New to me 2014 Heartland Road Warrior 400
 

We just picked up a new toy hauler yesterday.

We are the second owners. Previous owners took extremely good care of it. Awnings were rarely used, so they are practically new. The generator only has 150 hours on it.

It has hydraulic front jacks, electric rear. No auto leveling system - can that be added and are they worth the expense (haven't even looked at prices)?

I plan on replacing the single battery with 4x 6 volt Trojan T-105 batteries.

The land yacht also has one of those automatic setup satellite tv dishes and 3 lcd TVs along with a built in surround sound system.

Towed it home with the Andersen Ultimate 5th Wheel hitch and pulled extremely well. Very smooth!

Anyone have any tips or tricks for this behemoth? It's our first 5th Wheel, but second toy hauler. We sold our bumper pull '08 Weekend Warrior back in February, so we're glad we're back at it again.

Shame you only like the mini campers [laugh]

Geezz that is a big bastard!

LMAO! Do they even make them any bigger?

That 08 was no longer cutting it for us. With 4 fast growing kids that 26 footer was tight!

This one has 3 slides as well, whereas the other didn't. I can take a deep breath and stretch without feeling like I'm pushing the walls out lol.

Nice rig I'm sure it will give many years of service. My 36ft 5ver came with factory rear electric jacks, they were so slow and I got fed up with standing in the rain pulling them up so we could leave. When the motor died and I found out the price of a new one I flipped the mechanism around and installed a 1/4 inch shear pin and now use a battery powered drill that's much faster.[laugh]

Thanks for the tip! The rear are electric and seem to be okay as far as how quick they work. New jacks are expensive! I'll keep your tip in mind if these ever give up on me.

The rear jacks are probably Lippert ones and there is a manual drive on the other side should you need it, it only has a 1/8th inch shear pin though. I only turned my jacks around so I could do them from the side the door is on. My motor quit at just over a year old, the teeth inside the motor are just plastic and shear off if too much torque is used when stabilizing the rear..

The self levelers add complication and weight. They don't always work as advertised.

The Andersen hitch is the best ever.

I recommend staying out of the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia towing that behemoth with a 2500. CHP is beginning to weigh the rigs in certain areas, like Pismo Beach.

I'm not certain what brand they are. The trailer is parked at a friend's place and I forgot to get the manuals after I parked it. One would think plastic isn't a great idea to use in something made to stabilize such a large structure. We'll be taking it out here in a couple weekends, so I'll be able to what all it has.

I'll keep that in mind with the drive if these end up going out.

Yeah I did a little digging and wasn't too pleased with what I could find. I'll stick with leveling it manually. The previous owner did leave the set of levels in the trailer for us.

We are moving to NM soon so we have no intentions heading that way again. Last trip was to north cal and that was enough for me lol. Beautiful up there, but felt like going into another country with their border patrol entry points.

It's funny the only difference between a 2500 and 3500 is a sticker and the leaf packs...at least 2010-2012, yet they are way under rated for what they can actually handle. Our next truck will be a dually, but unless I'm either called out or get tired of my 2010, I'm going to avoid the vehicle payments for as long as possible.

Do you know if the hitch can be flipped inward on the Mega Cabs? I currently have it set up with it facing to the back of axle and the coupler facing backward as well to pull the trailer in a bit closer. I would rather reverse everything but don't want to get it too close to the cab. With the current setup it seems to pull fine. The picture I posted had the coupler towards the front which set the trailer way too far back and pulled a little weird.

Andersen recommends always installing the hitch as recommended, but the coupler/adapter can be rotated 180 degrees on shortbeds. Call Jason at Andersen if you have any questions. He can be very helpful.

Check the torque on the four allen setscrews (40#) about once a season.

I'll flip the hitch around to see how close the trailer gets when making tight turns. I'd rather have it with the offset in front/right on top of the axle. I'll post up the results. Won't be until next week though.

Nice rig.

If it didn't come with winterizing valve and hot water bypass, I'd add those. T-125's or whatever would be a nice upgrade. If you are going to boondock, or if the unit will be stored for long periods w/o occasional shore power, a good solar system would be nice. A lot of the discount installers skimp on wire size and use cheap circuit breakers that are inefficient.

Otherwise, with any RV spend a day looking the whole thing over and adding little things. They never have enough towel racks, paper towel holders, pop-a-plate, or whatever. If it didn't come with one of the nice fantastic fans, that's worth doing.

Also I'd highly recommend tearing down the hubs for bearing inspection, repack, new seals, brake cleaning and adjust. While you are at it, buy a set of bearings and races, an extra seal, can of grease, and tools and keep them in the rig somewhere.

You might also run the rig over a scale. Can already assume the truck is over (meh), but if the rear tires are over their max load...

Good idea to check the bearings and the brakes. My seals were bypassing grease early on. I would also install wetbolts, bronze bushings and the thicker spring shackles that come in the kit. My MOR/ryde kit was only $88. No more suspension creaking and the greasable bushings last longer than the OEM nylon ones.