so impressed with new gateway!!!

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
As some of you know, i picked up our new Gateway 3500 RE early this month and have been chomping at the bit to hit the road, we were supposed to leave home a few days ago, however mother nature had other plans in store.We got a break and left home after noon today and made it 300 miles before having to stop, i need to adjust my headlights on my truck, otherwise we would still be rolling. The new fifth wheel is a dream to tow compared to the old bumper pulls we have had in the past, amazing.I was worried the extra weight may be a problem, the worry was for nothing. My 1 ton srw dodge was made for this job. Towing our 2010 Cougar i averaged 10 mpg, so far today in heavy winds i am getting close to 12?? Don't ask me how or why, just happy as can be since i was expecting a drop not an increase in mileage. So impressed all the way around.I was expecting drawyers to be open, shelves open, all the things that went wrong on our first outings with our last two new rv's, nothing was out of place. The way it should be. I am one happy camper!!!More to come as this trip continues
 

Bobby A

Well-known member
Glad your happy with your new rig, as you know its very important to check tire pressure and lugs torque and its not a bad idea to check torque on the u bolts on the axles. Hope you have continued success with your new rig and have safe travels.

Bobby A
 

Turtlpwr

Member
So glad to hear oldgoat!! My wife and I ordered a Gateway 3650BH at the Pomona, CA RV back in October and are picking it up just before Christmas. We are upgrading from a bumper pull toy hauler. I also have a Dodge as my tow vehicle and was wondering if my fuel mileage would go down with the increase in weight and size, but from reading your post I might get a little better. Who would have thought!?! Happy camping to you and have fun in your new Gateway!!
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Turtlpwr, and Bobby,
Thanks for the replies, its 5:00 am in Ontario Oregon, and a start to whats going to be another beautiful day. I checked tire pressures before we left along with lug nut torque and at the first fuel stop, nothing was amiss. I'll check them again before we head out. Had an issue with the front stove burner when i tried to make my morning pot of coffee, it lit as it should, started flickering like possibly a propane tank was running out, then flames started coming from under the burner from the piping so i turned it off and switched to a back burner. No problems there so must be the burner itself, and not a problem that could be forseen since it did light and burn as it was supposed to during pdi. I'm sure my dealer will send me a new part for repair. Not going to stop me from enjoying this outing either as that was the reason we wanted to make a short run before spring arrives and we hit the road running. Shake out any bugs and get em handled before the traveling begins!!!
I love this rv the more time i spend in it, 18 degrees last night, no power hookups so just running the furnace at 65 degrees and snug as a bug in a rug. Comfortable as can be at a rest stop, semi trucks running next to us and extremely quiet inside. If we were in our Cougar we would have frozen last night and my dog, a 180 lb bullmastiff would have been barking at every sound, not a peep out of him all night.
As for my truck, its an 07 with the 6.7 instead of the 5.9, so first yr model, i have a bigger air filter and 5inch dpf back exhaust along with an edge juice with attitude moniter on it, all the emissions equipment are still on it and working fine, the tuner made a huge improvement from stock and has paid for itself with fuel saving alone. Time to hit the road. More to come.
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Turtlpwr,
You are going to love the new rv, i am finding more positives about ours than any of.our past units combined!! So nice, furnace is extremely quiet and efficient, water pressure with just the pump is excellent, recovery time on the hot water tank is fast, the.list goes on, as i said before, i was expecting a drop in fuel mileage, the day i picked it up from the dealership i happened to talk to a gentleman who delivers these from the factory to dealerships, he was driving a new ford one ton drw and told me he was averaging 4 mpg, my heart sank, it was a very nice suprise to see an increase instead of what i was thinking would happen. I have been driving between 70-75, same as with my previous bumper pulls so comparing apples to apples, now we are in Oregon speed limit is 65 so wwill see how we do at that speed, should pick up a.little as it did with last rv.
Enjoy your new Gateway!!!!
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
I forgot to mention, a very warm bathroom!!! Yea buddy, no shrinkage when u step out of the shower!! So nice not freezing cold in there like all my other rv's have been.
 

Bob&Patty

Founders of SoCal Chapter
Glad to here you having a good time and wish you well for the rest of your trip. I might suggest that you install air bags so you dont have adjust your headlights. You can level the truck and move some weight to the front axle. JMHO
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Morning Bob,
I was looking a firestone air bags before we left home, they were the only sets i could find that mount on the inside of frame rails and will work with the b&w turnover, i'll order a set when we head home.
Froze up this morning, 9 degrees at 7:00 am here in Umatilla Oregon, its a balmy 13 degrees now, i disconected from shore water yesterday, i knew that would freeze, i turned on tank heaters but that stop freeze up. Supposed to warm up quick, we'll see how long it takes to thaw out, hope no pipes r broken, keep fingers crossed for us.
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Does anybody know if tank heaters are hard wired, just noticed an led light on my fuse panel and there is a fuse missing on 13' which is marked tank heaters, it goes off when switch is off, so, do i need to install a fuse or does my trailer not have tank heaters?? How would one find that out!!??
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Just read an interesting series of posts concerning freeze ups and ideas, the main majority seemed to think underbelly heat and tank heaters were enough to keep from freezing up, obviously not enough on my gateway last night!! Unless my tank heaters are not on. I can't find any info and my sales rep didn't know the answer either, we are headed to town to buy an extra heater to throw in the belly today. It is supposed to warm.up into the 40's during the days and stay in the 20's in the evenings so hopeing this dosn't happen again.
Do the tank heaters keep the fresh water tank from freezing up or just holding tanks?? If i thaw out i am.going to drain water tank and run off of shore water only for the rest of this trip and will blow lines out and pour some antifreeze in pee traps before we head home. Will just have tounhook every night and keep heater on in underbelly
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Well, its warmed up to 22 and i got water from shore hooked up and running, pump runs but won't pressure up lines so must be frozen at tank, need to go buy ceramic heater for udc area and leave running to see if that helps. Once we thaw out i'll drain tanks and go get some antifreeze, not sure but my gateway package says tank heaters are standard, but still can't find any information on weather the tank heaters need a fuse in the panel or if they are hard wired and if there is one on fresh water tank, i only filled half full for the dogs water, didn't want to upset his stomache with city water, which has happened in the past, only reason i put any in the tank. Hope it dosn't come back to bite me.
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Back to having fun in our Gateway 3500 RE, as cold as it was last night, we didn't notice it at all. The furnace keeps the bedroom and batheoom extremely warm, thankfull for the fireplace heater, it is a nice comfort to have when its as cold as it was last night, and it does a nice job on helping heat the living romm and kitchen, its a nice warmth that comes from the unit itself, not a bad thing to look at either, makes it feel more like home. I started just leaving one propane tank on at a time, i keep a watchful eye on it and when it gets low enough will turn the other tank on so we don't run out, once it switchs over from empty to full tank i am off to vet a refill, this way i always have at least one full tank, and with the colder temps have been getting 4 days average per tank, i don't think thats to bad. Still no complaints from broken hinges, drawyers opening, nothing has gone wrong or broken, how amazing is that!!! Every other rv we have bought has had problems and we were told to expect to have them, kind of hard to wrap my mind around that one, especialy when you spend a small fortune, at least for us on a new rv, to expect to have problems! Not with our Gateway, the wife is happy and as you all know, when the wife is happy, life is good!! More to come.
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Fuel mileage coming over the Blues from Ontario to Pendleton averaged 11.4, not bad considering its mostly uphill all the way, once we hit the flats it picked up to 13.2 at 65mph, amazing considering this is heavier by a ton compared to our 2010 cougar. Such a happy camper!!! Still don't understand that one, better fuel mileage with a heavier, bigger rv, not complaining at all, just the opposite, but riddle me why!!
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Finaly found something i need to take care of, shower enclosure needs sealed a little better, the drains are facing the right direction and you can see where an attempt was made to seal it up, but its on the inside, need to scrape it off and seal the outside up. Nothing major! Something for new owners to check. Still happy as a clam!
 

caissiel

Senior Member
Fuel mileage coming over the Blues from Ontario to Pendleton averaged 11.4, not bad considering its mostly uphill all the way, once we hit the flats it picked up to 13.2 at 65mph, amazing considering this is heavier by a ton compared to our 2010 cougar. Such a happy camper!!! Still don't understand that one, better fuel mileage with a heavier, bigger rv, not complaining at all, just the opposite, but riddle me why!!

Same happened to us with 4k more weight then the previous Glendale unit.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk 2
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Barb and Laurrent, yea, nice suprise to see an increase of up to 3mpg more than i was gatting with our bumper pulls. 13 degrees last night and no freeze up, i disconnected shore water, our camp host said his heated water hose froze up as well as his rv the previous nightl so don't feel so bad now. I picked up a small ceramic heater and put in udc over night, seemed to help, looking for heat tape and insulation to wrap my hose but still plan to disconnect at night, had left a little water running and grey tanks open but sewer hose was icing up when i checked last night so shut valves and pulled hose. I closed up my access and everything worked out, still don't know if tank heaters are hard wired, so didn't run them anyway. What an amazing rv. Love our Gateway.
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Laurent, i forgot to ask if the middle stabalizer jacks made much of a difference, i have read a few other post where others have added them as well. I have noticed a little movement and was considering adding the tripod for the front but was not sure that would do much. Not that we move alot, nothing like our last trailers, but when our dog jumps off the couch or bed i do feel it. Let me know, and thanks for reading our little adventure of our first outing in our Gateway.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
I would not use a pin box tripod. About the only thing you will gain is a little sideway stability.
What you need to do is eliminate the flex you will get from the springs and tires.
The addition of stabilizer jacks in the area just to the front or rear of the suspension will be your best bet.
You can bolt them to the frame and you will not have to store or pack anything like you would with the tripod.

Peace
Dave
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I installed them just behind the wheels. Each can lift the side but will not stay up. But as a stabiliser they work well to prevent the frame bounce. I have the 12in frame and it is solid but rear electric stabilizers are a bit weak.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk 2
 

1_oldgoat

Well-known member
Dave, Laurent, thanks for the information, one more thing to put on the list, i'll look around for the best deal. Another cold night and no more freeze ups. Felt bad for the camp host, his new motorhome had 10 feet of ice along the underside of his rv yesterday morning. Not ampretty picture, had to have been a foot thick and from the belly to the ground. I should have taken a picture, it was ugly. So happy i put a heater under now!! Had an odd deal with propane and furnace this morning, tanks didn't switch over from empty to full, i knew we were getting low on one tank so opened the full last night, luckily it didn't run out in the middle of the night. I had to switch manualy and reset the furnace. I'll keep an eye on it, may have just been air in the line. Everything is good now and humming along as it should be. Still loving our Gateway and having a great first outing!!!
 
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