towing up a steep driveway - Page 4

**Bill** · 01-31-2011, 07:32 PM

Amy -

You can find some good results with a Google search on "tires age code". The first hit I got was

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11

It has some good pictures of what you are looking for.

Our TMO resident tire expert is wmtire. I think he has posted some pictures, or at least some links. You might use the Advanced Search tool on his name and "age" or "date code".

The codes you're looking for may be on the inside sidewall of the tire - handy, huh?

Bill

Wavery · 01-31-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMMiniVan

Dave, I finally got a good look at the tires today (we had to fold it all up again for the impending snowstorm) and I can't find any set of 4 numbers on them anywhere. I did confirm that they are 14" tires, which is good. They said 75R14 on them. My husband wants to replace them with 15" wheels and tires before our first trip in a few weeks but we were trying to at least figure out how old they are!

-Amy

Amy,

On your '04 2720, you will have to install a "Lift kit" before you install the 15" tires (unless the trailer already has it). You will also have to buy new wheels. When you buy new wheels, be sure that they have a rating of 1875-2,000# or higher to have a little extra cush.

I get the impression that you guys may not be do-it-yourselfers. You may want to go to a welding or frame shop to have 2.5" lift spacers (~13" long) put between the axle and trailer frame.

Also, be aware that the trailer with a (2.5") lift kit and 15" tires will be about 3" taller than it is now. That's a good thing (for the most part) unless you keep your trailer in the garage and you don't have an extra 3" of clearance between the A/C unit and the garage door.

Barb&Tim · 01-31-2011, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMMiniVan

Dave, I finally got a good look at the tires today (we had to fold it all up again for the impending snowstorm) and I can't find any set of 4 numbers on them anywhere. I did confirm that they are 14" tires, which is good. They said 75R14 on them. My husband wants to replace them with 15" wheels and tires before our first trip in a few weeks but we were trying to at least figure out how old they are!

-Amy

Look for the letters DOT with the 4 #s following it. It will only be on one sidewall and in my case they were both on the inside so i had to crawl under with a flashlight to see them.

Tim

Wavery · 01-31-2011, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barb&Tim

Look for the letters DOT with the 4 #s following it. It will only be on one sidewall and in my case they were both on the inside so i had to crawl under with a flashlight to see them.

Tim

Mine were on the inside also.

On an '04 trailer, I would doubt the previous owner replaced the tires (unless he had blow-outs).

My guess is that you may find that it still has the original Marathon tires (7-8 years-old). Most people replace tires @ ~6 years. If the previous owner did that, he would have surely given you the receipt for the tires.

Having said that, I bought my '04 a few months ago and it had 3 different tires on it (none the original Marathons). That just tells me that he had several blow-outs. The 1st thing I did was install the 2.5" lift kit and 15" Maxxis tires.

02-01-2011, 09:07 PM

Thanks all! We didn't consider looking on the inside

The trailer is currently holed up in the garage as we are all housebound with the blizzard now. When things warm up again, we'll pull it out and look. We intended to take it on a first trip in another week but I'm now worrying it won't be ready.

As for the lift kit, we were going to have our local RV dealer install it all. Will that be sufficient? And the 3" should be ok to still fit in our garage. We are going to need to get another storage solution long term but we like the garage for now! Until hail season comes and we have to leave a car outside!

-Amy

02-01-2011, 09:09 PM

Bill,

That URL is great! I'll check it out as soon as the snow clears and we can pull it out again. We actually managed to fit the TM and our TV in the garage but there is barely room to walk, much less kneel down and look at the tires! At least they stayed out of the blizzard!

-Amy

**Bill** · 02-03-2011, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill

I've got to agree - that driveway really isn't bad. Mine is a bit worse, and there are many on the board worse than mine...

3. Go to WalMart's little RV section, and spend $20 on a plain old hitch with a new ball. Get one with a 2" drop - if it is the wrong value, you can exchange it. You wouldn't want to tow far with this hitch, but it is more than fine for working in the driveway.

Bill

Just for the fun of it, I took a couple pics to show the difference made by getting a cheap WalMart hitch for maneuvering around the driveway. You can see the photo here

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...&pictureid=468

My driveway is similar to yours - a shallow swale/ditch, and a rising driveway going up to the house. In the left side of the pic, my WDH is mounted on the Explorer, and the rear wheels of the Explorer are in the swale. As can be seen, the bottom of the hitch is within an inch of the concrete. When the tongue weight of the TM is dropped on the ball, the hitch hits the concrete, and the only solution is to put boards in the swale to raise the rear of the Explorer.

In the right side of the pic, I have removed the WDH and put in the cheap WalMart hitch. Plenty of clearance! This is the right answer for this situation.

Bill

02-04-2011, 07:43 PM

We actually had an old hitch from my husband's first car and used it as part of the driveway navigation. I think the long term solution is a powered pusher. Right now we have to wait for things to thaw...

-Amy

Wavery · 02-06-2011, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMMiniVan

We actually had an old hitch from my husband's first car and used it as part of the driveway navigation. I think the long term solution is a powered pusher. Right now we have to wait for things to thaw...

-Amy

We have a Power Caster (P2) electric dolly that I use for moving our trailer around in our subterranean garage. We paid $600 for it (Like new) used.
http://www.powercaster.com/

I'm not sure that is what you want. The tongue height is very high which drops the rear of the trailer. That may just exacerbate your problem. It doesn't have enough power to push up very much of a grade. If the ground is wet, the tire just spins. It moves the trailer very slowly.

A friend of mine bought a used 9HP garden tractor on craigslist for $400. It has a trailer hitch on it and he uses it to move his 35' TT all over his property. I plan to buy one of those when we move to our home in 2013. Our house has a very steep, winding driveway (1st pic). The house is on a private road with no way to turn around and the driveway across from us is so steep as to not be an option for turning into to back the trailer up the driveway.

Virginia Deacon · 02-06-2011, 07:07 PM

When the county resurfaced our blacktop street, they added an extra couple inches of blacktop. All our vehicles rubbed, when backing out of the driveway. The county public works department fabricated a large grate to solve this problem.

Even with the grate in place, I still need to use a 2 x 6 for each tire, on top of the grate, to keep the TrailManor from dragging the back bumper when leaving the driveway. AND, I don't pull straight out of the driveway; I leave at an angle, which keeps the TrailManor level.

Maybe these will help you come up with your own solution. I'm sure you will discover that the back bumper of your TrailManor will drag at some gas stations. IMHO, it can't be helped, except by slowly entering and exiting at an angle.