Made the Second Loading Late Yesterday Afternoon...

Just to make sure the first loading wasn't a fluke. I'm needful of knowing I can ride that Two Wheeler up the ramp, and stop at the top, NOT jumping off the other side... with regularity.

In case you're not one of the regulars on my bike site... here's the video of the "second loading"...



Right after this was done... I discovered that I'd killed the batteries in the truck... aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh.

The 7-way RV plug has been busted up for a while... The previous owner of the truck had foolishly hung the thing down low, when he installed the flatbed... leaving that receptacle open to all sorts of damage...

Being cheap and not wanting to pay "Dealer Price" for parts I looked around but could not find the Plug in replacement... So I just went with a hard wire 7-Way... cutting the old busted plug off...

WRONG!

Did you know that the factory 7-Way RV connector... now has 8 Wires? ... Nobody I could find while I was struggling to hook it up the new connector yesterday had any sort of an idea what that 8th wire was for... or what it does. The only thing I know is... the old busted up plug was Working when I took it off... but the wires are dead now! ... and there ain't no blown fuses... 

My guess? that wire runs some sort of a solenoid that controls things for some reason... Only thing I can do now is go ahead and pay the $115 extortion for the Factory part, splice it into place... and hope for the best... Crap...

Anyhoo... in trying to figure things out... guess I left the key on too long... and knocked the batteries down... which I guess aren't real shiny anyway... so, one more thing to take care of while waiting on the taxes to get done.

Maybe we'll get a nice return that'll make up for these last minute snafus!

Relearning Why I never wanted to be a Mechanic...
Brian

Help keep goin' RV Boondocking...goin' RV Boondocking!
Have you enjoyed your visits to my camp? I sure hope so. If you'd like to see what else I've written, you can follow this Trail to my "Bookshelf". Just know that any purchases of my lil' books and tales, helps keep me following the Trails of my beloved American West, collecting stories and yarns to entertain you with... and are Much Appreciated.
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Just a few more days... I think.

Heidi is babysitting in Denver, while our Daughter is doing a show to promote her photog business... I'm trying to button up a couple of things here...

As soon as those things are all done... the only thing left is waiting for our accountant to put the bow on our tax stuff... we could haul out before then... but faxing and such would be a hassle... so we'll hang tough for a couple days and wait out this One Last Thing... so we can put our signatures on it and stick it in the mail...

Then?... I believe we'll roll south/southwest toward Mesa Verde... and the canyon country of Utah... over to Zion... and finally... put this show on the road... I never would have dreamed what seemed such a simple thing... to sell out a bunch of junk, haul out... and live slow and easy, would have taken such a long and miserable struggle to get cut loose... We started workin' on this in the late winter of '06... It's been better than four years of turmoil! Lordy!

Guess I was chained up stronger than even I imagined! :o)

Well, that's OK... most of the chains are gone... the ones remaining rusty and weak... and they're tied on an Ol' buster that purty much don't give a hoot for any of that any more... the road is close now... just a few days...

The ramp showed up day before yesterday... did a test load yesterday... Hmmm, that first look... kind of gets your attention for a minute...

*First look at my Black Widow Motorcycle Ramp*

 But... I've come too far to let a few Jiggly Quivers stop me now... So...

*12' Black Widow Motorcycle Ramp and Loaded Raider*

... and I didn't just ride off the other side! :o)

I almost made a video of that first load... then... decided... if It all went south on me... maybe I wouldn't want Such Doin's on record... I will be putting a loading video on the motorcycle site in the next day or so I think... soon as I Do make one.

There is one lil' issue... when the bike first starts up the ramp, with the front wheel on the ramp and the back on the dirt... the break there lifts my feet off the ground, so there's no walking it up slow and easy. A fella has to commit and just Ride It! :o)

Gettin' it back off was no big deal either... I can just walk down beside it with hand on break and clutch... No Worries...

I still need to double check turning clearances and such but not expecting anything unexpected there...

Clouded up and misty rain this morning ramp and truck are wet... so I guess I won't do another test load... till the sun comes back out... and yes... I will likely not do much loading/unloading in bad weather... just no need... I've done enough in the rain for this year! :o)

Just a couple more days... all I have to do is stay out of trouble...

Take Good Care
Brian

Motorcycles, Ramps, Winches... and Spare Tires... and juuuust a lil' Evel Knievel?

Myrddn asked, so here's the answer... I originally planned to winch the bike up the Motorcycle Ramp... but... as always, unless you got one of the high dollard remote wireless winches... that takes two people, and I'd rather have this thing work solo, along with wanting to simplify its operation... so... the plan is to Ride the Raider up onto the truck...

...The truck bein' tall... and the scooter been low... brings up that High Centering issue. There's a couple of ways of dealin' with that...
1. Find a dock or high spot to set the Motorcycle ramp on, to cut that angle... What a pain in would be to have to go running around looking for a place I could unload the bike!
2. Spend a freaking fortune and get one of those powered, Motorcycle self-loader setups... nice... but out of my budget for the foreseeable future!
3. Build a long ramp... good... but heavy... unless you can weld Aluminum... which I can't!

and DA DAAAA! Door Number 4! Just suck it up and buy a Factory built, folding, 12' Ramp which really dents the budget, but Should do the trick.

Good Ol' geometry calls for a 10.5 foot ramp +-... and that's figuring a straight Motorcycle Ramp. I opted for the 12' version, shallowing out the attack angle; Plus, the ramp I'm getting is arched. Having it arched takes out some more of the approach angle... so, again,  I should be in good shape.

Except for oooonnnnne last little thing.

When you ride a motorcycle up a ramp into a pickup bed... and you screw up and get goin' a lil' too quick... there's that cab sittin' there to stop you... CRUNCH! :o)

 Buuuut.... I'm gonna be loading sideways... or crossways, behind the cab... So... if I get goin' too quick doin' that... WHooooHoooo! it'll be a quick ride... right off the other side! :o) Genuine, Western Motorcycle Rodeo! Jumping big bikes off of truck beds! :o)

The saving grace... I think... is that my Big Ol' Raider has the torque to just idle up the ramp... so... the ramp is supposed to be here, day after tomorrow, so we'll find out pretty quick whether this is gonna be a ride up or winch up deal.

In the mean time, while I wait on the ramp... I keep thinkin' 'bout some sort of safety blocking that I might could set in place... in the event of too much adrenaline when loading... I may come up with something that don't look too bad. :o) We'll see...

Yesterday, as I was finishing up torqin' down bolts, and putting things back in place I had a pretty good lil' idea... I think.

When I built the Motorcycle carrier on the tail of the fiver... the spare tire carrier for the trailer got removed... leaving the spare floating around, always in the way for the last couple years...

I may have come up with a solution:

Fifth Wheel Spare Carried with Truck Spare

Two spares Stacked on Spare Carrier

 I stacked it on the Truck's spare and cranked it up under the truck! It doesn't make any ground clearance issues to speak of... Neat... one more issue taken care of right?

Not quite...

If you look close at the tire stack, you can see the problem... When it's just the truck tire... it sits a lot higher. With two spares stacked, the lower one is a lot closer to the exhaust pipe... that ain't gonna work... but, I believe, that if I reverse the stack... and put the smaller diameter, fiver spare on the bottom... I'll maintain enough clearance...

... I'm gonna give it a try. If I ruin that trailer tire, no matter. That sucker is 10 years old! Yup it's the original spare from when the Eagle was new, never been on the ground and is way too old to rely on... so worth the experiment... and it needs replacement anyway!

More chores to get done today... so I'll get to work now...

Still parked in Nunn and Wrenchin' on the Rig... but Not for long...
Brian

Help keep goin' RV Boondocking...goin' RV Boondocking!
Have you enjoyed your visits to my camp? I sure hope so. If you'd like to see what else I've written, you can follow this Trail to my "Bookshelf". Just know that any purchases of my lil' books and tales, helps keep me following the Trails of my beloved American West, collecting stories and yarns to entertain you with... and are Much Appreciated.
Many Thanks!

Return to the Home  page of goin' RV Boondocking
Visit my "Ribbon of Highway"  Blog on the Lil' sister to this site, Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road