New Que Owner - Drove half way across the states to purchase

[Pat Mac - Q]

Hi Folks,

A quick bio... We live in Eastern Washington state...my wife and I started out tent camping years ago, moved on to camping out of a small truck/canopy, then moved up to a slide-in pop-up truck camper. Loved those pop-up truck campers, you could drive into the mountains and desert and get far away from the beatin' path! During the pop-up years we even spent a few weekends each year backpacking in the mountains and thought we were in the lap of luxury when we were back traveling in the pop-up camper

Well...three years ago we purchased a new full size 27' TT for winters down in the southwest. What had I done ... I now have a 50' long rig which needs a Walmart parking lot just to turn it around! I do have to admit though... it's nice when we get set-up (100 gallons of water and big holding tanks) and a bathroom that rivals our first apartment's bathroom... nice...but I still hate it once we get back on the road

We just spent 4 weeks traveling back to the mid-west from mid-Sept to mid-Oct and tented half the time (even a few nights in Grizz country at Glacier NP) and spent another two weeks sleeping on the floor at Mom's assisted living apartment. On the trip back home, we spotted two little 13' Scamps at Teddy Roosevelt NP and thought that sure would beat a tent and be great for late summer and fall traveling in the Northwest, so we started looking for Scamps and Casita's. Nice little trailers, but very small and the sellers are very proud of their TT's.

So I started searching for other small TT's and came upon the Sunline Que 5.4, small but nicely appointed. Only problem...just one on the West coast for sale and the RV lot was VERY, VERY proud of their little Que... so the search continued.

We found a Que back in Mpls, MN at a great price... only a 1377 mile one-way trip...again, what had I done Am I crazy...I just drove through Mpls two weeks prior on the trip back home to Washington, now it's early November and a potential storm is brewing up North with a Alberta Clipper poised to descend on the lower 48 states within the next 7 to 10 days. So we pack the truck and head east fast. We cover 1200 miles in 36 hours, via tag-team driving. We get to the lot and discover an 8 year old TT that's been used only a few times and in great shape, even the tires looked brand new, no weather-checking, no fading on the fiberglass siding, even the decals are in great shape. A great find and we were very lucky to have an honest sales rep... you can only guess how anxious we were about what we would see once we got to the RV lot??!!

Had an uneventful trip back (except for the light snow storm in Fargo). We were allowed to spend a night in a Schells parking lot due to the snow storm, I guess it was worth it for them, as I spent $100.00 there!!

Well that's my story...we're proud owners of a "brand new" 8 year old Que , hopefully I can glean some ideas from this forum and hope I didn't bore the heck out of you.

Happy trails - Pat Mac

[Tweety]

Love your story! You must be a writer I think a few of us who had a QUE and went bigger miss those simple QUE days. I'd love to have 2 trailers! The big Fox for those long sitting trips, and a little one for quick weekends or wandering. There's a member here who actually does have a truck camper and a bigger trailer. And a member who's gone full circle from a QUE to a larger trailer and now back to a Casita So, you certainly aren't alone! Welcome to the club! Enjoy being able to pull over anywhere, and fit into any site! We even squeezed our little QUE into a tent space once!

[bunjin]

Welcome,

I have two TT's. Kinda like Pam said. Though the '96 T-2053 isn't "big" it is larger than I need for just myself, although I have set the bed up so it is more comfortable than the bed in the house, the '83 T-1550 is perfect for a quick grab and run TT for me.

Enjoy your "new-to-you" trailer.

[Pat Mac - Q]

Tweety,

If you liked the first part of the story...I could go on and on about the 27' TT and the things that have happened or broke or needed repairs in the past three years!! This trailer must have been built either before a major holiday (and the workers wanted be out of the plant and be at the beach instead) or the first one to be built on a Monday after a major holiday (and they were all hungover)!! We've had slide problems, cheap tires replaced, even blown out good tires (on a road in Nevada that says "Next gas 176 miles")! Screws fall out that attach items to the walls. Flooded trailer due to water coming up through the lousy slide design. Pull out the wet carpet to find the vinyl flooring stops 18" from the end of the trailer. We call the manufacturer customer service and he tells me to call our dealer (we're now in Death Valley trying to fix the soggy trailer, ya that will work for us, thanks customer service guy!) It goes on and on....(but the frig and freezer work great - for now)!

On our first shake down trip we got detoured over a 11,000 foot pass at Brian's Head ski area in Utah; I should have suspected problems when we read the sign at the bottom of the pass "Not recommended for TT's". I thought...ya right, I've traveled many back roads and passes with the truck camper and never been on a highway that I or my truck couldn't handle...but I never had been on a road like this with a total rig weight of 18,000# (with a full 100 gallon load of water to boot)!

Things were going just fine until we got to the switchbacks and the yellow caution sign read "Caution - 14% Grade"!! What kind of engineer would build a road with a 14% grade...and this was a loooong portion of a 14% grade. (I guess the same kind of engineer who put the sign at the bottom of the pass regarding TT's on his road!!)

Well, unknown to me at the time, my glow plug relay on the diesel motor had failed and the truck's engine management system went into "Safe Mode", meaning horsepower and torque are being reduced as to not do any engine damage. Well...at the 14% grade we were in first gear just crawling up the mountain and the truck just stopped in the middle of the road and wouldn't go any farther and it was a narrow mt road with a turn-out that I just passed.! What to do (all this happened in a few seconds). The truck has a manual tranny so I slammed the transfer case into low range. The whole truck frame torqued like a loaded big rig coming off a stop light, I thought ...this ain't good, there goes the clutch, driveshaft or u-joint any second. (I forgot to mention - my truck isn't new, it's a beautiful 1995 F350 crew cab with a first Gen Power Stroke motor with 175,000 miles).

But nothing bad happened... we just crawled even slower than before up and over the mountain and stopped at the top for a badly needed stress break and let the ol' F350 rest for a bit.

But then we got to thinking...if it's a 14% grade on the uphill side, what is the grade on the backside... but that's another story.

Have a good day - Pat Mac (and no...I'm not a writer, but I am a slow typer)!!

[Tweety]

It sounds like if we ever take the Fox out west we need to heed those warning signs more than we do here in the east. We had a few little issues with the QUE, mostly that we got tired of making up the bed every night. Overall it was a great little trailer. Now you have to finish the story!

[Pat Mac - Q]

Tweety,

Normal day to day life you don't think much about "gravity"...you throw a ball in the air to your dog, the ball falls back to the ground, Fido fetches and we do it again.

When we bought the 27' TT, we didn't think much about gravity either. The truck and trailer rolls down a relatively flat road without a problem. Typical highway grades rarely exceed a 6% grade and when traveling the interstate system, the DOT will even post signs "Caution 6% Grade". Truckers and heavily loaded pick-ups slow down and gear down for the descent of these steep grades. "Runaway truck" lanes are built to slow down trucks that lose their brakes or transmissions to help save the truckers life.

Now imagine that 14% grade in Utah...almost 2 1/2 times as steep as most mountain passes on the interstate road system. My ol' truck is workin' it's tranny off trying to pull us up the grade with a total weight of 18,000#'s!!

We get to the top and ponder what the backside grade is, only one way to find out... proceed forward. If it was a 14% downhill grade, it would have been a very long and scary trip, as I can't compression brake a diesel motor like you can a gas engine and I would toast the brakes in a few minutes with that steep of a grade. We were relieved to find ONLY a 10% grade going down (still 1 1/2 times greater than the typical interstate grade). So we do the same as we did on the uphill portion, we use the trucks low range transfer case to creep down the mountain. Later in our trip we learn this is not a good idea, as it puts incredible stress on the transfer case chain and this loads the transfer case in the opposite force the unit was designed for.

Anyhow, we made it down without any problems (except for a couple of logging trucks we had to pull over for to allow them to pass). We will take heed to any sign that reads "Not recommended for trailers" in the future!!

I also installed an "Exhaust brake" on the truck, that thing is amazing, probably the best accessory I've ever added to the truck. It's similar in function to a big rigs jake brake. Most new diesel pickups have these as standard equipment today, they should be required by law, just like ABS brakes.

Pulling the Que back to Washington state from Minn was a breeze, those interstate passes were child's play for the ol' F350. Course', 3,000# vs 10,000# of trailer behind the truck makes a huge difference and it's great to be able to turn the Que around on a small side road.

Now I hope that the Que doesn't give me any water problems...I was reading a couple of threads that mention water leaks. It's under cover for the winter, so I'll do my due diligence next spring to make sure all seams are sealed properly, did you have any water issues??

I'll try to attach a couple of pic's of the 27' and the Que, I'll see how this works! ...Guess I'm not computer savvy enough to do this, please send instructions - thanks.

Later - Pat Mac

[JohnB]

Hi Pat Mac,

Welcome to Sunline Owners Club and congrats on your new coach!

You might be close of holding the record on how long one has driven to get their Sunny!

You mentioned pic's, Here are 2 posts to help on how to post them. You link them in from a photo server or you up load them to our site

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f6...club-7650.html

And this one, scroll down to post # 7
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f1...ics-11235.html

We look forward to seeing and hearing about your Sunline adventures.

Happy Camping

John

[Pat Mac - Q]

Thanks John, I would never have figured the picture thing out on my own!!

Yes - That was a long drive for a Sunny (about 2800 miles round trip), it appears it was worth the drive though, let's hope there is no hidden problems, everything seems solid and very gently used.

Anybody heard how the name "Que" was chosen? My Goggle search shows it means "what" in Spanish i.e.: que pasa (what's happenin').

There's a "Q" in James Bond's movies, and somewhere along the info threads I read there's a Que in Star Trek, but I'm not a Trekie, so I can't vouch for that?

Anyhow, thanks for the picture info and take care...Pat Mac