Boon docking and off pavement with a 45' coach.

[someguy]

This ^^^ sounds just like me.

If you think a coach is unwieldly, take a look at this rig.  76 feet long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ9gdj2VgHw

Your coach has a ton of weight on the rear axle if you lift the tag.   That truck only has about 10,000 pounds on the rear axle and the whole unit weighs nearly 40,000 pounds.     

The truck weighs about 18K.  The Mobile Suites is another 17K.  The Smart car and dolly are another 2.5K, but is carried by its own axle.   The font axle on the truck will weigh 12K.  The Mobile Suite axles will be hauling at least 12K, probably 15K.  Leaving the car out of it, 35K - 24K = 11K on the drive axle, maybe less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHh7huwoc4

[richard5933]

Their videos are amusing - not sure if they are expecting to be able to take that where ever one would normally go with a 5th wheel pulled by a pickup, but they try. More than a couple of problems for them.

[luvrbus]

Get ready they passed new laws where the 5th wheels can be 45 ft long just the 5th wheel

[neoneddy]

I wish I’d have recorded it, but we made the turn at the end of Mears Beach campground with literally inches to spare .  Cars and rigs are packed in there.

[benherman1]

This ^^^ sounds just like me.

If you think a coach is unwieldly, take a look at this rig.  76 feet long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ9gdj2VgHw

Your coach has a ton of weight on the rear axle if you lift the tag.   That truck only has about 10,000 pounds on the rear axle and the whole unit weighs nearly 40,000 pounds.     

The truck weighs about 18K.  The Mobile Suites is another 17K.  The Smart car and dolly are another 2.5K, but is carried by its own axle.   The font axle on the truck will weigh 12K.  The Mobile Suite axles will be hauling at least 12K, probably 15K.  Leaving the car out of it, 35K - 24K = 11K on the drive axle, maybe less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHh7huwoc4

Watching that makes me feel a bit better about maneuvering my 35' 5A up my driveway. I had a total of less that 40 miles behind the wheel and had a couple spots where my clearance was less 6" on either side. My driveway is about 1500' of turns, hills, and gravel through the woods on a prescriptive easement which means I can't make it any better. I had spotters in the front and back and the front spotter could direct me with hand signals and occasionally stopping to tell me what was going on. The biggest issue we ran into was having to stop to get more air pressure since the compressor was having to keep up with a leaky bag among other things.

[someguy]

Their videos are amusing - not sure if they are expecting to be able to take that where ever one would normally go with a 5th wheel pulled by a pickup, but they try. More than a couple of problems for them.

HDT RV hauler drivers claim they can go anywhere a pickup truck can because the steering axle cut is much sharper than a pickup truck.  Their words, not mine.

[Jim Blackwood]

I have a garage stub that is 73 ft from the eaves of the house to the curb on the other side. First time driving my DL I turned it around in that stub. Only had to back and fill a few times. I considered that a pretty good accomplishment. A rear view camera would be a really big help, that goes on the list.

Might have given the wrong impression, that stub is off a narrow 1 lane driveway. It was sorta tight.

Jim

[richard5933]

Get ready they passed new laws where the 5th wheels can be 45 ft long just the 5th wheel

They can pass all the laws they want, but it's not automatically going to make the campgrounds any easier to maneuver. It's just going to encourage more people to take too-large rigs in places they shouldn't be.

I've seen 53-foot trailers made into 'motor home' trailers. Doubt we're going to see them accommodated in a campground any time soon either.

[luvrbus]

They can pass all the laws they want, but it's not automatically going to make the campgrounds any easier to maneuver. It's just going to encourage more people to take too-large rigs in places they shouldn't be.

I've seen 53-foot trailers made into 'motor home' trailers. Doubt we're going to see them accommodated in a campground any time soon either.

There was one in the KOA in Williams Az last week and I am sure that wasn't his first campground,all the RV parks we stayed in so far this trip have 65 to 75 feet pull throughs
 

[richard5933]

Head up to this part of the country or the the areas north/east of here towards New England and you'll see much different offerings. Things are much different in the western & southern parts.

What length of rig you can maneuver through a campground will depend on what parts of the country you plan to visit. We were in a KOA in Virginia which could handle a 45-foot coach towing a car, but the nearby roads couldn't easily hand that.

[someguy]

Doesn't the ring gear have to be on the other side of the pinion to get the correct rotation? That means a different carrier housing (hogs head) to get the right pinion height and reverse cut gears doesn't it? So then the only thing interchangeable in the hogs head would be the differential carrier.

Thinking about this further, I'm guessing the bus drive axles use the same "differential carrier" but spin it 180 degrees in the differential housing, ie upside down from how it runs in the trucks.  That would put the ring gear on the other side and drive the axles in the right direction.

I should call a gear shop and find out.

[someguy]

Their videos are amusing - not sure if they are expecting to be able to take that where ever one would normally go with a 5th wheel pulled by a pickup, but they try. More than a couple of problems for them.

"We Hit a Tree... and a Gate... and a Garden Island"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skOLnxz8Oxk

The problem with his rig is the trailer pivots on its axles going around a corner and the trailer axles are about 45 feet behind the front of the truck.  You need to get the front of the truck 45 feet past the corner before you start turning or the trailer undercuts the turn the truck makes and rubs the obstacle on the inside of the turn.  And his swing out is very wide too, especially with the tote thing on the back.

A coach pivots on the drive axle if the tag is lifted.  The drive axle is about 30 feet from the front of the bus.

The other issue with 5ers is that the entire undercarriage - tires, brakes, springs, axles and hubs -  are undersized for the job.  Especially if you tow long distances, when it is hot.  His trailer has 10,000 miles on it and the brake is dragging and he is about to have a bearing issue.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZHsEUuskk

[Jim Blackwood]

Thinking about this further, I'm guessing the bus drive axles use the same "differential carrier" but spin it 180 degrees in the differential housing, ie upside down from how it runs in the trucks.  That would put the ring gear on the other side and drive the axles in the right direction.

I should call a gear shop and find out.

I doubt it. That would place the pinion above the centerline of the axle. But you could check it easily enough by looking under a bus.

Jim

[DoubleEagle]

A coach pivots on the drive axle if the tag is lifted.

A Coach pivots on the heaviest axle, the tag gets dragged up or down. It pivots easier with less resistance if the tag is up, but the point of pivoting is the drive axle. 

[DoubleEagle]

Their videos are amusing - not sure if they are expecting to be able to take that where ever one would normally go with a 5th wheel pulled by a pickup, but they try. More than a couple of problems for them.

I think they made a big deal out of nothing. A good driver could have maneuvered out of there without the chit-chat. There was a camera at the fifth-wheel, she was not needed. I doubt the driver had tractor-trailer experience.