An RV for Easter!

Big news for this week is that we managed to get our Arctic Fox 26x trailer home from Grand Junction. Therein lies a story.

We borrowed a neighbor’s truck. Although it was wired for a heavy trailer, with a 6-pin electrical connector, the trailer hitch ball was too small. The Arctic Fox needs a 2 – 5/16 inch ball, the truck had a 2 inch ball. However, the larger ball needs a 1 – 1/4 inch shank (the part the nut threads onto) and the hitch had only a 1 inch shank. The truck didn’t have a receiver hitch, so there was no option to modify the bumper to accept the larger shank. (The dealer was not too keen on me using a bumper hitch anyway.) This was on Friday.  No trailer that day!

On to Plan B.

Saturday morning I drove into Grand Junction and rented a U-Haul pickup equipped with a receiver hitch. I bought the correct size drawbar with a 2 – 5/16 ball on it, proceeded to the RV dealer, hooked up the trailer, and brought it home.

Bringing home the RV trailer

The dealership did a good job of walking me through the various operational parts of the trailer: how to winterize and flush the water systems, run the refrigerator and furnace, decipher electrical systems, drain the holding tanks, and general operations. Experience will be the key, though, as there are no manuals with the trailer. I will go on-line and see what service manuals can be found.

The upshot of the towing problems we experienced is — (wait for it) — we are considering getting a truck. Perhaps trade off the Subaru (which is almost paid off), but we are looking at our options. An extended cab truck looks to be the best layout for us but we will start looking at what the market has to offer.

Given the towing needs and general hauling we will be doing over the next few years, a truck is probably a viable option. In the past we’ve owned vans and small Toyota trucks that proved to be very convenient and useful. Problem is trucks get lousy gas mileage and are not the best vehicles in slippery winter interstate driving conditions. Getting a truck is a developing story and will be the subject of future posts. If anyone has advice on trucks generally, let us know!

Back to the RV.  It will need a few small repairs and changes. Nothing big, so far, has revealed itself. The switch  that turns off the speakers in the bedroom doesn’t work. The after-market water filter on the kitchen faucet doesn’t have a brand name so we’ll have to manually identify the filter if we can (replace it if we can’t). The cover of the front window needs a couple of new rivets.  The slide-out mechanism should be lubricated. The bedroom screen door needs a new latch. Small stuff. I will take care of these before we move the trailer to the Sanderling lot.  At this point, we are thinking about moving the RV to the lot in late April, after we drive to see Felicity in Boise.

So, how did the dogs react to their “new” home-away-from-home?

Blondie, Bru, and Jo sniff out their new digs

It smells funny.  They said it will take some getting used to, and requested I make a ramp to replace the steps to make entry easier. I will take it under consideration!

One of the things we had the dealership do was replace the carpet in the bedroom. This turned out pretty well:

New bedroom carpet looks good.

Pam has put a clip board in the trailer so we can jot down items needing to be purchased, fixed, or changed. Today I will level the trailer, check all the lights, put the refrigerator on electric, and get started on some maintenance jobs (and probably add items to the clip board).  We are very pleased (and relieved) to have the trailer here and will be going through it pretty closely in the next few weeks.

Here’s an interior shot of this trailer with the slide-out extended. (Similar photo in earlier post was a generic dealer photo.)  As you can see, the reality of our RV is slightly more basic than the glamorous photo taken for the product brochure.

Interior of our 2000 Arctic Fox 26X trailer

While the trailer is the big story of the week, there are a couple of minor topics to hit on as well. Below is a photo of  some of our animals enjoying a sunny day in our living room.  Spring has arrived and the afternoon sun on the west side of the De Beque place is actually warm.

Cats and dogs in our living room

In my last post I mentioned I was putting a winch on the ATV. That job has been completed. Here is a photo of the work in progress. (Note the battery cables draped over the fenders.)

Installing winch on The Griz

Happy Easter to everyone!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s two cents worth:

A truck.  Bet everyone saw that coming, huh?