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Shakedown Cruise: Day One

October 26, 2014 Drew

We finally did it, we’re on the road, headed out for our shakedown cruise! We didn’t quite leave by the morning, but as of this afternoon, we are now officially on the road.

The day began with the final loading of the camper and Jeep. I have been having trouble finding the right hitch setup, and today was no different. I can’t use a normal style and length mount because the ball sits too low and is right under the spare tire with no room for the camper tongue. I tried a hitch extender from Harbor Freight, but it was too long, and the chains and electrical didn’t reach. This morning, I tried just an extra long mount from Camping World, but it was still a bit too far for the electrical, and it still interfered with the spare tire – looks like I’m going to have to just take the tire off the back and go from there.

I also needed to calibrate the electronic brake controller. A quick Google search told me what I needed to do, and the trailer brakes seem to be working as intended.

With the hitch, and the brakes all figured out, we hit the road. We’re heading west to the Apalachian mountains – where I’m told beautiful fall colors abound!

As we drive through the some traffic before leaving the town, we start to hear a “squeak squeak squeak” coming from the front passenger wheel. It only happens when driving slow, but it’s definitely there. Nothing short of a total breakdown is stopping us now though! Noelle and I look at each other and agree; the wheel will literally need to fall off before we stop this damn car!

We soon made it out into the country. The North Carolina countryside is beautiful, and keeping off the insterstate is really going to help us connect with the places we drive though. I did make one bad decision to stop at St. James Lake State Park before we arrived at the campsite – it involved a long windy road up a steep hill – not a great decision on my part.

We made it back down, and eventually got to our first campsite – Success!

This is the first thing I notice when I get out of the car – the electrical connector from the trailer has fallen apart and is trailing on the ground – uh oh. It looks fixable though, and another quick Google confirms that I just need to get the wires reconnected to the right terminals. A little bit later, we have working taillights and turn signals – success again!

We’re staying at a Yogi Bear campsite close to Marion, NC. The campsite is decent – but honestly at almost $40 for a night (and that is the discounted price), I was expecting a little more. I think camping might be a bit more expensive than people make it sound!

The ducks were actually really loud – like unusually loud – is that normal??

As I’m writing this post in our cozy little camper, we’ve had a great first night. It might be bad sign that I had to pull the tool bag out first thing, but we’re still here, and we’re still on the road! Onwards to day 2!

North Carolina

Camper Preparation

October 25, 2014 Drew

Progress continues on getting this camper ready to camp. We have been working towards get the Jeep fixed up, and are making our final packing preparations!

I’ve ranted a number of times about car places and mechanics, and how they all charge you a ton of money, but don’t actually do anything useful. Well… now I get to add another notch on that cynical little bedpost of my life.

Noelle’s Jeep needs some lovin; the brakes are squeaking, the rear pads are like 85% worn through, the rotors are rusted to hell from the salty roads of the northern frontier from whence we came (Chicagoland). It hesitates to start when warm, and definitely needs a new battery. We also wanted to get the electronic brake controller installed to run the trailer brakes. So I looked up a highly rated shop in our vicinity, and dropped it off to get some fixin done to it.

Two days later, I go back to get the Jeep. I see the mechanic pull up, and immediately notice a jumble of wires in the back – they had just zip-tied the new 7 pin electrical connector to the back of the car… OK, so I ask the guy if he thinks that is acceptable, and he agrees to add the bracket that is supposed to hold the connector – great…

As we continue to drive the car on Saturday, I notice that the brakes still squeak, and the car still starts rough sometimes after its warm – sweet. So $800 bucks got me absolutely nothing? It’s cool though, just make that one more time I am completely and utterly let down by a car place and car people!

We did make a lot of progress in getting this camper ready for the road. We finished cleaning out the inside, and started loading it back up with our stuff. We’ll be on the road soon enough.

We need the necessary books.

This beast wanted to hang out for a bit.

I added the bug screen over the AC hole.

I guess we have a lot of junk!

Compared to the VW, and the other campers we have looked at, this thing seems huge! We should have plenty of space for all of the necessary accessories.

We plan on leaving tomorrow morning – if nothing else goes wrong of course!

North Carolina

Camper Cleanup

October 24, 2014 Drew

We’re making progress on getting the green camper cleaned up and ready for the road. We finally got the thing registered and legal, and also spent a couple days cleaning it up.

After the DMV woes we experienced with the yellow camper, I really wanted my ducks in a row this time. We bought the trailer, I got a good, normal looking title, and thought that was all I needed. A quick call to my local Florida DMV office turned everything upside down… again…

The DMV lady said because it’s an out of state purchase, the VIN will need to be verified. Well, the trailer is still up in North Carolina, and on top of that, the frame is coated in a thick layer of black paint – there is no VIN in sight! So for the second time in a week, I freak out. How are we going to get the VIN verified? Are we going to have to apply for a new number, why is this happening, these people are crazy, etc. Another quick call to the central DMV office gave contradictory information; he said that because it is a “travel trailer” it doesn’t need a VIN verification. Sooooo… do I believe the central office or the local office?

I decide to take it to the North Carolina state patrol inspection office to try to do a VIN check (the camper has an original warranty tag that matches the last 4 digits of the VIN on the title). The place is only open 8AM to 10AM in the morning, so we booked it over there first thing. The officer looks over the trailer, but of course says he can’t verify the full VIN. Dead in the water again, I call the local Florida office again, get a different DMV lady, specify we bought a “travel trailer” she confirms no VIN verification is needed.

We drive all the way back down to Florida, get the plate in like 5 minutes at the DMV, then drive the 7 hours back up north – we’re finally road legal!

With the ridiculousness of the DMV over with, we went to town cleaning up the trailer for our shakedown cruise. There are plenty of projects that I am seeing all over this thing, but overall, it is cleaning up well. With any luck, we will be out and about soon enough!

The range works!

The stove cleaned up nicely with a little Windex and steel wool.

Fun times!

North Carolina

The Green Camper

October 20, 2014 Drew

We found another camper! Like I said in the last post, the Mid Atlantic seems to be an excellent place to find vintage campers. After the disappointing DMV woes derailed our plans for the yellow camper, we rebounded and ended up buying this awesome green camper.

We were able to successfully get our money back from the yellow camper seller, and he is going to apply for a new legit North Carolina title. In our search for a second camper, we found this gem a couple hours away in South Carolina. Another little road trip ensued – sweet!

This camper is a 1968 Terry travel trailer. It’s a decade newer than the previous candidate, and at 18ft, has a lot more going on. This thing has dual axles, a bathroom (with shower), full kitchen, fridge, and even a water heater – such luxury!

The interior is still pretty rough, and needs a good cleaning. The systems on this thing are pretty intense, and I’ll be learning more about plumbing and electrical wiring at some point in the future. The owner claims it is leak free after he resealed everything including the windows last year… we’ll see about that.

My biggest concern was if the Jeep could handle this bigger trailer. It actually pulled like a dream. The dual axles mean the suspension is overbuilt for its size, and the V6 engine had no trouble pulling it up the hills. The trailer is equipped with electric brakes, and we’ll be getting a controller installed soon.

So for the second time, we negotiated a price and struck a deal – we are now official camper owners! To celebrate, I spent a ton of money at Camping World, and we are now working on cleaning up the inside, and getting Florida plates. Once we do that, we’re hitting the road for a shakedown cruise!

North Carolina

The Yellow Camper

October 17, 2014 Drew

This post was written with 20/20 hindsight – the yellow camper just wasn’t meant to be. So here it goes:

We found a camper! It turns out this part of the country is perfect for vintage camper hunting – they are everywhere. This one is a 1959 Fan “Twinkle”, and it is located just an hour up the road.

We drove up to check it out, and Noelle instantly fell in love with the yellow color. We are looking to buy a camper that is essentially camp ready, and that is exactly how this one is being advertised (and priced…). The exterior is in decent shape, the yellow and white paint job is recent and looks well done. The camper is just a little 14′ footer, and doesn’t even have a bathroom. The interior is actually pretty rough, lots of previous water damage to the walls and cabinets, some roughly made panels installed to cover the bad spots – I think some people’s definition of “camp ready” might differ from my own!

We decided we could work with the interior, and offered a lower than asking price. A deal was struck and we handed over the money for the title – well on our way to owning a cool vintage camper!

We headed down to Florida with the title in hand to get plates for the trailer, and Noelle’s jeep. We’re also getting our driver’s licenses updated to reflect our new status as Floridians.

The trip down was beautiful. We started out taking the slow route down highway 52 through South Carolina. Saw some beautiful old houses and went on the “Wildlife Drive” at the Pee Dee Wildlife Refuge.

We got to the Florida DMV office the next morning, ready to finally get this show on the road! Then the DMV lady decided to pour a lot of rain on our parade. She really burst our collective bubble. I mean she really took the wind out of the sails and killed any buzz that was to be had.

We thought we had everything ready. I had confirmed with like three different people what we needed: old ID’s, passports, social sec. cards, insurance, titles, etc. The DMV lady takes one look at the piece of paper that I had been given when I handed over all of the cash for the trailer. “Well that’s not going to work” she says before moving on to get our licenses and Jeep plates done. We finally get back to dealing with the trailer, and she explains that this piece of paper is actually an application for a duplicate North Carolina title that means absolutely nothing. Oh, and we need the trailer present for a vin check and weight check…

So now we freak out. We just drove all the way down here, and are leaving empty handed. I just gave this guy a big chunk of change for the trailer, and we are holding a worthless piece of paper as a result – such an idiot! Noelle drives on the way back up while I start calling the applicable DMV offices between North Carolina and Florida. Trying not to panic too much, I eventually ascertain that we will need a good title for the trailer to get plates, and that will be extremely difficult if not impossible in NC. They have some court process, and you have to post an indemnity bond or something. I kept getting conflicting info between the local florida DMV office, the central Florida DMV help desk, the local NC DMV, and the central Raleigh office. I finally got the central Florida office to agree that I could get plates if I get the NC DMV to issue a letter stating that the trailer has never been issued a title (it’s from 1959 people!!!)

In the quest to get such a letter from the state, I was transferred to like 4 different people, the last of which said something like “Well you shouldn’t buy things that are old” and then she proceeded to tell me I need to talk to some “inspectors” who are actually just state troopers that only work from 8 to 10AM weekdays (its 4:30PM on Friday). She says they work at the interstate weigh stations in the evenings, but when I asked if I could call one of those stations, she said “No.” So with that definitive answer, I told her thanks, and quickly looked up the number to one of said stations.

I got a hold of someone – we’ll call him Deputy Dan – he was crazy. Like bat-shit crazy. So I bantered back and forth with him until this other guy who called himself Trooper Cooper came on. He told me he can’t really help me, but that I should call the central Raleigh office – the same office that sent me down this path to begin with!!! I’m glad I didn’t wait until Monday morning to hear this.

Sooo… after a very disappointing day at the DMV, a bunch of calls to some very unhelpful government drone-like humans, we are going to get our money back from the seller asap. He said he had the “original title” but this piece of paper is not even close, and we need to extricate ourselves from this whole situation.

We’re staying positive though. The seller seems like a good guy, and is sorry we weren’t able to get the plates. We’re going to keep looking for a suitable camper, and will be extra sure that we have all the paperwork ducks in a row!