Monday Meanderings.

We started off with coffee, then Donna heading for the truck company, I got Nicole off to school at 07:00AM and was home by 08:00AM did some blogging and then sat around the house as was cloudy and looked like rain, By about 03:00PM the sun came out and it turned into a nice afternoon with temps in the high 70’s, Samantha and Andy went to get Nicole at school so I decided to to see why my left stop & turn bulb wasn’t lighting on the trailer. I checked the trailer wiring and it was fine, so I started looking at the truck, I was disappointed to find out that back in 2004 when I bought it and had the dealer that and sold us our old fiver, switch the hitch and brakes over, they had done what I now found to be a shoddy job, When I ordered my truck I ordered the heavy duty trailer package with the 5th wheel wiring harness for wiring the plug inside the bed, Well they did put the socket inside the bed, but they didn’t use the fiver harness which has appropriately large wires for the added lights. It was still wire tied to the frame at the front of the box. They ran a four wire bundle down under the rear of the truck and then used those plastic snap connecters to wire into the tail lights wires, after 6 or 7 years those crimp connectors are all corroded and that was what the problem was, I had to take it all apart and clean the wires to shiny brass and then for now I used  twist connectors and then covered it all in electric tape to keep the water out. When I have time I will run the factory 5th wheel harness to the socket in the bed and do it right like it should have been done. I wonder why dealers always seem to take the easy way out. That’s all you read about on other blogs for every dealer that does a good job there are five that get complaints.  Anyway I was glad to see it was a truck problem and not a trailer wiring problem, in visually inspecting the trailer wiring they run the big cable that connects to truck up under the bed into a metal junction box like in home wiring and then everything is done and color coded inside the box with twist connecters instead of those crimp types that give you trouble, it reminds me of house wiring, and this is the 12 volt wiring. I also like that the 12 volt fuse all have a red led next to the fuse that lights if the fuse blows, another nice touch. Did I mention that this dealer New Freedom RV is out of business , I wonder why. I bought my new fiver from Bill Thomas RV in Wentzville MO. and I must say there service department did the Dometic recall for me, and also ordered some parts and sent them to my house, they were also helpful last year when the A/C didn’t start and I was already at the Lake and told me what to do first before getting a technician out. So far no complaints with them.

I got done with the work around 04:30PM and just as I was washing up Donna got home from work and she had some sub sandwiches for supper. Great luck for me as I got out of cooking for one night. She said she called and when no one answered she figured I was out side working.

Now all I have to due is add water and check all the lines for leaks and flush the pink stuff out and then fire up the fridge and the fiver will be combat ready for the summer. I am getting the itch to take it up to the railroad tracks for a couple days of train photography. Like my Mom used to say if it’s BIG, Noisy and Stinky, Boys will like it.

Everyone have a great week. be safe out there. Sam & Donna…