July 23rd 2018
As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When you take your fifth wheel out on the road, there are some potential safety situations that can occur. It’s much better to put in a little preventative effort than to try to deal with a scenario after it happens. We made a list of the must-have safety equipment to prevent possible situations from happening below. For all your camper needs, visit Bus Supply Company. We proudly serve those near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Your tire inflation levels affect how your camper drives. When tires are inflated too much, they have less contact with the road. When tires are inflated too little, they can’t cope with the pressures placed on them. It’s important to check your tire pressure throughout your drive.
But manually checking is a big time and energy suck. You’ll need to pull over, whip out your tire pressure gauge, and check each tire. No one wants to continually interrupt their drive to check the tires. A much better strategy is to use a tire pressure monitoring system. This gets installed in your 5th wheel and its tires. As you drive, you’ll get real-time updates about the state of your tires. The system also stores data, so you can check for changes over time. This lets you catch irregularities that could suggest an issue in your fifth wheel.
Different campsites have different amounts of water pressure. Most of the time, this pressure is compatible with your 5th wheel. But it only takes one time of the campsite’s water pressure being too high to leave you with pipe damage. A water pressure regulator adjusts the levels to a pressure your camper can handle without a problem.
When you tow your camper, your tow vehicle’s brakes must bring both to a full stop. This puts a large amount of stress on your tow vehicle’s brakes! A trailer brake control helps remove some of this stress and makes your fifth wheel easier to control. It connects the brakes of your 5th wheel to the brakes of your tow vehicle, which helps them work together to bring it to a full stop.
Campsites offer power sources from a solar panel array to a generator. These differ in the intensity of currents they provide. Some can be too high for your camper’s electrical equipment to handle. Installing a surge protector in your fifth wheel ensures the campsite doesn’t fry your electrical equipment. These upgrades are easy to use and easy to store, which makes them a great upgrade to invest in.
Staying at a campsite is a fire risk for your 5th wheel. A stray spark from a campfire can land on your camper. Wiring inside your fifth wheel can become faulty. The kitchen oven or stove can malfunction. It only takes a minute or two for sparks to become a full-blown fire. But it also only takes a fire extinguisher to avert potential disaster. Store a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, near the door, and in a storage compartment outside.
The proper equipment is just part of safe driving of a fifth wheel. Your camper also needs to be running smooth. Remember you can always bring your 5th wheel to Bus Supply Company. We offer parts replacement and service options to get your machine running like new. We also provide a large selection of new and used fifth wheels if you are looking to buy. We proudly serve those in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as well as Jackson and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
