Fifth wheel gooseneck adaptor and short bed pickup question

[Clifford Lee Gallington]

Hi, I am thinking about a camper, I have a crew cab short bed pickup, Chevy 2500hd, i have seen adapters to attach the gooseneck ball to the fifth wheel camper,,but do not know if a shortbed will let me turn like it should with out making a mess of the back of the cab.
I was thinking a bumper pull but some of the fifth wheels look handy.
Any advice for a non camper owner.

[0ic943wdlq63y]

UH OH ! A GORV conspiracy in the making . lol

[William Briggs]

I'll have Wes talked into migrating to Oklahoma in the next month or so; he can join us on that camping trip.

[Clifford Lee Gallington]

sounds like a good idea! 

[Clifford Lee Gallington]

I see on one of your comments that several musicians hang out here, are you one?  what do you play?

I am very good at playing the am/fm radio, and do know how to jiggle an 8-track tape just right to get it to play decent.

[William Briggs]

I've tickled the ivories since I was a kid. Spent my first two years of college as a music major, then decided musicians didn't make enough money, so switched my degree to Accounting. (That was 30 years ago ... have since learned that Accountants don't make enough money, either!) I was a bit of a "prodigy" on the keyboards; that was a long time ago. I was performing in public at the age of 12 and working semi-professionally, and traveling regionally, at the age of 16.

I also can fake my way through strumming a six-string guitar, and it's even fairly believable, though I don't consider myself anything approaching a "guitarist." The reason I picked up the guitar in the first place is I was a youth minister early in my life, so I felt I needed to be able to strum the six-string enough to work music in church camps.

Prefer to play country music, country-gospel music, or contemporary Christian music on the keyboard. I REALLY enjoying strumming the six-string when some of my bluegrass buddies get together to jam.

But what I ENJOY and what I GET TO DO are often not the same thing. Lately, I've been filling in on the pipe organ at the local Episcopal church when the regular organist is away. That's a real trip!

It's been a few years since I've been in a band, and a LONG TIME since I've been in a GOOD band. I was asked to work a week-long church camp several years ago, and wasn't at that time playing with a band. But I had a friend who led a band which had this weekly gig at the local C&W bar/dive. So, I cut a deal with him. He'd bring his band to play Christian music with me at the church camp. Then, in exchange, 1) I'd play keyboards on his next album, and 2) I'd play with the band at an out-of-town gig he had on his schedule.

I swear, it took SIX WEEKS of practicing before that church camp! We'd get together twice a week, and I'd try to teach that bar-room band the contemporary Christian songs. The song would start out okay, but within a minute or two, the band would fall back into their C&W patterns, and you could have TWO-STEPPED to that Christian music!!!

But we made it through the church camp, even with the two-stepping Christian music, and I met up with the band a few weeks later at the recording studio and laid a piano track on a couple of songs. Then, met them for that gig in Altus, Oklahoma--where, to my surprise, the bandstand was behind chicken-wire. Good thing, cause there were a couple of bar-room brawls and a few beer bottles hurled across the room! But I "paid my dues" and was thankful that I tend to play Christian music in CHURCHES rather than C&W music in bar-rooms. It's just a LOT safer!!!

I have the local Pentecostal church courting me; asking me to take over their music program, eventually putting together a band. That is a lot more interesting idea to me than doing the pipe-organ thing at the Episcopal church. I'll be talking to the Pentecostals again in a few days ... just don't know that I want a weekly committment. PLUS, all those hours of practice with a band during the week. That would negatively impact the time I have available to take the old motorhome to the woods.

Have a great day, Clifford.

Billy

[Clifford Lee Gallington]

Do you wish you would have stayed doing music instead of doing the accounting gig?

We have a boy in the Navy and he plays the keyboard in the US Navy band. 

 

[William Briggs]

Yes, sir. I do. I had the privilege of raising my own two kids, and 32 foster-boys. I told every one of them to "follow their dreams" into their career, and not to over-think the decision. I told those kids that the dreams/ambitions they have as a kid, is actually God speaking to them, telling them who they are, and where their lives should lead.

I get so bored with my career, pushing the pencil, doing tax returns & financial statements, reading the changes to the Law every few weeks... Every 7 or 8 years, I have jumped away from the Accounting career and done something fun. But I always wind up back in Accounting, because it gives me a decent paycheck, and I can't live on what those "fun" jobs pay.

I've taught school twice, a year the first time and two years the second time. I enjoyed it more the second time, when I worked for a GED program and got all the juvenile delinquents assigned to my classes. I thoroughly enjoy working with those kids.

I worked for the Judge in west Texas, investigating child abuse cases. I liked that, but at $10/hour didn't make enough money to feed my family. I worked at a boy's ranch once, which was fun. For six years, I worked for a real estate holding company and managed large apartment complexes in the ghettos of Dallas and Houston, Texas. But every time I went broke and had to return to Accounting to get the bills paid.

I'm not trying to whine too much, 'cause I've seen a lot and done a lot more than many folks ever get a chance to see/do. My experiences, good and bad, have molded me into who I am today ... and I kinda enjoy who I've become.

The flexibility of an Accounting career has allowed me for the last 30 years to backpack deep into mountain ranges all across the southern half of the U.S., and I sincerely appreciate those opportunities.

But a career in Music is a scare-y thing. Although I was the #2 piano student at my university, I judged that I was not good enough to play for a symphony nor to work full-time as a studio musician. (I still judge that I don't have the talent to accomplish either of those things.) If you don't want to teach music (I didn't), then the only other option is to live your life on a tour bus ... and I didn't want that either. Hence, my hasty decision to change college majors halfway through, and to push my music interests to the back burner.

However, 30 years later, I've lived life in the dog-eat-dog business world ... and the idea of life on a band's tour bus doesn't sound as bad as it once did.

My biological son followed his musical talent, without me swaying him one way or the other. He is now a band director at a high school is west Texas, and absolutely loves his job.

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Here's a little-known fact: An music artist generally doesn't tour with the same band who makes the albums. The studio musicians simply make too much money. So, the artist hires the expensive studio musicians to cut the album, and get the sound right, then hires cheap musicians who listen to the album and try to replicate the music as close as possible. Those "cheap" musicians are the ones who tour with the artist. At least, that's how it's generally done.

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But now, at the age of 51 years old, with all 34 of those kids grown, raised, and living on their own, I am singly focused on positioning myself for retirement. I hadn't planned on moving into this rig full-time a year ago; I had originally bought it to take camping once or twice a month. But that was one of the best decisions I ever made; I only regret I didn't make it several years earlier.

As a side benefit, living full-time in the RV has saved me TONS of money. I didn't realize at the time that I could live a LOT cheaper in the RV. I originally moved into the RV because I am working in an oil-field related industry, and didn't want to permanently relocate to this little oilfield town in far-western Oklahoma. BUT I learned a big secret. RV living is much less expensive. So, I am set to be completely debt-free in 2 more months, which will be exactly one year after I gave up the rent-house, gave away all my furniture, and moved into the rig.

After that, both of my biological children are getting married in the first half of next year, so I'll have plenty of expenses there, THEN the extra money starts getting stuffed into a savings account, for the day I finally retire!!!

I maintain a vehicle well (though I usually hire someone to work on the engine & drive train), so this rig will last me until I get closer to retirement age, at which time I'll get a newer model. I'm thinking a nice fifth-wheel might be the more reasonable decision at that time, but I do enjoy living in a motorhome. Either way, the price will be roughly the same--a used motorhome plus a cheap towed vehicle, or a 3/4 ton pickup truck with a slightly used fifth wheel trailer cost about the same. (Personally, I don't buy ANY VEHICLE new; I worry too much about the depreciation in those first several years.)

But, I'm not a mechanic, and the motorhome/towed vehicle configuration gives me TWO engines to keep running. The pickup truck/fifth wheel option gives only ONE engine, cheaper insurance, and better fuel mileage to boot.

Good talking to ya, Cliff. Have a great weekend!!!

Billy