepower.com/products/...ine-wave-inverters/model-swxfr-1230/#tab-id-2

This should give me a good 20 amps with some reserve.

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If we keep this trailer I will add 1 or 2 more batteries. I know I have room for at least one more without moving other things (hydraulic brake actuator).
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
jbeletti said:
Duane - a Mod or Admin can open any auto-closed threads. For anyone - please PM any of us with the URL of the thread you wish to engage in.
Click to expand...


MK told me once they auto close they could not be reopened. Although that was a discussion I had with him last year. We had talked about making a new thread and then combining the closed and open threads, but I elected to not do that, especially after having a thread disappear completely when trying something like that (my original Jersey rally thread).
 
J

jbeletti

Well-known member
porthole said:
MK told me once they auto close they could not be reopened. Although that was a discussion I had with him last year. We had talked about making a new thread and then combining the closed and open threads, but I elected to not do that, especially after having a thread disappear completely when trying something like that (my original Jersey rally thread).
Click to expand...
Well, it appears that your recollection may be better than mine :) I tried to open this thread and it says it was reopened but still shows closed. Follow the link, then try to click on the Closed Thread button and see what happens.
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
Figured it was time to finally replace my 7-way cord, couple of flat spots and an electrical tape or two patch. And my junction had to be moved for clearance with the new Goosebox. The Goosebox has a slightly different install postion and on tight enough turns the junction box was a bit close to the tonneau cover rails.

I used a Bargman junction box which appears a little 'slimmer' then the box Jerrod has been using. Was a bit tight stuffing the box, plus I also had two extra 10 gauge wires in there.
Three switches added for brake application, running lights and flasher and my small LED on the front of the pin box to light my small flag.

I used this flasher with the clip filed off. Much easier to fit size wise.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011BTMDQM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm also using magnetic hooks up inside the frame to hold the coiled wires up (7 way and trialer cam pigtail)

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Had to change our "shingle" a bit to go from a MOR/ryde to Goosebox hang.
 

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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Re: And so it begins - mods to personalize the rig

Nice job.
One of these days I'm going to do your trailer tire lights setup.
I've already had a few time the it would have come in handy.

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