2020 Trip To South Dakota

[JEBar]

a major item on our pretrip check list was taken care of this morning .... that being new front tires for our truck .... the tires were bought through our membership in the Family Motor Coach Association and installed by Colony Tire of Raleigh .... the folks at Colony tire sure didn't have much in the way of business while I was there .... from there I drove over to Freightliner of Raleigh to pickup a set of tow hooks to install on the front of our Sportchassis .... unfortunately, they ordered the wrong ones so a reorder is underway ....

[JEBar]

my wife made our final campground site reservations earlier today ....

[JEBar]

those who followed our most recent trip to Texas may recall we got stuck twice and required a short tow both times .... there aren't any tow hooks on the front of our Sportchassis (picture 1) .... consequently, connecting a winch cable to it is difficult to do without damaging the bumper .... on our way home from Texas we camped with a couple who were driving a newer Sportchassis with tow hooks (pictures 2 & 3) .... a little over a week ago I called the local Freightliner dealer and ordered a set .... naturally , when I went to pick them up, they wouldn't fit .... the fellow I worked with promised to do some research and reorder .... just got word that he had to go to someone back at the factory and has been promised a correct set will be shipped .... they should be here next Thursday .... once they arrive, getting our sons to install them will be next item on our agenda

[JEBar]

as mentioned above, we just replaced the "Steer Tires" on our Sportchassis .... the oldest Michelin we removed from the truck was made in 2010, the youngest 2013 .... both had surface dry rot cracks .... the cracks on the oldest were more pronounced and the tire was worn on the outside edge .... it started wearing years ago when the truck's front end was out of line .... it still had plenty of tread from the inside edge to the worn outer edge .... I could have had it rotated on the rim and probably gotten a few more years wear out of it but I guess I'm just getting too old myself .... as a side note, those tires had the same liquid tire balancing fluid from day one .... the inside of the tires looked as shiny black as they did on day one .... NO sign of any dry rot, cracking or aging .... furthermore the inside of the rims looked new .... yes, I had them install the same fluid in the new tires .... I'd much rather spend the money and replace a tire early than to push it and have to deal with problem out in the middle of nowhere .... I decided to replace both because there would be a bigger difference in tire diameter than I am willing to put up with .... I believe the handling would have been rather squirrelly and like I said, I'm just not willing to put up with it .... if these new Continental 255/70R22.5 HSR2 SA tires last 10 years, that may well be longer than I do ....

[Hatchdog]

We have a trip planned to South Dakota leaving May 26th. Four nights in Montana (two stops) and seven nights in South Dakota then home with a night spent somewhere.

Purpose of the trip is to do some sightseeing, Dinosaur museum and Custers Last Stand in Montana and Mt. Rushmore, the caves and Deadwood in South Dakota. Currently Mt. Rushmore is open but all the information centers, etc are closed due to the virus. I haven’t checked with Deadwood yet but I expect the same. Our concern isn’t the campgrounds (all private) but the possible crowds at the attractions. With a month to go before launch I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can take out trip but............ we’ll see.

[JEBar]

sure hope the trip works out for you .... the Little Bighorn Battlefield is well worth visiting .... do suggest you make sure to listen to the Ranger's presentation at the museum building before going out on the battlefield .... we've seen the Ranger who did ours on the History Channel .... hearing the presentation really makes walking the battlefield more meaningful

[JEBar]

the new tires on our truck that were mentioned above

[JEBar]

the first picture below shows the carrier behind our camper on August 20, 2019 .... it was taken at a truckstop located on I-40 just east of Knoxville .... the second picture shows the broken area .... the third shows the carrier last week when we dropped it off for repair .... the rest show the carrier when I picked it up a few hours ago and with it mounted behind our camper .... the last pictures show a recently purchased stabilizer .... the shop really beefed up the carrier .... the hitch bar is solid steel .... heavy steel reinforcement plates have been added .... one can be seen in the 5th picture on the front of the riser .... this checks off another major item on our Have To Get Done list

[JEBar]

OK, I fully admit that I'm prone to over think and then rethink many of my projects .... earlier today I revised the stabilizer mounting shown above .... with this mode of mounting, the stabilizer is pulling down on the carrier's hitch .... also as noted, the rings for attaching safety chains change the dynamics .... the gap the U-bolt has to cover is longer .... so much so that there isn't room add a locking nut .... hopefully, the lock washer will be sufficient .... one bonus of this change is the carrier sits a bit more level

[JEBar]

this morning I got a call from Raleigh Freightliner letting me know that the tow hooks mentioned earlier in this thread .... were in and ready to be picked up .... around 1PM I got there and was greeted by the young man who ordered them .... the tow hooks were much different from the ones that came in last week .... the fellow who ordered them crawled under our truck and came out saying he believed we have the right tow hooks this time .... happily, they were much cheaper as well .. .. the front bumper will have to be removed so as to install them and being so low to the ground that is going to complicate the install .... for that reason I called the local shop I trust to work on our truck and made an appointment for 8AM .... their lift will make it much easier and quicker to do so .... once the hooks are installed, we will have completed our check list for things to take care of on our truck prior to heading to South Dakota

[JEBar]

heavy rain motivated me to reschedule the install of the hooks until tomorrow .... I do believe I could get the truck out of the yard but with its weight there is little doubt it would leave ruts .... there is no doubt my CFO (Chief Female Officer) would not see any humor in those ruts ..

[JEBar]

as mentioned above, the next item on our pretrip check list will (hopefully) be taken care of today .... our first task of the morning has been to get our truck to the shop for them to install front tow hooks .... the fog lights shown in the first picture will have to be moved toward the center so as to install the hooks as seen in picture 2 .... should be a bolt in operation, the only question is how many bolts will be required .... example, will the entire front bumper need to be removed

[JEBar]

the hooks are installed .... they most certainly are heavy duty .... my hope is not that they are in place, we'll never need to be pulled out again

[BigAl52]

Those look like they should do the job. It always works that way you will never need them again now that you have them.

[JEBar]

if that proves to be the case, the hundreds of dollars we have tied up in them will be money well spent

[brm4450]

You never know about SD, as a kid growing up the slogan was land of infinite variety, locals changed it land of inclimate variety. Don’t like the weather wait 20 minutes it will change. As a kid I remember to waking up to 6 inches of snow on June 13, so those tow hook could come in handy

[JEBar]

so those tow hook could come in handy

our truck is a fine piece of machinery .... that said, on anything approaching a slick surface, it is useless .... little weight and a lot of torque to the rear wheels

[JEBar]

another pre-trip item checked off .... cleaning and mounting our Yetti on the camper's carrier sure doesn't look like a solid half day's work but it has been .... because of some mods made while having the carrier repaired some of the custom cut straps no longer fit .... replacing them wasn't difficult but did take time .... in addition the security cable I've used for years is now too short and all of the others I have are way too long .... once again finding a way to take up some slack while working in a tight space wasn't overly difficult but did take time .... knowing me, I may end up ordering another cable ....

[JEBar]

with it pushing 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, I've had to call it a day working on our camper's storage areas .... having finished going through the small, rear doorside storage compartment and doorside half of the camper's basement, I've had to call it a day .... several Texas items removed and packed some South Dakota items .... I've spent the day unpacking a Holland Companion grill along with its affiliated Smoke Daddy equipment so as to pack a Country Smoker Traveler with its affiliated pellets and cooking gear .... one lesson learned, there are times one can pack a round peg in a square hole .. .. over the years we've evolved to where the items needed most often are packed so as to be easy to get too .... I really need to make a chart to help me remember what's where .... tomorrow I hope to be able to go through the basement and storage compartments on the off doorside .... knowing what's in those areas, there will be more straightening up than changing contents

[JEBar]

morning spent moving stuff around in the camper's basement .... the biggest difference in packing for the coming trip is the addition of our pellet grill .... physically its a bit larger than the grill we have been using .... the big difference is the weight of the grill .... in addition, I have to find room to accommodate the additional bulk of 40 lb of pellets ....