Planning for Delivery and Bringing the Trailer Home.
There’s plenty we can look at and even start preparing for before we get the trailer to the house.
The time is nearing to get rolling.
We had expected to have to wait until about April to find enough warm days to have the concrete pad we will be parking the trailer on to be poured but the weather warmed up nicely and it was poured yesterday (3/9/2020).
There is a lot of contradiction on the web, and in the construction field, about exactly how quickly you should use it. The general overall belief is that concrete reaches its maximum strength WITHIN 28 days. The time for concrete to be ready depends on moisture, temperature, and the mix design. Given that, it is also accepted that it reaches 70-90% within 7 days. You can drive your car onto to it but not heavy items so it depends on the weight of your trailer. Since our towing car weighs 5000lbs and the empty trailer weighs only 5200lbs, we should be fine using it in a week.
Since we thought we had more time, we were in no rush to have the hitch receiver and wiring installed so we just had the shop, where the work is to be done, order the parts. It will be a few weeks until it arrives and we can get in for the installation so we have plenty of time.
We finally get the hitch receiver , wiring, and brake controller installed and find ourselves waiting to go pick our new unit up due to social distancing over the Corona virus. It’s simply not a great idea to go coop yourselves up inside a trailer with another person (the dealer) for a couple of hours for your introduction training. Now all we can do is wait until it makes sense to go get it.
In the mean time, I decided I can somewhat practice backing the new trailer into the new space next to the garage by practicing with my sailboat which measures over 20 feet long with trailer and all. I should be pretty good by time I make the first attempt with the actual unit – I hope.
Sometimes, even the best overlook fine details.
We had the parking pad poured 2 feet wider than the trailer spec to allow plenty of space and this was as wide as we could go while staying within township requirements. I felt comfortable with that.
Today, I went and picked up the trailer. The company set up a no contact process where you back up, they hook up the trailer, they pass you a thumb drive with a video of an introduction to the features, and you drive away. There were two snags though. The first was that the hitch they included, with our purchase negotiations, did not extend high enough to keep the trailer level so I had to pay for a taller one. The other was that the 7 pin plug on our tow vehicle had two voltages/signals missing. The running lights and right turn signal circuits were not working. The 12V supply, brake lights, left turn and backup worked fine. This is the fault of the place that installed the hitch and wiring for us so now we have to go back to them to have them fix it. They had me sign a waiver that I knew of the two issues and I accepted responsibility and off to home I went.
All went well on the trip home. I drove through winds blowing 15-25 mph coming from head-on and the side as the roads changed directions and all was fine. The anti-sway system worked as expected even when large trailer trucks zoomed past me going the other way on two lane roads.
The real surprise was when I got home and started to try and park the unit on the pad next to the garage. I parked in front of the house so I could install my backup camera on the back. I checked for a signal and a picture on my monitor and there was nothing. I eventually determined it is supposed to be powered by the running lights – the ones that are not working on the car plug!
The most critical need was for my second camera for use on the passenger side of the trailer and is critical for me to see the corner of the garage as I back up. I planned for it to be removable. I grabbed the small 12V battery I use in my sailboat for lighting and powered the second camera up then temporarily clamped it to the steps.
I managed to get a good angle lined up into the driveway and was doing fine keeping close the corner of the garage when my spotter stopped me. I had neglected a very important feature. The trailer is so tall that it is higher than the roof eave (over hang). That eliminated over a foot (likely about 16 inches) of the 2 foot clearance that I was planning on having and bringing me down to less than a foot of clearance divided between both sides.
That introduced problems into turning and maneuvering to the point that it finally became clear that the idea of backing the trailer up onto the pad all the way is not practical (if possible at all). Sometimes, it seems like karma has the best plan anyhow. I finally accepted this and decided to park the trailer back as far as I could with the door placed to clear the front of the garage.
This will make it so much easier to get in and out than having to squeeze through less than the original 2 foot clearance anticipated with parking all the way back.
So, the trailer is here and now we are off to learn how everything works and start some packing. I have some items to add/modify on my to-do list already
