Sunday, September 13, 2015

Camping, With Trailer

We did it! We managed to get the trailer road-ready for the camping trip. It was an adventure getting it to that point, and it's still far from finished, but we towed it 15 miles to Milton, and 15 miles home, and it's safely back in its little shed, having slept two for two nights.

It really came down to the wire. That trailer tongue I wrote about in the last post turned out to be a much bigger deal than I thought it would be; no one in New Hampshire could get me the metal piece on time. But after I had left one fabrication shop, stopping for lunch on my way to a scrap yard, it occurred to me that there might be another way.

I headed back to the fabricator, and asked him how much he would charge to take a slightly thinner piece of stock and add flat plates to it at selected spots, and drill the holes for me. It was reasonable, and so the next day, I brought in a template for the holes.

The day after that, the piece wasn't quite ready for me to pick up, and the fabricator had to leave it outside his shop for Karen to pick up after hours. She brought it home. I slid it into the existing tongue. The holes didn't line up at all.

But it was okay; the piece isn't symmetrical, and I just had it upside-down. When I turned it the right way, it fit perfectly. I finished installing it and setting up lights and last-minute hardware at, well, the last minute.

William had a soccer game on Friday, so we towed the trailer to the site, then left to pick him up at the high school. Our fellow trailer fans were amazed that we actually came with a trailer!

We have a lot to do before the trailer goes on its next trip—all the way to southern Massachusetts—but we made it this time, and we'll be ready for the next time.

But now we just need to pack, have dinner, and collapse, because it's back to school for the kids early in the morning.

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