Will a 5.0 fit under a 9' or 10' garage door? - Escape Trailer Owners Community
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Old 03-02-2014, 09:13 PM   #1
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Will a 5.0 fit under a 9' or 10' garage door?

Looking at the over all height of the current 5.0 and adding 5-6" for the new 5.0 TA..I need to know if it will fit in my garage. The over all door height is 9' + and is 8+' wide and I have 21+ feet in depth. Curious how the front jacks work. Are they powered? Can I make the trailer "kneel" and slide it in. Also wonder if ETI offers a locking water fill. I hate having my water fill open to the public.
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Old 03-02-2014, 10:18 PM   #2
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The current posted specs are for the Classic 5.0, so adding the 5" mentioned on the product page for the 5.0 TA you get 9'5"... presumably at the lower ride height, rather than the taller version for high truck boxes. At that a 9' door is obviously out without some interesting technique, but a 10' door might work.
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Curious how the front jacks work. Are they powered?
The 5.0 features list includes "Independent Power Landing Gear", so yes, they're powered (two separate power jacks).

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Can I make the trailer "kneel" and slide it in.
Interesting idea. The tallest part of the body is certainly forward of the axles, so lowering the front will tilt it down. If the air conditioner is too far back this idea would not work - the tallest point needs to be well forward of the middle of the two axles. I don't know where the A/C is located on the 5.0 TA, or if that has even been finalized at this time. On the Classic, the A/C is the tallest point and is barely ahead of the axle so this kneeling would do little good. With no A/C, it would certainly work. Speaking of A/C... is that spec 9' height (9'5" for the TA) without the A/C? After all, it's an option.

Casters have been added to landing gear (front jacks) for this purpose, and discussed in this forum before (Fifth wheel parking experts), but it would be tough to hand-push a 5.0 TA up any slope or over any entrance bump. A custom push-bar could be built, I suppose.

I would rather mount removable casters directly on the frame, and just lower onto them, than attach them to the landing gear legs for this purpose. In either location, they need to be swivel casters, so you can steer.

We'll see how the suspension details work out, but tandem axle trailers reduce their hitch/pin weight substantially as the front is lowered, so by the time the front gets close to dropping the frame on the ground, there might be little or no load on those casters, with the leading axle carrying most of the load. I wouldn't want to store it that way, so hopefully you can crank it back up much closer to level once it is past the doorway.
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Old 03-03-2014, 06:04 AM   #3
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How can get you get the front end down (kneeling) on a tandem axle without lifting the rear axle off the ground? Sounds like a bad thing for the frame?
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Old 03-03-2014, 07:55 AM   #4
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That will happen Donna if you ever back up little incline where the tug is lower that the trailer causing the rear wheels to lift up, just a short time and as you keep backing it all settles down.
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Old 03-03-2014, 07:55 AM   #5
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Bart.
I can't help you on door clearance but I do hand push my 5.0 on nearly level concrete on a side driveway at home. I reinforced caster wheels that replace my leg pads and lower the legs to the minimum height while pushing very slow to reduce stress on the jacks. From what I experience, hand pushing the twin axle 5.0TA will be next to imposible to manuver into a garage.
When did ETI change the water fill? As far as I know, they install a locking door on the water fill/hose connection on all trailers.
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Old 03-03-2014, 08:01 AM   #6
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The 2014 models no longer have the locking fill.
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Old 03-03-2014, 08:15 AM   #7
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Thanks for the response. If I go with the new 5.0, I won't get AC again...I'm assuming it will be just as noisy as our current 19 and it's intolerable...even without my hearing aids. Will just get a dual voltage fan and some extra deodorant.

Where does one find the wheels for the landing gear and how are they attached? Looking at pictures of the old 5.0, it appears the the highest point is the front 8-10'. Once through the door, the ceiling is at 12' or better so no need to maintain the "kneel" and unload the rear axle.

Wonder if I could get a locking water fill as an option?

Hard not to consider the new 5.0 with the stronger USD and the pending price increase.
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Old 03-03-2014, 09:01 AM   #8
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How can get you get the front end down (kneeling) on a tandem axle without lifting the rear axle off the ground? Sounds like a bad thing for the frame?
As Jim says it happens with tandems. It appears from photos that in the factory all tandems are built with wheels on only one axle, so they are easier to move around. This is okay if it is temporary and if the trailer is not subject to the shock loads of road use with this high load on one axle.

Also, think leverage: you need the front to go down significantly, but that's several feet from the axles and the axle are only a couple of feet apart, so the difference between axles will be a fraction of the kneeling amount, and so the suspensions might take up the difference and keep the rear tires on the ground... especially if only a few inches of kneeling is required.

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Where does one find the wheels for the landing gear and how are they attached?
The other discussion which I linked suggested that the ETI factory uses some during assembly, which would not be a normal option but were available. I haven't even seen a photo.

If I were to put wheels on the landing gear, I would want ones which replace the stock feet. On normal fifth-wheel landing gear, the feet are on tubes which slide up into the landing gear legs and are pinned in place at the desired height; however, from ETI website photos it looks like these are like typical tongue jacks, with feet on short tubes which slip over the end of the jack leg and are pinned in place (no height adjustment). Maybe a current 5.0 owner could photo a photo of this detail. It could require a bit of custom fabrication, welding a plate onto the end of a suitably sized tube, and bolting the caster to that, although if the jacks really are just tall tongue jacks, there are casters (jack wheels) sold ready to mount to them. I would want the biggest wheel which would fit and yet allow the front to kneel enough... but of course it must fit the jack, which looks like it usually has a 2" diameter leg. A fifth-wheel wouldn't normally have wheels on the landing gear, but a conventional trailer often has a wheel on the tongue jack.
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Old 03-03-2014, 09:19 AM   #9
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Harbor Freight locally has some heavy duty wheels that could work. It's only a 10-15' straight in push on a level concrete pad into the garage so major lateral stress on the legs shouldn't be an issue. Will check with Tammy when they get a final height on the TA. I'm also assuming I won't need the high lift axle with a standard pickup bed (2014 Silverado). So...if the numbers work out...there may be a 2013 19 on the market shortly.
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Old 03-03-2014, 09:25 AM   #10
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Instead of messing around with putting wheels on the landing jacks, which you may not want to do permanently anyway (one more place to chalk when camping), how about using wheel dollys under the landing jacks? They come in different weight limits: Vehicle Dollies - 2 Piece, 1500 Lb. Capacity
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Old 03-03-2014, 10:44 AM   #11
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Great thought...and I already have some for my snow machines. I need to remeasure the garage door and visit with Tammy again once the TA goes into production.
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Old 03-03-2014, 11:58 AM   #12
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Bart here's a picture of my jack wheels. They were for a bumper hitch trailer but I modified them because I didn't like their shallow insertion into my legs. If you were to bend or damage your front jacks while moving your trailer that could end up costing you some time & money. Just be careful with putting stress on the front jacks while moving. There just not strong enough to take quick travel and sudden stops. This advice comes from someone who actually owns a 5.0 and hand moves it often. Search for "5.0 Parking Experts" for more discussion on this topic.

I was surprised to learn about the water fill. I would want a locking door also to keep someone from monkeying around with my water supply. I think that is a step backwards for ETI.
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Old 03-03-2014, 12:05 PM   #13
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I was surprised to learn about the water fill. I would want a locking door also to keep someone from monkeying around with my water supply. I think that is a step backwards for ETI.

Have never heard of water thievery, except maybe in California during the drought.
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Old 03-03-2014, 12:17 PM   #14
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The locking door on the water inlet on my 17B could be pried open with a toothpick.
If for some reason somebody wanted to harm me by messing with the water supply, the door would be no obstacle.
And, they would fail since the water is mainly for washing dishes and showers.
My beer is kept safely inside.
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Old 03-03-2014, 12:19 PM   #15
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Locked safely inside.
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Old 03-03-2014, 12:23 PM   #16
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Locked safely inside.
Sort of safe.
Again, if somebody wants in, locks used in the RV world are not much of an obstacle.
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Old 03-03-2014, 12:48 PM   #17
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I believe Reace said some time ago that the locking water fill was discontinued by the manufacturer.
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Old 03-03-2014, 01:29 PM   #18
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I was more worried about foreign substances being put into the water tank. Agree the locks are more cosmetic than anything else.

Now to start on a build list. Should be much easier the second time around. Curious when the first 5.0 TA will be delivered? Wonder if there are still any blackberries along the roads in Chilliwack in October? Just hate to pull the trigger on a new one until I'm sure I have inside storage for the 5.0. The 19 fits just beautifully and I love having it out of the weather.

And thanks for all of the collective wisdom...
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Old 03-03-2014, 03:51 PM   #19
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I don't think the idea is to put wheels on permanently - it looks (and now have confirmation from a current owner) like the 5.0 comes with removable jack feet that can be interchanged with wheels, and the plain feet would be put on as soon as it came out of the garage. I agree that wheels would likely be undesirable while camping, even chocked, assuming that 5.0 owners don't hand-place their trailers after unhitching.

I would be more than a little nervous about the rectangular flat steel feet sitting well in dollies like that, and I (personally) would be much more confident about a properly fastened wheel, which would also be a much larger wheel than the little casters on those dollies. The vehicle dollies are intended to hold a tire; for flat feet, I noticed snowmobile dollies in Princess Auto last week which I think would work better... but I would still rather use jack wheels.
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Old 03-03-2014, 04:11 PM   #20
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I assume that the people who put contaminants are the same ones who uncouple trailers, pull out ball mount pins, turn on switches that owners don't want left on, and do all the other things that don't actually happen to trailers... except when their owners accidentally do them and need someone to blame later.

Although a locking water fill makes sense, it it might be worth the hassle of yet another key needed to setup and take down camp, unlocked water fill ports - and city water ports - are pretty common. Even vehicle fuel filler doors are mostly not lockable, which astonished me when I recently went car shopping; my Toyotas have had locking filler doors for three decades.
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