Hmm sounds like the opening of a country and western song!
Earlier I had written about the problem of getting the toad’s (the towed vehicle) trailer platform level and having to fit a lower four holed drop plate on the tow hitch. Well after all the trouble I had fitting the drop plate to get it level I’ve now discovered I had created yet another problem, that of bottoming out.
The gap between the drop plate and the ground was now so low that when we are to navigate the loading ramps on the drive on drive off ferries we will be in serious danger of the plate hitting the ground or bottoming out and this would cause costly damage to the RV and trailer.
The solution was to alter the height of the trailers hitch, so this morning we took the trailer down the road to Bridgwater Trailers, to have the hitch end of the trailer raised. This also meant I had to rotate the drop plate 90 degrees creating a raised plate rather than a dropped plate. This has the added benefit of allowing the cycle rack to fit higher on the back of the RV giving me more clearance from the trailers jockey wheel when it’s raised. With the hitch now raised we should have loads of ground clearance yet still be able to keep the toad’s vehicle platform level.
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| Trailer hitch alteration |
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| Reversed tow hitch plate |
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| Long Vehicle warning board |
So we were up at six having prepared ourselves the previous night for this morning’s jaunt, by seven thirty we were on the road. It was quite an easy little run down the M5 to the next junction then off onto a duel carriageway towards Bridgewater and a simple run off to park opposite the trailer centre in a lay-by just after eight o'clock.
At eight thirty the centre opened and the lads got to work, they hauled the trailer into the centre and measured up the distance needed to alter the hitch. By ten thirty it was all completed and we were on the road back. The only downside to this morning’s work was the cost, it had more than doubled the original estimate as the work took far longer than they had anticipated and took more materials.
Still as long as were safe and legal this was all that mattered, by lunch time we were back on site and set up for the next few days. The last thing to be completed this month is the trip to Anglo American in Newport to have the gas problem sorted. But guess what! The trip down and back this morning went without a hitch it stayed on gas all the way there and back how weird is that!
All we can put this down to is that maybe the solenoids are gumming up from residue in the LPG tanks let’s hope that’s all it is.
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