trailer – Whatsittwoya

Red Whale 2.3: Beached

The Red Whale is done for the year, but not without a final success. * First, because I switched back to the classic editor, all the pictures are now clickable. If you want a better look at anything, just click on the picture. 🙂 *

The last endeavor at camping, and the horrendous return (as well as nearly getting stuck getting out of there due to the rains) discouraged us from trying it again until the problem(s) with the truck was found and resolved. This put a bit of a pinch on the rest of the summer, but luckily other accommodations became available, so we returned a few more times regardless.

In the meantime, the problems with the truck and trailer were put out of my mind completely until just recently, when I came across a B-pressure welder in my travels, as I knew I would eventually.

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At Home

There will be a 2.3

Because all did not go as planned…

While everything regarding the trailer itself remained trustworthy and whole (save for a temporary … inflection), the truck I built in ’98 to pull it around had a mind of it’s own.

350 small block Chevy with RV cam, MSD ignition, open face air filter, headers and dual exhaust.

At Home

Red Whale 2.2

Ok, so after the inaugural trip, there were indeed a few things still in need of attention. One of them was the electric brakes, which just weren’t hooked up properly (or at all). This was at least manageable on a short trip, and were, what I thought, an easy repair. Another was replacement of the 7-pin wiring harness, which over the years had been let to drag on the road enough times that bare copper was visible. It wasn’t me…. honestly. What remained was encountered along the way, and will probably be the meat of this post.

The first attacked was the 7-pin, which I was putting off because it meant opening up a big can of worms. To get to the tin on the front of the trailer, the “rock protection” (mouldy carpet and plywood) and edge trim with putty under it had to come off first.

At Home

The Red Whale 2.0

In 1999 I bought a trailer, a 1979 22.5 foot Vanguard, and called it home for a while as I worked in Joffre, Alberta during construction of the the poly-ethylene plant. It was old at the time, but in excellent shape, and came with absolutely everything. All I had to do was put food and beer into it, and I was good to go. It was heavy compared to newer models, but pulled like a dream because of it, and somewhere along the line I Christened it “The Red Whale”.

I lived in it for several months, and once I was done there I brought it home to park in my driveway. I used it only occasionally over the next few years, with the last time being somewhere around 2007. It has sat idle since, sometimes covered with a tarp and sometimes not, weathering the years as expected, with the cost of tire replacement always being the hurdle to its use.

By whatever circumstance, I found recently that trailer tires could be purchased rather cheaply, setting in motion the reconditioning of everything in preparation to be set out to sea once more. The list was long and vague at first, only to lengthen as time passed, yet within a few weeks the challenges were overcome, and it now looks to be time for a second Christening. What follows is a detailed account of the process.