Community Forums

sunset4k · 10-09-2015, 01:47 PM

We pulled the trigger and will be picking up our 2006 holiday rambler navigator next week. It's a jewel and we love it. My question us for those of you that have tags.. We have a 2 mile gravel road to travel to get home. We live in the country... And yes it is dusty do we will be cleaning g the fins when we get home. The road us not to rough at this time. We do have several corners. The dealer mentioned that when maneuvering to park or turning sharply to lift the tag..... Can any of you enlighten me a bit on this??

Mr_D · 10-09-2015, 01:56 PM

On hard surfaces the tag's tires will be scrubbed sideways, on gravel they'll just slide. I wouldn't worry about it on gravel.

bobsea43 · 10-09-2015, 02:13 PM

You will probably get several different answers to this but here is my take based on driving a 42 ft tag axle for 3+ years while full timing across the US several times! Ours was a Spartan chassis and had auto tag dump, yours may or may not.
My first thought was you were talking to a salesman, but that is another story. As you may know the purpose for raising the tag is to prevent scuffing of the tag tires which can be worse at slow speeds and in reverse. On ours the airbags on the tag would be automatically deflated when reverse was selected. When doing slow speed maneuvering I could do the same with a switch on the dash - I never used it. In an RV you will not, in my opinion, ever make a noticeable difference in tire wear of the tag axle whether you lift the tag axle or not. Your tires will age out long before you scuff them into unusable condition.
Now if you follow a garbage truck around, that is different. I have a cousin who owns a tire store and has a contract to replace the tires on the local garbage hauler and the tag axles on those vehicle require new tires in about half the time the other axles do. They do a lot of slow speed maneuvering and backing!

BTW- I think you will really enjoy the added comfort and stability of a tag axle. It was noticeably more comfortable to drive then the 38 ft HR we had prior to getting the 42 ft DP. My wife capably drove them both but was much more comfortable with the 42 ft DP. We recently transitioned to part time and downsized to a 33 ft Thor Palazzo and she still prefers the feel of the 42 ft DP!
Enjoy!

Tha_Rooster · 10-09-2015, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunset4k

We pulled the trigger and will be picking up our 2006 holiday rambler navigator next week. It's a jewel and we love it. My question us for those of you that have tags.. We have a 2 mile gravel road to travel to get home. We live in the country... And yes it is dusty do we will be cleaning g the fins when we get home. The road us not to rough at this time. We do have several corners. The dealer mentioned that when maneuvering to park or turning sharply to lift the tag..... Can any of you enlighten me a bit on this??

You should not have a problem with the tag but your air filter may not like the dust.

KT4Wextra · 10-09-2015, 07:24 PM

Guess you will just have to find a place park it 2 miles from home.

No, seriously it won't hurt the tires on a gravel road but you may want to lift the tag when you have sharp turns or when backing up. It wouldn't be any worse than what semi's go through every day and many of them can't lift the 2nd axle. Make lots of lime dust, just plant your potatoes close to the road to keep the potato bugs off.

gbburgess · 10-09-2015, 09:00 PM

We lived (now have moved) on a gravel road and we never had trouble with the tag axle. You will want to slow down and make sure to not high center the tag when backing into your storage area. A friend of mine lifted his tag and backed up too slowly and stopped - with the tag on the rise and the drive wheels off the ground. we had fun getting him going again - took a tractor and chain and a lot of laughs.

sunset4k · 10-09-2015, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KT4Wextra

Guess you will just have to find a place park it 2 miles from home.

No, seriously it won't hurt the tires on a gravel road but you may want to lift the tag when you have sharp turns or when backing up. It wouldn't be any worse than what semi's go through every day and many of them can't lift the 2nd axle. Make lots of lime dust, just plant your potatoes close to the road to keep the potato bugs off.

Excellent!!! I now know how to kill those pesky potato bugs!!

bobsea43 · 10-10-2015, 06:30 AM

Sorry I did not specifically address your concerns about rough gravel roads. We drove on a number of them Summer of last year in AK never even gave the tag axle a thought. It handled them well. There was no noticeable change in the air filter status indicator at the end of our trip. I had put a new air filter on as routine time change item before the trip.
Enjoy the coach.