A Thanksgiving Journey

Two days after purchasing my fifth wheel my first destination was to visit my cousin over Thanksgiving. She and her husband have several acres of land west of Forth Worth with a freshly constructed home. They also built an RV spot on their land with full RV hook ups, great. I initially considered going to the beach on the Gulf Coast, returning to the first place I camped in my adulthood. In hindsight I’m very glad I did not as I would have been marooned on the beach.

Transporting my feline camping crew

Before getting my truck, I had already had some experience bringing cats along with me on road trips. During one visit to my cousin, I discovered a cheap motel nearby. It was pet-friendly, and booking a room there, even with the pet charge, cost less than paying my pet sitter. Initially I took my two cats at the time in large cat carriers. I then discovered pet nets that slide over the head rests of a standard car. With the pet net installed I folded my backseats down and turned the back of the car into a cat habitat. A new era of road tripping with the cats was born.

Figuring out how to transport cats in a truck

The pet net I purchased for the hatchback wasn’t wide enough to work with my F-350 crew cab. After researching options, I decided to get a nicer looking pet barrier. It had a hard surface that transforms the backseat into a flat plane. I also purchased a separate pet grate to cover the upper part of the cab area. The pet barrier I selected also has a zippered mesh net in the middle.

This mesh netting allows airflow from the backseat vents to pass though. More importantly it would serve as a secure cat input/output port. With a cat in a carrier, enter the truck, close all doors, and open the carrier to the I/O port. I had a cat escape on a road trip. Although I miraculously recovered him, I now follow strict security protocols when getting the cats into and out of vehicles.

Setting up the barrier and grate in combination I was confident it would work just as well as the pet net for my hatchback. While the cat I/O port worked as I hoped, I quickly learned this setup was not cat escape proof.

Feline QA defeats security instantly

The morning of my departure, I loaded the cats in the car and headed out. Within minutes all my cats decided to visit me in the front cab. I had not built a mini Alcatraz with a more cat friendly interior. I briefly considered pushing forward with the cats free-ranging in the cab (the two younger and slippery ones wear GPS tracking collars these days) but thought better of it.

My cats had discovered two points of ingress into the front cab. The grate above was not wide enough to block them, but expandable and easily remediated. The pet barrier below also left gaps on the sides that allowed the cats to squirm though and enter the front cab in the gap between the seat and the door. I pondered putting them in carriers but rejected that idea. I only had one large carrier on hand and forcing two of cats into tiny carriers for over 3 hours wasn’t workable. Instead I went to home depot and purchased a cheap and flexible piece of board. I chopped it up with a reciprocating saw to protect the gaps on either side of the cab. This worked and I was off without the possibility of a cat getting under the trucks pedals while pulling a 5th wheel. I have a combined vehicle weight of over 14,000 pounds.

Hitching up is no problem

In researching trailers I really had not delved into hitching, and was guided by the dealer to a Blue Ox hitch. Unlike many standard 5th wheel hitches, it can be removed and installed in a matter of minutes with the right tools. In total it weighs roughly 120 pounds but comes in two pieces. It’s also offset somewhat to the rear, and in combination with the fact my 5th wheel is only 7 feet wide means I can turn nearly perpendicular to the trailer with the truck without the cap of the 5th wheel smashing into the cab. The hitching mechanism is simple, the hitch has a hole in it and once you line up the truck, you drop the kingpin into it. The hitch has a funnel leading into it so there’s an inch or two of forgiveness on all sides. The locking mechanism is simple, push it in and insert a pin and put the break away cable through it for good measure.

Mo problems Part I, the backup camera, doesn’t reliably work

I had a backup camera installed on the 5th wheel as part of the sale. Though the camera had been installed the day before, they had not tested it. 3 hours and 3 camera’s later, with a resistor electrical taped to the wiring, it gave out about 30 minutes into the drive home. I have now discovered it only works for extended periods when it’s very cold (for Texas). The resistor was to take down the voltage going to camera, which initially I believe was shutting off due to overheating. Now it seems it’ll turn on for awhile, and the colder it is, the longer it takes before the camera overheats and shuts off. Fortunately at this of time of year it worked the cold evenings I’ve parked it. It’s very useful especially backing up solo.

Mo Problems Part II, let there be light

Plugging it in is as simple as it should be. Yet on doing so at my cousins, the the lights in the trailer turned on, none of the power outlets worked. Relying on a propane furnace to heat my feline camping crew which was working, I decided to deal with it out later. After hanging out with my family for a few hours I came back to a warm trailer and got the power fully working by flipping the 30 Amp breaker inside it.

Though I’d attempted to educate myself ahead of purchasing this trailer, the battery shutoff was not something I remember mentioned in any of my “RV how to” videos or readings. In my post sale walk through I was told it was good to turn it off if storing the RV. I also intuitively assumed connected to shore power, I should turn the battery shutoff off. After doing so everything still worked and I felt a calm assurance I’d instinctively figured out the correct course of action. Einstein, Hawking, they ain’t got nothing on me. I had just set myself up for some trouble later.

Mo Problems Part III, I’m not in hot water but I want to be

My 5th wheel has a 6 gallon water heater but in taking my first shower I didn’t get anywhere near that amount of hot water. The water heater was fixed as part of the post-inspection sale, it was on, and I heard it sounding like it was operating, or attempting to. I was also getting hot water, so presumably there were 6 gallons of it somewhere. Some internet investigation let me know this was a common problem, and though RV plumbing varies, a common issue is a cross-over valve set the wrong way, which I believe you intentionally mess with dealing with winterizing RVs. Though I read there can be up to three valves to switch, other setups are more simplistic and fortunately my 5th wheel is in that category. There is only one valve obviously, but not easily, reachable behind the water heater to turn. Just like that I had my full 6 gallons of hot water.

No Mo Problems for now. 5 star RV park, dumpster provided

With a few SNAFU’s dealt with, I had great Thanksgiving. The 5th wheel worked just fine for the cats in lieu of a cheap motel room or very expensive pet sitter. My 5th wheel came with a decrepit couch which was not the original furniture, it’s faux leather seriously degrading. I had thought I’d live with it for awhile with a cover, but over a couple days there were more faux leather pieces large and small on my floor than any dirt I was tracking in. Having just completed construction on a new home, my cousin still had a dumpster out front and room to work to get the couch apart. My 5th wheel has a narrow door and most chairs or couches aren’t going in or out fully assembled. I had originally intended to give disassembly a half-hearted attempt before using a chainsaw I brought along to make short work of the task. Unfortunately the couch was a sleeper with quite a bit of metal in it. Though it had several stripped screws and hard to access bolts, I managed to get it apart without too much trouble. In hindsight I would have asked the dealer to remove the thing, which also revealed some damage to the wall paper behind it.

Even Mo Problems – Important detail on the battery shutoff revealed

When I prepared to depart, I unhooked from shore power, lined up the truck for hitching, and hit the button to retract the landing gear. The electric motor that powers the gear let out a brief sad sounding electronic whimper before stopping. A tech at the dealership had related the 7 pin connection to the truck would power the landing gear, but in hooking that up the gear still didn’t move. I had also asked the tech about manually operating the landing gear and he showed me the shaft connected to the motor and said “that’s how you’d do it”. In hindsight in this predicament I realized just the location was not enough information to actually operate it. It’s jammed up above the batteries in a compartment.

Fiddling with things in conjunction with some external help (my cousins husband phoned a friend who’s a long time RV’er), I put together a few things.

• Though I had plugged in to shore power on arrival and found the lights worked, but not the 110V outlets, I was running on battery power
• From negotiating with the dealer, I knew the trailer had been on the lot for awhile, so it’s batteries were probably not well charged (later, I discovered one of them was dead)
• Whatever charge the batteries had I’d used up running lights and such in a matter of hours before flipping the breaker to get shore power running
• The 7 pin connection to the truck won’t do anything to power landing gear, or a slide, with a dead battery.
• The battery shut off prevents shore power from charging the batteries when it’s off. That’s really important to know.

My parking spot also doesn’t have power available so I was pretty concerned I might not have a way to get the trailer off the truck returning home. I had brought along a portable power station of decent size, but it doesn’t have a 30 amp plug, which is what the 5th wheel takes for input. I decided to run to a nearby tractor supply company and got a 30 amp to 110 V dog bone and it worked. The electric motor for the landing gear only takes less than 300 watts of power to run, visible on my power stations display.

In abundance of caution without any idea how to manually operate the landing gear, I delayed my departure about 6 hours in hopes that would give the batteries some charge with the battery shutoff now on, just in case the backup plan with the power station encountered a SNAFU when I actually needed it to work. In the end no problems unhitching the trailer and parking it for only the second time, and the first time solo. It took awhile, backing up the trailer smoothly is going to take some practice. I didn’t feel worried – as long as I went slow, and carefully, and practiced G.O.A.L. (Get Out And Look), I was in little danger of hitting anything. The tortoise and the hare eventually get to the same place, unless of course they go different directions. Similarly I believe it was Confucius who said “He who backs up slowly and methodically will be rewarded with thousands of yaks in Nirvana”.

Read the manual on coping with problems before you absolutely must deal with them

I’ve since learned a crank stuffed in the pass through storage of my 5th wheel is the key to operating my landing gear manually. Right next to the button that operates the gear electronically, the designers left a hole which leads right to the shaft that drives the gear. The crank is designed to attach to a couple pins sticking out and that’s all there is to the slow process of hand cranking the landing gear. The owners manual doesn’t describe this (it’s an owners manual which covers a variety of models, which in cases like the landing gear, unhelpfully explains this varies by model).

I also asked about manually operating the slide in my post purchase walk through and believe the tech got that one correct. My slide mechanism unfortunately does not offer a simple cranking mechanism as some others do. According to the tech, and my owners manual, there are screws at the top of the columns for the slide inside the RV that need to be unhooked from the motor. From there, the slide can be manually pushed in.

My advice forever onward to any new RV owner will be, figure out what you need to do in case of trouble or emergency before you need to know how to do it. I needed to know on the first trip, since my certified RV inspector didn’t check the batteries. Hooking up the water, sewer, and electricity are a focus of several beginner RV videos out there. If you’ve ever hooked up a hose or plugged something in, you got it. Throw a surge protector on your plug, a water pressure regulator and a filter on your fresh water, that’s it. Far more importantly, for every critical piece of equipment you have, make sure you know how to deal with it when batteries are dead or things break.

Postscript foreshadowing

This trip was heavy on learning some lessons the hard way and I was hopeful I was over the bulk of it, as well as surprises like dead batteries. Yet hope is an illusion, a construction of consciousness, a feeble attempt by the mind to deal with the vast universe we live in, ever increasing in Entropy.