Being organized is a good things, soothes the savage beast within some of us who hate clutter and poorly used space. We had a carpenter make some stained-to-match cherry racks for our Interstate, which came with nothing for magazines, books, etc. Much, much better. Will watch for photos.
Clutter is a subjective term. I leave vast piles of paper including magazines, books, and newspapers around and that is fine, but too much furniture, geegaws on the walls, tables and bookcases drive me batty. I realize this may seem like inconsistency to some (like my wife), but papers represent research and learning, and all that other stuff represents junk and a crowded house. Her office space is neat and everything is filed and contained. It scares me. The rest of the house is in contest—I claim every horizontal space for learning materials, not entirely successfully.
But in the trailer the smallest amount of horizontal space with learning materials does arouse even in me, some uneasiness. The beautiful, lovely, trophy wife can become a savage beast putting things away never to be found by me again. Is there a secret slot that leads to a shredder between the water tanks and spits the stuff out on the road?
Obviously a solution must be found and hopefully this is it. It's doubtful we would ever have a reason to use the bed there. What the space has evolved into was a place to put books, maps, etc., and a large plastic box (like an old fashioned milk box) which held more papers, book, etc., plus the Airstream bag and anything else that had to go somewhere.
Now I'm thinking about cubbyholes for temporary storage of camera and other objects that you want nearby when using the trailer, but come to the TV otherwise. Mull that one for a while.
If I could just get ahead of all the novels, reference books, maps, and so forth I could probably walk through the Trade Wind. I dont see that happening anytime soon. Post some pictures of the cabinet when you get it in.
__________________ "If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful." Letter to his son Kermit, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, 1915
Our racks have worked well for organizing magazines, books, cookbooks, etc. Doug has piles of things in the former child's room that has become "his", he likes his piles and disturbing them is not a good thing. Maggie has to have neat, tidy and orderly in the main part of the home. Compromise, compromise, compromise. Because our Interstate is so small, piles simply cannot exist without the interior looking immediately messy. John T. to the rescue. Piles still exist, but vertically and contained.
Every post after 5/14 including photos has been lost.
Gene
They seem to be back, bullet dodged.
__________________ "If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful." Letter to his son Kermit, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, 1915
Meanwhile, Bob Sunrus informed me moosetags has the cabinet for microwave and printer. I kind of thought it was, but couldn't find the post with the picture, and that was before things disappeared.
I hope to have the cabinet in about a week, finish it and install it. We started looking for a nice, but reasonably priced, magazine rack to put on the side of it to provide another storage space for currently used papers. We sure do love paper! Since we have entered the paperless society, I now have printers galore producing reams of paper to bury myself in.
We have had rain and cool temps every day since we returned to the high desert. It started just before we came back, so it's been two weeks. This is unusual. When we left, the fields were brown, the broad leaf trees unadorned, and it had been a winter and early spring of either weeks and weeks of absolute dryness, or a few weeks of snow and later rain. This back and forth of very different climates is unsettling. For a while, it's Arizona, then it's Colorado, back to Arizona, etc.
We came back to leaves on trees and green fields. Besides the fact Colorado has very changeable weather, and periods of drought are normal, getting a handle on just what kind of weather this little part of the state normally experiences has been impossible. For the first part of this decade it was major drought and hot, hot summers, unusually warm nights, much air conditioning, dry winters. The last two years have been much snowier, though only about half what we were used to on the Front Range. The summers haven't been as hot.
Allergies are bad here and people who have had little or no allergies elsewhere, suffer them in this county. Not sure what to expect for that since wet weather means more pollen and mold spores, but dryness means more dust. We've actually had dust storms too, followed by rain or snow which plasters dirt to the windows. Snow capped mountains are reddish from the clay dust from Utah and Arizona. We ran air conditioners all summer, nonstop, last year to suffer fewer allergic reactions. Even Barb, who never used to suffer much in the way of hayfever, was having problems. Electricity has gotten far more expensive in the past 9 years, so running A/C means more and more money spent. We never needed A/C years ago, although we lived in a bit cooler place. We never even bought vehicles with A/C until 1995. By that time, it seemed Denver, where we worked, was getting hotter. Warming trend expected this week, so maybe the well watered plants will grow fast, spew out pollen, A/C turned on, electric meter spinning, sneezing commences.
Hi Gene...as a non-AS owner, part-time wanabe and occassional "lurker"...I was not online to see you were heading toward Duluth. My wife an I have a home between Duluth and Two harbors...on 80 acres 5 miles "inland" from Lake Superior...and we would have loved to met you for coffee at Caribou on London Road!
Gran Marais and Ely are two of our favorite motorcyle desinations. Too bad Ely was not yet "open" for business. Burntside and Chocolate Moose are pretty good places to eat. Many shops in Ely either close down or reuce hours until Memorial day. A high school classmate built the Chocolate Moose and did the log trim construction at the "best" hotel.
Glad to see that you got to Sven and Oles...what about the "Greatest Donuts" shop?
Sound like you had a good trip...just a bit early for "Northland" summer...summer normally falls on 2-3 days around the 4th of July
Tom R in Two Harbors, MN
Last edited by TomR; 06-02-2009 at 11:18 AM.
Reason: To correct Moose...certainly not Mouse!
The donut shop was still closed. I was curious about whether they were the "world's best", but also kinda glad not to eat those calories as my resistance to chocolate is weak.
I liked the weather more or less, though more clouds than I prefer. We've had many years of 2-3 day summers in Colorado, so it seemed pretty normal to me, though my wife doesn't like that so many things are closed. I fool her every year by leaving early before the crowds show up and then she tells me we're never going to leave on a trip so early again. The next year she's anxious to get out of town and I've fooled her again (though she's helped me by fooling herself too). It's about the only thing I've ever fooled her about, so I am very grateful for this small victory. I was most disappointed about the wolf center being closed in Ely since we've never seen real live wolves. They have a bear center too, but we've seen bears lots of times, including just down the road. The other memorable thing was how nice people were in the part of Minnesota we were in—sort of like a sample of Prairie Home Compansion, though not in the prairie.
Sounds like you live in a great place and all you need is an Airstream. Good luck in finding the right one for you and maybe we'll see you somewhere.
It's been time to set up the Equalizer hitch properly after getting the rust off and repainting the parts. The Airstream dealer in Denver installed the hitch and as I knew nothing at the time, it looked ok to me. Both vehicles were level after I added some air to the Tundra tires, something the dealer never thought of. That brought the front end of the truck down to normal.
I've never had any problems towing, but at the end of last season a space opened up where the washers are. I found I could eliminate the space by adjusting the hitch head with the 3/4" adjuster bolt on the hitch head. But if I raised the trailer and truck with the jack while leveling the trailer, it opened the space again.
While taking almost everything apart so I could paint, I discovered this about the installation:
The link plates were tightened too much and bent. The instructions specifically warn not to do this, but do not state what to torque the bolts. In a phone call to Daniel at Equalizer I was told 50 lbs. would be about right. After hammering away at the link plates I straightened them and then bent them slightly the other way—seemed like the best way to get them snug against the tongue and this was confirmed by Daniel.
The link plates were installed 27" from the center of the coupler. The instructions state to install 32", but if something's in the way, they can be as close as 29". The link plate assembly on the curbside had rotated about 30˚ clockwise on the last day on our recent trip. I asked Daniel if having the plates too close to the coupler could cause that and he said it was possible because too close would increase stress on them. The L bracket seems to me to have excessive wear.
They put a 1,200 lb. hitch on when they should have used 1,000 lb.
They used 3 washers when 5 is the standard, though they might have found it worked better with 3, perhaps because of the improper placement of the link plates. The instructions say to use between 4 and 8 washers; after that you adjust other parts. They did not give me the extra washers or instructions.
I learned from Daniel that the angle of the hitch head is what transfers weight to the truck, so it's possible that little transfer was occurring the way it was set up—that may account for the high front end when I drove away from the dealer 1 1/2 years ago, a situation I solved, perhaps wrongly, by adding air to the tires. The bars are for anti-sway, though they do some weight distribution.
Combined with the other problems I had with that dealer, my advice is to stay far away from them.
When the paint dries, I'll set the whole thing up from scratch and I have to do a better job than the "professionals". I found a place on my land which is not level, but the area is flat at an angle for enough distance that the truck and trailer will be "level" in relationship to one another.
Sometimes it seems I have to do everything myself to be sure it's done right. I usually prefer that because I save money, but sometimes I don't want to or I don't have a clue how to. It's hard to know who to trust when it comes to RV's.
I, and many others, have had the same issues with dealers not setting up their Equal-I-Zer hitches properly. JimGolden started this thread and I posted a detailed procedure starting at post #13 on how to tune it up correctly: Equal-I-Zer Hitch Setup Report
Give it a read before you tackle the job. Not difficult, but a little tedious. Now that mine is correctly set up. I have had over 15,000 miles of trouble free, sway free, towing.
I've enjoyed reading your trip log.
Randy
__________________ Randy and Pat Godfrey
1st VP Florida Unit WBCCI# 7591 - AIR# 17017
2007 Safari SE 23' - Daisy
2006 Lincoln Mark LT - Hoke
Thanks Randy for that link. It's a great thread. Your pictures are also helpful in seeing the angle at which you have your hitch head set. I read through the two part story from Josh at Equalizer and I'll have to read it a few more times to absorb it.
Daniel told me that although they have not recommended a torque setting on the link plates previously, they had now settled on 50 lbs. I'll have to see how that works before I get into beefing up the plates. Apparently the closer you are to 32", the better for reducing stress in those plates.
The other thing he said when we were talking about the height of the hitch ball was that they had decided that raising it the one or two inches (different for every vehicle) above the coupler height as recommended in the instructions was not necessary. Airstream recommended 1/2-1" raise above coupler height. This may be breaking news.
Another thing—the ball has scratches and chips in an area just below the flat top of the ball. The area is about 1/4" from top to bottom. Is that normal?
Paint has dried, but it looks like it'll rain in an hour or so. Getting this done looks like a month long project.
Another thing—the ball has scratches and chips in an area just below the flat top of the ball. The area is about 1/4" from top to bottom. Is that normal?
Gene
Hi, Gene,
Scratches and even some small gouges are normal but I am a little concerned about your use of the word chips. By chips do you mean the result of brittle fracture? Little chunks broken out of the surface? That could be indicative of improper heat treatment. If that's the case I think I'd replace the ball. They don't cost much. (Then the only problem is mustering up enough mojo to tighten it up to the recommended torque.)
On the other hand, if the chips are just chrome plate flaking off, that seems to be about par for the course.
Having the hitch ball wear concentrated in a narrow band is something I have seen before. I suppose it indicates the radii of the ball and socket are not too well matched. But it doesn't seem to hurt anything.
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