Today, we’re at Schuling Hitch in Des Moines, getting the Jeep ready to tow this winter. You can’t just put a hitch on the back of a motorhome and tow a Jeep like you tow a trailer. Motorhomes tow their cars on a straight tow bar and, then the ‘toad’ (RV talk for the car, SUV or truck that is towed) follows directly behind in the same path of the motorhome. It’s pretty slick.
We have the tow bar from our last Jeep but need to put into the new Jeep a metal base plate bolted to the Jeep frame that the motorhome can hook the tow bar up to. We also need something to coordinate the lights of the motorhome with the lights of the Jeep. We also have a supplementary brake system in the Jeep which will brake at the same time as the motorhome. This is an added safety precaution. This supplementary brake system needs a plug from which it can get electricity to work. So, we need not only the base plate for towing but several electrical parts for lights and the supplementary brake.
Suffice it to say, the whole process will take the better part of a day and cost the better part of - well, I won’t go there. Let me just summarize by saying that we will keep our arms and legs but just barely.
Remember, we have only one car so, if it’s at Schuling Hitch, so are we. We brought our computers and some projects to work on while we waited. Above you can see Gary in the lunchroom of the office. Pretty small but the table is bigger than the one we have in the RV so we are right at home. Our knees don’t even bump each other under this table.
And, here is our Jeep being worked on. That’s the bumper off to the left. I hope they don’t have any left over screws and bolts when they get done. Oops, is that a ‘Tow Bar for Dummies’ book in his hands? No, they’re pretty good. They did our previous Jeep also and that’s why we’re back. We trust they to do a good job.
We met some other people getting some work done while we were waiting. One was a woman who was north of 80 who was getting a hitch put on her car so she could tow a fold-down trailer which she had just bought. Isn’t that amazing - 80 years old and still camping and traveling. She was going to meet her daughter and son-in-law in Colorado for some camping. She kept asking us if we still had all our ‘original’ parts. Seems she’s had 2 knees and 2 hips replaced and was sure that everyone else had also. She was pretty surprised to hear that we had all our ‘original’ parts.
Finally it was done and we were on our way home.
Just testing commenting here.
ReplyDeleteThis is another test by Gary.
ReplyDeleteThis is still another test by Gary.
ReplyDelete