Truck pulling my RV

I wanted to download this for a while, but just got to it last week. This is taken in MA on the way home to NJ from New Hampshire.

Truck at work. That's how it's done.

Nice looking trailer.
Truck looks like it could use some helper springs or heavier torsion bars.

It lowers 2" in the front and rear when I put the sway hitch on it. I have been thinking about adding a leaf or two.

I would look at air bags. OEM ride when unloaded, and about as good as it gets when loaded. Kits can be had with or without on-board compressor.

Had Helwig helper springs on my '99 1500. The wrench adjusting going between loaded and unloaded wasn't an issue, just took 10 minutes each time to change the tension on the helper springs. You can simply leave them loaded. There is a trade off in ride however.

A friend of mine has air bags on a very similar truck and swears by them.  How much does that RV weigh?  Most of my friends towing is his car hauler and race car, so I'm guessing it's not nearly as much weight as the RV when it's full for boondocking. By the way, I'm jelious. I've wanted an RV for a while but have no way to justify one.

Loaded, the trailer is about 8,000 lbs. To justify owning an RV, you really have to use it a lot. I don't, but have had one for the past 20 years and takes vacations and long weekends with it. I was hoping next summer to either retire or use a month of vacation and just head west for two weeks, then turn around and come home via another route.

TheQuig wrote:

Loaded, the trailer is about 8,000 lbs. To justify owning an RV, you really have to use it a lot. I don't, but have had one for the past 20 years and takes vacations and long weekends with it. I was hoping next summer to either retire or use a month of vacation and just head west for two weeks, then turn around and come home via another route.

That sounds like a nice plan friend.

I vote to retire, the wife votes work for 4 more years.

Retire now. Waiting in this country, with our current trends. Retire and enjoy what you can while its still doable.

I'll have to wait until late April of next year, but it looks like I'll be leaving my current job of 12 years before that and taking my vacation days and sick days when I leave which should be about 8 weeks of pay. I'll probably become a school sub after that and work 2-3 days a week. Right now between pension and SS, I'll take home the same pay I do now.

Good decision.  I bet you'll enjoy it.  Lots of things open up when the schedule doesn't include work five days or more a week.

joemac wrote:

Lots of things open up when the schedule doesn't include work five days or more a week.

I'm not sure how many days off I've had this year but it hasn't been that many.
Think it was 21 straight before taking 3 days off for the 4th. If I wanted I could probably work every day (except turkey day and Xmas) through the end of the year. With many 12 and possibly 16 hr days along the way.  
Couple weeks back I think I was around 1400 hrs and a friend of mine was over 1600 hrs.