Log 2014092501

Today, repaired electrical connections on my Harbor Freight 4 x 8 Utility Hauling Trailer. It seems that the last time that I folded the trailer, I took out all of my separation pins, but forgot to unplug my custom wiring harnesses.  When I went to fold the tongue down, I torqued the wiring system, causing the wiring at the right taillight and side marker light to come undone from their crimped connections. They're repaired as of today.

Originally,  I wasn't sure what today's repair was going to entail. Honestly, I thought that I'd be crawling under the trailer and undoing electrical tape to find the problem. But it turned out to be too easy. With that said, the former electrical job would have pulled wires apart from at least 3 places. But today, I found that the main wires stood their ground under the stress.

Log 2014092201

The mileage on my 2008 Chevy HHR LS is as shown in the picture. Today, I replaced the rear shocks. This means that the car now has new struts and shocks all the way around. The rear shocks are MacPherson style and are separate from their struts.

The job required jacking the car up in the the center of the rear axle. Because the lift on the car is only 6", I ended up having to jack up the rear driver's side area with a 2 Ton scissor jack, the get the center of the axle of the with the 3 Ton floor jack. The Chilton's manual for this model noted that there was a jacking spot in this area. Personally, I would have preferred the floor jack that they have at Harbor Freight Tools that has a plate on it. Because around the axle was a piece of angle iron. My round plate would never make contact with the axle, so I had to jack on the angle iron.

Once I got the jack stands in place, I dropped the axle enough to remove the lower mounting bolts for both rear struts. Then I released all the pressure from the floor jack and let the axle drop as low as it could go.

This job eluded me when I was at home port last. For some reason, I was unable to lift the springs out. But this time, I figured it out. The spring in question has to be grabbed down at the top. The upper shock tower is sitting on a peg and needs to clear it for disassembly.  Well, with the brake line in place, it makes is hard to do that. In fact, I've heard of some disassembly instructions call for removing the brake lines. If I ever get anything bigger in there, I certain that I'll have to.

I was concerned when I compared my old shocks with their replacements.  The coils on the old ones wrapped around the upper shock towers. The new ones dont come so close. And the new ones are longer. I consulted with a friend on Facebook about whether they'll coil around the towers in time and he says no. That's ok, it's merely consistent with having bought heavy duty shocks and struts. Which now means that my rear shocks now have an extra coil. And that's excellent for hauling my trailer.

I did the work in my brother's driveway. After I was done, I put the car on the ground and immediately coupled my Harbor Freight 4x8 Utility Hauling Trailer.  And I was disappointed to note that the trailer is well below the HHR's 1,000lb towing capacity and the car still sunk down like it always had before today's servicing :-(. At least I know now that it's normal.

After I got the trailer to home port and uncoupled it, I took the car for a drive and noticed that my previous issues of driving around curves that hook with 20 & 25MPH advisories didn't feel like I was going to flip the car anymore. I'm glad to say that I solved that problem today. I can't wait to see its improvements in Southern Ohio on 03 October when I leave for Basecamp F at Scioto Trail State Park.

Lastly, the driver's side rear drum that I had to mount tightly is whistling and burning the shoes to the point that I can smell it. I expected this and hope that since the shoes are newer, that they'll just burn themselves free. The next time that I replace those, I'll just replace the shoes and rotary (again).

Log 2014072101

- I just got the recessed D - hooks installed. They're rated for well in excess of what the trailer can haul.

- This morning, I called the VA medical center in Cleveland and found out that I have an appointment on the 25th. So, that will push my departure for my upcoming recreational trip back by about 22 hours.

Log 2014071901

- At this time, it's difficult to write new log entries because the car and trailer are being prepped for departure for this upcoming recreational trip.

- As far as I can tell, my Nishiki Colorado mountain bike is running at peak efficiency.  The 3" wide chubbys are mounted on the rims at the moment.  Chubbys are tires that hardly have any tread.  So, they're like road (racing) bike tires, but they're as wide as traditional mountain bike all terrain tires.  The first three days of cycling on the American Discovery Trail in Ohio will be on improved surfaces.

- I just disposed of the rear tire that came stock with the bicycle about 2 years ago.  I damaged the sidewall using a screw driver to dismount the tire & tube. These days, I use two tire levers and they work so quickly and well that I swear by them.  Nonetheless, both front and back knobby (all terrain mountain bike) tires need to be replaced because I don't think that the chubbys have the traction to handle the backcountry roads in Southern Ohio.

- The rear left drum brake system in my 2008 Chevy HHR LS was giving me problems. After the tension bar fell out for a 3rd time, I got a new kit and put it back together.  The problem is that if you unscrew the brake shoe separator too much, the drum won't fit back on, or it will cease.  If you screw it in, the brakes will clear the drum, but a spring that spans from what I like to call the "ear" (which is mounted to the left brake shoe) to a hole on the right shoe.  If the hook of the spring merely sits (and is not tautly clipped inside) within the hole, it will eventually fall out. That in turn will cause the ear and brake separator to fall.  The system will then rely on the "W" clip to force the brake shoes and caliper back, but it's not good enough. Eventually, the contact on one of the brake shoes will come out of the caliper's groove, causing the "W" clip to bring it back cockeyed. The next time you press the brakes, one of the pistons is going to make contact with the misaligned shoe.  And with enough pressure from the master cylinder, it will cause it to come out, bend and break, spewing brake fluid inside the drum and causing the car to loose the ability to brake until the system is entirely out of fluid.

What I did this time was got one of the forks on the separator unscrewed as much as as the drum could handle with out ceasing.  Afterwards, I used the teeth that the tensioner uses with my fingers to expand the separater out more until the the hook in its hole pulled tight.  The drum mounted afterwards,  but the car failed it's next braking test on Seeley Road in LeRoy Township of Lake County while pumping them coming down a hill.  For those of you who don't know, Seeley Road has the steepest hill on a dirt road that also includes two 90° hairpin turns on it, plus a road surface that closely resembles that which the Chevy will be driving on in Southern Ohio in the upcoming weeks.

I was caused to remove the rear left wheel and remount the spring on the shoes in a trailhead before I turned and came back home.  The next day, I went back there to repeat the test, but this time, I didn't pump them.  The spring maintained its mount in the brake shoe hole. But I think I might have a potential problem with the tensioner while pumping the brakes.  Basically, take your left hand and cause your fingers to make the first two bends, but not the third.  Rest your thumb flat on top, but extend your pinky finger completely out.  This is what the tensioner looks like, but it's smaller.  The part that is your pinky finger is what makes contact with the gear teeth that affection the tension of the brake separator.  And the other end of this spring is connected to this "ear" piece somewhere above there.

- Electrical conduit has been installed on my Harbor Freight Tools 4' x 8' Utility Hauling Trailer around as many wires as was feasible.

- A new hole was drilled in the hull of the doughnut/ battery compartment.  I fed the wires for the new trailer lighting harness through them, wired them up and siliconed the remainder of the hole shut.

- A new mount was installed on the bar of my trailer hitch to keep my new outdoor trailer harness in place while I plug, unplug it and tow.

- And in the midst of everything else being done, I've been packing my own personal belonging here at Home Port, transporting them to Storage B and helping my family put my grandparents condo on the market and making runs to the landfill.

Log 2014060601

Last year, I did an adequate job wiring my 1195 Lb. Capacity Heavy Duty Folding Utility Trailer that I purchased from Harbor Freight Tools.  But I left it's wires drooping in anticipation that I was going to fold it someday.  Well, when I placed it in storage, while folding it, I taunt and stretched the wires.  With all of the wire shorting problems that I've had between the trailer and car, I don't dare trust them again.  So, the trailer needs to be rewired.
But I got to thinking this evening that there's no way to do this right when folding without having some kind of separation.  Last year, I probably played around with using some kind of bullets.  But as I understand, those are usually designed for wires typically used in model aircraft and small RC cars.  I never found one that could interface to a 6 gauge battery cable so that my marine battery on the trailer could charge on the trailer while it's in motion.

So, what purchased today from Walmart in Mentor of Lake County are 5 - trailer extension wiring that have both a male and female ends for a 4 flat connection.  I intend to use the first two at the midsection and the others at the trailer's taillights. That will give me the separation that I need.  And the midsection connections should be rugged enough to stay connected and not accidentally ground to the frame.

Since my floor is wood, I also purchased some mounting brackets that one would use in a house to pin coaxial cable to a base board.  I plan on tacking that up under the trailer to hold my wires so that they don't sag.  The connectors at the taillights are there for diagnostic and by-pass purposes.  If I'm down trail, I may not be readily able to diagnose, by-pass, or re-wire the main lines.  With these new connectors, I can run a temporary by-pass on top of the floor and have full running lights in the meantime.

On a seperate note... I applied this year's sticker on the trailer's license plate today.  The temporary by-pass lighting was mounted to the rear rails.  But I discovered that the left turn signal wasn't working.  I tested them two days ago and found that both worked.  Therefore, there is a short in the car at the location where the hitch wiring was installed.

Leaving the Storage B, there wasn't any issues with the trailer linking up to the car or while driving.  While at the gas station, they didn't have any alkaline AAA batteries, so I reluctantly purchased some lithium ion's instead.  With the main taillights out, they were for a headlamp that I wrapped around one of the taillights that serves as the license plate light as well.  The headlamp is for people who go in caves, or hikers.  But it has an elastic band that I mounted to the taillight so it would illuminate the license plate.

Log 2013110801

Ever since I unloaded the expansion floor and folded up the trailer, it seems that my 2008 Chevy HHR sits higher. I must say that I don't understand it because my car should fit 5 grown adults. Regardless, if this is true then the new rear struts are good, but need to be upgraded. I thought I felt that the back end is riding higher, but all I know, it's just my imagination.
Like I mentioned before, I folded the trailer and placed it into storage today. When I got the tool bins down, they might have been 300lbs a piece? And the gear bin wasn't too much lighter than the tools.  Between that, the trailer's dry weight, the 5500 BTU airconditioner and miscellaneous car repair equipment, it's possible that I was over my towing capasity. But, it's hard to tell without using an industrial scale. And if I had one, I think it'd be pretty close.
The trailer, gear, expansion floor & twin size memory foam mattress are in the 10' x 10' storage unit.  The next thing to do with it is see if my belongings will compact to one side so I could free up my uncle's office that I'm using for storage? To be honest, I'm not really sure it will work? There might be insufficent space in the new unit?
Right now, my bicycle is in the new storage unit until I cut enough plywood to block the windows on my parents shed. And my master portable gasoline tank was emptied out into the car today.  As of now, it's empty, but I still have about a gallon of 40:1 mix that I doubt I'll get rid of.  In my chainsaw class that I had at Buckeye Trail Fest 2013, I was informed that 40:1 mixed fuel isn't much good beyond 90 days after it was mixed.
Right now, I still have pain in my back from sleeping awkwardly in The Cramper.  But its getting better by the day with stretching.  Last night, I put a rice filled cold compress on it before I slept for about 42 minutes.  The cold disapated too quickly. I'm really looking forward to working out at the gym again.