Romania 2015

[clivehorridge]

I think we could maybe alter our itinerary, apart from ferry times, to suit you Clive, fingers crossed

No, no Chas, I didn't mean that, just checking whether the evening of the 18th was the most likely ETA, that's all.

 

[Chas]

No, no Chas, I didn't mean that, just checking whether the evening of the 18th was the most likely ETA, that's all.

I would think that is most likely Clive.

 

[Shayne]

Well guys its a bitter pill to swallow but i gave myself a reality check today and i've decided that even if i can nail all the bits of my trailer together in time for the trip i would not have even a day to test anything . Reliability is the name of the game and if it lets me down ultimately i let everyone else down so .........

So the question is now will this make it ?

OR shall i buy a tent ?

 

[clivehorridge]

Well guys its a bitter pill to swallow but i gave myself a reality check today and i've decided that even if i can nail all the bits of my trailer together in time for the trip i would not have even a day to test anything . Reliability is the name of the game and if it lets me down ultimately i let everyone else down so .........

So the question is now will this make it ?

OR shall i buy a tent ?

I see no reason why it wouldn't make it Shayne, I know it's quite a long way, but these things are designed for thousands of kms, not just Bognor on a few occasions!

A thorough check on the wheel bearings and re-grease, check electrics and away you go, err come, bugger I don't know whether you're coming or going!

We bought a tent from Decathalon, a sleeps 4 thingy for £70 forgotten the brand, looked good in the shop though.

 

[Shayne]

It's not the distance that bothers me Clive these things have a lifespan of 20 or 30 years regardless of the mileage they cover and i'm sure it would be fine left parked up in your garden while we go out to play on mud pie way . I'm thinking more of any off road excursions on the journey to your place . I would travel the whole way without seeing tarmac if it were possible so it would be a crying shame to miss out on any off road shortcuts from A to B that Ratrace may have planned .

Rest assured we are still very much looking forward to the trip and Helen has even offered she will sleep under the stars if she must .

 

[Beau]

Trailers are relatively simple things Shayne. As said above, wheel bearings, electrics and make sure things are bolted together well and you should be good. Even if worse case scenario, you do have a problem on the road, they should be relatively simple to repair/fix on the road. Trailer looks good anyway, how much do you reckon it weighs fully loaded? And are the tyres specified for the load capacity?

 

[clivehorridge]

It's not the distance that bothers me Clive these things have a lifespan of 20 or 30 years regardless of the mileage they cover and i'm sure it would be fine left parked up in your garden while we go out to play on mud pie way . I'm thinking more of any off road excursions on the journey to your place . I would travel the whole way without seeing tarmac if it were possible so it would be a crying shame to miss out on any off road shortcuts from A to B that Ratrace may have planned .

Rest assured we are still very much looking forward to the trip and Helen has even offered she will sleep under the stars if she must .

Well star gazing is great when it's dry, and I can't guarantee that on your journey, but once here you'll have a good chance of no rain. That's cursed it I guess, it'll be the wettest August on record now!

Anyway, at our place you can bed down anywhere, we've got air beds and plenty of floor space.

I wouldn't worry too much about the trailer in some mud, it'll just pull through.

 

[Shayne]

I would happily tow the trailer above for 3 laps of America behind a Cadillac Beau , it's my project trailer which has 285/75 mud tyres on i can't have ready in time . My only concern about the trailer pictured is it couldn't go off road .

 

[Chas]

Shayne that trailer looks pretty good, I'm sure it will be OK, as long as the wheels go round there's not much that would stop progress and there will be enough of us there to lend a hand with any fixing that might be necessary.
As our colonial friends might say "She'll be right"

 

[Shayne]

Believe it or not Clive that trailer pictured has two double beds though one is an optional sofa , a double hob , sink and grill . It's a little house all on its own that's why it will eventually be removed from its chassis and carried by my missile trailer chassis we should be good if i bring it i just thought it wise to ask if RR had any plans to navigate through no mans land on the journey up .

 

[clivehorridge]

I would happily tow the trailer above for 3 laps of America behind a Cadillac Beau , it's my project trailer which has 285/75 mud tyres on i can't have ready in time . My only concern about the trailer pictured is it couldn't go off road .

Here, at any rate, offroad means forest tracks mainly, and although they have muddy bits, you wouldn't have too many hairy moments.

The routes I have planned, you won't have it behind you, and to be honest, even if you did, there's only one 2km bit that I think it would give you problems.

Think positive Shayne, all will be well!

 

[Shayne]

Cheers for the vote of confidence guys i'm not feeling negative far from it , its more a case of my accepting the project trailer might jeopardize our participation in the trip . It is a bit gutting because what i want is a little house on wheels that i can tow anywhere and everywhere my truck can go without a second thought or fear of damage . It can and will be done but cutting corners to meet a deadline is not the way to do it .

Remove the wheels from the Pennine trailer pictured above and my truck would still pull across a beach without my noticing it was behind me so i'm not worried .

 

[StarCruiser]

I was going to suggest taking the wheels and chassis off the trailer tent and bolting the thing down to your gun carriage as being a quick solution……but you just said that was your intention. What's got to be done to your gun carriage to allow that to bolt on? Surely you can't be that far off? We know it has wheels, brakes, chassis, and some sort of tow hitch, so short of having to sleep next to a missile in the middle (which I guess the military wanted to keep) what's holding the build up?

 

[Shayne]

The irony off it its laughable Starcruiser i felt ready to swap chassis/body and all that would have been left to do was add a rail/mudguard . But i have been offered a better donor trailer tent and i know from experience that these are not made to exact dimensions , my conscience will not let me destroy the the tent i have for the sake of 2 weeks when i'm sure there's plenty of families out there who couldn't afford better that could enjoy it for years . And when i can collect the newer tent is still an open question , I should be getting excited and looking at the route now instead of banging my head against the wall because the sprung bolt lock i ordered has gone missing and the nuts i hid somewhere safe have been stolen by the tooth fairy you know what its like . Its no big deal really i just want Helen to enjoy the trip and she won't if i don't chillout !

 

[clivehorridge]

What sort of towball do you have Shayne? Is it height adjustable or removable? I'm thinking of the clearance height of the truck without the trailer on. I have a receiver mount, so it's easy to just remove the whole lot. Some have fixed dropper plates, and they can be a pain catching on rocks and high spots when off-road.

 

[clivehorridge]

PS it might be worth investigating a way to remove the jockey wheel too. They often catch on high spots if you do take the trailer off-road. Obviously you will have to find a place to stow it, but it will be your lowest point on the rig.

 

[Shayne]

Both hook and nato just bolt in . Jockey is detachable . I found myself looking for bigger wheels and 4 stud spacers last night on ebay and kicked myself its chucking money down the drain is all . If i could chuck a lump of money at someone and have my project trailer finished i would but that someone doesn't exist around here and even if they did they would have the very same time consuming problem as me which is waiting for delivery . I used to think my problems were down to my lack of local knowledge just not knowing where to go or who to ask but a conversation with my 90 odd year old father in law reveals the places i'm looking for are all gone . Biggest town in Wales and not a single good old fashioned ironmongers in it It will work out distraction is coming from several different angles at once and i'm finding i can't think straight .

Remember the windfarm threat to my business , well its going to happen full stop the gov has accepted 5 million a year ground rental so that's all there is to it . Makes me laugh that our natural enemy "the fisheries protection numpties" have recognized that it threatens their jobs as well which is almost poetic justice , who needs them if there is no fisherman left to annoy . They are begging us to help them collect enough data to prevent the windfarm we can give them what they need but if we do and they are successful then they will return to their highly paid boredom and use that data against us .

 

[clivehorridge]

Both hook and nato just bolt in . Jockey is detachable . I found myself looking for bigger wheels and 4 stud spacers last night on ebay and kicked myself its chucking money down the drain is all . If i could chuck a lump of money at someone and have my project trailer finished i would but that someone doesn't exist around here and even if they did they would have the very same time consuming problem as me which is waiting for delivery . I used to think my problems were down to my lack of local knowledge just not knowing where to go or who to ask but a conversation with my 90 odd year old father in law reveals the places i'm looking for are all gone . Biggest town in Wales and not a single good old fashioned ironmongers in it It will work out distraction is coming from several different angles at once and i'm finding i can't think straight .

Remember the windfarm threat to my business , well its going to happen full stop the gov has accepted 5 million a year ground rental so that's all there is to it . Makes me laugh that our natural enemy "the fisheries protection numpties" have recognized that it threatens their jobs as well which is almost poetic justice , who needs them if there is no fisherman left to annoy . They are begging us to help them collect enough data to prevent the windfarm we can give them what they need but if we do and they are successful then they will return to their highly paid boredom and use that data against us .

Hey Shayne, that's a whole crock of Sh1t on your plate at once, it's no wonder you're having trouble thinking straight.

The purpose of my post was to try to assist in some form of focus, at this moment, on what's ahead of you in terms of this trip. I'm assuming a number of things here (which may or may not be correct) but hey, let's give it a go:

(i) you're coming on this trip come hell or high water (even despite the disaster of the wind farm fiasco);
(ii) you're not bringing the missile launcher, you're bringing a very able Pennine purpose-built camping trailer that's good to go as-is (i.e. No more worries);
(iii) your truck is good and your trailer is good, now my concern is joining them together as a viable rig;
(iv) normally, especially with a lifted truck, a tow ball mounted on the rear tow bar will be about 1m above the asphalt, meaning your non-missile launcher trailer will look more like a missile launcher than a missile launcher trailer looks.

The easy solution is to bolt a dropper plate on the towbar to lower the level of the tow ball, to bring the trailer socket hitch near enough level. That's great for cruising down the motorway to Dover, but it's not so good if/when RR does an offroad detour.

I acknowledge that that difficulty is almost impossible to overcome without a major redesign and rebuild of the trailer draw-bar or the trailer hitch mounting, which is difficult especially with the overrun brake system that it appears to have.

In these circumstances my next concern, whilst you're at my place, is having some means of removing the dropper plate so that when you're not hauling the trailer, you're not missing out on the nice high ride height of the truck, when offroad.

That's all.

Still with me? OK, I know we all have spanners, so it won't be a big deal, but I just wondered whether you'd thought through the means of getting the trailer to run level.

 

[Shayne]

Apologies another day sat on my hands brought about a bit of a rant don't worry Clive i lack mechanical sympathy rather than confidence and if i decided the trailer was coming around Lincomb forest with me it would follow make no mistake . Anyway the pressure is off now because the swambo finally taken an interest which basically means i'm not allowed to think beyond yes dear and no dear

To answer your question about the tow bar with a bit more clarity my tow bar stays where it is and i have a sort of bolt in riser which allows me to bolt the nato hitch above the bar and the riser could be used upside down with a hook bolted on so yeah its just a 2 minute job to swap/change or remove .

I am secretly still hoping to bring the missile trailer albeit half finished but with the clock ticking i need a plan B in place . All will be well or traa dy liooar as the Manx say .

 

[Sag]

Hi Shayne,if your using the drop plate what you showed me it will remove easy when there,just go for it buddy it will be fine,if you saw what I dragged my caravan through trust me you will have no problem,if I remember the last trailer tent I saw it had a separate axel so if need be can't you just get some metal blocks made and put them on top of the axel fitting to higher the trailer bit,I know the axel will still be same height but the trailer body will be higher.