New to Forest River- not to RVing

[rvannie]

I just purchased a 28FLS and it drags it's rear end at the slightest hint of a hill or bump. The former owner had the foresight to put jack protectors on it but I am still concerned about how far forward the wheels are on this trailer. Anyone have the same issue and if so, what has been your solution? Advise is definitely appreciated.

[BC Camper]

What is your tow vehicle...hitch setup?

[rvannie]

I am pulling it with a 2004 chevy crewcab longbed duramax diesel with a drawtite WDH which the RV Dealership supposedly adjusted to work properly with this trailer.

[jaxfl]

When you are connected and you stand back and look at a side view of the truck and TT is the bottom line from truck front to TT back a straight and level line or is the distrotion? If it is not straight then it is not set right.

[rvannie]

The truck and trailer are level when hooked up. I have done this before with the weight distribution hitch. I was just wondering if there was anything I can do to put wheels or bracing brackets underneath to prevent the damage to the stabilizer jacks and the bottom from scraping in the future. Ground clearance on this trailer is very low.

[Glenn5995]

SKID WHEELS

[RubenZ]

Is it because your Trailer Springs go under the Axle? You may need to do the over axle conversion.

[DAISY BOYKIN]

Had the same problem with a 26' bunkhouse by Dutchmen. Would drag so bad finally tore the dump valve off which was mounted 2/3 way behind the rear axle and the rear of TT. It had skid bars that were installed at the factory, would still drag its butt.

Cured the problem. Cut off the bottom two inches of the skid bars, welded
heavy duty swivel wheels onto skid bars. had the TT 12 years, never tore off anything else. Wheels would do the trick. They were heavy duty steel caster wheels that swivel. Do not let the prices scare you, picture is just for example.
The wheels can be had for as little as $14.00 each.

Rolled in and out many steep driveways at Burger Kings, McDonald's, gas stations. easier to fit casters than to flip the axles.View 74 Products

[RubenZ]

Ya the bad thing about the wheels or even the skid bars is that when the trailer drags that much on them, you pretty much have the weight at the tongue and on those skids leaving very little weight on the tires and support in the middle of trailer. Honestly the best long term solution is just see whats going on with the suspension.

[MtnGuy]

Originally Posted by RubenZ

Ya the bad thing about the wheels or even the skid bars is that when the trailer drags that much on them, you pretty much have the weight at the tongue and on those skids leaving very little weight on the tires and support in the middle of trailer. Honestly the best long term solution is just see whats going on with the suspension.

Ruben has raised a good point. These are valid concerns if your trailer is continually dragging, but putting all of that weight on skid wheels and the tongue are concerning, also.

1 thing said is the RV dealer "supposedly" set the hitch up correctly. You need to check that out by doing the fender measurements according to your instruction booklet, or making a couple of trips across some scales. Most dealers set the WDH up, and stand back and say "that looks about right". They have no idea how much the fenders drop.

Too stiff of spring bars could be a problem, as well as distributing too much weight to the front of the TV.

Another way to approach the dragging is to drop the hitch 1 more notch, and let the trailer tongue ride slightly low.

If I were to mount skid wheels, I would mount them as high as possible to where the bumper, jacks, or waste lines don't drag.

[rvannie]

Wow, such great responses! Thanks. The skid wheels were what I was leaning towards but the point made about the weight on them and not on the wheels where it is supposed to be is making me rethink them. I also like the idea of dropping the WDH a notch. not sure I want to get into leaf springs etc... Thanks again for all the good advise. U guys rock!

[RubenZ]

Rvannie,

Can you post a pic of your setup? or a pic of a same model trailer. Maybe the trailer just sits too low. Thats how our old KZ was. Anything and I mean anything would make that sucker scrape the back.

[rvannie]

will do. will post it tomorrow.

[backin15]

If you have the torsion flex independent axels you may not want to drop the nose as you may overload the front axel and tires. If you have leaf spring suspension you would be ok because there is an equalizer so the load is shared between the axels if it is not level.

[rvannie]

Took it back to the dealer yesterday and they dropped the head 2 or 3 notches. Seems like that solved the problem for now. Thanks for all the help.

[uglydog]

Me and my husband just bought a wolfpack 27wp. Bought it online and didn't get to look at it until we drove 7 hours to pick it up. On the way home we found out the hard way that it is just way to low. We pulled into a gas station that had a small curb and funny pitch. The jack on the front drug bad no major damage though. Now that we got it home the spare tire drags at the bottom of our driveway and there is only about 3 inches of clearance under the tongue. It is a hill but not at all steep or difficult. This trailer is just way to low. The thing is in the shop right now getting the axles flipped. This should add about 4 to 6 inches, we hate to do this but it seems to be the only option. We go to Hatfield and McCoy trails and this is not interstate driving. We are afraid of tearing the thing up. I think this is just poor design, just like the lp tanks and generator rack on the tongue that won't let you make a tight turn. That problem has already been fixed. We will see if flipping the axles works or not. I like the trailer it just needs to be a little more practical and usable. We are hauling off road vehicles and don't need the low stance for loading street bikes. Maybe Forest river should offer an off road package for this use.

[rvannie]

Never heard of doing that. Too bad we can't jack up these trailers like so many of the trucks you see on the road and lift them that way. 5th wheels as a general rule don't have this problem either because they are higher off the ground. I think a pair of 8" lifts would work wonders except for catching the occasional wind gust!

[uglydog]

We just got back from Gilbert,WV. That was about 450 miles round trip. My husband likes the axle setup much better than factory. Instead of having about a inch of suspension travel it now has about 4. The suspension actually works like it should. The trailer pulls much better, it doesn't sway to much and doesn't seem top heavy or anything. All he did was take the axles out from under the trailer and put them under the springs instead of on top of them like it was originally. The axles are crowned (they are intentionally bent to handle weight) so you should make sure the crowns are up when you move the axles under the springs. This will require cutting the axle saddles off and welding them to the other side of axle. Saddles are just brackets for the springs to set on. My husband is a proffessional welder so it was no big deal. An rv dealer or local weld shop should be able to flip them for you if you don't want to tackle it yourself. The best part of this modification is that we can get up the driveway without dragging. I don't think we could have made it up the hill to campground either. I highly recomend flipping the axles.

[hoovercab]

We have a Flagstaff 829BHSS, we did not bottem out when we traveled, but we had problems with inclines. We are a low profile (and we do sit close to the ground compare to other styles). We had to get skid wheels to get up our small incline on our driveway. We would have taken off our waste lines () if we did not get skid wheels, but be careful get a good pair we got 5" and paid about 139.00 for them.My husband did not want to drill into the frame so this is the system he came up with, we have never had a problem with bottem out now that we have them installed. My neighbor bought a cheap pair and he took the off the first time he tried going down his driveway. We also had the RV dealer adjust the hitch system as ball part was sitting to high and forcing the rear of the camper down. We also have air suspension on our Navigator which is always adjusting to the load which sometimes works against us before the adjustments. Not sure if this helps, but you are not alone with low ground clearence.

[TURBS]

so are the axles leaf or torsion now ?