... and idiots

At first I thought the bystanders who pointed at our rig and smiled were impressed. I should have known better. Cindy posted a picture of the trailer on Facebook and brother Bill made some comment about a "drop hitch".

I did know something was not right with the way the hitch connected to the trailer. We had the hitch installed on the minivan  before we sold it so we could purchase an SUV capable of pulling more weight. This was likely the cause of our issue. The trailer was not level and the stabilizers in the back were too close to the ground. I was concerned that if I had to drive over a speed bump I might knocked one off.

We have tried a couple of auto repair places to see if they could lower the hitch. By looking at the hitch it appeared you could take out the two large bolts and move everything down about two inches. I thought I might be able to do it myself, but it would take a couple of large wrenches and then it could be the case that the nuts had been tightened down so well I would not be able to get them loose. It turns out that working on a hitch is not a task that interests auto repair shops. We did find a camper supply store and Paducah and they could get us in immediately.

Contrary to what I had to say in my previous post we actually had a great time talking with the owner. He turned the fix over to a son and spent time talking with us. The owner spent time in the Orlando area (our first stop) and had specific suggestions for us. As far as the hitch goes, he explained that the entire assembly holding the hitch ball can be flipped over and this allows everything to be lowered quite a bit. I would not have figured this out.

We were quite open about our lack of experience with this style of camper and explained we were still learning. His response was:

God looks out for children and idiots.

Cindy turned to me and said - We are not that young.

I think he meant we would be fine.

[Atlanta]