Sunny will get a 3 inch lift

[kanyonkitty]

OK, I took some photos today, and looked things over and feel that the 3 inch lift will not cause a problem with the RV Port. I'll just have to be careful backing in as I will be on an angle and visability is not the best.

Heres Sunny in his house:









Yeah, I know I'm not centered, darn it


The top ot the tape measure is where the bottom of the wheel well would be after the lift


The top of the tape measure is where the bottom of the trailer would be after the lift


Think I'll paint a line going into the RVport so I know where the wheels need to be, especially where I'm backing at an angle and uphll a bit.

[Tweety]

Interesting...your Sunny looks like he sits a little higher than Tweety did before her lift. I just ran out & measured, and after the lift, from the driveway to the bottom of the fender cover it's 32 5/8". Prior to the lift it would have been only 28 5/8". I'm just curious...how high does Sunny ride with no lift?

[Janalee]

Hey all,
I am curious as to why everyone here talks about doing the lift on their units...I have never had a problem with ANY of mine..and I have had plenty as you can see by my signature! I have only ever towed with a full size sedan (Crown Victoria) or full size conversion vans--only once in all my thousands of miles of travel did I have a problem with a drag situation..and it was mainly my fault. I have had skidbars that broke so we took them off our other units and never dragged the TT's themselves,same with wheels on one unit. One year I towed 12,000 miles and no problems!! Are you trying to avoid something that may never happen? I just feel that maybe Sunline knew the best way to design them and leave well enough alone. Don't want to start a big discussion here, but wonder if I am the wrong one??? Janalee

[Tweety]

Hi Jan, We were dragging every time we came in the driveway, so we put skid wheels on the back. That would have been fine, but we went on a trip to Grayson Highlands State Park, where we drove up a BUNCH of switchbacks, then down them when we came out. (rt. 58 in VA) It's called the "Crooked Road" so I guess we should have known We were literally riding on the skid wheels going around those curves. I could look out the window and tell Steve when to slow down because we were about go to the skid wheels. That's when we decided to flip. If we mostly drove on interstates and not in mountains I think we would have been OK, but we like the mountains and just didn't want to have to worry about being able to get to some of the areas we like. We wouldn't have tried to go back to Grayson Highlands without the axle flip...it was that bad.

[kanyonkitty]

Hi Pam,

Sunny currently sits 28 inches at the top of the wheel well, and 16" at the very bottom of the gold siding next to the end of the wheel well trim.

Janalee, I drag (and have bent) my skid bars quite often, mostly right here at home going off the main gravel lane into my paved driveway, I drag going into/out of gas stations.

I often have holding tank drainage problems due to sitting so low.

Sunny sits low due to the "degree" that the trailing arm is set at, and the wheel is attched to the trailing arm of the Alko-Kober rubber ride axle. Eman or his dealer knew which degree to request so that his trailer would sit higher.

Kitty

[Hematite]

Originally Posted by Janalee

Hey all,
I am curious as to why everyone here talks about doing the lift on their units...I have never had a problem with ANY of mine..and I have had plenty as you can see by my signature! I have only ever towed with a full size sedan (Crown Victoria) or full size conversion vans--only once in all my thousands of miles of travel did I have a problem with a drag situation..and it was mainly my fault. I have had skidbars that broke so we took them off our other units and never dragged the TT's themselves,same with wheels on one unit. One year I towed 12,000 miles and no problems!! Are you trying to avoid something that may never happen? I just feel that maybe Sunline knew the best way to design them and leave well enough alone. Don't want to start a big discussion here, but wonder if I am the wrong one??? Janalee

I agree that Sunlines do tow better and are more stable because of the low ride. I drag going in and out the driveway so I had the low spot filled in to avoid that. I don't have the towing miles that others do so I'll only say that raising the coach to avoid a problem that occurs 2% of the time that you're driving doesn't make sense to me. The stability, ease of towing (wind resistance) and ease of entry are compromised 98% of the time as a result. Maybe I'm not adventurous enough, so be it!

[Tweety]

The slide room Sunlines already sit higher, effectively having the lift built in. Steve doesn't think ours tows any worse after the 4" lift. We'll get a good miles per gallon comparison when we go on our usual Virginia trip at the end of next month. We went on some nasty switchbacks on the way to Locust Lake State Park a couple of weekends ago and we didn't drag!!! It was VERY exciting. The issue with dragging around switchbacks is the stress it puts on the frame, since usually only one side is dragging at a time. Guess we're just mountain folks

[GoodoleBob]

I specifically bought a non-slideout Sunline because I didn't want a high profile trailer. My travel zone is not likely to include much of the "American Outback" and I don't take trips that are so distant (under 300 miles a day) as to require fuel stops while towing. I fuelup running light once camp is setup. So those poorly designed gas stations pose no problem. I will say that the sewer connection is rather low and did cause me some aggrivation to dump, but not enough to warrant an axle flip in my particular case. So...a flip seems to be the fix for some folks and I can understand their want to have it....and for us it's just not a step I need/want to take for now.

Bob

[kanyonkitty]

My decision was based on where I drag the most: HOME, I first drag the bottom of the tongue jack and then the rear skid bars. No real financial way to fix the approach to my driveway, so I had to weigh damage to Sunny VS lifting Sunny. If I were only dragging at an occasional gas station, etc. I wuld not be getting the lift. Well, since Sunny is soon (?) going to welder for the frame fix, I decided to get the spacers put in my rubber-ryde suspension. I always liked the low ride of Sunline, but for some reason I really drag with the 2499. It is not something that I would be doing if my driveway was not the problem.

[Nightlites13]

Well, this was something I was going to ask about. I'm glad to see I am not alone. Our 2470 sits pretty close to level when hitched and we hit the back end in and out of our driveway every time. We often scrape at gas stations and shopping centers, etc. On our last trip the site was pretty level but when we left there was a little dip the wheels went in and the skids tore up the lawn pretty bad because I couldn't see it until it was too late. I added wheels when we got her because those triangle brackets scraping noise was aweful. I have wondered if there was a way to safely raise her just a few inches. I will look around for a thread on specifics for that. It is definetly uncomfortable to see the back end of the camper lift as the skids hit and then drop when you clear. Can't possibly be good for the frame.

[kanyonkitty]

If you don't have the Alko rubber-ryde axles, and have axles with springs & spring hangers, it's supposed to be a fairly easy switch. The end result is that your axle would be mounted below your springs, where they are currently mounted above the springs. someone else can explain it better than me.

Kitty

[Nightlites13]

Thanks Kitty,
We are going to look into it.
Dan

[Sunline Fan]

Dan,

The kit is called the Dexter Over-Under Conversion kit. It does just like Kitty says, puts the axle below the springs instead of above. It raises you about 3-4 inches, so basically the axle tube plus a spacer to have it flat against the spring. I believe the kit is just above $50 for one axle, and it's possible to do it yourself if you feel you can. One other thing you'll find, which isn't all that big of a deal, is you will have to chop and extend your brake wires to reach.

Jon

[Nightlites13]

Jon,

Thank you for the information. I did find out that I have the Dexter axle so the kit you suggest sounds correct. I also found it on line for around $40 per axle. So the price seems reasonable.

I did find the other thread on this and don't want to Hi-Jack Kitty's thread

Dan