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New (to us) trailer

R

Ranger

Spoolin that turbo ;0)
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Location
Nevada, right now. Alaska is home.
Figured I would share this little gem we picked up for $1,800

1982 24' Alpenlite

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Currently on our shakedown trip, we're parked in Pahrump, NV at an RV park.... dumped tanks for the first time, washout contraption we got at wally world worked well... although I ripped off the black tank's valve handle. Had enough thread in the POS plastic handle to get it to work, but I'll replace with 2 nuts and a steel plate for a handle once we get home.

Also un-f'ed the water issues, various connectors were either disconnected or broken, those are fixed so we have water in the thing and don't have to wash the toilet down using one of my spare 5 gallon mil water cans lol

Damn good thing that it's a 5th wheel, our first intended stop was the Icthysaurus park out near Gabbs, NV... unbeknownst to us the road to it is paved except for the last 3 miles, .5 miles into the dirt road it turned to snow-melt induced craptastic mudbog... judicious application of throttle combined with manual trailer brake actuation to keep things straight up to the entrance to the park kept it on the road, fishtails and all.... and being able to go past 90 degrees for a turn (came within 6" of the cab) allowed me to turn it around and just get the heck outa dodge when it was obvious the park itself just got worse. Other than that, this thing tows super stable and the truck essentially doesn't know it's back there for the most part, or so it feels.

One question though.... Given that this thing weighs 4900 or so dry, any reason I should only be getting 12/13 mpg pulling it @ 65 across varied terrain, or is this normal given I've got 160k on the silverado's ticker and a somewhat tired transmission? Was a bit surprised to see my mileage drop that low, but I haven't towed a 5th wheel before... always bumper pulls of various kinds.
 
Nice score.. er... should I say $ pit? :hihi:

12-13 mpg is reasonable pulling a square at 65.

Enjoy it!
 
Nice find on the camper. Sounds like you had an adventure at the park, but you made it back out unscathed probably due to some good driving skills.

As far as the mileage you are getting. Occasionally I pull a 16 foot bumper pull, 1987 camper and get between 12 MPG and 14 MPG with it based on how fast I pull it. It is like towing a brick wall, but the truck handles it well. The wind resistance is what kills the fuel mileage. I just pulled it back home today from deer camp and it was mainly an uphill pull. I have not checked my mileage yet, but I used most of a tank of diesel coming back. It is not going to be good because I averaged 70 MPH on the interstate with it. :nonod:
 
Feel lucky, towing our camper at 65 I get 11 if I'm lucky. The aerodynamics on many trailers is just horrible though and really kills the milage.
 
Nice find. I always wanted one of those resonable sized 5ths not those house on wheels monsters.

I pulled into Fort Wilderness camp ground years ago and got to talking to the guy next to me with a huge 5th. He was wondering why he popped 3-4 trailer tires coming from some where in the mid us. I figured out he was running 75-80 on tires that were overloaded at max psi and not rated beyond 75 mph any way.
 
It's nice having something that the truck has no problems pulling. Our daughter found out how to pop the screens off though and trys to climb out.
 
MrsRanger said:
It's nice having something that the truck has no problems pulling. Our daughter found out how to pop the screens off though and trys to climb out.
Click to expand...

Yes, these trucks will pull one with so much ease that you look in the mirror to make sure it is still back there.
 
I'm looking back more to make sure compartments are staying closed. I have yet to replace the lock for the power cord, found out the lock for that compartment didn't work when I saw it in the rear view flapping in the wind.

Duct tape to the rescue.
 
I have used duct tape in many ways on the camper. I usually put the sewer hose in the bumper. Some reason I didn't seal the bumper off on one trip. A nice trucker pulled up beside of me and pointed back at the camper. I looked in the mirror and there is the sewer hose is hanging out of the bumper dragging on the interstate. It had pretty well eaten it up and I eventually replaced it.
 
Good to see you two poppin in here. Hope you guys are doin alright these days.
 
Mmm... not really.

lost our house in Alaska since both of us lost our jobs, moved to housing family owns in nevada and having to support 2 adults and a 2 y/o kid off a fixed income of a grand a month VA disability... didn't know that nevada has worse unemployment than basically anywhere other than I think CA and MA so there ain't even a job at frigging mcdonalds... now the transfer case blew up on the silverado, already had to sell my prized AR so we could get this trailer as last resort housing, looks like I might have to sell the 7 mag to try to afford to repair the T-case and get the silverado mobile.

Good things?
I'm alive as is my family
My daughter and wife are beautiful and healthy
we have a roof over our head for now
and we have the CUCV as our fallback wheels.

Picture after last response firefighting in AK. Fantastic people to work with and look forward to returning up there. For the FF's here, 2008 Pierce 4x4, and I'm 6'3 so that gives you an idea of ground clearance. Lower 48 engines are TINY :D
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Here's the evac convoy from AK. The wife drove the silverado from Wasilla AK to NV, I drove the CUCV. Long drive, thank goodness we had the ham radios or else I would have gone insane with no stereo in the blazer. Everything we own was in those vehicles.
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Wheeling in NV.
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Might think about FF duty in the Dakotas. I got a feeling that will be a priority with all the oilfield activity.
 
From my experience up north, oil-field firefighting is volunteer. IE, they support current workers volunteering with the field FD and they can drop their "real job" with full company approval to conduct FD duties.

One such example, North Slope fire department... some temp hires in the summer, but basically 2 full time employees, one's the chief one's the assistant chief. Everyone else works on the rigs or what have you.
 
There's no guarantees. The department I worked for was paid-on-call. IE, pager went off, if I responded I was on the clock.

For a fire service area larger than connecticut. Effectively volunteer.
 
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