Not quite as simple

Yesterday was quite a busy day as we were scheduled to go pick up the Coleman trailer Cindy bought on Saturday.  When we got there we got a full orientation from a nice guy named Tony.  During that walk through Cindy spotted a few more minor issues that they addressed immediately which was great.

So during the paperwork signing portion  of the deal where Cindy was pitched the merits of a $5000 plus extended warranty (which she declined), I decided I wanted to look in their store for information about what type of hitch I would need for the Tacoma.  My truck has the factory tow package so I figured I would just need to slap a ball into the hitch receiver, buy a wiring harness and I would be good to go. Boy, was I wrong.

I had their parts guy go out to my truck to see what I had to determine what I need to tow the 26 foot, 5600 pound Coleman trailer.  It was determined I needed a lot more than I expected.  I needed an electric brake controller to interface with the trailer brakes, something I stupidly assumed would come with the factory towing package.  However the big expense was the hitch itself.  I was told I would need a weight distribution style hitch based on the size of the truck.  Evidently these things are expensive, over $600 just for the part, not to mention the labor to install them.  The grand total for the quote was just over $1000 which was way more than I first imagined.

The thing was, even though I was not going to be the one towing the trailer to the house I felt like I HAD to get the hitch installed immediately.  The reason for that is when installing this type of hitch it has to matched/adjusted to work with the trailer it is being used to tow so the truck/trailer need to be at the same location.  If the trailer was towed to the house prior to me getting the hitch installed it would be a logistical nightmare to get it installed at a later date requiring someone else to tow the trailer back to the RV place to do the work.  So the short story was I decided to just bite the bullet and get it done.

Getting the hitch done wound up consuming close to two hours of additional time but at least the work got done.  I felt bad as the guy that was towing the trailer for us had to sit tight until we were ready.  We beat him to the house by a few minutes and then helped guide him into the backyard.  Getting through the front gate was pretty tight but he managed to get it done without incident.  Cindy helped guide the trailer to it’s preferred spot that has the highest elevation in the back yard.

So I had to leave almost immediately afterward to go to my credit union to reopen my home equity line for withdrawals.  I had a 2:30 appointment, or so I thought.  About 2PM my cell phone rang. It was from the closer assigned to do my paperwork.  She said I had a 1:30 appointment and was wondering where I was.  I told her I was told it was 2:30.  Well evidently somebody got their signals crossed.  I apologized and told her I would get there asap.  Signing the papers literally took all of five minutes.  I hopped back in the car and hurried home to help Cindy with her initial trailer prep.

Cindy was cleaning/decorating.  My main concern was the technical/logistical aspects like power and internet.  At first I thought we might have to use one of the generators to supply power to the trailer.  The trailer comes with a 50amp service plug/cable.  At the RV store I was given one 30amp to 50amp adapter and bought a 15amp to 50amp adapter as well.  I decided I should try the most convenient option first which was extending house power from the small shed out to the RV.

I used two of my heavy duty extension cords and the 15a to 50a adapter to connect to the cable included with the RV.  Instantly Cindy said the AC in the RV kicked on but I told her to turn it off for now, unsure if the overall draw would be too high for the circuit.

We used the house power to do the less power intensive things like open the slide out and extend the awning.  After awhile I was ready to see if we could run the rooftop AC unit as well, the biggest power hungry device in the RV.  We were both happy when the cool air started blowing out at a high velocity and the power stayed on.  I went out and felt both extension cords to verify that they were not even slightly warm to the touch.  The RV ran all evening with the AC on without issue which was great.

I also brought out one of my monitor/tv’s from the house to test out the built in omnidirectional antenna in the Coleman.  It worked immediately with no adjustment, pulling in over 15 channels over the air which was cool.  Wi-fi reception in the trailer was surprisingly strong.  I could connect to both the coop and house wifi routers without problem.  I even set up one of the Amazon Echo Dots in the RV and it worked just fine.

With the slide out extended the interior of the RV is really impressive.  It just feels comfortable, modern, and clean.  Elsa really seemed content out there for some reason.  She loved sleeping on one of the couches.  The unobstructed view from the backyard of the east and west is actually quite pretty at both sunrise and sunset.  I spent a lot of time out there with Cindy just chilling but she also spent some time out there by herself, enjoying her new personal space. It was a very long day but a memorable one all the same.

Today would have been my mom’s 70th birthday.  I am sure she would have felt the same way about it as I do my upcoming 50th, only 20 years more perturbed about it.