DanielBoondock

You read my mind, I anticipated there would be interest lol .. I made sure to wrap this up by the last Dexter trip GM just dropped an Surround Recording feature via OTA, but it ‘only’ records four cameras front/back/sides, so ill have to have my wife point a phone at the screen Just thought I’ll check the trucks App Store and see if there’s a screen record..

Trail cam! The Sierra EV has one of if not the biggest screen in the industry, massive 17” tablet, and GM’s got IMO the best cameras in the industry. Anyhow I can have two trailer cams, I’ve got one on the back for transparent trailer etc. I put the second on as a trail cam Spent a long time thinking about where to put it. Up top is pretty well covered with the other cameras, I realized the ground was the weak spot. Use cases you all will be familiar with Shows levelers/chocks etc. When driving on/off levelers it’s impossible to tell where you are and I often overshoot and bung them up as there’s few inches of margin with dual axel When offroad, or even parking lot speed bumps, will be really nice to see them coming instead of guessing for known obstacles. Sometimes I have to drive over a curb too Fun and a good idea to keep an eye on the trailer suspension Backing up to a stop. At my park I have the cement parking stop placed where I want it, but I can’t tell where it is until I hit it. Installation was ridiculously easy. This and only this cross bar was perfect as its the only one not holding anything up, so I could simply zip tie to it. And of course they have these genius cable runs on the two edges.

Congrats - the following March here 🥳 Wasn’t planning on it. As noted the Alcan are beefier, and basically don’t see a reason to mix and match. But also as mentioned it’s a good idea to keep them as spares, in fact I’ll keep the whole set as a spare until eventually I probably get sick of them kicking around and recycle 😅 VERY good tip, was not aware of that thanks!

Thanks for the encouragement! Good tip on the impact wrench, that’s the tool I was looking for. I already have a DeWalt mini vac and a leaf blower for the trailer so will add the mid impact wrench and 3/4” thin walled protective socket, plus a general impact socket set for using on the trailer AI is helpful here to pull out the tips from the forum, here’s the ones that stand out Make sure the shackles point up when assembling or it’ll have to be redone Do one side (driver) completely both axels first, then the other side, so the opposing side is aligned and secure Tighten U-bolts in a criss-cross Align the wet bolts with the grease holes horizontal, and seat the splines (e.g. rubber mallet) before final tightening Shocks Leave the compression strap on the Bulldogs until assembled and on the ground, then clip off to uncompress Be careful about compressing but not squashing the shock end bumpers Torque Bulldogs to 40 ft-lbs and the rest to Alcan specs (provided) Do all final torque settings while the trailer is on the ground and ‘loaded’, not hanging in the air Use the impact wrench only for loosing and spinning on the nuts, always use a torque wrench for final setting. Don’t use the impact wrench on the wet bolts

Thanks JD, yeah been busy, sandwich generation stuff … Thanks for the reminder about your post, taking notes, I’ll probably PM you once I’ve compiled them if you don’t mind correcting my homework That sounds more like it! I don’t mind doing it, shouldn’t be hard for old engie’s like us but I’m getting pulled in ten directions at the moment so just wanted to pay somebody. Anyhow I’m mooch camping supporting some family again in a couple weeks so I’m thinking I’ll just do it then. Yeah at this point it’s been enough effort spent talking to people I’m ready to call it sunk costs and just git ‘er done. I’ve got a couple good jacks, stands, a DeWalt torque/breaker bar, and as JD says there’s the rear trailer jacks. And hey saving myself $400/$900 I can pop for another tool or two for ‘free’, hmmmm …😅

OK, so I ordered the springs in springtime and made an appointment in July when we’d be in Utah near Grand Junction. But then they got a series of wildfires all throughout that area, my wife has PTSD from us going through them at home, so we cancelled the trip. Alcan wanted steep fees for holding on to them until we could come again next spring, no good (I had already paid for the springs per their requirement when you order). So I paid to have them shipped out figuring a local trailer suspension shop would have no problem with it. Wrong - they won’t install ‘customer supplied parts’. They want to sell you the parts themselves, sigh … OK so then I’m trying my local garage, near where I store the trailer with easy access. Great folks, used them for lots of stuff, but they don’t normally do trailers. Gave them all the information, they thought it looked doable for $1500, but I should check if they’re ballpark. AI search of this forum gave more like 300-500 or so. He said $900/minimum at a upcharge for (again), customer supplied parts and wouldn’t do it for less than four hours @ 250/hr. Grrrrrrr There’s another shop I can try locally, or I could take them BACK to Alcan next year, but I’m getting frustrated and thinking about just installing the damn things myself. I’ll troll the (38 page!) thread for DIY install. Anyhow feeling down at the moment, looking for advice thanks

Interesting choice. Cushioning the pitch seems like a good idea, that's the main reaction I get at my hitch. The Anderson is designed to constrain yaw to prevent sway. I get none of that, and the truck has antisway built in with rear steer wheels. You don't get any weight distribution, but the Anderson doesn't do much of that anyhow as far as I can tell, don't know why they advertise it as a WD hitch.

The manual wants you to use bleach and the boondocking port to use the pump to pull diluted bleach through into the tank. Disadvantage is its a bit of a pain, and I’d prefer a better alternative to bleach. So instead I’m using the Sani-System packets which use a mixture of ammonium chlorides. It also has the advantage that it can be run through the water heater. Regardless of your sanitizer, looking for pros/cons of this approach. Instead of the boondocking port which requires futzing around with valves which is a pain, I got this https://www.amazon.com/RV-Inline-Sanitizer-Easiest-disinfect/dp/B08F2QTQ5T The picture is deceiving, it’s a neat little inline container that the bleach/NCl can be poured into, that then is attached to the (for me) streetside port direct to tank. Then just run the faucets through the system. No messing with valves, much quicker and easier. However, are there parts of the system that are not being sanitized? I guess the answer is yes - the curbside port, which I rarely use. I guess I answered my own question, it really should go through the curbside. Anyhow comments are welcome …

That’s only three years old! Any idea why they got so bad, previous owner didn’t grease?

From the new weekly update Jason said it kind of oddly - they've been selling from the factory for years and that's how I got it as as West Coast dealers are sparse - but I think he means they're no longer going to sell through dealers. My guess would be the cost of the trailers and customization. One of the 'closest' dealers to me is a couple day drive over to Utah. I talked to them, but of course they didn't stock what I wanted so it was a custom order with a big downpayment. And the sales guy wasn't super helpful, I wanted the big 640 Lithionics which he pushed back on. "Those are too expensive!" 😅 Odd thing to say, my finances are my business, and I'm glad I got them even with the EV. Anyhow got tired of trying to work with them and just went straight to the factory as there was really no advantage to the dealer.

I've got a Mitsubishi I had installed in my garage/office. Looked at doing it myself, doesn't appear to be a big job, but at the time the price was good to have the experts do it. I think these come with precharged lines too so you don't have to get the vac pump and mess around with all that. I'd be cautious about having multiple registers/heads. I worked with them about putting a second in the bedroom ... I don't recall the limitations now, but I remember the upshot is that its better to not do these hydra installations.

These look pretty awesome, thanks for the tip! The '26's don't have touch lights, but plain jane bright white which cheesy little switches. Olivers have a huge amount of lighting for a small trailer but I use them all. Getting to choose your temp is amazing! How good is it, which one did you choose? Otherwise the remembering the state is a huge feature too. Choosing blue for a nightlight is absolutely brain dead though, it should have been deep dark red to preserve night vision and not wake you up. Blue is a morning light and is the clue to your brain that its time to wake up. Oh well ...

I’ll call (probably), but still won’t change the axels. I’m at 0% gain on the freeways now and only go up to an exciting 0.5% when in traffic. Don’t use the brakes much basically

OK. Yeah the Alcan guy on the phone asked if I also wanted to install new axels? “Uh, no, why?” I explained that they were D52’s with the spring derate, to which he replied that the brakes were (maybe?) different. Like I say he didn’t seem confident of that and I wasn’t really buying it, I think from our discussion we can conclude that we believe it’s just a stock D52.

Right The question is whether these have gimped 3500 brakes, maybe the conversation is getting a little mixed. Just realized I misinterpreted what scuba was saying, I thought he meant that a 12” drum means a different brake than the standard D52, but on re-reading I think he means that’s just a D52. Those drums look like they’re 12”, and from the label we know 26’s have D52’s derated to 3500. Long story short I think these are stock 52’s with the on paper derating due to the springs. Speak up if I’m missing something