Wow, it has been almost a month since our last post.  My how time flies!  Well as the title says, we are in the northwoods of WI for most of the summer, just north of Rhinelander, WI.  We are workamping at Tesomas Scout Camp until mid-August and are having a great time! 

We are parked in a camping area separate from the scouts so there is peace and quiet in our "trailerhood".  We have almost FHU with a gray water filtration dump at the site and then we have access to a macerator and tank to pump out black.  We even have local wildlife visiting us on a regular basis.

The Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander is an unexpected gem in the northwoods.  It is on a beautiful square with a very impressive rotunda.  If you look closely at the second picture, it is made of TIffany stained glass.  The rotunda is beautifully lit at night.  Perhaps the Hodag spends his evenings lumbering around the courthouse.

We have visited our share of local eateries, most called supper clubs, reveling in the comforts of home with a Friday night fish fry and an old fashioned, the drink of WI.  Nowhere else in the country can they make them like they do in WI.  Believe me, we have tried them!  We even found a delicious german restaurant in a neighboring lake town.  And of course, your local hangouts proudly display the big ones, including the biggest musky caught in the area.

We also found a really great hike on Star Lake, about a half hour north of us.  MN may be named the Land of a Ten Thousand Lakes but did you know that WI has more lakes than MN?  MN has 11,842 lakes, which is about 3,000 less than WI!!!  That is alot of lakes and when you come to the Northwoods of WI, you will understand.  There is a lake around every corner in the road.  Usually there is not a direct route to somewhere because you are always snaking around a lake.  No lack of lakefront property here!  Absolutely gorgeous!

So back to our hike...this was a hike out on a peninsula into Star Lake that used to be a thriving logging camp.  The hike had many informative placards along the way describing life back in the day of the logging camps and the history of the forests and how they conducted studies  of ways to grow productive logging forests.

The hike through the woods and along the lake was so peaceful and serene.  When we reached the lake portion of the hike, we were rewarded with beautiful lake views and a lone loon calling to us.  Once we reached the tip of the peninsula, we had a picnic lunch on the shore.  There is a nice little natural sandy beach area where a family was taking a dip in the lake.  This lake, along with so many in the area, are crystal clear, where you can see the rocks and trees at the bottom.  

We also took a tour of a cranberry farm.  It was very interesting to learn about what goes into growing and harvesting cranberries.  Right now the cranberry plants are blossoming and setting little green berries.  To pollinate the plants, they truck in bee hives that are placed around the fields so that the bees can do their thing.  

The weather has been, for the most part, beautiful!  Last weekend we did have some very scary, damaging storms come through north WI.  We escaped the worst of it as it slid just south of us.  Others were not soo fortunate.  There were around 12 confirmed tornados in the area and some severe straight line winds that reached up to 100 mph.  Two other scout camps sustained heavy damage, with one soo bad, they had to close for the season.  Several of our staff loaded up chainsaws and heavy equipment to go help clear the trees, not only at those camps but residential areas of fellow scout staff.

We also got an up close view of the devastation as I had to go out and photograph [pictures of the damage to a camper as part of one of my part time gigs for an insurance company.  You can read about those jobs here.  It was soo sad to see the widespread damage throughout this beautiful wooded wonderland.

We are up in Northern WI at our workamping gig until mid August and then we are off to some family fun at our annual camping outing with extended family.

In one of our last posts, I hinted on an expensive upgrade that we were about to do at the beginning of year two.  With putting on almost 10k miles on the RV last year throughout 16 states, and since this our home for the foreseeable future, we decided it would be wise to upgrade the suspension and brakes.  With the Grand Design Solitude 375RES having amazing storage, we are easily able to go over cargo weight and with the weight of the trailer itself, it could have easily justified 8k pound axles.  Now that we have seen the way people weave in and out of traffic in front of the RV, we wanted to make sure we had really good stopping power as well!  So we decided to upgrade to the MORryde independent suspension and disc brakes.  This was a hefty investment at about $6800, but the safety of ourselves and our rig, we feel, justifies that.  We have read alot of reviews and blogs about fellow RV'ers making the upgrade and being very satisfied with the switch...so we jumped in with wallets open!

Rick is going to be our guest co-blogger today.  He usually likes to take the pictures and proofreads but since we are getting a bit technical, he is much better at explaining that.

The WHY Behind Our Decision to Upgrade 
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In our search for the perfect RV for us, we looked and inspected numerous makes and models.  We even had a spreadsheet of our wants and needs and several met some of these requirements but none really met all.  We settled on Grand Design for many reasons, that you can read here, with the plan to upgrade certain items to better meet our needs.  Some of these upgrades were convenience and comfort items but the big one was safety.  We have heard of MORryde Independent Suspension on many sites and at the GD rally and then also the disc brakes that improve braking and stopping distance.  We looked at other manufacturers who use independent suspension on their high end 5th wheels and respect the fact that it removes all suspension fail points such as leaf springs, shackles, wet bolts, equalizers and axles.  The switch to disc brakes is a no brainer when having the suspension done.​

While attending the Grand Design National Rally in IN last year, we were able to look at several suspension upgrade products from different companies.  Some offered disc brakes only, some were equalizer replacements and still another was what is called a slipper springs system.  In my opinion, the downfall of these is that it does not remove the leaf springs and shackles and wet bolts, which are all failure points.  We found the conversation with MORryde representative was very informative.   He spent alot of time with us and answered all my questions thoroughly and knowledgeably.

With our Solitude 375RES there is a great amount of storage and with our options, cargo is doable, but limited.  We are full-timers and are packed accordingly.  Once we were packed and on the road, we did weigh at a CAT scale and were over on capacity by a couple hundred pounds.  

When you consider an independent suspension it does add weight by a couple hundred pounds but it is under the frame and not carried by the frame.  We did talk with Grand Design, Lippert and MORryde and this does not void the warranty.  The system ​does also allow for 4 wheel alignment, similar to a auto alignment with caster, camber and tracking, which is a plus.

After talking with the MORryde rep and others who have had both or just one option done, we decided this is the way to go for us.  Again, other systems may be more applicable to other situations, this is just our opinion from our research, applicable to our situation.

We had heard that appointments at the MORryde Service Center were booked out 6 months, so we decided to go ahead and line up our appt for the following summer (June 2019), when we knew we would be back in the area.  This also locked in the rally price.  It also gave us time to workamp and get finances in order to pay for this pricey upgrade.

The Upgrade Process

A couple weeks out from our appt, we received an email confirming our appointment and outlining our visit logistics, such as when to arrive, the exact location and some of what we were to expect.  If your planning to have any work done at MORryde, know that they are in the city, not an industrial park so the roads are somewhat narrow with some sharp corners.  We did a satellite map view to map out the right roads to take so we wouldn't get stuck with our 42ft behemoth on some residential street.

​We arrived a little before noon, hoping that they would be able to get us in the service bay and measured before end of the work day around 2:30pm.  We entered the Service Center  Customer area and were greeted with a welcome board that had our name on it.  Nice!

As you can see, they had alot of service customers this week.  I can tell you some went smoother than others.  Especially the guy that pulled up with no appointment... Umm, sorry sir, no we cannot help you today, these other folks have appts they made far in advance.  Sighhh.  Anywho, MORryde does customer service right.  They have a lovely customer lounge that had very comfortable leather chairs and couches, cable TV, tons of magazines, a nice big table to spread out on for working or eating and a very well stocked fridge and snack bar.  They also had a Keurig machine that was very popular.  There was good wifi in the lounge as well as out in the service area.  The icing on the cake was that they offer lunch from Panera every day.  Just put your order in with the receptionist and they will order and go get it for you.  We definitely took advantage of this both days!   As far as other meals, they have a book of recommendations in the area and all the staff are very eager to add their favorites if you ask.

Once we checked in, our very competent and incredible service tech, Sergio, who has been with the company, I believe 19 years, came out to measure for the independent suspension.  Sergio had us pull forward into a level area of the parking lot and we thought we were pulling pretty level and he confirmed we were only an inch high in back and could correct that with the suspension.  He said that was not bad at all considering he has had folks come in that were 5 inches or more!  He also measured height as we were concerned that this upgrade would add to our already dauntingly tall rig.  Brochure height lists us at 13'6 ft tall and when Sergio measured we were only 13'3 ft.  Whew, 3 inches may not seem like much but when you are wondering which overpasses are too close to call!  

Once we were measured, we backed into one of the overnight RV spots that have electric while Sergio went to finish up on the RV he was working on.  We had our fingers crossed that he would finish and we would be able to move into a bay so we would not have to set up in the parking lot for one night and then pack up and move into a bay at the crack of dawn and set up again.  We waited in the lounge and watched the clock tick by.  Sergio finally came in to let us know he finished up the other one and the owner just needed to pay and they would be pulling out their RV and then we could back in.  ​ Looking at the rigs already in the bays, there is really not alot of wiggle room to get the big rigs in there, be it on the side or overhead.  I (Julie) just could not watch this happen, so I went inside, but with Sergio's help Rick nailed it!  Perfectly!  Whew!  Fit like a glove!

Once inside, Sergio and staff where able to get it jacked up with bottle jacks and the wheels taken off.  We were then allowed to get into the rig since it was the end of their work day.  We were able to put out all the slides, had 50 amp hookup and wifi service.  We were soo glad to be in the shop and settled and the process started...until the first shift notification horns!  OMG, the first one really caught us off guard!  Since this is not only a service center but a functioning production plant, they have loud notification horns.  They went off at 5pm, 9pm, 1am, 5am.  For sleeping we turned on the AC with fans and were able to sleep.  By the second night we hardly noticed them anymore.  The folks in another RV that were not able to get their rig inside the first night mentioned that there were lots of trains that came through near the plant outside, but we never heard those.

The next morning we were up and ready, with slides pulled in for them to start work at 6am promptly!  Sergio was there and ready to get to work.  At 10am they take lunch and you are allowed to come into the bay and checkout the work.  By this time they took off everything and cut off the leaf shackles, ground down and prepped the area to install the suspension.  The electric over hydraulic brake controller was installed in the front bay and the wires and hoses were pulled through.  They also had our new IS assembly sitting there waiting.  Based on the measurements that Sergio provides, the night crew custom assembles them, with the disc brakes, specifically for our rig.  We also talked to Sergio about the shape of our old axles, leaf springs, shackles and wet bolts and he said the axles were in excellent shape and everything else looked to be in very good condition after 10,000 miles on the rig.   We then had our Panera lunch they  ordered for us and talked with some other couples having their suspension done as well.  We also found out the Mobile Suites brings their new units over to have the independent suspension inspected before shipping them out.  There were a couple sitting in the lot waiting for their turn in the bay.

At the end of their work day, you can occupy your rig again and pull out your slides.  By this time the had the channel steel welded to frame that accepts the IS system and the system was placed to be welded the next morning.

​The second night went much smoother now that we were used to the loud horn and we again were up at the crack of dawn for them to start at 6am.  This was hopefully to be the final install day, but as we saw with another couple, a wrench might be thrown into the plans causing work to spill over to the next day.

​By 10am lunch they had everything welded into place and the underbelly was sealed back in place.  We were very encouraged, as was Sergio, that we would be done that day.

By this time we were really ready for the job to be complete and be back on the road.  The lounge is really nice, but you can only sit still there for soo long!  We didn't leave  because we wanted to be available when they were ready.  We ordered lunch again and as we were finishing, Sergio came in to let us know they were done with the installation and testing and they just needed to align it.  So we waited...patiently...2 o'clock was coming up quick and we were getting nervous that we were not going to make the magical cut off time.  Sergio finally came in around 1:30 and said they were done and it was time to hook up and take it for a road test.  After taking it for a spin, we settled up the bill, which was a bit more than the original quote because of upgraded Timbren seals that were installed.  We thanked Sergio for a job well done, collected our MORryde tshirts and stickers, that replaced the Dexter axle stickers,  we were on our way!

We then headed northwest through Chicago to WI.  We gave the disc brakes and suspension a bit of a workout in Chicago and they performed perfectly!  We then pulled the rig to northern WI and have been here ever since.  We are ready to make our next move and really see the new components in action.  We can say that the interior items stayed in place much better and the disc brakes were very responsive and it did not feel like the RV was pushing the truck anymore.  We really feel like this was good investment and hopefully this in depth narrative helps others considering independent suspension and disc brakes.