New Tenement On Wheels
 

https://i.imgur.com/NubDptSl.jpg

Got it home and I backed into the driveway without hitting anything, :tup: but there are some maple branches that need to be trimmed.

That tenement would be considered luxury housing in many third world countries. :lol:

Including the USA!

Stylin' and profilin'! When it comes to camping, no one said you HAVE to rough it!

We FINALLY got to take the rolling hotel room out for a few days.
https://i.imgur.com/lEmPplDl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TEIIOYVl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/eveuZqQl.jpg

The Rt.66 trip wasn't going to happen this year so we opted for just a couple nights in S.Dakota that Mrs C picked out. She soon learned that 8 hours per GPS translates to 10 hours in real life.

Buster was a lot more laid back, too.
https://i.imgur.com/iWy1Q7Ql.jpg


Pros. Beats the hell out of sleeping on the ground. Midday A/C. Easiest trailer I've ever backed up, even with Mrs. C 'helping'. Can take a shower. Easier to set up and take down than our pop up was.

Cons. 9 mpg. With holding tanks and a water heater, more maintenance. Being new, more 'strange noises' that Mrs.C feels it's necessary to wake me up to check out. Not tight spot friendly.

We stopped a few times for road construction. Buster was just happy to look out the windows.
https://i.imgur.com/jvtQmrLl.jpg

The Ural, being a slow beast, has me appreciating the 'Blue Highways' over the interstates, so we opted for US and state roads on the return trip. Much more enjoyable albeit a longer drive time-wise.

The low point, though, was at our final gas stop on the way home when I mis-judged and caught the waste water tank drains on a concrete abutment at a pump and ripped them off.
https://i.imgur.com/vl0v3iZl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TaFZstol.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8JIOL0Il.jpg

I was pissed, but an old guy(probably younger than me) came by, put his hand on my shoulder and told me I wasn't the first guy to ever do that. He did the same the first time he filled up his motor home and hit the abutment with the car he was towing.

Insurance is now involved.

Well....now you can't do this until you get it fixed...lol


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/685/s7sAKg.jpg

I embarrassed to admit that it took me two bumps to the right rear before I got a handle on the overhang and "swing" of my RV. And this from a guy who's been driving a rollback for years. Making me feel extra stupid.

I looks like the pipe tore out the opening of the black tank so that the entire black tank would need to be replaced. Id that what I'm seeing?

Yup. And I am still swearing at myself.

I was talking about what happened to my insurance agent and she told me that shit happens. Then she related that her husband got way serious into bicycling and bought himself a $9K road bike. Well, said road bike was on the roof of his car when he pulled into their garage. The bike is now a bunch of broken carbon fiber tubes on the garage floor and the roof of the car is seriously bent.

it coulda been worse. it could have been the black water tank. :D

It was. At least it was empty.

We're going to do what I didn't want to do after buying the trailer and that is replace the Chevy. I was going to look at a new Ram and use my Mopar Family Discount. Two things shot that down. Even with the discount, I was looking at almost $60K and my Dad said he couldn't recommend the new Rams. SIL has had nothing but trouble with his 2019 2500. Looking like engine #3 on the horizon.

So, used we go. I live in a small town and want to try and keep my money here. The local Chevy dealer has a few pick ups that have my interest. And a couple that don't. The F150s with the Ecoboost engines can stay on the lot. Both of those have the 2.7 engines.

The others are a pair of Chevys. One is 2017 1500 with the 5.3, 73K on it, bed cap,4wd, and a lot of toys. The other is a 2015 2500 HD with the Duramax diesel, 93K on it and 2wd. Drawbacks are both are close to $40K. The 2500 is set up for towing but it has a 5th wheel hitch in the bed, and the 2wd. There's stuff on the 1500 that strikes me as unnecessary, but I'm a curmudgeon.

The vehicle that has really piqued my interest is an 07 F350 SRW with a 6.0 Powerstroke. Comparable mileage to my Chevy and really clean. 4wd, Warn hubs up front, and an 8ft bed. And it's under $20K. Drawbacks are that it's a 1 ton and will require more costly Illannoy D plates along with twice a year safety inspections. It also has what looks like an unused snow plow on it.

Pics of the trucks.
The 1500.
https://i.imgur.com/RJ1ZOtLl.jpg

The 2500.
https://i.imgur.com/8h5TPwtl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ygkGfVOl.jpg

The F350.
https://i.imgur.com/kssryeHl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Dxaoqnal.jpg

If we get the F350, I can flip the plow and cover registration for a few years. I could also flip the 5th wheel hitch on the 2500. Nothing to flip on the 1500 but I'd really have to get used to the tech.

Around here any sign that a truck has had a plow on it means... RUN!

Up here in da nort, it means extra income between November and March. Though I have no desire to do that anymore.

If I had to choose i'd get the 1500... a truck bed cover = better security. 4wd
Also less fake plastic chrome...and ask them to put the 2500 rims on it...

engines are here or there... 5.3 - 'lifters'. Duromax diesel=higher servicing intervals common rail complexity.

Old fords...sure, new fords that arn't rebadged Mazda meh.

I'd still hold off buying any vehicles until next year...

There is going to be a flood of used repo vehicles as people can't make repayments car lots are going to fill up to overflow and the deals will start compiling.

The snow season is starting later, getting shorter, but there may be the ocaisonal uber dump. Yup. Lots of desperate folks when that happens ;) But it's changing.

I see DOZENS of practically new snowblowers and snowplows too, on Craigslist, LOL!!!
October and we are in the 80s. Reality begins to sink in. A shovel will do for what Winter offers in Missouri now.

Mrs.C is making this difficult. it's her 'Three choices are not enough' thing that makes large purchases so annoying.

Her reasoning against the three trucks I'm looking at, and bear in mind that she will rarely drive any of them; the Ford is white. Quote, "There are too many white trucks in our subdivision". There isn't, but the white ones stand out. The plow isn't a big deal to her but I'd just as soon not have it.
The 2500 is 2WD and has the 5th wheel hitch in the bed. If we remove the hitch,"There's holes in the bed". Holes that can be plugged. "What if it snows?" Our Chevy is the first 4wd truck we've owned. I managed 40 years without it.
The only thing she has against the 1500 is that it looks like Suburban.

So, in her fashion, she's looking at a bunch of other dealerships at other trucks and pointing them out to me. And I'm playing her game with dislikes.

I haven't told her we could probably have the Chevy regeared with something like a 3.73 instead of the 3.42 that's in there and have the 'puter reprogrammed.

This may take a while.

I guess sometimes letting Mrs.C take the lead can be a good decision. Our new tug.
https://i.imgur.com/jJN3rKGl.jpg

2020 F150 XLT with the 3.0L Powerstroke diesel. 250hp and 440 ft lbs of torque. The Chevy was 285 with 300 ft lbs. Also has a 6' bed, towing package with brake controller and trailer backing assist.(Mrs.C says that should stop my yelling), 10 speed transmission, and a bunch of stuff we haven't figured out yet. 56K on the clock. We got $6K in trade for the Chevy, but that is what we paid for it 10.5 years ago, so that worked out okay. I was hoping for some diesel clatter but the engine is very quiet.

I always thought the Chevy was a smooth ride but it doesn't compare to the Ford.

I'll get some better pics in the morning.

It meets with the Buster Seal of Approval.
https://i.imgur.com/t10F9cll.jpg

A pic in the sunshine.
https://i.imgur.com/PsijsC6l.jpg

It’s not loaded like Mrs. C’s Renegade. No heated seats or steering wheel, no remote start, no power seats, no lane sense(yay), no parking sensors. Other than the aforementioned towing stuff, it has heated telescopic mirrors, auto shut off at stoplights(ugh), kick ass stereo with Bluetooth, back up camera, locking tail gate. Did I mention kick ass stereo? I’m liking the lack of distracting tech. Except the auto shut off, I can’t shut it off but I can disable it temporarily. I can live with it.

a truck should be simple...

Stop start is weird tech would be nice if it was just a fuse you could remove but these days you need a computer engineering degree...

My van is 25years old, no DPF, no DEF and a basic EGR system that can be deleted or disabled easily without pissing off of HAL 9000

Agreed, Xman. I am getting used to what tech there is, and that’s the buttons on the steering wheel, the dash display, the SYNC radio, and the trailer assist. The steering wheel is almost like Mrs.C’s car, as is the display. I’m not used to her car either, but it helps.

The radio, I’m liking. Mrs.C is going to add that to her Sirius XM account because I’ll use it more than she does. The Android Auto is the catsass. Plug the phone in and, boom, google maps, Audacy, and Simple Radio. And the phone charges.

And once I get the Pro Trailer Assist sussed, Mrs.C will have one less job she’s not good at. Apparently, I’m supposed to be able to view the ball and hitch when I’m hooking up? Cool if it works. If it doesn’t, Mrs.C still has a job.

Definitely liking the mpg. I fueled up Friday and DTE was around 430 miles. We ran some errands over the weekend, went to a couple of the grandsons games, and I had to run to Indiana and back for a job as the Jeep had a hiccup; now fixed. Filled up yesterday and the DTE jumped to 650.:D I’m thinking Grandpa’s truck may get the Thanksmas drive duty to Maine this year.

your reverse camera should work fine for lining up the ball and hitch. mine is.

My granddaughter spend lots of time asking my android phone lots of stupid questions for which she will look up stuff on the internet. :)

Sounds like both my grandsons.

Finally. Finally, getting some action getting the trailer repaired. The insurance adjuster was getting ghosted by the estimator from where we bought the trailer. The adjuster asked me if I could call the guy and try. I called and left a message. The estimator called back a few hours later and had no idea what I was talking about. I gave the guy all the pertinent info and he said he'd need to research it and would call me back. I then called the adjuster for copies of the emails between him and the estimator.

Today was 22 days without a response from the estimator. I called the owner of the dealership today and laid it out that we paid $26K cash for the trailer, and yes, it was my fault it's damaged, but we have been waiting 2 months to get the trailer estimated and repaired. His estimator has been promising to get back to both the adjuster AND me but has yet to respond. I provided dates and times of my calls and offered to send over copies of the emails from the adjuster. The owner said that he remembered me and the copies wouldn't be necessary. Then asked if I could hold on the line for a minute. That minute was less than 15 seconds. He had the service manager on speaker and asked me to tell the service manager what I told him. The service manager said okay and thank you, then left the bosses office. The owner apologized ten ways from Sunday and said he'd straighten out this mess.

Not thirty minutes later, both the adjuster and I had an email with an estimate to repair the trailer. I wanted to put my two cents in but decided I'd just let the adjuster do his job and keep my mouth shut. Another half hour later and the adjuster has responded, so things are finally happening.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. A check got cut by our insurance company yesterday to get the trailer fixed. Probably need to wait another month to get the parts ordered.

So, we are still waiting to get the trailer in. We decided that they can wait on us for a week and drove out to Maine, again, for Thanksmas via Ontario and Quebec. We took the diesel pickup instead of Mrs. C’s Renegade. The pickup is giving the Renegade a run for its money in the mpg department. We averaged 26mpg on the way out here. It already beats the Renegade in quiet and comfort.

BTW, it’s 100 miles less to get to the kids’ place running through Canuckistan than driving the mind numbing Indiana and Ohio Turnpikes and the New Hampshire 101 brain damage. And turkey week was last month there, so no holiday traffic. Toronto traffic sucks, but it sucked 35 years ago, too.

Toronto traffic does suck ,pretty sure the 401 has the most lanes of any highway in the world , but the real kick in the balls is the fuel prices .

You aren’t kidding, B. $100cad won’t fill the tank. It’s not keeping folks off the road, though. Montreal was a headache in a couple of spots, too. But my total time lost to traffic jams was less than an hour. I can lose an hour on the horrid EYE 80/90/94/294 corridor between Illannoy and Indiana, unless it’s an early Sunday morning. And that’s not a guarantee.

Sounds a lot like Atlanta. what a sh*t show that place is. :o

Been there, done that.

We finally dropped off the trailer yesterday to get it fixed. While handing over the four digit insurance check to the financial guy, who I've bicycled with, we got to bullsh!ting about things and he asked when we broke the trailer. I said September and he said something about insurance companies being slow. Wrong thing to say.

Mrs.C went off first about the problem being on the dealership end and I had to quiet her down. I just told Dave that the communication from your service guy, Mark, wasn't minimal, it was non existent. To both the insurance company and me. You know the crestfallen look that people get when they can't spin something, that was the look Dave had. Dave said he'd move our rig to the front of the line, I told him not to inconvenience other people, because you inconvenienced me. I don't want to see the trailer back before February.

In other news, we got back from Maine Sunday night to 3" of snow on the ground in Illannoy. The traffic through Canada was light, except at the Sarnia/Port Huron border crossing. Michigan was a bloody nightmare due to heavy traffic and snow. The Stupid was also strong with many drivers. It's normally 4.5 to 5.5 hours across Michigan. Sunday was 7 hours. Mileage dropped to 25.5 due to the traffic and brutal headwinds, but in a 1/2 mile long, pain in the ass to park pickup, that ain't too shabby. We used two less tanks of fuel, round trip, than we would have used with the Chevy.

I think we'll keep it.

https://i.imgur.com/wQHGXK1l.jpg

It is. Mrs. C's final treatment was today and she was cheered by staff as she was leaving. We decided to go out for a nice lunch this afternoon instead of the usual. But wait, there's more...
https://i.imgur.com/XB6sYNGl.jpg

We got the trailer back today, too.

Great news x 2! :tup: :tup: