Keeping our 2005 TK3

[nelsonraymond]

Hi
We just left Lagrange IN. We had our Mor-ryde IS serviced, which was in good shape with the exception of a badley needed alignment. We alsodropped our 5ver off at Paul's (Indiana Interstate Enterprise) and he and Jeremiah did some outstanding remodeling work for us. We now have eliminated the wrap around counter top and cabinet and just have the center Island. We have the 2009 countertop and sink and we have shelves in the slide out section that rode over the top of the section that is now removed. We had the option to put drawers in there but we felt we could utilize the space better with shelves plus we were able to reuse the two doors that were on the angle portion that was dismantled. We choose to eliminate the two glass doors above the the center section also on the kitchen slide so the doors below matches very well. Then we replaced the mirror closet door when you come with a solid wood door and we replaced the two small glass windows in the back with soild wood doors. All in all we are very happy with our unit and plan on keeping it for a while. That is why we chose to put the money into the modifications.
We had some other maintenance work done at Pauls including having a couple bad windows replaced. The manufactured was good enough to ship them to Paul before we got there.
For any of you who have not been to Pauls new location, it is so much bigger, he can get I beleive 4 units inside and has 3 or 4 hookups outside.

One otherthing we invested in was a Trailsaver hitch for our truck. That combined with our mor-ryde pin box is one sweet setup. we only wish we would have done it 3 yrs ago!
Happy Trails everyone!
Janice

[bstark]

Nelson: That's a great post. The fact that your 05 is still keeping you happy enough to risk getting substantial mod's done to it says a lot for the brand.

Our trailer is also an 05 and we look forward to using it for another couple of years at least as our snowbird vehicle.

I am particularly happy to hear that Paul Cross is enjoying a great degree of success. It speaks well of him that you've posted you're happy with his work in those types of mods.

Altogether, a reassuring post for those of us who will very likely keep our coaches for awhile.

[2blackdogs]

Am I correct in thinking that you have air bags on your hitch and also on your pinbox ?
Bob

[rverdlm]

We live in our '05 fulltime and we hope to do that for at least another 5 years. We can't think of anything we would change to make this unit more livable. Maybe because we had lived full time in 2 other trailers before this one we knew what we wanted and ordered accordingly. I do agree that having a place that can make mods to make a trailer more livable is vastly better than buying a new unit when the overall construction is as good as these MS's are.

[nelsonraymond]

Bob
Our pin box is a Mor-ryde with the rubber, not air so the pin box takes the shock of the back and forth and the new hitch on the truck takes the shock of up and down, so you hardley feel the trailer behind you at all. It also helps having the the Mor-ryde Independant suspension the the 5ver too.
I have added some pictures of some of the modifications below, I have never done so, I hope they come out. (I could only put 3 pictures)

Just a comment about ordering what you want and getting what you want. We had a 2004 TK3 and DRV agreed to rebuild it for us. We asked them when they replaced it if they would do the center island style and they said we would have to go with the same unit as we had. We found we like the TK3 but after newer models came out with changes we like the more openess and could live with less countertop space.
We have run into several other fulltime RVer's that have older unit's like Newmar, Montana, etc. that for various reason are putting money like us into remodeling instead of going to the expense of getting into a new unit for a while. One thing is you loose alot in depreciation, but the other is we love our unit and even more now and it has some things that the new units don't, and those may be minor to some but they have become home to us.

Happy Trails
PS We are in Americas GA. and they are having alot of problems keeping diesl at the pumps. We will be here a month and hope it improves(surely do to the hurricane)
Janice

[bstark]

2blackdogs: Bob, your question to Nelson about his hitch and his pinbox having air bags is getting an answer from me as I have both.

I've had the Trailair pinbox since the trailer was new and just recently changed out my hitch in the truck to a Gene McCall AirGlyder with two vertical support bags and two opposed fore and aft bags to cushion take off's and stops. I test towed with both still active to Quebec City and back (about 800mi round trip) with no problems. A "suite" set-up.

[rverdlm]

The new interior looks great! Just out of curiosity why remove the mirror near the entrance door? Was it for looks or was there a problem with it?
Bruce; At one time I was involved in a conversation with the guy who invented the Trailair pin box and he said "they used to think it was a problem to have an air pinbox and an air hitch, but they now have several of them on the road and there seems to be no problem."

[jack_diane_freedom]

Wow your mods sounds really nice. We also have an '05 TK3 and are full timing. Will be leaving for Florida in a little over a month. We are very pleased with the TK3 and will keep it for a couple of more years until we something we like better, which we have not yet.

[nelsonraymond]

Hi Dave
We removed the mirror door on the closet because we like the look of the wood, so for looks. We also replaced all the pther clear glass doors except the entertainment doors because we diidn't like seeing the clutter or risking breaking the glass. On the two corner top doors in the back we always had put pillows in there to keep things from sliding into the glass and inthe center hutch we use that for our dishes and use a couple of the small expandlable bars to block stuff from hitting the doors. We always put that rubber stuff inbetween our dishes and you could see all that thru the glass doors, not always a pretty site! Since we fulltime we have to be practical with where we stoer things. The wood give it a richer look to us so we are happy with the changes.

Janice

[rverdlm]

Thanks for the explaination. I agree about the top doors in the back. It's not always a pretty sight. I don't worry to much about breaking the glass though. We trapped one that had come open while traveling when we opened the slide. It broke the wood, but the glass didn't break. Fortunately I was able to fix the wood. As for the mirror we do use it when getting ready to go out so I think we'll keep it. As I said before I think making small changes to personalize the coach is way better than trying to find a better coach and then trading.

[Jack in Alaska]

I encountered Paul Cross at the factory in 2004 when he put my MS back together after our shake-down trip to Cancun, Mexico. He was a top notch RV technician then and a great guy to deal with. He did an absolute wonderful job for us. I am glad to hear he is successful in his new business. With his attitude and knowledge he can't miss in my opinion.

Hope fully I can have him "tune-up" my 2004 MS after a few more miles/years so I will have the chance to visit with him again.
Maybe he can figure out that wiring mess behind the sound system boxes and get my TV sound into those fancy speakers.

Jack in Alaska