Thursday, September 3, Deb and I took the fifth wheel out for its first trip. Our destination - Quiet Valley Ranch, 7 miles south of Kerrville, Texas, to attend the 2015 Kerrville Fall Music Festival. The following recounts the travails of our trip. If I covered everything in a single post, it would be as long as a James Joyce short story; so I will be covering each topic related to the trip as a separate post.
Day 1 – Hitch
Our plan was to be on the road by 10:00 am. We were loaded
up and ready for me to hitch the trailer to the truck by 9:45. Things were
looking good.
Like most motorcoaches and fifth wheels, our trailer come
with an automatic leveling system. The auto level is computerized system that
will raise and lower the jacks until the unit is stabilized and level. Watching it work is very cool, kind of like Transformers.
When it is time to leave, the auto level system should
return the unit to the height at which it was disconnected from the truck. Of
course it helps to follow the instructions as written. I thought I remembered
what to do. (Yes, this is referred to as foreshadowing.) Don’t remember exactly
what I did, but looking back and rereading the instructions, I realize I
did not properly unlevel the unit.
Once I had the unit at what I thought was level, I backed up
the truck to connect the trailer to the hitch. After a couple of tries, we had
it lined up perfectly. I looked like the unit was low enough. Maybe the king
pin was a little higher than the hitch, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Or so
I thought.
Backed the truck up, heard the click of the king pin in the jaws
of the hitch and the handle releasing. Got out to inspect pulled on the handle
and realized it wasn’t completely closed and that I could not move the handle
at all. Further inspection found the king pin was trapped between the hitch
plate and the top of the hitch jaws.
For 45 minutes, I tried everything I could to release the
king pin. Raised the fifth wheel. Lowered the fifth wheel. Back up the truck.
Try to drive the truck forward. Nothing. Deb searched the web for solutions.
Nothing. Finally called Reese Products’
technical support.
I forgot his name, but the technical support guy was very
nice and very helpful. He confirmed my hope that I was not the first person to
make this mistake and told me the solution was straight forward. It involved releasing the hitch from the truck
bed. While this sounds complicated, it is easy. The hitch is held onto the
truck by two pins. Remove the pins, slide the two guides on each side from the
bracket, and the hitch is released.
I followed the above, and the hitch was released from the
truck. What I forgot to do was put the truck in park and engage the parking
brake. The truck moved forward and the king pin was released from the hitch.
However, the truck kept moving forward. Deb yelled, I muttered an obscenity,
then went racing to truck cab, pushed the gear into park and slammed the brake
with my hand. Vehicle stopped. Fortunately, the truck did not hit anything. The
only damage, other than to my ego, was the barrel connector to the trailer rear
view camera was torn from the wiring. Considering everything that could have
gone wrong, that is an easy fix.
After taking a few deep breaths, collecting our thoughts, we
started over. Backed the truck up, made sure the unit was lowered so that the
king pin was at the proper height, then backed the truck so that the hitch was
engaged. Get out to close the hitch handle and to put the locking pin in place.
Victory.
Took a picture of the truck and trailer together then took
off for Kerrville.
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