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Greetings.....Just picked up our DRV Fullhouse and was curious what the brake setting should be on the integrated brake controller. There are 4 choices: Light Electric, Heavy Electric, Light Electric over Hydraulic and Heavy Electric over Hydraulic. I assume with a 24,000# 5th wheel that the choice would be one of the "heavy" modes. Any thoughts?
Greetings.....Just picked up our DRV Fullhouse and was curious what the brake setting should be on the integrated brake controller. There are 4 choices: Light Electric, Heavy Electric, Light Electric over Hydraulic and Heavy Electric over Hydraulic. I assume with a 24,000# 5th wheel that the choice would be one of the "heavy" modes. Any thoughts?
Tim
Heavy Electric Over Hydraulic for sure and I'd start at about 6.5 to 7. I'm just under your weight, same truck and 6 is about right for us. Much more and I get too much trailer braking. I find the Ram OEM brake controller with the 3 sets of 8K Kodiak brakes to work well together. I've had to do a couple of panic stops due to some less than accomplished drivers around me and had good 12 wheel effectiveness straight and true without issue. I did check the temps on the trailer rotors with an IR gun just to make sure the trailer wasn't stopping the truck and all were pretty well balanced at 6.0 for us.
Greetings.....Just picked up our DRV Fullhouse and was curious what the brake setting should be on the integrated brake controller. There are 4 choices: Light Electric, Heavy Electric, Light Electric over Hydraulic and Heavy Electric over Hydraulic. I assume with a 24,000# 5th wheel that the choice would be one of the "heavy" modes. Any thoughts?
Tim
Kato,
Sorry no advice here. Bill is the guru and will have the best answer.
Perhaps a different thread, if not already out there (did not find), or a PM, but I'm very curious about your DRV JX450, Ram 5500, Utility BodyWerks decision and options. The combination is definitely one of our final contenders. We are driving 700 miles to a DRV Dealer next month!! We are trying to narrow our options and go full-time by early 2018. Pictures would be nice too
We're early in the game right now but so far I would definitely recommend the combination. For a rig as heavy as the DRV Fullhouse (21,000 dry), I would go with the 5500. Putting the hauler bed on adds about another $15,000 to the cost of the truck compared to just buying a 3500 but I liked having the safety margin built in. So far, I'm loving the Fullhouse. It's just a beautiful rig. Only drawback is the length which will restrict us as to where we can park. We bought from Rv's for Less in Knoxville and they have been great. Only other dealer that I would have considered is Rolling Retreats. Worth the drive to either one.
As always, thank you for your wisdom. That's about what I figured. The dealer set it at 7.5 but I'm going to try at 6.5 and see how that works.
Thanks again!
Tim
Start with that and then see how it feels…if it feels like the trailer is pushing the truck then up it a notch. Ideally you would want the truck brakes to stop the truck and the trailer brakes the trailer but if anything I would have the trailer set a little higher so that it's pulling the truck back in a panic stop rather than pushing it…much less likely to jackknife that way. I bypassed the RAM OEM controller since I have the ABS option on our NH brakes and hence need the third party controller.
We're early in the game right now but so far I would definitely recommend the combination. For a rig as heavy as the DRV Fullhouse (21,000 dry), I would go with the 5500. Putting the hauler bed on adds about another $15,000 to the cost of the truck compared to just buying a 3500 but I liked having the safety margin built in. So far, I'm loving the Fullhouse. It's just a beautiful rig. Only drawback is the length which will restrict us as to where we can park. We bought from Rv's for Less in Knoxville and they have been great. Only other dealer that I would have considered is Rolling Retreats. Worth the drive to either one.
Tim
Thanks Tim,
We are definitely going the F-550/5500 direction with a hauler bed (Utility BodyWerks or Classy Chassis), no matter which RV we select. Next step up is an HDT and that is too big and inflexible for us.
We are down to a few RV manufacturers and models (unless custom). The DRV JX450 is on the short list. We are in Colorado and our closest DRV dealer is 700 miles away in Kansas! They had two JX450s a couple of weeks ago, but now they are sold out. Will either have to wait or go to the DRV factory in Indiana to see it for real. YouTube and websites will not do it for my wife.
I thought the dry weight was closer to 18,800? Did you add a lot of options? With an estimated CCC need or about 3,000 lb and a UTV, I was hoping to have about 4,500 lb RV CCC. They show the GVWR to be 24,000lb, with triple 8,000 lb axles. Is that where you are at or have they changed?
Gerry: The GVWR is still 24,000 with the 8000 lb axles. I believe that you can option it with 9000 lb axles; I have heard some are doing that. We added quartz countertops as an option but nothing else that I would consider "weighty." We will be putting a 700 lb motorcycle the garage when we hit the road in July. I'm still thinking that we will be fine. We may be slightly overweight on an axle at the end of the day but not overly so. We never saw a JX450 until we saw one at the plant about to go to paint. Not many in inventory around the country. If you are coming from Colorado, I would definitely recommend dealing with Rolling Retreats on Oklahoma. Probably the most knowledgeable dealer in the country about DRV's plus their service is way beyond the norm. Once we get back home, I'll try to post some pictures of our setup. Tim
You can get an "Elite" package in the FullHouse. Takes the inside from the Mobile Suites options to the Elite level. The only issue is it weighs more. Tim- What is the pin weight on yours? I would be interested in how much the bike unloads the pin.
