Well, I'm still on vacation, but the camping part is done. On Wednesday night I finished up with mounting my temporary fenders and going for a test cruise. Everything was going fine. The trailer was almost un-noticeable behind the car. No big rattles from the hitch. Fabulous.
Then the left fender let go
The inside wall of the tire was gouged to the threads, and a pry bar was needed to get the fender mount to let go of the tire. So, off with the fenders, on with the spare, and a panic trip to Canadian Tire for replacement rubber. It's 7:30, the store closes at 8:00, and I'm 15 minutes away
They held the last till open for me
Then, up a 4:00 to get to the 6:00 ferry (you're required to be one hour early for homeland security) and away we went.
We pulled into Fort Stevens around 2:00 after a perfect drive down. The trailer pulls straight and smooth right through highway speeds, and if you keep the revs up is barely noticed on hills.
In typical Oregon Coast fashion, the sky was a mix of overcast and sun, with a 3 am downpour thrown in for good measure. No leaks , and the padding of the top kept things down to a dull roar. Definitely quieter than the other trailer.
Not having a galley was less trouble than I'd been afraid of, but my next project is still going to have to be a chuck box. Constantly pulling the food locker out from under the trailer gets old fast.
The Recumbent Retreat went off without a hitch, and Sunday afternoon my wife picked me up and off to Portland we went. Again the trailer pulled fine, even over the coastal mountain passes of highway 26. Just got to keep the revs up.
So, now I'm hanging out in Portland until the trip home on Friday. I'll let you all know how that went when I make it back.
Till then; Keep the rubber side down (and check your fender mounts)
-Greg