RE: Raptor 3814SS Garage walls
In my 3814's garage, the only studs I could find were next to the windows - I mounted 2 fold-down shelves to set my toolbox on when parked.
The "dew method" mentioned above really tells the story.
Enjoy!
RE: New Toy Hauler - tying down a Gold Wing
I tie a GL 1800 in my Raptor 3814.
I have e-track laid in both directions and a "pingel"-style wheel chock with e-track clips on it to locate the front wheel. I use 2 ratchet straps with "soft-ties" pulling forward over the lower fork clamp (triple-tree), making sure that the ratchets don't dig in to the fork guards or ftont fender (plastic). There is no way to get a "strut" between the front tire and the lower fork clamp - I do this on my dual-sport bike with a high (dirt-bike style) front fender.
At the rear, the best way is to remove the side covers and use a soft-tie around the frame near the front edge of the seat on each side with ratchet straps angled toward the rear. The grab handles at the seat are not strong enough (the forces will break the bolts) and the bag-guards are pretty stout in every direction other than what you need for pulling down.
Do not use the side stand for anything else other than to start the front tie-downs.
Be very careful if the ramp is steep: at the bottom, your feet won't be able to touch the ground (29" inseam talking!), and at the top, the most likely thing to drag is the plastic coolant recovery bottle between the back of the transmission and the back wheel. Besides bening a ***** to replace and costly, antifreeze and rear tires arn't a good combination!!
RE: Looking for riding areas - Sierras...
Been to Walker River Resort many times (gonna be there 9-18 to 9-21) and ride aggressive dual-sport. Most of the roads in the valley are sandy 2-track, well suited to ATV's and side by sides (and fast bikes!) while the hills have rocky single and 2-track. To the west, you can get into the Pine-Nut Mountains thru Red Canyon out of Smith or by Sunrise pass toward Carson City/Minden (Johnson Lane area). To the north, on the east side of Smith valley, you can go to the abandoned Ludwig mine site and try the passes over the east hills to Weed Heights and Yerington. You can get to the Wilson Canyon area, a little southeast of the resort, but it will involve some pavement.
There are lots of trails out of Lee Vining(Hwy 395/120). You can ride north toward Bridgeport, east toward Bodie and south toward June Lake/Cinder Cone. I was "hassled" near the Masonic mine site by a FS guy on a quad who asked where my "green sticker" was - this on my fully street legal DS bike with all lights, plate and turn signals! "I don't got to show you no stinkin' green sticker..."
For some high altitude trails, try Hope Valley/Blue Lakes just west of the Hwy 88/89 junction.
RE: Raptor 3814 & 2500HD D/A
I have a similar setup - '07 3814 and '01 K2500 HD D/A SRW, 265's and 4'. I towed from Reno to New Orleans in February (full-timing for a construction job) and then back to Reno in late July with only one problem (it's happened before).
When rolling downhill in preparation for an upgrade ahead, I get the rig rolling to "above 75" in 5th. When the downshift to 4th happens, with the throttle mashed, sometimes the computer will detect a slight "slippage" in the trans and kick the truck into "limp" mode (1500 rpm max) to keep me from "hurting" the trans. Pull to the side, let 'er cool down (even though the temp guages show everything good-to-go) and re-start a few times and all seems ok. After a few more run-stop cycles, even the SES light goes out.
When this has happened before, it was torqueing hard in 4th and would happen after a sustained pull - I suppose I should have been in tow-haul mode in 3rd!
My son has had this issue with his 2002 (2003?) D/A when towing his Bobcat, with attachments on a heavy trailer.
I've learned to let the rig slow to 60 mph or so, with a light foot on the throttle, before the 5-4 downshift happens.
My rig scales similar - 4480# on TV fronts, 6400# on TV rears and 12,200# on the trailer tires. Raptor paid to replace the JUNK Carlisle bias-ply load-range D tires and I replaced them with Green-Ball (Tow-Master) radials with a "D" load rating - good for 15,600#. I saw no need to go to "E"-rated tires with over 3000# of safety margin, though I do wish it had come with 16" wheels with the bigger brakes!
RE: Looking for an external speaker cover for a Raptor 3612ds
I would check with someone who sells speakers for marine use. In Nevada and California, we have West Marine (kind of a Camping World for boaters). They have a catalog and also sell online.
The other advantage of marine speakers would be that the speaker cones are made to take some weather/water - I'm not sure the originals are that good!
RE: Subwoofer/Stereo Issues on a Raptor 3612ds
On the outside unit, there is some manner of fade between the speakers right at the unit and the external (outside wall mounted) speakers. That's the good news! The bad news is that the upper speakers are probably louder inside the trailer than they are outside...gotta hope everybody likes the same music, and at the same volume!
I've only looked at the back of the "surround sound" head unit once, but the wires didn't seem to be hooked up correctly. Without a sub, the tiny speakers are so "tinny", it's almost un-usable.
RE: New furniture ??
We pulled the Hide-a-bed out of our 3814 and replaced with two glider-recliners. The original couch comes apart in two piece (upper and lower) so will easily go out the door.
At the same time I installed an articulating mount for the flat-panel tv uo over the door. The only problem is that the recliners have so much "pillow" at our head level (we're not tall people) that it is a bit of a pain to watch the TV.
The carpet is really junk, but it doesn't look like it would be even close to easy to change out...has anybody done this yet?
RE: raptor 3612 - additional A/C
I'm in a similar position, staying in New Orleans, LA 'till at least the middle of July. I've been looking at the Coleman Mach 3 and the "power-saving" model that uses less amps but costs more money. My hope is that the "P.S." model would have a rotary compressor and would be quieter in use (fan noise would be the same, but hoping for less vibration). I thought the heat strip would be worth it for the small cost to be able to use it when "hooked-up"
I talked to a local dealer, and he said the Carrier model is preferred by folks with boats/ships, due to it's higher resistance to corrosion (salt water and high humidity), and is worth the higher cost to them.
Visually, I believe existing unit is a Coleman 13.5, so if you put another one on the front of the roof it would not look out of place.
Just my $0.02 worth...
Denis
RE: Raptor owners, battery question
In my '07 3814, I replaced the 2 - 12v batteries with 2 - 6v t-105 trojans, plus added 2 more t-105s just on the other side of the divider, in the front compartment. The whole area is "in contact" with outside air, so it vents ok except when I leave my boost charger on when I park it in the barn.
It's not too hard to access the filler caps in either location, since you do have to add water on a regular basis. I set my twin-tank (Emglo nailing gun) compressor next to the extra batteries, with the compressor closest to the generator.
I also wired in an 1800 watt Xantrex inverter in the "carpeted" storage cubby (front right corner, closest to the the batteries) and wired it into one side of the electrical panel. I fished the control wire (telephone wire) up thru the bathroom pocket door wall and set the control panel to the right of the Raptor panel.
I had planned to add a marine battery switch to separate each pair of 6v batteries, but just wired them all together due to time constraints (back then...). Still works great!
Denis
RE: Oman Generator question.
I had a THOR 33TB 5th, and the generator draws fuel from the fueling station - so the generator runs on Premium! Sometimes the tanks have a feed line that draws from the "bottom" of the tank and another that draws from 1" or so above the bottom of the tank. The thought behind that started with class A motorhomes that had the generator running out of fuel before the motorhome did!
It's possible that your hook-up has the generator pulling from the "high-line" and the fueling station pulling from the "low-line", though my preference would be the other way around, so that the toy fueling runs dry before the generator does and I get to hear about it from DW.
RE: victory lane or raptor ?
You may have a "Tow/Haul" selector or button on the shifter that will keep it out of overdrive - use it! I toasted my trans in 6000 miles, using OD only on the flats - it slips and you don't notice it, since the trans will kick down on an overpass or headwind, but builds heat while slipping in OD.
Regarding the Diesel vs. gas - Weekend Warrior w/gasser = 28 mph up over Hwy 80 on 5 to 6% grades. Diesel (Stock 2001 Duramax/Allison), same trailer = 55 mph in 3rd gear...big smiles!
RE: victory lane or raptor ?
I towed a '93 Weekend Warrior Classic 36' triple axle with a '93 version of your truck (454 TBI, auto, 4-door) for 7 years. Empty, the Weekend Warrior was probably heavier than my '07 3814 is fully loaded. It worked hard on hills (28 mph in low gear eastbound in the truck lane on Hwy 80 from Sacramento to Reno), but it worked good on the flats. Yes, I know I was over the GCWR (23,800 # all up!)
DO NOT TOW IN OVERDRIVE!! The OD clutch pack won't take the strain, even on flat ground (too small or not enough plates/pressure).
The bias ply Carlisles on the 3814 were junk and were replaced with Greenball radials after the first failure (within 2000 miles). The load range "D" tires are within safe margins - I spent the $8.00 to go to the CAT scales in East Reno to get front axle, drive axle and trailer weights...well worth the cost. If you can get the dealer to put "E" rated radials (NOT CARLISLES!), you'd be in great shape.
Thr Raptor is built as light as it can be, so some details seem "tacky" to me, but it's never been back to Cousin Gary's RV in Redding, CA, due to GREAT PDI. I couldn't get Traveler's RV in Reno to get below $47k on the eventually "left-over" unit that was mentioned above - for $40k! IMHO, the Raptor line is the "best bang for the buck", but a good dealer will make you happier in the long run.
Denis
RE: Raptor alert!
To answer rocmoc's question: if the bolts are not "splined" up next to their heads to lock the head of the bolt into it's respective shackle plate, any "tightness" of the bolt in the spring eye will cause it to rotate in the shackle plate - causing the wear in the shackle plate.
The "wet bolt" kit will put grease in the center of the bushing, keeping the bolt loose from the bushing and pushing excess grease out between the sides of the spring eye and the shackle plates...a much better system.
The Lippert frame used on the Raptors and others has another point of concern - the spring and rocker hangers are pretty light material (3/16" thick, I think) and will fail where they are welded to the frame. Ever since I got my '07 3814 Raptor, I have tried to minimize my "pivot" turns unless on smooth gravel or dirt so as to avoid this breakage. The Dexter "wet-bolt" kit is planned for mine at the end of the season.
RE: What happened to the UL listing?
Just guessing here, but it probably cost them some $ to have the sticker and nobody cared...it's a nice little "extra" if you were already sold on their product, but it wasn't a deal maker/breaker.
If it actually made a difference as to your insurance or the ability to get into a park, then you might see a value in it.
RE: Cleaning the Raptor Garage
When lifting the diamond plate at the perimeter (to fix the kinked gas tank fill hose!), I found that Keystone had applied silicone between the diamond plate and the floor and at the side walls. I vacuumed, then used a hose inside, but lifted the front of the trailer first to allow for drainage and left the garage open for the rest of the day.
RE: Raptor Owners
Check in your heat ducts for scrap vinyl. There is also vinyl below the entire kitchen cabinet area - I don't think any of it is glued down.
RE: Which 5th wheel hitch do you like and why?
I have used a Reese 18K (I think it's a 22K now) with my last 3 5th wheels - sold the trailers and trucks, but kept the hitch! It articulates well, making hitching back up in the sand or off-road a lot easier. The jaws are rugged, and won't get bent like a draw-bar hitch (RBW type). It comes out by pulling only 4 pins, leaving only the steel tracks in the bed. I use the trailer to lift it out of the truck, leaving it hanging from the pin 'till the next use...I can lock it on for security (except for a theif with the same tracks in his truck bed!)
