Reico-Titan Ground Control System

[JohnDar]

UPS just delivered six cartons to me containing the Ground Control set I ordered last Friday. All I have to do is wait patiently for all the snow to melt, the ground to dry, and the temperatures get out of the basement. I've got a bunch of things to do to the BH before we start our "season."

 

[branson4020]

Is this a fire control system for a Titan missle or what?

 

[JohnDar]

Is this a fire control system for a Titan missle or what?

Nope, it's an electric alternative to the hydraulic leveling systems. Four interchangeable motors on four heavy lift jacks, which can also be manually operated, if needed. Essentially a bolt on system, replacing the two front jacks in the process.

http://www.riecotitan.com/groundcontrol.html

If it was a fire control system, I'd have ordered a Phalanx system for close-in trailer defense and tree removal.

 

[slmayor]

Ray just is finishing up our install. Fairly straight forward. We had a few small issues, mostly on lack of clear directions and no materials list, but we're working with the factory to improve these items. (where I work is one of the dealers) Our rear feet were wrong, (mid-run design change) so new ones are on the way. The instructions say to torque the bolts on the rear brackets to 100 lbs, and if you do, they will twist off. 75 lbs seemed to work for us.
They are FAST! about 2x faster than the originals and no struggling. What an improvement! Waiting for the new feet to try out the leveling feature.

 

[SouthernNights]

Ray just is finishing up our install. Fairly straight forward. We had a few small issues, mostly on lack of clear directions and no materials list, but we're working with the factory to improve these items. (where I work is one of the dealers) Our rear feet were wrong, (mid-run design change) so new ones are on the way. The instructions say to torque the bolts on the rear brackets to 100 lbs, and if you do, they will twist off. 75 lbs seemed to work for us.
They are FAST! about 2x faster than the originals and no struggling. What an improvement! Waiting for the new feet to try out the leveling feature.

The self tapping 3/8" bolts they sent with the kit was the one thing I was not impressed with. I replaced the kit bolts with SS bolts and lock nuts. I ended up through bolting everything.

 

[JohnDar]

Thru-bolting sounds better than self-tapping to me, also. I went through all the cartons and it all appears to be there. I notice that the "universal" brackets are designed differently from the literature on their website. They're notched for the base of the I-beam, rather than having a "stud" at the top to span over the slide mechanism. They also look to be a bit shorter in that direction, as well. Should be a fun activity getting them mounted. Preliminary inspection also looks like I can still use the four front Ultra-Fab stabilizers if I want simply by removing and turning the inner leg 90 degrees to attach the bracket for them. Might be able to keep my Elephant Feet pads, too.

 

[slmayor]

The rear brackets went on well and easy except for the couple bolts. Our front JT's went on like it was designed for them. (which it was) so the ultra fab's may fit easier than you think. We had to modify the mounting tabs (the bump-outs) on the front legs with a little grinding to get them to fit with our existing brackets, and use a shim with a smaller grade 8 bolt on the top mount to get the motor head to clear. Overall not a major deal, but would have been nice if they had noted that mods might be necessary. Yours may fit fine. We had the Venture front jacks (2008 with a 3/07 build date).
We wound up mounting the control box in the same compartment with the hydraulics and batteries. Changed over to 2 AGM batteries last month, so there is plenty of room in there.
We kept the back electric stabilizers as well, which will give us 6 contact points. I can't wait to try it out and not have to use the lynx blocks. Especially since I'm the one that has to put them down while Ray backs up... LOL I don't think I'll miss them at all.

 

[JohnDar]

Thanks for the tips. I'm thinking of mounting the control box in the basement, next to the propane cabinet. It's sort of protected, easy to reach, yet out of the way. My hydraulic/battery compartment is a bit crowded.

 

[Nabo]

Ya'll love the system. Our control back is mounted in the basement. Sonny from Reico-Titan actually did the mounting for us at RVs for Less.

 

[JohnDar]

As I was digging through the stuff, I took one of the caps off the motor head to look at the manual override socket port. Think I might try mounting a head on one of the rear jacks and see how much effort it takes to move it. Might warrant having a right angle adapter for my drill on hand, just in case.

 

[SouthernNights]

John, Good idea on the right angle drill for a backup but dont forget if you have a motor failure you can swap motors in minutes. Three allen head screws and unplug the wires.

This system should never leave you stranded up or down unless someone steals your batteries.

 

[JohnDar]

I'm just curious to know if my cheapy cordless drill could do the job or would I need my corded one. I keep both in the basement. The angle attachment would be handy due to the tight quarters. Push comes to shove, there's always the manual ratchet wrench method. Might need to bring a lunch if it came to that, though.

Gotta find things to amuse myself with until the weather improves enough to work on the trailer.

 

[slmayor]

Ratchet works fine. Whatever gearing is on the motors, it doesn't take long to run the legs down. Ray had to move them down on install to clear the bottom before we installed the snaps and dropped the inside of the legs.

 

[JohnDar]

Sweet! I'm liking these things more and more and they're still in the cartons.

 

[Ricoh]

Great looking system. I might just look into it for my new rig. Will have to check and see if they have a Canadian distributor.

Rick

 

[circusbear]

Great looking system. I might just look into it for my new rig. Will have to check and see if they have a Canadian distributor.

Rick

Hey Rick, did you have any luck finding a canadian distributer? I am thinking that I would be interested also. Does anybody think that the 4 point system will cause any frame twist problems? I know that the six point systems all say that they are superior to the 4 point. Just curious.

 

[JohnDar]

The weather finally improved enough for me to spend five hours getting the rear jacks mounted today. Had to borrow a genny from the FD to run my drill, and had a heck of a time drilling the frame, but I got 'er done. Think I may have given my Makita drill a hernia in the process, however. Rather than rely on the self-tapping bolts, I bought more standard ones, with locknuts, and through bolted all frame mounts. Didn't run the wires from them, though. Since there's no drilling required to mount the front jacks, it should not be nearly as hard to finish.

Continuing with my mods may have to go on hold again, though, since the weather is supposed to turn crappy again for a few days.

 

[circusbear]

Keep us posted on how it 's going. I just got the go ahead from the war department!!! I called Reico-titan today to see about a distributer up here and found two. They are freeking nuts on price so I will order from the states. After tax, duty, and shipping, it will still be cheaper that way. If you have any tips or advice, please send it our way. I will be bringing the trailer home next weekend to de-winterize so hopefully the kit will be here before then so I can install it on the long weekend. If you happen to get any pics or advise on where you are mounting the control box, please send it along. Good luck.

 

[JohnDar]

So far, the hardest part was drilling the frame for the rear jack mounts. I have a new set of Milwaukee HSS bits, and it was still a chore. It's just not a comfortable position to work, so expect to be sore. Per the instructions, you mount the rear jacks as close to the rear spring hangers as possible. Depending on the slide mechanisms, that will dictate where to put it. I did the one under the living room slide first, since that had some mechanism placement to consider. Then I just aligned the one on the opposite side with it, within an inch or so.

The set comes with self-tapping bolts for mounting the rear brackets to the frame, but I prefered to use regular bolts with locking nuts. To do so required cutting a small flap in the belly cover, inside of the frame, to get my hand and wrench up there to hold the nut while ratcheting the bolt home. Again, working alone it was not comfortable, but I got 'er done. Just don't drop the wrench on your nose while you're laying on your back down there. It hurts. I'll tape the flap shut when I'm done.

Larry (SouthernNights) posted some pics of his install (I downloaded them) and there was a write-up (with pictures) on another forum, as well. As for the control box, I haven't gotten that far, but I'm planning on mounting it to the forward basement wall, next to the propane compartment box. Still accessible, but not it the way. I'll thinking of dropping the belly cover in sections to fish the rear wires forward, too, rather than running along the outside of the frame.

 

[slmayor]

Just another update from our Ground Control system. 6200 miles, 28 nights and not once did I use the orange blocks. Very happy with the system.
When we were getting the Correct Track system installed in Elkhart, Sonny did some field modification on my DS rear bracket, due to some issues with frame weakness and twisting and where the bracket had to mount because of the slide mechs. In other words, on my trailer, there wasn't a cross bar close to the bracket mount. The new brackets are designed with this same mod, which spreads the load. The Lippert tech also told us, that depending on where they were mounting the Level up system, they were having to do some reinforcing as well. It will depend on your model of trailer as to where the cross bars hit, so not everyone will have this issue, and the new brackets should eliminate it. (I have an early set) When you run the jacks to lift the trailer, watch for an excessive angle on the leg. They are designed with a 2 degree angle anyway, but this is very noticeable. Especially when the other one wasn't doing it...LOL
We mounted the brain box in the same compartment with my hydraulics & batteries as it was a close connection point and dry. If you're also running the JT stabilizers, the brackets on the front really were made to fit them. And if you leave your rear jacks in place, you'll have 6 landing points and a rock solid trailer.
All together, I'd certainly say we've been very happy with the ease of use and reliability of the system.
PS. If you watch the video of the Correct Track install, that's our trailer. Somewhat dirty after 2 weeks in the Elkhart snow, and yes, those really were my worn out bushings. BY the way the jack stands were just for show. The whole trailer was lifted in the air with the Ground Control while they were working on it. Kind of freaky to look at, but solid none the less.