Hitch: A Lot Easier Than I Thought!

Installing a hitch on my 2013 Civic was significantly easier than I thought it would be.  Somehow I had it in my mind that installing a hitch involved welding, hydraulic lifts and altering the underside of my brand new vehicle.  Turns out people like etrailer.com have created step by step instructional videos that walk you through each step.  Watching these videos gave me the confidence to go ahead and do it.  

 I ordered the hitch and what I thought was the correct wiring harness and waited.  The hitch arrived a few days later.  I borrowed some drive up ramps and asked a friend to help me lift the steel frame into place. 

I removed the plastic shroud and heat shield from the bottom of the vehicle, trimmed them accordingly and then re-installed them.  A few minutes later, we held the steel hitch into place and bolted it to the frame.  Etrailer.com included these special bolts with long tabs that allowed you to hold them into place while tightening them.  This made it much easier, as the tiny holes where the bolts were inserted were in awkward places.  

All in all, it took us two hours from start to finish.

You can see on the left that I had to trim the plastic shroud significantly more than planned.  This was mostly because the hitch needed to slide up and through the shroud.  I guess it's not too big of a deal because the instructions suggested that you could just leave it off if you wanted.  

It's kind of amazing that the hitch is only held into place with four bolts.  One on each side and two that mount to the tow hook.  Super simple and efficient.  Now to the wiring.

The Carpe Diem Visits Ohio University and Narrowly Averts Catastrophe!

Both my beautiful wife and I attended The Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  It is in fact, the place we met and fell in love.  It was quite fitting then that the last 'leg' of our first trip in the Carpe Diem go through there.   

The Carpe Diem at the College Gate in Athens, Ohio.

Before we get there, we need to catch up a little on the trip since the last update.  We loaded up and headed to Granville, OH where our good friends Mike and Christina were in town to visit their family.  We met them for a nice brunch at a place called Day y Noche.

Mike and I with the Carpe Diem.

After a great visit with them, we dropped them off at Mike's parent's home.  We were able to see his Mom and Dad too.  I was very close to them too.  

Erica and I turned towards Athens and things were looking well.  Then, near disaster struck.  We were on one of the many small roads that lead towards Athens.  We heard a loud plunk and then the sound of metal scraping across concrete/gravel.  I was able to quickly check to be sure that it was safe to pull over.  I did so and we carefully got out to take stock of what happened.  The tongue of the trailer popped off the tow ball.  Thankfully the safety chains held, the tongue of the trailer actually rode up onto the basket on the front of the trailer.  If we had been on a larger road, or going faster, things might not have turned out as well.  

The basket took a little bit of a hit; nothing a sledge hammer can't fix.

I learned to pull up on the tongue to make sure it has properly latched! 

The road rubbed the tongue a bit, but nothing a little Rustoleum can't fix.  

We took a huge breath, hugged each other and counted our blessings.  We started back towards Athens.  The rain had held off all morning, but it started again along the way.  Almost everything had changed.  Even the freeways were different; the small towns of Lancaster and Nelsonville had bypasses which were terrific for travel, but I'm not sure they will be good for the small businesses in those towns.  We made it to Athens and went to The Strouds Run State Park.  Neither of us had camped there before and mid July, during the week, is apparently the least visited time in the park.  In fact, we were the only people in the park.  It rained almost all evening and into the night.  Something was going on with our battery and it did not fully charge while we were in Powell.  So, the hot and humid weather, and the relentless rain made for a less than perfect night of sleep.  Well, that and the fact that we were the only people in the entire park, in the middle of Appalachia, without any cell service... Nonetheless, we made it and here is the view we had when we woke up this morning.

Here was our campsite.

I love the panoramic feature on the iPhone!

We hitched up and headed back to Athens.  We thought that early morning would be a good time to try to take the photo of the Carpe Diem at the top of this post.  Then, we headed north to pick up the kids.

My parents and my nephew with my kiddos!

The skies looked ominous as we started toward home.  About half way home the skies opened up.  We stopped for gas and I checked on the teardrop.  I was not happy to see a white, milky-type substance dripping from the front of the teardrop.  The caulk was clearly not dry and it was obviously not reacting well to the pounding rain.  I decided to not think about it and deal with it when we finally got home.  

The arch at the border of Ohio and Indiana; a brief respite from the rain.

About five hours later, we pulled into our driveway.  The kids were great; they jumped out and started clearing out the car and the teardrop like a pit crew at the Indianapolis 500!  A little while later, we had the teardrop on the concrete patio, the luggage and laundry emptied and were ready to assess the damage from the rain.

The aluminum 'drip guard' that we had glued in place came off again.  Thankfully, it fell into the basket again and we were able to retrieve it.  One corner started peeling away a bit.  We'll need to re-glue that corner once everything has dried out.

All our gear washed and ready to dry.

The sheet of linoleum on the back of the teardrop drying after being washed of the liquified caulk.  We put the EZ Up overt the teardrop so that we could let everything dry.  Once it does, we'll start all over with the caulking process.  Hopefully we'll get a stretch of dry weather.  We were all very happy to shower and head to a much needed night of rest.  It was a terrific trip, but we are all glad to be back!

Change of Plans...

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...we ended up with some problems this morning.  We went out to check on the teardrop's cabin.  It had rained seriously hard overnight and was down pouring  as we ate breakfast.  Unfortunately, the caulk had reacted with the intense humidity and heat.  The caulk, which is pretty thick, began to liquify and was not solidifying like we had hoped it would.  We knew we would not be able to put the mattress in as it was.  We tried backing up the CRV and putting the teardrop in the garage, but it was just way too tough to maneuver with the basket on the front of the teardrop; it impacted the turning radius in a big way.  We gave up after a few minutes of trying and being completely soaked by the rain while we tried.

We decided to go ahead and take the kids to my parents to visit and we would stop at Harbor Freight on the way back and get some of the things we would need.  The first thing we bought was a 12" extension to the trailer tongue.  After buying a coupler lock, a new pin and a few other supplies we headed back to Powell.

Putting the extension on the tongue made a HUGE difference!  I was able, with some support from Erica, to back the teardrop into the garage quite easily.  I can't believe I didn't buy that thing before!  After getting the teardrop in the garage, we plugged in two fans and started airing the interior out and charging the batteries.

Installing the extension was simple; just insert a new coupler pin.  

Drying out in Powell.

Two fans drying the caulk.

We've decided that we would stay the night here while the cabin dries out and the caulk cures.  We hopefully will be able to load up in the morning and head to Athens.

Just an aside, I noticed some water in the galley area too.  I'm not sure what the cause of that is, but it has to be partly due to the poor seal and fit of the hatch.  That's not nearly as important to me as the cabin is, but it will have to be addressed when we get home.  For now, we wait and pray for no rain.

I Need You to Step Outside Young Man

Well, she's outside!

I was able to make it to Harbor Freight tonight.  I bought myself the heavy duty tow dolly I mentioned in an earlier post.  Of course I had to put it together:

Next, we hitched the trailer to the tow dolly.

The 'problem' is our driveway is on a fairly steep incline. 

Thinking that I would 'usually' need to do this myself, I thought I would give it a try.  Things went pretty well until the weight of the trailer made it down the slope of the driveway.  I had Jack on my iPhone shooting some hilarious video.  You'll have to see it for yourself.

 The sound Jack heard was simply a small piece of aluminum that I had left on top of the teardrop; it will be the strip that hold the rubber gasket in place.

After some serious tugging, we pulled it up the slight hill again into our backyard and onto the patio.  I'm still a little worried about a few small places where I know it isn't completely sealed.  I will get the gasket on over the hinge and seal everything up in the next few days.

My car is back in the garage for the first time since March 25th!

That's enough for today!

Possible Issue: Thanks to a Fellow Teardropper for the Head's Up

Emmit, a fellow teardropper, shared a possible concern in a comment to me.  He wanted me to be wary of the basket on my tongue because it may impede my turning radius.  I think, in fact, he is right, but I won't know for sure until I can hook it up and give it a spin in a parking lot.

However, I think I may have a solution and, once again, Harbor Freight, may have come through for me.

Here are two inexpensive, possible, solutions:

 

 Both of these 'could' work; they would give me an additional foot of clearance.  One even gives me a step!  Thank you Emmit for the head's up.  You may have saved me a tail light!