Campground antics and lessons learned....

[Sarge]

Well, after gougeing up the underside of the 5ver at a very "steep" campground last month, I finally pulled out the two spacers at the bottom of the spring pack on the rears of the dually. The 4X4 dually sits so high, that even with my fiver which was built to be "4X4 ready" still didn't have enough room between the bed and the underside of the fiver. I only had about 4", and a little less than that at the tail gate. On the flat or a mild grade, things worked great. However on a sharp turn on a grade or steep driveway I would start to sweat.

Finally at a campground in New Mexico which was nicely treed and had spaces cut in among the sloped areas, it happened. I pulled into it easily enough, guiding the fiver between the pines. I didn't notice the hump at the front of the space (a pull through) with a sharp right turn at the end. I hooked up and started to pull out, watching the mirrors and and the trees. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw the bed of the truck jammed into the bottom of the fiver And I still had about 10' to go before the road leveled out. To avoid crushing the tail gate, or tearing a hole in the bottom of the fiver, the only choice was to backup. So I slowly backed out the way I came in, with the wife watching the trees from behind me. The only problem was that the space was a semi circle, with a large pine right in the center, and at both sides of the entry.

When I pulled in I cut very close to the left tree to swing around the center pivot tree. On the way back out, I couldn't cut it as close and wound up narrowly missing (by inches) another pine on the opposite side of the road behind me. And then "Murphy" showed up. The ground under the curb side of the 5ver was soft, and the wheels sunk into the dirt about 6" causing the fiver to lean against a rather large pine with the rear of the awning. To pull forward would have ripped the awning off, and most likely the rear corner of the 5ver.

To get out of this predictament, I carry about a dozen 2X6 pieces of wood about 16" long to use a leveling blocks. We stacked the blocks in front of both right side wheels about 3 blocks high. Then I pulled forward slowly (than heaven for the granny gear on my six speed) and as the 5ver moved forward, the trailer leveled and pulled it off the tree. Right then and there I knew I would be lowering the back of the truck to gain some bed rail space.

Lessons learned? 1) Always look at all the factors invollved when pulling into a camp space. 2) Don't assume that because you pulled in easily, that the exit will be the same. 3) If you think that some contidition with your truck or trailer needs attention, it probably does and to put it off only makes it worse later. 4) Extra leveling blocks are a good thing. They don't weigh much, and you never know what they may come in handy for. 5) And lastly, always be nice to the wife, and maintain your cool when things start to go sideways. I never would have gotten out of that situation without serious damage to the 5ver without her.

Lastly I want to thank Ken Lenger for the instructions and pictures on his web site that I looked at several times before removing the spacers on the truck, it really helped.