Hitched!

[DKB_SATX]

Finally, I've sorted the issues with the umbilical and have actually hitched my Argosy to the truck, though this morning was just for testing the issues with the lights.

I discovered that the reason I didn't find a 12V hot wire on the umbilical is that someone in the past CUT that wire, essentially flush with the end of the sheath of the umbilical, so I'm going to have to solder on a little extension for the short term, and replace the umbilical in the long term (the insulation on the individual conductors is pretty crusty, and there's no significant extra length to work with to see if the wires are in better shape inside the sheath, so long-term it's a new umbilical. I guess those connections are in the belly pan, where they're hard to access? Whee!

Tomorrow we'll do some parking practice. I used to pull trailers a lot (I grew up on a farm) but this is wider than any of the trailers we had, and about as long as our flatbed... and all of those trailers were kinda ugly and I was never the first to scar one of them. So, practice practice! Better to tap a cone than a tree!

Next weekend we'll take a shakedown cruise somewhere close-ish. It needs to be shady, unless the weather breaks like the evil weatherman is promising, I don't think I trust the AC to maintain a comfy interior without good shade. (104F at the moment.)

[DKB_SATX]

We did better than I expected!

We set up test spaces, representing a campsite 20' wide at a 60 degree angle from the access road. I figured that would be a reasonable test, with the goal of putting the street side of the trailer close to the edge of the space to leave the most room for outdoor space. I did pretty well, so Murphy will probably put us in pull-through spaces until I get rusty again.

[TG Twinkie]

I just spliced a new length of cord onto the old U cord. Cut the old cord back to where the wire was in good shape, staggered the splices, heat shrinked the splices and taped up the sheath with Scotch 33 electrical tape. It will last a lifetime (at least my lifetime; I'm 66) LOL

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by TG Twinkie

I just spliced a new length of cord onto the old U cord. Cut the old cord back to where the wire was in good shape, staggered the splices, heat shrinked the splices and taped up the sheath with Scotch 33 electrical tape. It will last a lifetime (at least my lifetime; I'm 66) LOL

It would have to be an improvement on what's there. For the moment, at least, the conductors are still insulated. I'll get a new connector and solder/heat shrink it in soon. Sounds a lot better than peeling back the banana wrap. I'm not quite up to rivets yet.