Saturday happenings

Got up bright and early had coffee with Donna and went down to my office to browse the last couple of days of blogs I had missed. Adam was up about 07:30am and his mom came and picked him up for an Easter Egg hunt, Is it getting to be Easter already?  Yesterday was another gorgeous day with plenty of sun and temps in the upper 60’s. That changed today as it is in the 40’s with a high predicted of 50 and cloudy and looking like rain by this evening. Much better than snow.
I have been noticing a lot of the bloggers with 5th wheels have Chev/GMC duramax tow vehicles, I see several like Rick & Paullettes that are even the same color and could be a twin of ours. We bought ours in 2004 and it has about 75.000 miles on it and has so far been a great truck, other that one minor recall for the tailgate straps, it has never had to go back for any problems, Of course I change the oil and oil filter every 3000 and the air and fuel filters every 5000. I have had people tell me I am wasting my money doing this so often, but I can’t help but think this is money well spent on preventative maintenance. Would like to hear from others with their ideas. The only thing I have added is I took the original shocks off at about 6000 miles and bought a set of Bilstein gas shocks, they seemed to get rid of any bounce I had with the soft original shocks. I have a combined weight of about 18000 lbs when set up for a trip and the power seems adequate so I haven’t bought a chip for it. The only thing I miss since I drive Motorcoachs is the lack of a Jake brake. You get used to them when you drive bigger vehicles and I may look into some sort of exhaust brake down the road. Again if someone out there has experience with this on a pickup let me know your findings.

Here is the truck with our old 5th wheel in the background, This is before I put the Foldacover bed cover on it, It is really a great cover it folds forward when you want to tow and exposes the 5th wheel hitch, then when you want to cover it again it easily fold back and can be locked shut when the gate is up and interlock will prevent the tailgate from being opened until the cover is unlocked. Now I can put stuff in the back like groceries and they stay dry and can be unloaded without going in the truck.


This is our present 5th wheel a 2005 Coachman Chaparral,
The campground it is in is a private one at Lake Sherwood Mo. We own a lot out there and as a lot owner you have access to their campground. They have about 8 pull throughs and about 15 back in spots all hard packed graded gravel with wood curbing. picnic tables, bbq pits, and 30 amp power. A dump station and bathrooms/shower facilities are also provided. It is $5.00 a night for members and a member can bring a guest with their RV for a $10 a night fee.
We will probably sell this lot when we sell the house. But it has been a worthwhile investment for the last ten years as it gives you a great escape place within a 30 minute drive with 5 lakes and a swimming pool and swimming beach and clubhouse.
Well that’s about it for today, be safe out there. Sam & Donna