Bottoming out - 2017 T@B CS-S

YellowVelo

Hi -
We took the T@b on the longest trip to date
and had several instances where the trailer bottomed out - mostly going in and out of driveways. Has anyone else had this issue? If so - have you resolved and how? I’m a bit concerned. 
Thank you 😊

jgram2

Even with our Boondock we’ve bottomed out when the driveway angle at the street is acute, so yes, we do keep an eye on the slope of entrances and exit at an angle of one degree or another. It REALLY happens if you forget to remove the jack wheel!

rkj__

Front or back or both?

dragonsdofly

@YellowVelo, another question is where is your spare tire mounted?

Ratkity

The majority of bumper pull campers I've seen have a piece of angled iron  underneath the rear of the camper on either side. It's supposed to mitigate those tiny, slow speed bottoming out issues. It's a poor way to handle those types of bottoming out situations and some trailers are equipped with wheels or cheap rollers.

I found a picture from eTrailer that shows rollers that you put in the rear of some of the longer pull trailers (https://www.etrailer.com/Skid-Wheels/Ultra-Fab-Products/UF48-979021.html). I think the welded on ones are more beneficial, but I've never seen a discussion of them here.

Pulling the camper over gas station driveways at an angle is helpful. They are especially annoying!


Storytime..... (yes, I have a T@B Univ badge for Story-Telling):
The only time I bottomed out with my T@B was when that silly tire was on the underside of the rear of the camper and only when going up or down gas station driveways.

While taking off a spare from the Outback rack can be difficult for a solo camper, it's not impossible. What was worse was the yoga position I had to get in to wiggle under the LEVEL camper in order to remove the tire to mount on the back rack! It didn't help that the bolts holding the tire on had loosened and dropped the tire position some.

The way I had the camper set up in the rear of my driveway was that the tires were off the asphalt and the jack was on it and protected by a hearty piece of wood. I couldn't lower the jack much at the time, but it would have been better to have hitched up and pushed the trailer back to get the jack off the asphalt and drop the tongue down.

In my defense, I had just successfully installed the Outback rack on my TABitha and mounting the tire would be the end of the mod. The end of the mod was in sight!!! I could've started fresh in the morning, but I was "mod focused". Must.get.done. Being "mod focused" is dangerous. One must be able to access multiple hardware stores, have a vision in mind and perhaps a drawing on a napkin (sorta smudged). I bet @Dalehelman plans his mods out WAY better!!!

YellowVelo

Hi everyone- thanks for the replies thus far... replies to questions...

- It catches on front (gray water line) and back (tire)
- And that’s the answer to th second question- the spare tire is mounted under the rear of the trailer.

The sidewalk is a steep hump compared to the street and driveway. And we bottomed out coming out of a parking lot with a similar issue.

@Ratkity - holy cow that looks like the answer once we move the tire to the tongue!!! Thank you!!

Ratkity

@YellowVelo, yup, changing the tire mounting to the front is the best solution IMHO.

I opted for the Outback yakima rack because I had put a different diamond aluminum front box and a bigger group 27 battery in the front of the box. Inside the box, I could put two propane tanks and the stinky slinkies inside of it. I also had mounted my Tritonics solar controller inside the new box and had a grommeted hole going out to the battery for the cabling.

My tongue weight was about perfect with the 40 lb tire on the back rack. Changing the tire position from there may have affected the handling. In the end, I was hoping I'd never have to be on the roadside changing a tire in 113F weather, next to a mosquito condo of a half-full drainage ditch, some dead unidentified critter somewhere in the tall grass, images of microbes all around the dirty shoulder from the mosquitos, ticks, dead things, stagnant water, the sticky what-the-heck-is-this-stuff that was lingering around... Not to mention wondering when the last time I had a tetanus shot! 

Did I mention I'm a microbiologist? 


Now where did I put my hand sanitizer???? I just grossed myself out!

ericnliz

@YellowVelo, You'll be glad you moved the spare once it's done! No more cringing when you go over steep driveways. I'm rather surprised that you catch on the gray water dump though. Is your trailer level when towing? Just a curiosity question.

Ratkity

Oops, forgot to address the front bottoming out of the gray water outlet handle. You are going to break that sucker off one day. Perhaps get a spare? I hope you aren't hitting the combined black/gray outlet.

I know you said you had a steep skirt into the driveway. If you are driving straight up into the drive tow-vehicle first, then approach the driveway from the driver's side at an angle (don't turn, just drive straight). That should tip the vehicle's rear wheel up a bit and the trailer just a tad up so the gray valve handle clears the skirt. Then straight out to the driveway so the passenger side rear wheel goes up the skirt and the camper levels out. You do the opposite when leaving (unless you have a dead-end). Probably confused the heck outta ya. There's gotta be a youtube vid on this!

Also, check your hitch hight when your camper and vehicle are perfectly level. Most T@Bs are 16" from top of ball (coupler?) to ground. The Outback is 18". This is for the 400's. I can't remember which T@B you have.

Marceline

YellowVelo said:

Hi everyone- thanks for the replies thus far... replies to questions...

- It catches on front (gray water line) and back (tire)
- And that’s the answer to th second question- the spare tire is mounted under the rear of the trailer.

The sidewalk is a steep hump compared to the street and driveway. And we bottomed out coming out of a parking lot with a similar issue.

@Ratkity - holy cow that looks like the answer once we move the tire to the tongue!!! Thank you!!

If you don't have a curb cut for your own driveway I would go ahead and remove the spare from the underside of the trailer. Otherwise you'll probably hit it every time. Some people throw the spare in the bed of a tow vehicle. Many of us have it mounted on the tongue. If you're hitting anything on the underside of the front end of the trailer it's probably because your ball height is too low. Be sure to measure the ball height and level the trailer when your tow vehicle is completely loaded.