Cute camper, you prolly have a hard time feeling it behind you? 😁

Bill

 

I did some weighing with my home-brew tongue scale and determined that with everything I wanted to bring in my camper, I was approaching the max 600 pound spec tongue weight allowed on the Ridgeline. So I moved some stuff around and brought my tongue weight down. But I wanted the option to move some things to the back of the camper to more evenly distribute the weight. Unfortunately my camper doesn't have a rear hitch so I could put a basket or bike rack back there. So I looked around and found that Curt makes several universal hitches. I ended up buying this one:

Adjustable RV Trailer Hitch, 2" Receiver (Up to 66" Frames)

Properly equipping yourself is the first step to fully enjoying your next RV adventure. CURT offers a complete RV towing solution, including RV towing lights, RV wiring harnesses, cargo carriers and much more. A CURT RV hitch is your gateway to maximizing the potential of your motorhome. It's...

www.curtmfg.com

Amazon.com

I ordered mine from eTrailer:

https://www.etrailer.com/RV-and-Camper-Hitch/CURT/C13704.html

They make several sizes and configurations for this style of hitch. I had to order the bigger one because my trailer frame rails are almost 60" apart. This one can expand out to 66" wide. Oddly, the price seems to be jumping around on this part. I paid $388 for it with free shipping, but I see that today it's up over $407.

It's pretty beefy as it's rated to tow up to 5,000 pounds (which I don't particularly care about) and support up to 500 pounds tongue weight. It weighs 65 pounds and I'm not planning on putting anywhere near that much weight in the basket.

Anyhow, it bolted up under the camper without too much fuss.

I have two different cargo baskets. This one is my smaller, cheaper one. I also have a bigger one that has a "S" bent tongue to elevate the basket up higher several inches higher, which might be better to use for this application.

After installing the hitch I drove over to a CAT scale and took several weights, which I'll detail next...

 

After installing the hitch onto my Lance 1475 camper, I drove over to the CAT certified scale and took 3 weight measurements...

The first weight was when I drove straight onto the scale with my Andersen weight distribution hitch tightened as I normally tighten it - 3 turns on each nut.

Then I got out of the truck, went back to the hitch, and loosened the Andersen weight distribution hitch so that the chains were slack. I got back in the truck and did a re-weigh. Nothing else changed - I never even moved the truck.

Then I pulled off the scale and into the parking area and unhitched the camper from the Ridgeline. I left the Andersen hitch ball connected to the Ridgeline. I drove back over and did another re-weigh.

So there are my 3 weights. Simplifying a little:

So with the Andersen WDH set slack with 0 turns on the nuts, my Ridgeline weighs 2480 + 2920 = 5400 pounds. Weighed alone, my Ridgeline weighs 4960 pounds.
5400 - 4960 = 440 pounds tongue weight.

3420 trailer axle weight + 440 tongue weight = 3860 total trailer weight.

440 tongue weight / 3860 total trailer weight = 11.4% tongue weight ratio.

So this is actually remarkably close to my target tongue weight already! Everyone knows that 10-15% is the ideal target tongue weight. I was after 12 or 13% and happened to come in at 11.4%.

The distance from the axle to the center of the trailer storage compartment is very close to the distance from the axle to the center of the rear basket. So I'll have to be careful to add similar weight to both ends, which should be pretty easy to do. Then a quick check of the new tongue weight and I think I'll be good!

Also worth noting is the effects of the Andersen weight distribution hitch with 3 turns on the nuts. The front axle of my Ridgeline without a trailer is 2680 pounds. With the trailer, it drops to 2480 pounds - 200 pounds lighter. But tighten the Andersen hitch up 3 turns and it now weighs 2580 pounds - returning half the weight back to the front axle. I'm quite happy with this setup and also surprised how close I got to this setting by just using a tape measure and measuring how much the truck heights changed.

Also, note that apparently the resolution of the CAT scale is 20 pounds, so there's some error built into all of these readings. As noted on the tickets, my initial weigh was $14.00 and each re-weigh was $4.50. All of this was done through the CAT Scale app on my phone. I never even talked to anyone. Honestly pretty slick!

 

Appreciate the CAT scale info. The info in this thread is a great resource for those interested in towing a small camper.

 

We have been carrying 6 6-gallon water jugs in the rear lav which helps bring our tongue weight under 600 pounds. When loaded this way I can feel the extra weight in drag, but otherwise with the trailer weighing 4400 pounds in this configuration, everything handles just fine. So, how one loads a trailer can make a noticeable difference, though I am still mulling it over if I really should be concerned enough to carry an extra 300 pounds just to reduce a 660 pound tongue weight while utilizing a WDH?

Bill

 

I am still mulling it over if I really should be concerned enough to carry an extra 300 pounds just to reduce a 660 pound tongue weight while utilizing a WDH?

If you could move 75 pounds from the front to the rear, then you've not added any weight and you've likely changed your tongue weight by maybe up to 100 pounds, depending on your trailer dimensions. By taking 75 off the front and then adding that 75 to the rear you've created a 150-pound redistribution, but because the tongue is way out ahead of your storage, it sees less of a change - in proportion to the distances. So maybe 75 to 100 pounds off the tongue weight.

This is exactly why I wanted a hitch under the back of my camper - so I could choose how to distribute the weight easier. Do you think you could add a receiver hitch?

 

Thanks WM. Getting access to the rear frame is problematic with the rigid belly skin. The spare tire would need to be moved also. Outside of the propane tanks, batteries, mattress and bedding the only other items loaded forward of the axle are the empty 6 6-gallon water jugs. When full they are carried in the rear bath. You also have all the other weights correct.

Bill

 

My Lance is a "4-season" camper with an insulated belly, too.

So to mount the hitch, I had to remove a thin aluminum clamping strip that pinched the belly skin to the rearmost cross member. That was just a row of self-tapping sheetmetal screws.

Then, along the sides, I had to remove the skids because they also pinched the belly skin to the frame rails. It didn't look like your camper has skids, so I can't tell what is holding your belly skin in place. Otherwise there were just a few large head screws holding the skin up in a few places. So after taking those things off, the whole rear belly skin drooped down giving PLENTY of access to the inside of the frame rails. There was insulation tucked up in there around the water tank (probably the black tank), but I left all that in place and it didn't move at all. I had full access to the inside sides of the frame rails with lots of space to reach in there.

So once the belly skin was hanging down, the hard part was drilling the 4 holes (two on each side) up through the frame. A new step bit made pretty short work of it, although hot steel chips fell down on my arms as I was drilling. Then I dropped these roughly 1" wide by probably 1.5" long thick plates of steel with a square hole into the frame rails. The hitch included grade 8 hardware including carriage bolts that drop through those plates and through the holes I drilled. The plates are big enough that they can't spin inside the frame. So basically it's like studs coming down out of the frame. Then the hitch brackets bolted right up to the frame using those carriage bolts. I cut notches in the rigid plastic belly skin to go around the hitch brackets with a utility knife. Then I re-assembled everything except for the skids which aren't necessary now because the hitch is under there protecting the rear end.

Don't get me wrong, this took me hours to get done. It was also blazing hot that day, which slowed me down. But it was pretty straightforward. I had done a recon mission before ordering the hitch by removing just enough of the clamping bracketry so I could see that there was plenty of room to make this happen.

 

I've been working toward getting my travel trailer setup all squared away with the things I think I need. One of my goals was to figure out how to carry a full size spare Ridgeline tire when I'm towing my travel trailer. I bought a take-off OEM rim and had a Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tire mounted, which is likely the tire I'll be switching to when my OEM Firestones are done. Next was to figure out a convenient way to carry it. The obvious solution was to toss the spare tire in the bed of the Ridgeline, but that's pretty valuable space. I'll only need the full size spare while towing the travel trailer, so I thought that a great solution would be to mount the spare truck tire to the camper. This led me to installing a hitch under the back of the travel trailer, which I wrote about earlier in this thread. Next was to figure out a way to mount the spare to the hitch.

I looked around at a lot of spare tire hitch mounts, but wasn't able to find what I wanted for a reasonable price. Ideally, I want a spare tire mount that has a hitch pass-through so I can still attach a basket or bike rack or something back there. There are many hitch mounts that angle the spare tire for a Jeep application (which won't work in my application), and there are a few that mount the tire straight but those don't have a hitch pass-through. The closest one I found to what I wanted was this mount, but they want $535 for it! I'll admit that it does have a neat trick where it'll pivot down so you don't have to lift the tire up to mount it to the carrier, but I don't need that.

So I decided to just build my own spare tire carrier. I started with this hitch adapter that I paid $37 for:

Amazon.com: MaxxHaul 70070 Trailer Hitch - Dual Tow Hitch Extension Reciever - 4000 lbs. GTW Capacity , Black , Size: 2 inch : Automotive

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I like this piece because if I want to put a basket behind the camper, I can put it in the upper deck which will help keep from scraping the basket on the ground. Plus it gives me a sturdy place to attach my additions.

I carefully laid out a pattern on a piece of 1/4" thick plate steel:

And then spent a while cutting and drilling that plate:

I wanted the 14mm x 1.5mm lug studs to be a lot longer than the factory studs (I have a plan), so I bought a package of Dorman 610-530 F350 Superduty studs, which was a mistake. The thread size and pitch is fine, and the length is fine, but the knurled shank is WAY too tall. I had to space the back of the stud off of the plate using flat washers in order to get the end of the threads close enough to the flat plate so that the lug nut could squeeze the roughly 0.4" thick rim tight against the plate. For this whole project, that's the biggest thing I'm unhappy about. I ended up tack welding the stud and washers to the back of the plate, so at least I know they're not going anywhere. In hindsight, I should have just bought these 50mm long M14x1.5 bolts which would have been a lot easier.

Oh, and M14x1.5 radius (spherical) open end lug nuts are the same as used on some Porsche and Volkswagen applications. I wanted non-chromed (I have a plan) so I bought these.

Anyhow, here are the studs welded in and ready to go. And in this picture, the plate is already welded to the tube behind it.

I cut up some 2" x 3" x 1/8" wall square tubing that I had laying around and grinded the rust off of it and welded it to the hitch extender thingy. Here I'm jigging up the tubes to weld together and you can see the stack of flat washers behind the flat plate:

Done!

Yesterday I took it out to the camper for a test fit before painting it.

The tire is about 1" off the the vertical tube and about 1.25" off the lower horizontal tube. I made the center of the tire 16" above the horizontal tube and the tire is 29.6" in diameter. With these dimensions, I still have the option to change to 265 tires (30.5" diameter) which should still fit just fine.

The vertical tube is a couple inches away from the camper; far enough away that it can't touch. I also bought a Trimax anti-rattle hitch clamp to tighten things up.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (except for the studs). I primed and painted it rattle-can black yesterday evening.

Then I started baking it but my heater died. After painting something I usually put together a makeshift oven by leaning some plywood together and setting up a small heater in the box with a thermocouple and controller on the heater to bake the part at around 150°F. This cuts the hardening time of the paint down significantly. You know it's done when it stops outgassing and stinking up the place. I'll have to jury rig something else maybe tonight. I'm hoping to use this thing this coming weekend for a camping trip!

 

I finished up my spare tire project tonight. I baked the paint on the hitch carrier at 160°F for the last couple evenings by jury rigging a few high wattage work lights into a makeshift hot-box. The paint seems pretty hard now.

I locked it to the camper receiver and tightened up this TriMax anti-rattle clamp, which secured it nice and tight so it doesn't shake or rattle. I put the spare tire on it and tightened the 3 lugs and slipped a stainless 1/2" barbell style coupler lock into one of the two remaining holes. I put a layer of heat shrink tubing on the lock shaft and a couple large O-rings around the lock to keep it from banging up against the wheel. Then I covered the tire with an off-white spare tire cover. I was hoping it would match the camper, but not quite.

For reference, the wheel/tire combo weighs 64.0 pounds and the hitch carrier weighs 30.0 pounds, so I've added 94.0 pounds to the back of my camper, which I can easily offset in the front storage compartment.

 

Nice job.

 

We just got back from a week-long camping trip to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. Ironically, because of the full-size spare tire mount I just fabricated, I picked up a sheet metal screw in a Ridgeline tire the day we got home:

Fortunately they were able to put in a patch-plug and I was able to get it fixed before needing the spare.

 

We spent the first few days at the Badlands, where we camped in the boondocking area on the rim. Here:

43°54'18.7"N 102°13'45.6"W · 43.905194, -102.229333

www.google.com

The view was really great! Sunrise was amazing:

Sunset was pretty cool, too. Unfortunately we had a small hill to our west, so we didn't actually see the sun set from our camper, but we could see the effects on the Badlands:

Of course, hiking in the Badlands can be very scenic.

 

We spent the next few days in the Black Hills, camped at Bismark Lake Campground near the town of Custer, here:

43°46'33.4"N 103°30'30.2"W · 43.775944, -103.508389

www.google.com

We loved using the pellet fire pit:

I think the best hike we did in the Black Hills was the Little Devil's Tower hike. Trailhead is here:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

It's a pretty steep climb at the end to get to the top of the rock, but it puts you up to almost 7,000 feet in altitude with a great view of Cathedral Spires.

Here's my Ridgeline parked right in front of Mt. Rushmore:

You don't see Rushmore? Here, let me zoom in a little for you:

Of course there's bison stopping traffic in Custer State Park:

 

Using the water pump and 7-gallon water jugs worked great to transfer water into the camper. While we were at the Badlands, we bought 2 jugs of bulk filtered water from the local grocery store in Wall. While in the Black Hills, there was a spigot of potable water available to use. I described all the parts I used here:

https://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/posts/3401599/

Basically I just have one water jug cap with a threaded valve screwed into it that I transfer from jug to jug as I use them. Then it's just garden hoses from the jug to the pump and from the pump to the camper. I clipped the pump onto the camper battery and when I hit the switch, it took well under a minute to pump the jug into the camper. The only odd thing about this setup is that the pump has male hose fittings on both sides, so you either need a F-F garden hose (like for a hose reel) or buy a F-F adapter which is what I did. I'm really happy with how quick and easy this was. I think for next time, I'll get a mating SAE connector for the "Solar on the Side" port I have on the side of the camper so I can just plug the pump in there.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos, I used to live half way between Nemo & Rapid City. My absence from Paha Sapa has been too long.

 

For those burning pellets in their smokeless pits, I use animal bedding pellets from Tractor Supply
, 40# for $8. You can also use heating pellets if ya live where they are sold. Both a lot less than smoking stove pellets. Also, I have a solo stove ranger and burn pellets a lot and don’t use the pellet conversion. Works just fine. We also have the East Oak for Almost half the price, I think it burns better than the solo and puts out more heat.
Now I just need a TT like y‘all have.

 

We really like our 17" East Oak fire pit. It works great with pellets. When Farm and Fleet puts heating pellets on sale, they're less than $5 for 40 pounds. I found that squirting a shot of charcoal lighter fluid on top of a big scoop of pellets in the fire pit and then dropping a lit match in works great to easily start it.

 

A couple driving scenes from a recent camping trip in NM and CO.

_MG_2008 by b f, on Flickr

_MG_2023 by b f, on Flickr

_MG_2029 by b f, on Flickr

_MG_2032 by b f, on Flickr

_MG_2038 by b f, on Flickr

 

Yep, lovely views in Colorado. I love driving around the hills out there. Just scenic view after scenic view. And the top of Pikes Peak! Just wonderful!

 

Five below zero here currently but our Ridgeline and Bullet Crossfire trailer are already conspiring making plans to take us through eastern Montana, the Black Hills and Devils Tower the first part of June, any itinerary suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Bill

 

Five below zero here currently but our Ridgeline and Bullet Crossfire trailer are already conspiring making plans to take us through eastern Montana, the Black Hills and Devils Tower the first part of June, any itinerary suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

We really like the Black Hills, SD area and have been out there several times - the last time was just last September.

There's a lot to see and do out there, so your itinerary really depends on what you like to do. For example I love driving Iron Mountain Road (16A) and Needles Highway (87), but with all the switchbacks and corkscrews I think my wife would rather skip them. I thought the views from up on Mount Coolidge Lookout were totally worth the little detour, but she thought we were going to fall off the edge of the one lane gravel road on the way up and tumble down the mountain. On the other hand, she absolutely loves seeing the herd of wild donkeys in Custer and would spend a long time looking for them. We've managed to find them every time we've been there. She's sure to stop at a local grocery store and pick up the cheapest bag of apples and carrots beforehand. Note that it's illegal to feed the wildlife.

Hill City is not far to the north of where you'll be camping, and Custer is to the south. Both have restaurants, bars, groceries, gas, hardware stores, etc...

Some things are VERY touristy, but you're going to be RIGHT THERE so you might as well pay the fee and check them out. This would be things like Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wall Drug, etc... If you want, you can stop in Sturgis to see where the motorcycle gathering happens every year. Not far from Sturgis is Deadwood where I think they have a shootout on the street every day during tourist season.

Iron Mountain Road (16A) has several one-lane tunnels and is a very twisty and winding and scenic road.
Similarly, Needles Highway (87) also has one-lane tunnels and is very twisty and scenic. You can stop here and find the Needles Eye rock formation and even hike up over the tunnel to the crack looking down on the traffic passing through the tunnel.
I highly recommend unhitching your camper and driving both roads and taking your time and stopping often. Note that some of the tunnels are perfectly aligned with Mt. Rushmore so you can look through the tunnel and see Mt. Rushmore off in the distance.

A lot of people like to see the buffalo roaming in Custer State Park. If you want, you can stop at the Custer State Park Visitors Center here to pick up info or a map. But otherwise, just jump on the Wildlife Loop road here and head south. We had a buffalo scratch his head on the front of our car near French Creek one time here. Several times we've found the wild donkeys near here. On warm days it seems like they like to congregate under the trees near there or on the gravel road a little to the east, or maybe under the trees just south of the Bison Center here. The last time we found the donkeys, they were way south near the south gate here. But the buffalo are usually pretty easy to find because the herd is so big. If you're having problems finding them, just follow one of the painted up buffalo safari stretched Jeeps and it'll lead you right to them.

There are lots of amazing hikes in the Black Hills, depending on what you want to tackle. For example:
Sylvan Lake has a nice little general store where you can get surprisingly good pizza and ice cream. There's an easy hike (walk) that circles the lake. That's here.
Cathedral Spires is a fairly easy hike with some rocky stair-steps. Trailhead is here. The parking at that trailhead tends to fill up but you can also park down the road here. The payoff for that hike is standing in the middle of a ring of tall rocks tipped up on end that would look more at home on another planet.
Little Devils Tower is a longer hike. It starts easy and progresses in difficulty. At about 3/4 the way, it gets hilly, but still technically easy. The very end is technically much more difficult where you're squeezing through crevasses, rock scrambling, and hoping your shoes are grippy enough as you climb smooth rock faces at steep angles. But the reward is a commanding panoramic view at 6,971 feet that's breathtaking. The trailhead is here.
At 7,244 feet, Black Elk Peak is the highest summit in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is even more challenging, but then you get to confidently wear a Black Elk Peak T-shirt, sweatshirt, or hat. The trailhead starts at Sylvan Lake, here.

Farther south is Wind Cave, if you like guided cave tours. That's here.
There's also the Mammoth site here in Hot Springs where they're excavating an ancient sinkhole that contains dozens of mammoth skeletons.

To the east of the Black Hills is the Badlands. I think it's totally worth the roughly hour drive to the east to check out. Heading east on I90 from the Rapid City area, you can stop at Wall and hit the grocery store or Dairy Queen or Wall Drug here to pick up your free bumper sticker. You can walk the street in front of Wall Drug for touristy shopping if you're looking for some Black Hills gold jewelry or trinkets or whatnot. Then head south and stop at the park entrance and pay your fee here. Then you can head into the Badlands and check it out. There are lots of interesting places to stop and see the really odd topography. I highly recommend getting out and at least walking around in some of the mounds or whatnot. If it's not too hot, you can pack a lunch and eat at one of the many covered picnic tables. There are also good hiking opportunities in the Badlands, such as Notch Trail where you get to climb up an aircraft cable and log ladder. When exiting back toward the interstate to the north, you'll be right at the Minuteman Missile Silo National Historic Site, here.

So again, there's a lot to see and do, it just depends on what you're into.

Edit to update all of the links.

 

If you haven't already been there, I would suggest these Black Hills destinations: Needles Highway (Custer State Park) and Wind Cave National Park. Although be sure to check out clearance on the Needles Highway if you are dragging your travel trailer.

 

It is planned on setting up a “base camp” at the Oreville Campground and then doing daily excursions.
Thanks Farther.
Bill

 

@Wisconsin_Mike covered most of it, but i will add that Spearfish Canyon in the northern Black Hills is an awesome drive during fall autumn colors, particularly from a motorcycle, or even a convertible. It's been a while since I've been there, but it was a lot less tourist-y than the southern Black Hills.

Also, watch for rattlesnakes in the Badlands (not an issue this time of year).

 

Also, watch for rattlesnakes in the Badlands (not an issue this time of year).

Oh yeah! I stumbled on this guy several years ago:

He gave me plenty of warning with his rattle, so it wasn't an issue.

 

I updated all the links in that post so hopefully they all work now. Unfortunately it appears that the fix is slightly more difficult. For reasons I can't explain, when I post a link it comes up broken. But then when I edit the link, it is now fixed. Here's an example. I'll post two identical links to an easy spot to have a picnic lunch in the Badlands.

Here's the first link.

Here's the second link.

I posted them simultaneously and they're both broken. But then I edited the 2nd link and pasted the exact same URL and now it works. great.

 

Aaaarrrggggg!!! Still two months out until we can safely use our trailer without the water freezing? Spring fever is hitting me hard!
Bill

 

Snowed all yesterday some 5” here, but now the sun is out and temps are predicted to melt it all in a week.

 

Pulling the trailer out of hibernation today here in Montana. Muck the trailer out. Turning the batteries back on.,Flushing the antifreeze from the fresh water system. Tires! Propane tanks! Restocking freezable supplies! Yep, Spring Fever has hit!
Bill

 

We were just talking about when to do this ourselves! We're still getting a lot of below-freezing nights, so it's way too early to flush the antifreeze out yet. It'll probably be about another month before it's safe. We are also getting the itch to go camping!