New Driveway - Good News Bad News

[robco]

I’m not sure which size coach you have biut what if you upgraded your wheels and tires to 16”. I used to have a 23’ with 14”s to a 25” Eddie Bauer with 16” inch tires and the clearance was significant. It also made no difference with the center of gravity. Best of luck and I’m curious how it all works out for you.

[PharmGeek]

The thread has gotten long, and so some people jumping in will have likely missed details already discussed:

I have my WD bars totally loose...which by my measurements on flat ground gave me about 3/4 of an added inch vs. cranked tight where I tighten them.

Rollers were already discussed....im just not convinced about that solution unless someone says I am ok actually jacking up the airstream from that point....I think that is a big no no....COULD damage a quarter panel as has been discussed...YMMV, but I will not be pursuing any such proposed solution like that....quite frankly, it seems just wrong to me....but I am not an authority...rather not debate that in this thread, we can start a separate thread and folks can get into the weeds.

To be clear, as has been discussed....the driveway with some bit of lumber is a fix....so some version of duplicating that with concrete will work...my plan is simply to get the contractor to fill the gutter and reduce the price on the job by an amount we agree upon to account for my added unanticipated cost of a lift....unexpected, but I’m actually now looking forward to to lift generally having researched it a good bit and given I have dragged a couple times a bit to date...the clearance for the WD bars on the PPP hitch are stupid low...this will greatly mitigate that concern.

So, alls well that ends well...in this sense..this was all an annoying near miss...if that mess up was a couple inches worse, we would be ripping out 40 feet of concrete for sure.

[PharmGeek]

also, yep, I have 16 inch wheels...trailer is a 30 foot 2014 bunkhouse. Propride hitch

[Civilguy]

I was interested in this thread because I just had a driveway expansion poured to accommodate our trailer. We have relatively severe transitions at the top (street end) and bottom (house-side) of our driveway, so I ordered our 21' trailer with a lift kit. That has eliminated the dragging we used to experience with a Casita 17.

1) PharmGeek, you did put your contractor into the 'design' business and he seems to have implicitly accepted this responsibility. There is a difference between the two functions as pcskier noted in post #28. Sometimes this works out, sometimes not. This time it didn't.

2) You could have part or all of the driveway re-poured. Personally, this approach might make me feel bad if it were at the contractor's whole or partial expense, because I don't think he woke up that day with the intent of doing you harm. Even though he is apparently a standup guy willing to make it right, it seems he might be offering to do more than might be 'right' primarily as a 'cost of doing business' and protecting his reputation. Personally, I would strive to minimize the damages all around. Others might feel differently.

3) Most anyone who hears of lift kits immediately asks about stability, wind resistance, mileage, etc. I have never seen these cited as actual problems by people who have lifts, even by folks who towed first without and then later added them to their trailer.

4) A lift kit offers the advantage of resolving other issues by eliminating scraping and dragging away from home. I anticipate that you can raise your hitch the corresponding 2-5/8 inches to maintain a level tow, but you would have to validate whether this impacts your tailgate clearance or whatnot. It seems that raising the hitch would also reduce your ProPride dragging.

5) Another way to bridge the rolled concrete gutter might be to have some steel diamond plate fabricated with a bit of steel welded on the bottom to strengthen the plate. I don't know if this would be economical or practical, it's just something I have seen done, due to the fact that rolled concrete gutters are often a PITA.

[PharmGeek]

Civil guy - good summary.

I’m not precisely sure how to go about filling the gutter that will work well over time...taking out a bit of the existing concrete and the city gutter and pouring a new gutter with the drainage notch in it? Requires more work by contractor and the lift may prove that unnecessary.

Almost the entire neighborhood have their rain gutters filled by the city I’m told with a channel separating the two bits of concrete - I kinda think since this appears to be on the city’s dime (calling tomorrow to verify) - this plus the lift kit will be the ticket.

I think the lift alone may be enough - and if not filling like my neighbors have will certainly do it.

[Wingman360]

After being in construction for 20 years, you handled this as well as you could... The fella who did the work started what I call stupidspeak when the problem arose... (5th wheel to test grade???) when problems arise, stupidspeak always ensues...
Three things come to mind...
First, many people think that “holding back” a portion of the cost of the work is a fair thing to do, and will still cause the work to finish... this is often not true. Often a worker or contractor will have costs-to-fix, equal to or greater that the hold-back so to them, the best course is to just walk away... therefore, the holdback of the full amount for the job is the greatest incentive they will have to finish the job. They may also care about their reputation which can be easily smudged if you express your problem in local online forums... this could help if your contractor is aware that you plan to express this project online, with your desire to convey a happy ending if all ends well...
Be aware that this contractor can put a lien on your property for lack of payment... this does not mean that you will not have a defense which you do, but fighting with this would be yucky-hassle.
Expressing empathy for his predicament while offering to add a few hundred $$$ could go along way in helping you reach a satisfying conclusion...

[terrylarock]

Have you considered using what people who own expensive sports cars use to keep from damaging their front spoilers?

[james.mileur]

Originally Posted by PharmGeek

Yeah, every other driveway in the neighborhood has concrete in their gutters with a channel created...I doubt that is up to a code, but its clear that as far as enforcement goes, it is a non issue....although its easy to imagine the annoying situation where suddenly I would have an issue....

where suddenly I would have an issue....
Yes, this is a real possibility when they hire the next enforcement guy who goes and writes a Zoning Ticket for all the neighbors, who will have to pay to restore the driveway cuts to code (happened in my neighborhood), unless you check and there is no code, but that's doubtful.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by james.mileur

where suddenly I would have an issue....
Yes, this is a real possibility when they hire the next enforcement guy who goes and writes a Zoning Ticket for all the neighbors, who will have to pay to restore the driveway cuts to code (happened in my neighborhood), unless you check and there is no code, but that's doubtful.

as has been discussed...it turns out the city themselves comes out and fills these gutters for homeowners in this manner...so no issue there.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by terrylarock

Have you considered using what people who own expensive sports cars use to keep from damaging their front spoilers?

yes...there were a couple posts early in here that were gutter fill products...

[PharmGeek]

Update:

I’ve settled up with my contractor. Original price for the job was $4,700.

We agreed to knock 700 off to cover the lift kit as a solution. Check for $4,000 given to finalize.

He agreed to come back and give a new quote for filling the gutter if needed later but I am assuming at this point I won’t need to. The city can come fill it if need be I was told by a neighbor...or worst case fill it with one of the products mentioned or pay my contractor to fill it.

Worst case scenario a few hundred bucks more in cost to fill the rain gutter but I rather doubt it’ll come to that

Waiting on local rv shop to quote me for the lift kit job - if too stiff my dad a lifelong mechanic agreed to help me do the lift install...

[rmkrum]

Main need to do a lift kit is a safe, solid level place to do the work, and appropriate SAFE way to hold several thousands of pounds of trailer in the air whilst you work under it.

Note the concrete blocks are NOT as safe way to do it. Use properly rated jackstands or solid wood cribbing as the safety support. Never work under something this heavy with just a hydraulic jack to hold it up...

One of my navy experiences was walking around in a huge dry-dock UNDER the keel of a 1,073 foot long Aircraft Carrier (USS Ranger, CVA-61, at that time) in San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard supported only by huge solid concrete blocks and wood timber cribbing...until I remembered we were in Earthquake Country....and got the heck outta there. No point tempting the fates...

Historical note: The dry-dock at Hunter's Point in San Francisco was more than big enough to accommodate battleships, and often did...they pulled ALL the ships into the flooded dry-dock by hand--hundreds of sailors pulling on ropes. Was an amazing evolution, and the safest way to do it. Ship had to be in perfect position within an inch or less, and that's how they always did it. Took a few hours. Hardest part was holding the ship in place for 30 minutes in the wind as the tugs put the dry-dock door (a huge steel plug) back in, then they pumped out the water...

[PharmGeek]

Thanks - dad is a long time airplane mechanic and auto mechanic - has all manner of jack stand - jacks - etc - he can be trusted

My hope is the local shop just quotes me at a reasonable figure

[rmkrum]

Pardon my safety paranoia. Lost a high school friend to a dumb move involving a heavy car up on cinder blocks....no fun.

[PharmGeek]

Originally Posted by rmkrum;

Pardon my safety paranoia. Lost a high school friend to a dumb move involving a heavy car up on cinder blocks....no fun.

Your “paranoia” is welcome here! Wisdom shared not paranoia

[GMFL]

I did my lift myself. It’s not hard just gotta be careful. Here a link to Steve’s video where he did his. This is there 30’er. He has done his current 23 also.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lsdveR_gPIA

[marter]

Pharm,


I've been following this thread and glad to see you've resolved this to your satisfaction without getting attorneys involved. Nobody needs that.
And congratulations on your level head during some of these responses; not sure I could have avoided responding to some of the posts that got a little out of bounds in my opinion.

The last thing you need is more advice, but I'm going to give a little anyway. Take it or leave it. I was in the construction industry for over 20 years.

I"m not sure when this was poured, but concrete typically takes about 28 days to reach full strength. The longer the moisture stays in the concrete the stronger it will become. Regardless of the curing method (or not), I would recommend waiting at least 7 days for driving on it with vehicle loads. This is pretty typical. Surprised your contractor would have said 2 days was fine. YMMV.

Happy trails,

Mike

[tevake]

Ok, it looks like you are settleing on a lift to solve your issue.
If that's the case why not make sure it's enough to solve your situation once and for all.

Cheers Richard

Bawahaha, this should do it.

[OTRA15]

. . . or some 10' long 2x10's to mock up exactly how much lift is needed . . .

[Mattirs]

Elevator?