The Adventure Continues, Shore Power Established

We now have a 50 amp circuit for shore power. We use a 30 amp dog bone adapter for powering our 30 amp fifth wheel from the 50 amp electrical box.

A roadside view of the truck and trailer moored alongside.

A far side view of the trailer moored alongside. Shore power has been tested and all equipment inside and outside the trailer appears to function properly.

The Adventure Continues, Tire Chapter

Saturday, I spent half a day in Tire Kingdom getting new tires for the dually. After I got the trailer home on Saturday a closer inspection with a flashlight revealed how bad the tires on the fifth wheel actually were.

Monday morning, I was back at Tire Kingdom to order four more tires, BFG 215/85R16 "E" tires just like the ones I put on the truck Saturday; for a total of 10 tires. I spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday working on a plan to jack up the RV and set it on jack stands for safety as well as the built in landing gear and scissor jack stabilizers. This required a trip (South)to Ocala to get jack stands after the trip (North) to Tire Kingdom.

My original plan went down the tubes. A 20 ton bottle jack that had been seldom used was no good, I did not have the proper blocking to get either my jack or jack stands into effective and SAFE use.

This evolved into Plan 2, take either the forward tires or the after tires at the same time while leaving the opposite set for increased stability. Again, I could not use my jack stands in what I felt was a SAFE condition.

Plan three was to raise one side of the RV and take both tires on the same side. It was about a 40 minute ride to Tire Kingdom. I used my neighbors 3.5 ton car jack to assist with the scissors jack stabilizer and the landing gear forward to position the RV.

I didn't start with the camera until after I had done the Port side so here is a view of the Starboard side with the tires removed.

Two tires ready to go to Tire Kingdom for re-shoeing. I did this maneuver twice today also.


The Port side is complete, each bolt has been torqued to 85 ft-lbs.


The Starboard side is complete, each bolt has also been torqued to 85 ft-lbs.


A closeup of the little beauties. Interesting enough trailer tires do not come with lifetime mounting, balancing and a road hazard warranty. I had to pay for it but all of these tires have it. Also, I specifically ordered each tire to have a 2011 date code. The two tires on the front of the dually a date code of the last month of 2010 and they discounted each tire for me $30 because I specifically ordered date codes for 2011. Even so, they (all 10) were a lot of dinero.

The Adventure Continues With Some Inside Pictures

From left side aft, landing gear and stabilizers down.

Same side from the front.

Right side from aft. Today, I ordered four new BFG LT215/85R16E Commercial T/A All Season tires. The same tires Glenfield installed when the 5ver was new. Coincidentally the same tires are on the dually. I also got 2 pair of 3 ton jack stands for her to sit on while I have the tires installed on the rim. Since my "flight training" has to wait for tires, I am not even about to try and back this 5ver into a tire shop yet!

Left rear corner of crews living space.

From right inside corner of crews living space looking forward towards Crew's Head and Hogan's Alley.

Crew's Mess on the right.

Galley, showing refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave and sink.

Forward left corner of crew's living space.

Crew's living space aft.

Entrance to Head and Hogan's Alley.

Crew's Head.

Forward, port side of Hogan's Alley.

Hogan's Alley, forward, the location of senior crew berthing. The center area headboard is presently being refitted to meet the CO's standards.

Senior crew storage, Hogan's Alley aft, port side.

One of two personal storage spaces for senior crew.

Medicine cabinets and sink area in Crew's head.

The 5ver's home berth, which has yet to be prepared for it to come alongside. When we built the house we had a 50 amp circuit run to the gray box to the right of the garage side door. Today we contracted an electrician to hook-up a 50 amp box for shore power while she is alongside at her home berth. We decided on 50 amps because we already have a dog-bone and it will allow berthing of either 50 amp or 30 amp units.

2002 Titanium 28E33SB by Glendale, Floor Plan As Sold

Some of the original paperwork on the fifth wheel we just purchased which shows the original floorplan. It now has a small cast iron type electric parlor stove in the middle back with a small desk on the right in the back. One chair remains in the back by the entrance.

A Fifth Wheel Joins The Fleet, Let The Adventure Begin

The Fleet in port. This by the way is my initial park job in my driveway. It is in straight but about 8 feet to the right of where I wanted to put it. This took about 1/2 hour and I was ragged so when I got it straight I quit.

The fifth wheel is a 2002 Titanium 28E33SB by Glendale. It measures, I think, 33 feet from bumper to pin. Then it goes on for awhile until you reach the nose.

It is an all weather unit built in Canada.

More pictures will follow but the last two days have been long and busy.

Rear picture window. I can't show the inside because the truck prevents me from opening the slide.

You can't really tell from the picture but the truck is wearing a new set of dancing shoes. Yesterday when we initially hooked up the fiver to the truck we found out the left inside tire would not hold air. So we unhooked and I spent half a day today at Tire Kingdom re-shoeing the truck.

As the say, it looks bad. Tomorrow I will hook it up again and drag it around for awhile; perhaps I might even go over to an old Wal-Mart store and practice backing in to some parking spaces. I'm going to be running my own "flight school" for awhile before I actually go anywhere.

The number one task turned out to be new truck tires. The ones on the truck while only traveling about 19,000 miles were over 5 years old. The number two task will be to replace the trailer tires, they are 10 years old. Well inspecting them tonight, looking for the year date I found one has cracks in it, it may have been used with low or no air pressure. My "flight school" maybe on hold until the tires are replaced.