Log 2014111901

This is a picture of me in my "Virginia is for Lovers" tuff guy shirt.  I secured my smartphone to my goose neck windshield mount and told the folks on Facebook that I was taking a "selfie with no hands."  What you can see somewhat in the back is my 2008 Chevy HHR LS with the back seats removed.  Taking them out was very simple, it only involves removing four nuts.  Since the car hauls "The Cramper," or my improvised pop-out camper, regardless of whether it's assembled or collapsed in transport mode, I removed the back seats for extra luggage capacity.

For those of you who navigated here from a search engine, The Cramper employs a 20ft tarp that I place over the outer shell in the back.  With bungee cords and 45° like folds going downward folds towards the back seat doors, I'm able secure it to the holes in my rear rims and the bars in my after market roof rack.  The roof bars have unused holes that pertain to different width roofs that the product can mount to.  I looped some paracord through outermost available holes so I'd have something to hook a bungee cord to that wouldn't slide across the bar in high winds, which is unlike looping the bungee cord around the pole and hooking it to itself.

Each side uses three bungees and then another 3 in the back.  I use two short red bungee cords and secure them to my trailer hitch.  Then I use a long yellow one with a red plastic end to secure the tarp from side to side under The Cramper's expansion floor.  It's a bungee cord where one end passes through a circular opening in the red plastic on the other end, then fits into a narrow channel along it, grips the cord and secures it in it's hold.  Most tarps looping holes will buckle and tear under the stress.  They need to be repaired from time to time and you can find replacements at a home improvement store, maybe even a hardware store (I haven't tried to find this there yet).

Log 2014070602

Last year, I mounted my large gear and tool bays along the front and side rails if my utility hauling trailer because I wanted their weight to rely more on the car's rear suspension. But in all that time, I questioned whether that was the right decision, especially since I've recently done some work on the car's springs and struts.

This year, I plan to relocate those bins so they sit directly over the trailer's axle.  Well, strapping them over the trailer width wise like I always have isn't a problem. But, doing it length wise is now.

There's two problems when mounting there. First is that I'd have to use towing steps over the top of the bins that would reach around and hook to the bottom of the frame. That would interfere with the proper packing of the trailer. 

The other thing is that I could install hooks, but since the back rails are being redesigned to function as a ramp, specifically for the bins (they're heavy and have wheels. Standard hooks would I'm peas the bind and defeat the purpose of the new rear door.

So, I purchased some new recessed hooks. Special holes in the trailer's floor will need to be cut out in order to mount them.