"Adventure" #1: Storage
The wife and I took delivery of our 2018 Coleman Light 2515RL travel trailer on December 16th, 2017. The maiden voyage was a quick trip from Monticello, MN to Dayton, MN for storage through the winter season. The following is based on true events.
The actual drive was quite uneventful even though my nerves felt otherwise. We arrived at our storage location in one piece! Having no practice backing up a 29 foot trailer myself, I asked the storage owner (a professional truck driver) if he was okay with parking the rig for us. He was happy to oblige. But first, I know there is something I need to do with this anti-sway bar before we can back up the trailer... Wife and I argue for 15 minutes about what needs to be done and consult the documentation. Oh yea, we need to remove it! Pull the two cotter pins securing the bar to the balls at both ends of the bar and just lift it off. Easy enough.
It's time to drop the trailer. Now the fun starts. Which way do I flip the switch to lower the electric tongue jack? There is no label! My first guess was the wrong one. I ran the jack up while it was already fully collapsed which overloaded the circuit and blew the fuse between the jack motor and the trailer battery! FUHHHHH! Okay we just need to pull the fuse and replace it. No problem. Except it is 20°F and everything plastic is rock hard and non-compliant. Let's go digging for some pliers... None to be found. Ok let's pry the cap off with a screwdriver... That works! Whew!
So we popped two fuses. One 10A and one 30A. We have no spares¹. Well I know where we can get fuses! The trailers electrical box! We borrow a couple fuses and swap them in to the electric jack circuit. Let's make sure to run it the right way this time. (Switch toward the trailer, jack goes down)
With the jack situation figured out, it was time to disconnect the hitch from the truck. Holy crap, there is a lot going on here. We have a weight distributing hitch with chains and bars all over the place. The simplest thing to do seems to be to just disconnect the hitch adapter from the receiver on the truck. That will work IF the truck and trailer are level but the back end of the truck is at a slight angle due to a ramp angle from the driveway into the garage. We pulled the truck forward a bit and that allowed it to level out enough to take the pressure off the receiver. The trailer is now free of the truck!
We leave the storage owner with a tip for all the trouble and part ways until April...
1. Get spare fuses!
The actual drive was quite uneventful even though my nerves felt otherwise. We arrived at our storage location in one piece! Having no practice backing up a 29 foot trailer myself, I asked the storage owner (a professional truck driver) if he was okay with parking the rig for us. He was happy to oblige. But first, I know there is something I need to do with this anti-sway bar before we can back up the trailer... Wife and I argue for 15 minutes about what needs to be done and consult the documentation. Oh yea, we need to remove it! Pull the two cotter pins securing the bar to the balls at both ends of the bar and just lift it off. Easy enough.
It's time to drop the trailer. Now the fun starts. Which way do I flip the switch to lower the electric tongue jack? There is no label! My first guess was the wrong one. I ran the jack up while it was already fully collapsed which overloaded the circuit and blew the fuse between the jack motor and the trailer battery! FUHHHHH! Okay we just need to pull the fuse and replace it. No problem. Except it is 20°F and everything plastic is rock hard and non-compliant. Let's go digging for some pliers... None to be found. Ok let's pry the cap off with a screwdriver... That works! Whew!
So we popped two fuses. One 10A and one 30A. We have no spares¹. Well I know where we can get fuses! The trailers electrical box! We borrow a couple fuses and swap them in to the electric jack circuit. Let's make sure to run it the right way this time. (Switch toward the trailer, jack goes down)
With the jack situation figured out, it was time to disconnect the hitch from the truck. Holy crap, there is a lot going on here. We have a weight distributing hitch with chains and bars all over the place. The simplest thing to do seems to be to just disconnect the hitch adapter from the receiver on the truck. That will work IF the truck and trailer are level but the back end of the truck is at a slight angle due to a ramp angle from the driveway into the garage. We pulled the truck forward a bit and that allowed it to level out enough to take the pressure off the receiver. The trailer is now free of the truck!
We leave the storage owner with a tip for all the trouble and part ways until April...
1. Get spare fuses!
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