Skid Wheels

[Doctor Old]

Has anyone tried these on a Class B? Curious. Thoughts?

[mkguitar]

you mean on the rear?


not much an issue for me although I did have to put my leveling blocks in the gutter pulling out of a pal's steep driveway once
mike

[Doctor Old]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

you mean on the rear?


not much an issue for me although I did have to put my leveling blocks in the gutter pulling out of a pal's steep driveway once
mike

Yes, on the rear. I went in a parking lot this past week that was slightly elevated. Upon leaving, I scraped the sewer hose storage tube on the back. Didn’t think it was that steep. I’m seeing these skid wheels on bigger Class A’s and trailers but I haven’t seen anyone use them on a class b. Just wondering if anyone has had experience with them.

[Rocinante]

I've seen reports that some folks are using the Roadmaster Rollaway on their hitch to help with this issue. https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels...er/RM-050.html

[Doctor Old]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

I've seen reports that some folks are using the Roadmaster Rollaway on their hitch to help with this issue. https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels...er/RM-050.html

Yup. I’ve seen several like that. Appreciate it. There’s this one too: https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels...48-979020.html
I’m looking for some folks to give me some first hand experience. These look like they could give some help.

[Alec]

The first thing I added to my 2018 Paseo was a pair of drag wheels. Ultra-Fab 48-979017 Ultra Hitch Mount Steel Rollers For 2.5" Hitch Bars. I bolted them to the hitch frame; easy install. Helped my nerves; I no longer worried too much about what might be getting demolished when hearing that horrid noise.
However, the wheels didn't solve the real problem. Apparently Winnebago didn't add spring capability when hanging the RV stuff on the Transit 350HD. Added SS-43 Super Springs as recommended by other Paseo owners here, and problem mostly solved.
Still, I try not to go directly over a gutter; I try to angle over it.

[Doctor Old]

We have the Super Springs but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for me the other day. We have a sewer hose storage tube that is mounted in the rear and it hangs lower than the hitch. I could take the tube off and store the hose inside but I’d rather not. I’ve tried to figure out if I could mount it somewhere else but there’s no clear space for it. If it wasn’t there, I would only have the hitch to worry about which a single skid wheel would protect fine. I dunno. Hopefully I can avoid too many situations where we have that issue but I know that’s probably impossible.

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by Doctor Old

We have the Super Springs but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for me the other day. We have a sewer hose storage tube that is mounted in the rear and it hangs lower than the hitch. I could take the tube off and store the hose inside but I’d rather not. I’ve tried to figure out if I could mount it somewhere else but there’s no clear space for it. If it wasn’t there, I would only have the hitch to worry about which a single skid wheel would protect fine. I dunno. Hopefully I can avoid too many situations where we have that issue but I know that’s probably impossible.

I'm hearing that for the Coachmen Crossfit / Beyond on the Transit chassis some folks have moved the storage tube so it doesn't hang out the back. The one photo I saw (will look to see if I can find it again) showed the storage tube across the underside of the van from left to right so the tube was less likely to drag when dropping off a curb or backing up a steep driveway. I haven't actually been underneath this particular rig yet, so I'm not entirely sure how one would make that happen, but something like that might be worth investigating on this and other chassis.

[Doctor Old]

I have seen it cross mounted but usually on trailers. I have scoped that possibility out and there’s just too much going on between the exhaust pipes for both the van and the generator and the coach batteries. The only barren area is underneath the rig on the passenger side but that is somewhat close to the exhaust and would require me crawling underneath the running boards to get to it. Not worth it really. So I’m thinking we’re going to run what we brung until it gets torn up unless we decide to try one of these skid wheel solutions. But if it gets scraped, then we’ll find a nice, air tight container for it for behind the rear seat. Hate using up that space but it may be necessary.
UPDATE: I went on youtube and found a Beyond with a side mounted tube. It was a lithium model that I believe has no cummins generator which would provide the space to accomplish the side mount.

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by Doctor Old

...
UPDATE: I went on youtube and found a Beyond with a side mounted tube. It was a lithium model that I believe has no cummins generator which would provide the space to accomplish the side mount.

Yes, that must be the one I saw. Given we're Jonesing for a lithium unit, we'd hope that can be done for whatever unit we wind up buying.

[mkguitar]

Originally Posted by Alec

Still, I try not to go directly over a gutter; I try to angle over it.

I find angling is worse, the weight shifts from the high wheel to the low wheel
in my own driveway i can pull pretty much straight out- if I turn too tight I get a slight scrape
Mike

[rowiebowie]

mkguitar, you've got a Chevy Express chassis too, right? I never drag the rear and so far have never scraped anything. But my Chevy chassis's achilles heel is the break-over between the front and rear wheels. My low-point is there, with only about 6 inches of ground clearance at the macerator on one side and the power step on the other. I'm very careful, but figure my day is coming.

[Alec]

MK; hummm? I've never had a problem with lateral weight shift causing the rear to drag when I angle through a gutter. The Paseo has duals; do you suppose they lessen the roll?
I suppose the 148" wheel base would slightly reduce the rear-end drop when compared to a shorter van, if distance from rear axle to the back bumper was the same? Interesting.

[mkguitar]

The Pleasure Way midpoint clearance is 9.25" so I win


The dual rear wheels are a win for Alec


Mike


no suspension mods

[joeski]

I have new shocks with coil springs which works for my driveway. 190 popular 2001 Roadtrek

[yvairguy]

when I had a trailer I welded some sealed wheel bearings inside a pipe that went from frame to frame so I had a huge roller across the back. It might be overkill but I never had a problem again and I drug that poor trailer across a bunch of stuff.

[InterBlog]

Ultra-fab weld-on jumbo roller. Available on Amazon for the current pandemic special price of $56 each (we paid much less). Welded directly on the hitch cross bar because the resulting rise just happened to be correct; no spacers needed.

This because I got tired of shearing off the original skid plates. I’ll try to post a pic when I’m not on my phone.

Edit: I found a pic of the purchased product and it’s inspiration - my desire to get on and off the Bolivar Ferry in Galveston without risking my tail, literally and figuratively. I’ll try to post an installation pic also.

[InterBlog]

One way to do this is to take a long, rigid (unbendable) linear object, like a length of copper pipe, and use it to simulate the departure angle. Insert one end under the rear tire. Raise the other end until it contacts your lowest-hanging object aft of the rear axle, under the chassis (in a Class B such as ours, this is the rear-mounted generator... or in another B, it might be a waste tank or a dump hose holder). Then identify where you want to add wheels, or replace a skid plate with skid wheels. Then figure using the copper pipe how low that wheel needs to be at that point, to be protective of whichever appurtenance must remain higher than the wheel.

One of the reasons why I kept shearing off skid plates is that Airstream arguably installed them too low. Airstream could argue that the extra depth was a conservative choice, to account for uneven terrain. Well, the configurations that give me trouble are always planar - driveway inflections, the ferry ramp inflection, railway crossings, certain speed bumps, poorly-designed roadway intersections. I’m not taking my van off-road such that in situ irregularity is an issue. So the wheels sit a bit higher than the bottom of the skid plates used to.

Is that sufficient? Do they work? Well, they are there for extraordinary circumstances, so I don’t yet really know. If I’ve tail-struck in the time since they were installed, it has gone so smoothly that I did not register it. But I aspire not to tail-strike at all, wheels or no wheels.

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

One way to do this is to take a long, rigid (unbendable) linear object, like a length of copper pipe, and use it to simulate the departure angle. Insert one end under the rear tire. Raise the other end until it contacts your lowest-hanging object aft of the rear axle, under the chassis (in a Class B such as ours, this is the rear-mounted generator... or in another B, it might be a waste tank or a dump hose holder). Then identify where you want to add wheels, or replace a skid plate with skid wheels. Then figure using the copper pipe how low that wheel needs to be at that point, to be protective of whichever appurtenance must remain higher than the wheel.

One of the reasons why I kept shearing off skid plates is that Airstream arguably installed them too low. Airstream could argue that the extra depth was a conservative choice, to account for uneven terrain. Well, the configurations that give me trouble are always planar - driveway inflections, the ferry ramp inflection, railway crossings, certain speed bumps, poorly-designed roadway intersections. I’m not taking my van off-road such that in situ irregularity is an issue. So the wheels sit a bit higher than the bottom of the skid plates used to.

Is that sufficient? Do they work? Well, they are there for extraordinary circumstances, so I don’t yet really know. If I’ve tail-struck in the time since they were installed, it has gone so smoothly that I did not register it. But I aspire not to tail-strike at all, wheels or no wheels.

This is very cool. The only thing I'd do differently is to use a sheet of plywood that goes from one rear tire to the other so you can see the entire plane of potential contact and then make the adjustments you describe here. Fit RV does an interesting departure angle calculation, but they didn't include a plan for roller wheels. https://www.thefitrv.com/rv-tips/mea...gle-of-our-rv/

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

This is very cool. The only thing I'd do differently is to use a sheet of plywood that goes from one rear tire to the other so you can see the entire plane of potential contact and then make the adjustments you describe here. Fit RV does an interesting departure angle calculation, but they didn't include a plan for roller wheels. https://www.thefitrv.com/rv-tips/mea...gle-of-our-rv/

We started out using wood but it was too visually obstructing. We scooted the copper pipe around to make sure we had accounted for everything.