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RE: Towing truck camper (expecting first experience today)
I'm the original poster.
Problem solved. Turned out it was the battery. Thank Google and a local mechanic that I found via Google. Owner drove to me, turned key, expressed opinion it is the battery, gave me a jump. Total time elapsed 90 seconds.
He said leave it running, we punched his shop address into my GPS, I drove to the shop, auto parts truck showed up 5 minutes later.
No need for any tow.
Two lessons learned.
This was my own fault. It was original battery in 2016 truck, over 6 years old. I thought about replacing it as preventative maintenance but it was working fine. I thought a battery would give warning before failure. As above discussion said, I now know not necessary.
Now Google the topic I was living on borrowed time. Battery should be replaced after 4 to 5 years. Especially if going on a road trip I going to replace after 4 years after this.
Second lesson is if possible forget Good Sam or AAA towing. That's for when you are really stuck. If possible call a local mechanic. Same thing happened to me in a remote area of Florida. Truck was still under warranty and had towing. Talked to nearest dealer 150 miles away. It would be covered by warranty but started becoming very complicated including a 150 mile tow. Meanwhile someone who worked at the campground said call Larry the local mechanic. He drove out and had it fixed in 5 minutes.
I did consider giving it a try to buy a battery at Walmart. Since I was stuck in the Walmart parking lot for 2 nights waiting for Monday morning I wandered into the Walmart auto section. Found the batteries but the book to look up battery types didn't include my truck. Gave up. Besides at that point was before I posted here and learned batteries do die suddenly. I was convinced it was something worse and that replacing the battery probably wouldn't fix it anyway.
About the camper batteries powering the truck. The camper dealer once told me that the batteries are just wired together. Specifically he said when plugged into shore power the engine battery is being charged. That's all I know. There is a battery disconnect to prevent the camper from running down the engine battery but I thought not in the other direction. But above posts say with the distance and wire gauge the camper batteries won't be able to turn the engine. Interesting idea whether you could physically move a camper battery to the engine compartment to jump the truck.
Now here is a real laugh. From hints above I just googled and the Walmart I was stuck at has an Auto Care Center that was even open on Sunday. I could have asked a mechanic there. Oh well, I made it to my destination campground in West Yellowstone only 1 day late so all good.
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bobbolotune
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09/12/22 09:44pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Towing truck camper (expecting first experience today)
I'm the original poster.
So from these responses maybe it is only the battery. At first I thought not because the dash lights up without struggle. But maybe turning the engine takes much more power.
Another hint that made me think it could be the battery is that this started at night. The next day in daylight with the solar panel pumping in some power the engine turned slightly versus the night before I was getting nothing.
My understanding is that the camper batteries are connected to the engine batteries. There is a shutoff which prevents the camper from running down the engine batteries, but I thought not in the other direction. So if the engine battery is dead I would think the camper batteries would turn the engine. The camper batteries are showing fully charged. But maybe deep cycle camper batteries don't have enough cranking power to turn an engine???
A service of my Good Sam towing is battery replacement. So if it's the battery they should be able to get me going. But I still have to be prepared for if I need to get towed.
I left voice mails at a couple local mechanics on Sunday. One called back and left a voicemail this morning. I'm about to call them then Good Sam. Wish me luck.
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bobbolotune
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09/12/22 09:57am |
Truck Campers
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Towing truck camper (expecting first experience today)
I am stuck in a Walmart parking lot with my truck that won't start. So unless it turns out to only be the battery (which I doubt from the way it suddenly went totally dead) I am going to have my first towing experience today.
The manual for my RAM 3500 4x4 says that for 4WD models flatbed is the best towing method. However, with the camper on the truck I question if the height of the truck camper and flatbed combined would exceed height limits. So this is my question. Is flatbed tow of a truck camper possible? The manual says the other acceptable method is flat tow on 4 wheels.
The manual says the wheel lift is not acceptable.
I am concerned if I am going to have to argue with the tow truck about this. A while back I asked a friend of a friend who owns a tow business about this and he said "Ah, I would probably just lift it". Well the manual says lifting the front or back will cause "severe transmission and/or transfer case damage".
I have Good Sam towing. Does anyone have experience with this? Do they know enough to send someone with the proper equipment?
Finding someone to fix the truck is the next question. I believe that Good Sam only says whey will tow to the nearest repair facility. Well, what if that facility can't work on it for 2 weeks? Or even if only more than 1 day is a problem because I am traveling alone with my dog. Unless they let us sleep on their lot it will be a mess what to do. Dog friendly hotel?
So I have been googling and calling local mechanics trying to find someone who will work on it today, or at least let us sleep on their lot if it can't be fixed same day. Since I have been calling on Sunday I have no responses yet.
Any suggestions how to approach this are welcome and appreciated. But my main question is about the towing and what to expect from Good Sam.
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bobbolotune
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09/12/22 12:16am |
Truck Campers
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RE: How to rotate dually pickup truck tires
Please explain why you paid to have a new set of Michelins rotated. Did they balance them? This should have been included in the cost of the tires. I doubt if they balanced the tires with the rotation, didn't ask.
What about your alignment????
These tires have nearly 60k and still look great doing the front side to side rotation I have had great luck with.
I live in Chicago and bought the tires during a trip in California (I noticed uneven wear, the sides were worn very low, tire shop said I was ready for a blow out). Besides, there was no talk of free rotation. Sounds like that it something to ask about when buying tires.
It was alignment that killed my last tires as I discussed in my original post. Alignment is now fixed.
Good to see tires can last 60K with only side to side rotation.
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bobbolotune
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08/10/22 02:49pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How to rotate dually pickup truck tires
I am the original poster.
I got the truck back from service today, so it is already a done deal. I decided to follow the manual and do side to side rotation only. Dealer charged me $100 to rotate the 6 tires.
Some good advice in the responses.
Someone asked, is it worth the cost to pay someone to rotate? Will you get the $ back in tire life? Tires may age out before needing to be changed anyway. Good point.
Or if the front tires wear out before the rears I can replace only 2 tires not 6 tires. The responses have confirmed that the tire guy (see my original post) was a sales job saying I couldn’t replace only the front tires. But I don’t regret replacing all 6 because I was running the original Nexen tires. Replaced with quality Michelins (had to argue with the tire store about this he wanted to sell me his cheap value brand) and the difference in handling was immediately obvious. But now that I have the tires that I want, if I need to replace only the front in the future I can buy 2 new Michelins.
I am concluding it is extreme what the RAM manual says to rotate with every oil change (which is 8,000 miles). But in this case actually it was 14,000 miles since I got the new tires and this is the first rotation. I don’t regret doing it. Maybe a good idea to do at least one rotation on brand new tires. But I'm not sure if I will continue to pay to rotate the back tires. For sure not every 8,000 miles. But it might be worth still rotating the front tires once in a while since the cost should be minimal.
From the responses. I am thinking rotating back to front might be risky because you can end up with uneven tires on the dually rears. In other words, the manual may be correct. But I know some responses don’t agree and do rotate back to front.
People saying it isn’t worth rotating the rear tires because they will last long enough without it make sense.
Thank you for all the responses!
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bobbolotune
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08/09/22 01:04am |
Tech Issues
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RE: How to rotate dually tires
I am the original poster.
I got the truck back from service today, so it is already a done deal. I decided to follow the manual and do side to side rotation only. Dealer charged me $100 to rotate the 6 tires.
Some good advice in the responses.
Someone asked, is it worth the cost to pay someone to rotate? Will you get the $ back in tire life? Tires may age out before needing to be changed anyway. Good point.
Or if the front tires wear out before the rears I can replace only 2 tires not 6 tires. The responses have confirmed that the tire guy (see my original post) was a sales job saying I couldn’t replace only the front tires. But I don’t regret replacing all 6 because I was running the original Nexen tires. Replaced with quality Michelins (had to argue with the tire store about this he wanted to sell me his cheap value brand) and the difference in handling was immediately obvious. But now that I have the tires that I want, if I need to replace only the front in the future I can buy 2 new Michelins.
I am concluding it is extreme what the RAM manual says to rotate with every oil change (which is 8,000 miles). But in this case actually it was 14,000 miles since I got the new tires and this is the first rotation. I don’t regret doing it. Maybe a good idea to do at least one rotation on brand new tires. But I'm not sure if I will continue to pay to rotate the back tires. For sure not every 8,000 miles. But it might be worth still rotating the front tires once in a while since the cost should be minimal.
From the responses. I am thinking rotating back to front might be risky because you can end up with uneven tires on the dually rears. In other words, the manual may be correct. But I know some responses don’t agree and do rotate back to front.
People saying it isn’t worth rotating the rear tires because they will last long enough without it make sense.
Thank you for all the responses!
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bobbolotune
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08/09/22 01:02am |
Truck Campers
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How to rotate dually pickup truck tires
The manual for my 2016 Ram 3500 dually shows tire rotation only side to side. Specifically, switch the driver front and the passenger front tires, switch the outer rear tires driver to passenger, and switch the inner rear tires driver to passenger. The picture in the manual showing how to rotate shows no rotation back to front.
The manual really doesn’t explain why not to rotate back to front. It does say the rear tires must be matched for wear. Possibly the concern is that if tires are moved back to front that wear won’t match.
The manual does explain why it says to keep the inner rear wheels inner and outer rear wheels outer. It is for the Tire Pressure Information System. To quote, "The Tire Pressure Information System uses unique sensors in the inner rear wheels to help identify them from the outer rear wheels, because of this, the inner and outer wheel locations cannot be switched".
With my last tires it turned out that I had an alignment problem (now fixed) that I wasn’t aware of until I noticed that the tires were wearing unevenly. Since I was rotating the front tires only side to side both front tires wore unevenly on the outer edges. By the time I noticed this the tires were unsafe and I had to replace the tires probably 6,000 or 8,000 miles early.
I had to have the tires replaced during a trip. I ended up at a tire shop in a rural area that seemed to have plenty of experience with duallys. He told me to ignore the manual. He said that they rotate back to front all the time. He says they take the best looking tires from the back and put them on the front.
If I had rotated like that it would have stalled the uneven wear that killed my last tires.
I am about to get the new tires rotated for the first time. I have been telling the mechanic to follow the manual. I am now totally unclear what to do. It would seem that only rotating side to side in the same positions really isn’t going to help much because every other rotation the tires end up back in the same location.
It could be what the manual says that if you don’t keep the inner tires inner and outer tires outer it will confuse the Tire Pressure Information System. But really how important is that? It is nice to have the tire pressures in the instrument cluster because I look at the pressures frequently as I drive, much more often than I would find myself checking tire pressure manually. But I don’t care much about location. If a tire is low (something that actually has never happened yet) I can find out which one by checking the tires manually.
Any opinions about the best answer to this question? Only switch side to side as the manual says, or rotate front to back at the tire place service manager said?
Note: I already posted this to the truck camper forum. But I am dropping the truck in for service tomorrow and am still unclear what to do. Please excuse my posting twice. I know you are not supposed to that that but I am still unclear what to do.
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bobbolotune
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08/06/22 02:57pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How to rotate dually tires
I have been doing this once/year (5 to 10k miles) for 7 years - no issues, good tires and they will age out, not wear out.
You do which? You follow the manual and only switch the same positions side to side?
Every vehicle owner’s manual I’ve ever seen discusses tire rotation and how to rotate tires on that vehicle. Does your manual discuss the manufacturer’s recommendation?
Yes. As I discussed in my original post the manual says to rotate the same positions only side to side. But my question came from what the service manager said at the tire place where I had the tires replaced. He said that they rotate back to front (he said that they do it every day) and if I had done that I would have gotten more life from the tires.
It makes sense to me that only switching the same positions side to side, as the manual says, is of limited value because with every other tire rotation the tires will end up in exactly the same place they started.
I’m still unclear. I suppose when in doubt it is probably best to follow what the manual says. Yes the front tires may wear out faster than the back tires but maybe that is just how it goes.
The guy at the tire place told me that I needed to replace all 6 tires even though it was only the front tires showing wear. He said that on a dually you need to replace all tires at once. I told this to someone in a campground who said it is completely untrue. Maybe there is concern about matching the 4 rear tires, but he said the front tires can be replaced independent of the back tires.
So maybe follow the manual and if the front tires wear out sooner I can replace only the front tires. Opinions?
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bobbolotune
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08/06/22 02:47pm |
Truck Campers
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How to rotate dually tires
The manual for my 2016 Ram 3500 dually shows tire rotation only side to side. Specifically, switch the driver front and the passenger front tires, switch the outer rear tires driver to passenger, and switch the inner rear tires driver to passenger. The picture showing how to rotate shows no rotation back to front.
The manual really doesn’t explain why not to rotate back to front. It does say the rear tires must be matched for wear. Possibly the concern is that if tires are moved back to front that wear won’t match.
The manual does explain why it says to keep the inner rear wheels inner and outer rear wheels outer. It is for the Tire Pressure Information System. To quote, “The Tire Pressure Information System uses unique sensors in the inner rear wheels to help identify them from the outer rear wheels, because of this, the inner and outer wheel locations cannot be switched”.
With my last tires it turned out that I had an alignment problem (now fixed) that I wasn’t aware of until I noticed that the tires were wearing unevenly. Since I was rotating the front tires only side to side both front tires wore unevenly on the outer edges. By the time I noticed this the tires were unsafe and I had to replace the tires probably 6,000 or 8,000 miles early.
I had to have the tires replaced during a trip. I ended up at a tire shop in a rural area that seemed to have plenty of experience with duallys. He told me to ignore the manual. He said that they rotate back to front all the time. He says they take the best looking tires from the back and put them on the front.
If I had rotated like that it would have stalled the uneven wear that killed my last tires.
I am about to get the new tires rotated for the first time. I have been telling the mechanic to follow the manual. I am now totally unclear what to do. It would seem that only rotating side to side in the same positions really isn’t going to help much because every other rotation the tires end up back in the same location.
It could be what the manual says that if you don’t keep the inner tires inner and outer tires outer it will confuse the Tire Pressure Information System. But really how important is that? It is nice to have the tire pressures in the instrument cluster because I look at the pressures frequently as I drive, much more often than I would find myself checking tire pressure manually. But I don’t care much about location. If a tire is low (something that actually has never happened yet) I can find out which one by checking the tires manually.
Does anyone know the correct answer to this question? A set of dually tires is expensive so I want to take care of the new tires.
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bobbolotune
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08/06/22 12:53am |
Truck Campers
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RE: How to go about fixing skylight leak
Spend the time and clean all the caulking with a solvent on a small cloth. Inspect the present caulking for cracking, gaps or coming loose and remove suspect area/s, then reapply self levelling Dicor on that area. Apply a good amount for good coverage/sealing. If the gap is large, you may have to apply a couple coats.
Do a very complete inspection and resealing and you'll be good to go.
You can soak your roof to check for a leak or leaks, but like said before, the water will travel. That's why you're much better off to do the cleaning and resealing.
All good advice, thanks. This is exactly what I am doing. Today I re-caulked the suspect area.
The thing that concerns me is that the place I now think was leaking. It was not apparent from visual inspection. It was only after hosing the roof with the camper completely level (to minimize travel) which pointed to this spot. Then I looked and said yes I can believe this could be the problem (that the caulk could be compromised). But it really wasn't until I pulled off the old caulk and saw the warped corner that my confidence increased. In other words, visual inspection alone might not be enough. The caulk was not cracked or peeling. My theory is the warp may have pulled up the caulk just enough for water to slide underneath.
Also that there are some problem spots. Some of the caulking is underneath covers, the air conditioner and I assume the other cover is the fridge exhaust. Today I shot caulk under the air conditioner and pushed it under with a soapy water soaked gloved hand. That is the best I can do.
I suppose there is nothing more I can do except hose it again, go through some rainstorms, and hope for the best. Unless I want to try to find a pressure test which might be overkill.
The camper is now over 6 years old. I suppose this is expected.
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bobbolotune
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06/24/22 02:04am |
Tech Issues
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RE: How to go about fixing skylight leak
Water can easily trave 3' and more before its detected. Repair and then check for leaks including tilting the RV. Check while in storge after rains.
Thanks. Makes sense and helps.
Hearing that the water can travel before leaking into the RV increases my confidence I may be on the right track.
I dug further today and did find something very suspect. I pulled off the caulk around the suspect spot I talked about in my original post, which is the fantastic fan. It turns out that the edges and especially the corners don't lay flat on the roof. Especially one corner is warped upwards enough that there is a gap under the corner. I can't say if it was always warped like this. It could very well be that this warp pulled the caulk away from the roof enough for water to go under.
Today I removed the old caulk. Tomorrow I will re-caulk. Then after it dries I will do as you say, check for leaks. Take a hose up to the roof again and see if I can get a leak.
This doesn't prove I found the problem. There could be several other spots also about to leak. I was in the middle of a full re-caulk when this happened (unfinished before my last trip because I ran out of caulk). The suspect fan is one of the places I had not re-caulked yet. I am surprised because I have be assuming that the current re-caulk is only preventative maintenance, because the old caulk is getting old and was still adhering. Hopefully there is a real problem in only this one place because the plastic on the corner of the fan has warped.
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bobbolotune
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06/23/22 12:53am |
Tech Issues
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How to go about fixing skylight leak
It rained on a recent camping trip and I got water leaking into the camper from the corner of a skylight. This has me concerned. What if the camper leaks when in storage? If I don't get this fixed I could find major damage when picking the camper up from storage.
I'm trying to figure out where the water is going in. Today I took a hose onto the roof and hosed massive water to the area where it leaked, But it didn't leak. But then when I expanded the area I was hosing finally it started leaking through into the camper at a different, place further towards the back of the camper. I do now see some compromised caulking in this spot further back that I can believe could be leaking water.
On the camping trip I was tilted a little forward. The testing today was in my driveway where the best I can get, even with blocks, is completely level.
My current theory is that the leak is further back where the caulking is compromised. But when I was tilted forward the water must have run through above the ceiling to leak into the camper around 3 feet further forward. But today when it was level it leaked into the camper further back in the area of the compromised caulk.
Does this sound like a reasonable theory?
What should I do? Caulk the suspect spot and hope for the best? What other options do I have other than to caulk and hope? I have read about pressure tests, but would rather avoid needing to find someone to do that.
This is hurting my confidence in maintaining the caulking myself. Do I need to have an RV dealer help? For example, there are places under covers, especially under the air conditioner, that I can't caulk myself because I'm not about to attempt removing the air conditioner to inspect the caulk underneath it. I could say the area under the air conditioner is covered so not a problem. But with the hose today I observed the problem is that water will flow under the covered areas, especially when you are not completely level as is usually the case.
I am thinking I can continue to maintain the caulking myself (do the time consuming unskilled labor myself) but maybe I should also find a professional look at it. What do most people do about this? Would a professional know better than me what to look for?
But not to sidetrack. My main question is whether my theory about water flowing above the ceiling could actually be what happened. Otherwise I could have multiple problems here. And, more generally, advice about how I should proceed.
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bobbolotune
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06/22/22 04:20am |
Tech Issues
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