Work Begins At Camp Mor/Ryde - (Elkhart, IN)

We were packed up and ready to go by 8:00 a.m. this morning.  But the bay we were going into was still occupied for another hour or so.

We moved into the customer lounge for the day ....

and I took advantage of the complimentary muffins.  :)

Eventually, they came to get us.

I pulled the rig into the center of the road in front of the bays where Keith did some measurements.

In addition to installing the brakes and new suspension, they also make sure that the trailer rides as level as possible.

Ours rides high in the front, so we expected them to install steel risers on the frame to level us out.  That should give us just a little bit of extra clearance as well.

They said it was up to me as to whether or not I wanted to back into the bay.  With plenty of room to maneuver out front, I was up for the task.  :)

Before we got all the way in, I backed up onto the scales so Keith could weigh us - wheel-by-wheel, axles only.

We were, as we knew, overweight on our 7,000 pound axles.  On the front axle, we were at 7,020 pounds and on the rear, we were 7,210 pounds.  Not extremely bad, but not certainly not good.

There might have been more weight distributed to the front if we weren't riding a little high and putting more pressure on the back wheels and axles.

Now, wheel by wheel, we are much heavier on the driver's side, the side with three slides.  Those weights were as follows:

• Driver's Side Front:  3,850
• Driver's Side Rear:  3,835
• Passenger Side Front:  3,170
• Passenger Side Rear:  3,375

Now, the orignal tires that came with the rig were Goodyear G614s.  Those are 16-inch tires with a G load rating and a maximum capacity of 3,750 pounds at 110 psi.

Having weighed our entire unit wheel-by-wheel twice before, we were aware of the above numbers.  So, in November of 2008, we upgraded our tires and wheels. 

Now we have wheels/rims rated at 4,850 pounds and Goodyear Unisteel G114 17.5-inch H-rated tires with a maximum load capacity of 4,805 pounds at 125 psi.  That gives us a lot more cushion on the tires and wheels.

Changing tires and wheels is not something to be done lightly.  There are several factors involved.  For more insight on our decision, check out our "Tires, Wheels, & Financials" Journal Entry from October 31, 2008.  That entry includes links to our exact tires and wheels and provides other helpful links as well.  :)

So, we got into the bay and Linda & I unhitched.  While we were doing that, Jay & Stella (Jay & Stella's Travels) arrived.

Jay & Stella are part of the Texas Boomers and graciously allowed us to join one of their gatherings at Thanksgiving in Houston back in 2006.  They have a Heartland Bighorn fifth wheel and are here in Elkhart getting some work done.  In fact, they attended a Heartland Rally in Branson at the same time as our inaugural RV-Dreams Rally in 2008, so we saw them again at that time.

Today, they came to visit us and they wanted to get some information from Mor/Ryde.  So it worked out great.

We chatted and then Ben came in and gave us both the spiel on the Mor/Ryde IS suspension.  At the end of the visit, they were trying to determine if they could get an appointment here after their work at Heartland is complete.  :)

They departed with hugs and handshakes as our lunch arrived.  You see, if you are here in the Mor/Ryde lounge around lunchtime, they order and pay for your lunch.  :)

We had Italian and it was way too much.  So our free lunch turned into a free dinner as well.  :)

The rest of the afternoon, I returned emails.  I'm not really interested in sightseeing around here, and it was a good opportunity to get some work done.

By the way, I had a few emails that were returned back to me due to a bad email address.  And, when I activated some Forum members, their emails were returned to me as well.

So, if you sent an email and haven't gotten a reply or you've signed up for the Forum and haven't gotten a confirmation email, chances are there was a typo in the email address you supplied.  Please try again.  :)

Speaking of the Forum, our wonderful members have taken great care of folks while we were busy with the Rally and running around like crazy in Louisville the last couple of weeks.  There have been some great discussions on a variety of topics.  Thanks to everyone that participates!  :)

Around 4:00, Ben gathered us up to get us settled for the evening.  He gave us a key to the service bay and gave us an update.

The rig is up on jacks and our old axles are gone.

Well, actually they are in the back of the building with some others.

Everything is prepped and ready for the new installation tomorrow.  They might not get everything done tomorrow, but we are prepared for that.

Anyway, for tonight we're sleeping in our jacked up rig.

They have cable hook-ups, but the Wi-Fi won't work in the bay.  We could have activated our tethering feature and used the cell phone for internet, but we decided to do without for one night.

Ben said that the workers would be coming in around 6:00 a.m. and we needed to be out of the rig by 7:00.  It was a little quieter and warmer in the bay, but I was still concerned about our vehicles outside.  Remember, it's not the best of neighborhoods.

I'm counting on another rough night of trying to sleep.  :)

I sure hope this is worth it.  I can tell you that we've talked to a bunch of people and all of them that have had the same work done can't say enough about it.

I'm always cautious of rave reviews, especially when people have spent thousands of dollars on what they are reviewing.  Sometimes it's hard to admit to an expensive mistake ..... unless your name is Howard & Linda in which case you have a bunch of them and try to keep others from making the same ones.  :) 

But seriously, we haven't run into anyone yet that has been even the least bit wishy-washy on whether they would do it again.  So we are quite hopeful that this will be a good decision and that it will, in addition to making us safer, extend the life of our fifth wheel.  You can count on a full report when this is all done and tested.  :)

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Comments

[Jack Mayer]

I have had Mor/Ryde IS on three rigs now. You will not regret geting it. On our New Horizons we could have put on any suspension we wanted - including air ride. We put on Mor/Ryde IS. I would have nothing else.

[Charles Howard]

Good luck with your upgrade!
I still wonder why my 05 Big Sky axles are stamped 8K versus yours...
Since our RV doesn't travel much I'm content so far with the Wet Bolt EZ Flex Dexter upgrade. And only weighing 12k vs 14K GVW doesn't drive as many worries!

[George Stoltz]

Howard,

You have in the past and continue to make smart upgrades to your fifth wheel. Very interesting post.

[Jerry & Carol]

From the photo of the axels, it appears the weight of the trailer rests on the small leaf springs that are held in place by the nuts on the ends of the U-bolts that hang over each axel. Must be strong U-bolts and hardware. I would have thought the springs rested on top of the axels. Very interesting.