Towing & Setup

8 posts in How-To Guides

Neither of us had towed anything before we bought a 17,700 pound fifth wheel, so these guides are written from the outside in.

They cover what actually happens on a travel day: matching a truck to a trailer, hitching to a gooseneck ball, running a checklist two people can share, planning a route that respects your height and weight, and reading a CAT scale ticket without guessing at it.

There is also the level test we run before deciding to stay hitched overnight, and an honest account of what roadside assistance did and did not do for us fifteen minutes into a travel day.

Towing & Setup

Overnighting at Walmart in an RV: How to Actually Do It

Published on Aug 5, 2026

Free overnight parking works until the store says no, the lot is full of sedans, or nobody answers the phone. Here is how we do it with a 40-foot fifth wheel, and when we pay for something else.

Towing & Setup

RV Roadside Assistance: What It Covers, and What It Will Not Do

Published on Jul 31, 2026

We called roadside assistance fifteen minutes into a travel day with 21,000 pounds behind us. What we learned is that these plans are built for problems with names, and ours did not have one.

Towing & Setup

How we plan travel days with RV LIFE Trip Wizard

Published on Jul 28, 2026

Regular map apps do not know your rig has a height and a weight. Here is how we use RV LIFE Trip Wizard to plan RV-safe travel days for a 40-foot fifth wheel.

Towing & Setup

Our RV travel day checklist (and how we share it between two phones)

Published on Jul 24, 2026

The exact 30-item checklist we run before every travel day, why the oddball items earned their spot, and how to share one live list across two iPhones.

Towing & Setup

How to Tow a Fifth Wheel: What Truck You Need and How to Actually Do It

Published on Jul 22, 2026

Neither of us had towed anything before we bought a 17,700 pound fifth wheel. Here is what we learned about matching a truck to a trailer, hitching it, and getting down the road, with our real scale numbers.

Towing & Setup

How to Hitch a Fifth Wheel to a Gooseneck Ball

Published on Jul 15, 2026

A fifth wheel on a gooseneck ball keeps your truck bed clear, but the hookup has its own steps. Here is the procedure we should have followed the day we hitched our Brinkley for the first time.

Towing & Setup

How to Stay Hitched Overnight in Your RV (The Level Test)

Published on Jul 15, 2026

A one-night stop only saves time if you can skip the full unhitch-and-level routine. Here is the level check we run before deciding to stay connected to the truck, plus the tolerances that decide it.

Towing & Setup

How to Weigh Your RV at a CAT Scale

Published on Jul 15, 2026

The full CAT scale process for a truck and fifth wheel: two passes across the platforms, what the ticket numbers mean, and the mistakes we made on our first weigh.