Purchased a 2024 Imagine 2790rl lasr fall. I have a slanted driveway. I have owned other travel trailers and never had a problem backing the camper up the driveway. This new Grand Design (rear) scraps the driveway. It damaged both rear stabilizers. My plan is to take the camper to a welding shop that has done work for me before. They welded a receiver to the frame to carry a bike rack. Is it safe to have them weld rollers/wheels to the rear frame to catch first and not hit the stabilizers? Is there any reason I should mot do this?
Wheels on rear
- Thread starter kjoh75
- Start date
I agree, putting rollers back there will mean there's going to be a whole lot of weight being transferred to two points at the rearmost corners of the trailer, maybe not the best idea, IMO anyway.
Can you back it at an angle to gain clearance?
I'm in the same category as others - not such a good idea to put that much weight on the rear of the frame expecting it to support the weight of everything aft of the rear axel.
Thank you for responses thus far. Keep the responses coming. Currently I have it stored and covered.next to the garage. Not planning on moving it until late May for summer use. So no need to worry about it just yet. But just looking for options. I"m new to Grand Design. I have to admit that this camper has alot of features that are NEW to me, like solar panels, 12 volt fridge
Sorry ment to say camper will be moved late March or early April. I know the rear stabs hit the driveway just before the wheels lift frame from the axles. I think the receiver (hitch) also hits. I will try pretty much anything to make this work. Lord knows that I dont want to damage anything further
SailingOn
Member
A few pieces of lumber laid temporarily across the driveway at the low point might raise the wheels enough for clearance.
huntindog
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2009
- Posts
- 2,608
Disengage your weight distribution hitch before backing in.
retired_engineer
Senior Member
This is what I was thinking too.
I'll be watching this thread a bit because I was thinking of doing the same thing for my camper style fish-house. Going up and down boat ramps to and from the lake it often scrapes.
You could possibly look at a manual or motorized trailer mover, assuming it would allow you to drop the tongue to a lower height, thus raising the rear. I have a Trailer Valet that I use for my big heavy fiberglass boat on a dual axle trailer. I have a love-hate relationship with my device. After using it dozens of times I'm still amazed at how easily it moves the boat. That being said, I'm tall and the handle and crank are low so I have to be in an odd, half bent over position to use it while walking along cranking. I hate that part.
You could possibly look at a manual or motorized trailer mover, assuming it would allow you to drop the tongue to a lower height, thus raising the rear. I have a Trailer Valet that I use for my big heavy fiberglass boat on a dual axle trailer. I have a love-hate relationship with my device. After using it dozens of times I'm still amazed at how easily it moves the boat. That being said, I'm tall and the handle and crank are low so I have to be in an odd, half bent over position to use it while walking along cranking. I hate that part.
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What if you used a drop down hitch to lower the front, switch it out before backing in ?? A bit of a hastle but would save some aggrivation or further damage
MtnGuy
Senior Member
Good suggestion. Plus, if the truck and trailer are at that much of an angle, the WDH would put undo stress on the A-frame.
I have done the same with my solitude works well for 10 years now
Around 9:18 in this video, is the rear of the 2024, 2790rl. There doesn't appear to be a rear bumper on this trailer. This video shows it shipped with a 300 lb receiver. Each of the rear jacks should be rated for at least 1000 lbs. So adding rollers to the rear jacks (somehow) should not cause a problem, if properly done. Ideally, you would find a way to make those rollers removeable so as not to void your warranty. If the jacks can hold the weight, there should be no reason the rollers would cause a serious problem. Do you have a rear bumper? If so I don't think you should add rollers to the bumper. They aren't really designed to be weight bearing. I added a video where a fellow added rollers.
good luck,
Dustin
VIDEO 2790RL (9:18)
Add rollers video:
jjansen
New Member
You can install a mount to remove stabilizers. Our Grand Design came with them (2017). Alternative that may help is to remove load leveler bars before backing up...the front of the RV will drop and raise the rear.
Is there any way you can lessen the slope of the drive at the bottom so as to reduce the initial angle of attack? Perhaps some asphalt so that the back wheels of the trailer begin the climb BEFORE the stabilizers hit. Just a thought!
mbergthold
Senior Member
You're exactly right. I'm glad I read the extended warranty contract we purchased with a new trailer in 2020, when I realized that, I had already made several mods to it, and cancelled/obtained a refund. You would think that extended RV warranties would be very similar to those of "normal" cars/trucks. Our experience with bumper pulls & 5ers has been that out of pocket repair costs have been much less than the cost of a warranty contract, but we've never had anything major go wrong and were just weekend warriors.
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