Leaving trailer hitched?

[kfrere]

We try to take a camping weekend every 4 - 6 weeks year round. We pull our 31' with an Excursion. It's stored between trips in our concrete floor RV shed.

When we get to a CG we immediately unhitch in order to explore. But, do we really have to do this at home between trips? We can back the trailer into the shed, leave it hitched, and just lower the roller shed door down to the top of the hitch. We're ready to go next time.

Problems to either the trailer, truck or hitch doing this?

[TinLoaf]

I do it all the time but I put the tongue jack down to take the weight off the truck's suspension.

[kevin242]

Leaving it attached is OK, I would recommend releasing the tension on the weight distribution bars, use the hitch jack to take the weight off the rear of your tow vehicle and disconnect the umbilical (7 pin plug) so as to not draw down your vehicle battery.

[Aage]

My personal thoughts are that the trailer won't suffer any damage by storing it that way.

However, not so sure about your TV, the Excursion. You would be leaving the full tongue weight of the trailer on the suspension of the TV for all that time. I can't imagine that would do any good for the TV's suspension.

You could put the TT's tongue jack down,and release some of the weight from the Excursion, I suppose. That would mitigate the pressure on the suspension.

I would also disconnect the umbilical, to ensure no power loss on the TV's battery.

[Edit: I type too slowly!]

[Phoenix]

If wired properly, the hot lead from your TV's battery back to the connector near the hitch should have an in-line relay that removes power to the umbilical plug when the ignition is turned off. The Airstream dealer installed one when they replaced the hot wire on our old pickup, and our newer model Tundra (with tow package) came from the factory wired that way.

[FreshAir]

Nice and convenient that you can do that. If you usually keep the trailer hooked up to house electric it 'might' be a good idea to disconnect your TV electric connection. There should be a problem leaving that connection, but we don't always know what can happen when we are not 'looking'.
Neil

[JFScheck]

Interesting, IC device to disconnect power to Airstream batteries when vehicle is powered off....

Any Hoots, unless the OP has said upgrade installed, then I would strongly suggest removal of the umbilical from TV while in storage along with relaxing load distro & resting weight of tounge upon electric trailer jack.

[CanoeStream]

Yeah, modern tow vehicles are supposed to have a diode to prevent the trailer pulling from the TV. Ask Foiled Again how you can't count on that... Disconnect the umbilical.

I'd do exactly what Kevin242 says about releasing the spring bars & putting down the tongue jack. I have left the spring bars engaged if I'm traveling fast and it's just one night.