Soon to be Excel 28rgo owners

[KU9L]

After a big delay in the process of selling our Colorado house on 10 1/2 acres, it looks like the closing is nearer now (maybe). A week or so ago we just delivered our 18' S.O.B. TT to the new buyer and just plunked down a deposit on a 2001 28RGO. It is in the process of being scheduled a visit to the local shop for replacement of the exterior plastics & moldings, a vent fan motor, new check valve, etc. The nice thing about this unit is it appears that it was 1 owner (bought in 2002), largely garage kept, and only used a few times a year. While on consignment it went through a hail storm which exposed the weakness of 7+ year old plastic vent sheilds and side moldings. Otherwise the thermopane windows and gel coated sides were relatively unscathed except for a few dents on the metal battery box door.

We were impressed with how nice the service doors fit, how solid they were, and the condition of the underlying wood hidden beneath first impressions, a sign of a garage kept unit no doubt. The carpeting looks brand new and the oven was reportedly used only once, and it shows real nice. It could used some new decals, but we will do that next summer.

This looked like a pretty nice starter unit for us and am relying on a great person with 25 years in the RV business that we trust to take us through the process to get us ready for our second workamping assignment, this time in the Florida Keys after we close on the sale of our Colorado house in a few weeks.

Without stirring up too much controversy, we got the blessing of factory service to use a gooseneck adapter. Jack told us for 2008 they have gone back to the way they were doing the framing that the kingpin connects onto like they used to. So our options where to either go with a 2008 and newer or select a unit in the 2000 - 2002 range if we were to use an Anderson Ranch Gooseneck adapter. The 11' bed of our Layton Western hauler bed is almost too high for a 5w hitch, but it has a nice 30K lb gooseneck hitch embedded into a nice well of our Chevy 3500HD truck, which will pull our little 28rgo's 15K GVWR very nicely.

The adventure begins!

David & Sheila Knapp
Soon to be Excel 28rgo owners

[KU9L]

After a big delay in the process of selling our Colorado house on 10 1/2 acres, it looks like the closing is nearer now (maybe). A week or so ago we just delivered our 18' S.O.B. TT to the new buyer and just plunked down a deposit on a 2001 28RGO. It is in the process of being scheduled a visit to the local shop for replacement of the exterior plastics & moldings, a vent fan motor, new check valve, etc. The nice thing about this unit is it appears that it was 1 owner (bought in 2002), largely garage kept, and only used a few times a year. While on consignment it went through a hail storm which exposed the weakness of 7+ year old plastic vent sheilds and side moldings. Otherwise the thermopane windows and gel coated sides were relatively unscathed except for a few dents on the metal battery box door.

We were impressed with how nice the service doors fit, how solid they were, and the condition of the underlying wood hidden beneath first impressions, a sign of a garage kept unit no doubt. The carpeting looks brand new and the oven was reportedly used only once, and it shows real nice. It could used some new decals, but we will do that next summer.

This looked like a pretty nice starter unit for us and am relying on a great person with 25 years in the RV business that we trust to take us through the process to get us ready for our second workamping assignment, this time in the Florida Keys after we close on the sale of our Colorado house in a few weeks.

Without stirring up too much controversy, we got the blessing of factory service to use a gooseneck adapter. Jack told us for 2008 they have gone back to the way they were doing the framing that the kingpin connects onto like they used to. So our options where to either go with a 2008 and newer or select a unit in the 2000 - 2002 range if we were to use an Anderson Ranch Gooseneck adapter. The 11' bed of our Layton Western hauler bed is almost too high for a 5w hitch, but it has a nice 30K lb gooseneck hitch embedded into a nice well of our Chevy 3500HD truck, which will pull our little 28rgo's 15K GVWR very nicely.

The adventure begins!

David & Sheila Knapp
Soon to be Excel 28rgo owners

[ChiefJohn]

Congrats David and Shelia on your 'new' Excel and welcome to our Excel Owner's Forum -- finally able to change your "pending" status to "Excel Owner"! From your description, it appears you've found a very nice 2001 5th wheel.

[KU9L]

Thanks, John! We just had to stay in it one night to get hooked into loving it. With night temps dipping to about 45, it was a good test of the heating system the next morning, not to mention guessing the right amount of blankets to bring. The tires have an '07 datecode on them and we are getting a new set of group 27 batteries. We feel like we are preparing to set sail!

The CCC for this unit is 3999 pounds, about 2500 pounds more than our previous S.O.B. TT. Still I am only telling DW that the CCC is 1999!

Dave

[jnchadley]

Hi KU9L,

I noticed in your entry you mentioned changes in the attachment of the kingpin for 2008 back to the way they used to do it. Can you (or anyone else) tell me if that change was due to troubles in that area or was that something to do with you using a gooseneck adapter?

Thanks for your time, C A Hadley....looking forward to being an Excel owner

[KU9L]

My understanding was that there was a couple of minor framing changes made separately over a couple of years that had a side effect of increasing the number of frame/kingpin warranty claims for those folks using Gooseneck adapters. The simple solution was to ban the use of Goosneck adapters. The reason for the re-design of the 2008 units to a similar way they were done 6 or more years ago wasn't explained to me. I was told it would work fine on my 2001 and any 2008 or newer. I did find out that some folks did tow for 300K miles before they had a problem with either their Kingpin or Gooseneck adapter, so it wasn't necessarily a problem that would immediately manifest itself.

Dave

[KU9L]

I have to add one more addendum to my last reply. Jack said that the rigs experiencing problems with using Gooseneck adapters were 33' in length and up.

I was told I should be okay for 26' – 30' models and it appears the longer rigs experienced more stress on the Kingpin when using a Gooseneck adapter.

We like our little 28rgo as it seems wayyyy bigger than our 18' S.O.B. rig did this summer, LOL. At this time we don't want to spoil ourselves with a much bigger dance floor anyhow. We are shooting for our maiden voyage in a little over two weeks if things work out right.

Dave

[jnchadley]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by KU9L:
My understanding was that there was a couple of minor framing changes made separately over a couple of years that had a side effect of increasing the number of frame/kingpin warranty claims for those folks using Gooseneck adapters. The simple solution was to ban the use of Goosneck adapters. The reason for the re-design of the 2008 units to a similar way they were done 6 or more years ago wasn't explained to me. I was told it would work fine on my 2001 and any 2008 or newer. I did find out that some folks did tow for 300K miles before they had a problem with either their Kingpin or Gooseneck adapter, so it wasn't necessarily a problem that would immediately manifest itself.

Dave </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Thanks Dave. I kinda' thought it was because of the extra leverage that an adapter might exert but thought I would ask.CAH

[KU9L]

The instructions on our Gooseneck adapter say to be cautious of pinboxes longer than 30" which will put a lot more stress on it

We just towed our 28rgo from Tom's RV shop in ABQ 30 miles and was glad they moved the pinbox to the upper holes as that will put even less stress on the pinbox and frame overall. They had to move the pinbox up to the upper holes due to the fact that our flatbed on our 2500HD Chevy is a bit higher than regular pickup beds.

The Gooseneck adapter clears the flatbed by 5 - 6" now without added blocks under the front jacks. Raising the pinbox up to the upper holes also makes the 28RGO tow more level with the adapter as well.

Recommended by Toms' RV, just for overkill, we are adding a safety chain that connects from the upper rear area of the pinbox to the rings built-in to our Layton flatbed. That will give my daily inspections of the pinbox for any cracking a nice piece of mind while towing.

Now that all of this theory has been carefully examined, I go word yesterday that WE CLOSE ON THE SALE OF OUR Crestone, CO HOUSE IN 6 DAYS!

That means we will now be homeless as we take the last of our furniture to Iowa to store until our son buys his house (in grad school now) and we can get back down to NM to hit the road for Texas to finish our registration.

The ugly part about all of this is that our Salida, CO Chevy dealership put the wrong zipcode on the certified letter going to the Polk county, TX DMV and our license plate status is in limbo at the moment until it surfaces somewhere, argh.

Dave