40v13: Tips

Table of Contents

3-season doors

Inner door - sliding track

We fully open the 3-season doors when we load vehicles into the garage.   We have found that the doors do not close properly unless we are careful to follow the procedure below.

Not doing it this way (e.g. trying to swing the outer doors closed with the inner doors extended) tends to get hung up and the inner doors will not sit properly in the track.   Our dealership apparently didn’t know this either, as we brought it home with several screws ripped out of the bracket that rides inside the track.

Slide the inner door "in", so that it is flush with the outer door.
Close the two (still together)
Peek inside to ensure the top of the door latched properly
Slide the inner door "closed", watching the tab on top ("A") to make sure it slides behind the track ("B")
The inner door properly in the track
Glass panels in transit

Fully lower the glass in the upper door panels while traveling to prevent breakage.

Lowering the hitch

This is very truck specific.

We have the Mopar (Curt) A30 5th wheel hitch in our truck.  We bought the truck with the hitch pre-installed so I did not see how it was put together.  Instead of just removing the four bolts attaching the body (yoke?) to the legs, I also had to loosen the legs and pull them away from the body to lower it.  This is because there are “pins” in the sides that secure the main body in place, preventing it from just sliding up and down.

Why did we lower it?  I did not realize how high the truck was pushing the trailer, since it looked level to me.  After getting denied entry to two tunnels I looked into it closer and found we were indeed riding tall in the front.  

I lowered the hitch until only the recommended 5-1/2″ of clearance remained between the bottom of the RV cap and the rails of the truck bed.  Even with this done I put a level on the roof and see we are still a touch nose-high.  🙁

Breakaway brake cable

I used to carry our sewer equipment (stinky slinky, etc) in a plastic tote bin in the bed of the truck between cab and 5th wheel hitch.  

On a recent trip I move the bin between hitch and tailgate, freeing up space behind the cab for a bicycle.

What I did not realize was that the breakaway brake cable was catching on the corners of the bin.   On a particularly sharp corner it pulled the brake cable!  It was a few minutes of panic on my part, as I was caught at a dead stop, blocking two lanes of traffic on a fairly busy road.  I had no idea what had happened because the bin was also blocking my view of the cable when I peered into the truck.  

Schwintek Slides

The types of slides changes between models and model years.  In our Valor, the TV/fireplace slide uses the Schwintek system (now called Lippert In-Wall Slide) and it is advised to hold the button down for an additional 3 seconds after fully opening or closing the slide.  This is to re-calibrate it each time.  

Online Resources

Fuel

We’ve seen several YouTube videos explaining the TSD (aka Open Roads) fuel card for diesel.

In short, this is a (free) fuel card you can apply for.  This allows you to pay at the pump when going through trucker lanes (normally if you don’t have a fleet fuel card you must go inside to pay first).  Note:  It cannot be used at the auto pumps, it must be at the trucker pumps.

The money spent at each fuel stop is auto-withdrawn from your bank account, usually within 24 hours of each transaction.

In addition to being able to pay at the pump in trucker lanes, you usually save a good bit.  The amount varies by gas station, and only certain stations participate.  I use the Open Roads app on my phone to locate places that accept the card, almost always prior to departure.

In the last 6 stops, we have saved an average of 46 cents per gallon of diesel.  The least was 22 cents and the most 61.    
The total savings (after fees) was over $55 dollars on a total of 116 gallons of diesel.

There are two fees per transaction:  a fee for using the card (usually about 65 cents) and a percentage for TSD, which for us is 10% of whatever your total savings per stop.   e.g. If you saved 50 cents per gallon at one station, your TSD fee would be 5 cents per gallon.

Notes:

  • If you have not used trucker lanes before (we had not), please be aware of a few things:
    • The fuel hose and handle boasts a high flow rate, so be sure to have your handle firmly and deeply inserted into your tank!
    • There are a number of buttons to push at the pump, reviewing the instructions on the Open Roads website will help clarify those.
    • When you are done fueling please move forward so the next truck can fuel behind you!
  • I strongly recommend watching YouTube videos about TSD and RVs in the trucker lanes, it really helped us.