Hi Questies,
Well, it has been a day! After weeks of thinking, planning, cursing, worrying about finances, dragging each other out of minor panic attacks, buying parts, listening to advice, arguing, and questioning our decision to ever leave Hawaii we have finally achieved a seemingly impossible milestone. The truck we own and the camper we own are connected together with equipment we own, outside a house that we (very briefly) live in. It was not easy, but we have made it!
At last! Isn't it beautiful?
We started out down to House Springs earlyish this morning, with the hope that we could just pull up, reverse under the camper, buckle it down and be out in an hour. Sadly that didn't happen. Brian had of course gotten everything ready for us and was enthusiastic about helping us to do the job, which started out fine. The new battery went in and the electric jacks worked perfectly to hoist the camper up off the more substantial jacks that were supporting most of the camper's weight. Even with the swing out brackets on the front legs it was incredibly tight trying to squeeze the dually between them, but it mostly went well, and after a bit of maneuvering we got the truck lined up good enough under the camper.
We have been worried this whole time about the clearance over the lights attached to the top of the truck cab, and sure enough we didn't have enough space. If I had not spent so much time yesterday banging my head against a brick wall trying to figure out how to wire up the camper's trail lights/signals then I would have gotten to the hardware store for some wood to put in the bed and give us a bit more height. The solution was a two by four at the front end of the truck bed so the section over the truck cab was elevated. Easy fix (though it's currently a bit unstable and temporary)!
The next problem was that our turnbuckles did not reach all the way between the tie down brackets and the connectors on the camper! So we all loaded into the car and drove into town to get a soda and visit the hardware store for chain and shackles. There was a bit of humming and hawing about what we should get to make the extra connectors, they didn't have any shackles in stock, but eventually we figured on some chain hooks with small shackles on the end. Great. We got them back to the camper.... and the small shackles wouldn't fit around the eye bolt. Ugh. So Brian got the angle grinder out and set to increasing the opening a bit. It was all a bit of a headache. Luckily however he remembered that he had some extra shackles in his garage (a proper man-cave of mechanical wonders) so we did a quick switch over and boom, ready to go. Then we had to figure out how the turnbuckles worked, which isn't complicated but does require you to understand what is supposed to happen when you put them on (if you notice in the photos the one on the front left is upside down).
The long and boring story is that Zora and I, after faffing for four hours, and being very well taken care of by Brian, set off on our first real life truck camper drive together, and brought our toys back in one piece. The ride was a bit more boat like with the added weight and I was nervy about how the rig would all hold together, but the engine barely noticed that the load was on the back. I really think we bought a great truck for everything that we need it to do! We have to say a massive thank you once again to Brian, he has been totally patient with us, it's been three weeks since we bought the camper and it has sat on his driveway the whole time waiting for us. He was the person to find the advert for the truck we bought, he has researched various things and sent us through suggestions on what else we could be doing and other things to consider. He has even done extra work on replacing light covers and building little supports for the rear step since we bought it! So thanks Brian, you have been excellent.
It is quite remarkable how nice people have been with helping us out even before we have started the quest. I think folks must really like the idea of what we are doing. Billie, from Niebling's auto just across the way, gave us a fantastic little travel washing machine from her days doing pretty much the same thing that we are. Thank you very much, it will save us a ton of money being able to skip the laundrette!
It's so cute and useful! And so easy to store! Billie says believe it or not, it will wash up to three pairs of jeans at once! We'll only have to brave a laundromat (or occupy our friend's laundry room) when we have to do the really big stuff.
We are just so happy. Today was exactly what we both needed. Thanks everyone for following our progress, and supporting us. I promise we will leave before too long and start doing some cooler stuff for you to look at. Please keep the quests and suggestions coming in, our journey map looks so much better now that we are getting more. And if you know anyone who may be interested in what we are doing, feel free to let them know about it. Keep a look out for more updates as we begin the process of prepping the camper for departure.
-T