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Tyson Died

I called Colorado Teardrops yesterday about getting a roof rack installed so I could mount solar panels and a canopy. I had mentioned it when I took the trailer in in September to get some warranty work done on its axle. The service manager there, Tyson was super easy-going, yet inspired confidence. No ego, but you could tell he knew what he was doing, cared to do it right and cared for safety. It was a pleasantly different day for me since I had taken my bicycle with me so I could ride while waiting two hours for the work to be done. I met a fellow rider early one and he showed me a cool trail I hadn't ridden. I felt so strong after a trip out to Louisville, I made a side trip up to NCAR before crossing Boulder back to the shop. I showed up and got to chat with Tyson about the axle and a roof rack. Then we hitched up. Just as I was pulling out, he flagged me down because he wanted to check that the doors were locked, just to be thorough and safe. Not rigidly controlling kind of t...
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Axle Replacement

I drove to Boulder yesterday, 2021-09-21, to Colorado Teardrops for some service on the trailer. Apparently the 2000lb spindles on the axle it was built with either just have a problem, or the bigger wheels it was delivered with in combination with it have a problem. Regardless, they replace the axle and it came with 3500lb spindles and all should be good. We never got the old axle to 10k miles for bearing re-grease, but the clock starts over now.
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Wiring

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On the way back from Palisade last month, the wiring harness fell apart. Literally. The trailer has a 7-pin round connector, a serious connector with pins for power and breaks as well as running lights and blinker/brake lights. The car only has a flat 4-pin. The folks at the dealer were kind enough to set me up with an adapter. The adapter was a 7-pin round socket, not a wee butterfly of a bit of wiring with a 4-pin plug to match what we had on the car. There wasn't a clear protocol for wiring this thing up, so on the way back, most of the weight was accidentally left to hang from the 4-pin connector. It couldn't manage, so it disconnected, leaving the adapter to slide along the ground and eventually lose it's connection to the trailer's 7-pin round. I became aware of this when a passing motorist waved and tried to mouth some warning. We happened to be right by one of the exits in Eagle county with a Walmart. We pulled over and had a look. Upon discovering the situation...
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Tool Box, Canopy Shade

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I ordered and installed a toolbox I should have ordered with the trailer. After some of the hairy driving we've had, I'm paying more attention to tonuge weight. With the canopy placed across the top of the toolbox, no water in the tank and no bicycles out back, we're up to 170. 150 without the canopy. I think with 80-odd pounds of bike and rack in the back, given that they are closer to the axle than the toolbox, we should still have > 100 lbs tongue weight. This thing should pull just fine with a full load. The box itself was a story. The first one we got seems to had some rough times before making it to our house. The retailer took care of it rather quickly. No pictures of the canopy or the wall-shade we bought for it, but we got a wall for wind and sun protection for the canopy. I might order a second for some privacy on the side. Pix to come.
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Lynch Pins

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The trailer has some nifty heavy-duty, drawers in the galley. One is for the cooler so that it can slide out from underneath the counter. Another is for the stove. The slide nicely, and that's a problem while towing because they slide out into the hatch and ding it up. The dealer's solution was a pin to prevent the drawers from opening. The first problem is that the pins slide out. There is no mechanism for holding them in place. This is the pin that came with the trailer: There isn't anything to loop the ring around to keep the pin from slipping out. For the moment I have a small bungie cord to pull the pin in and keep it from slipping. I'd like to replace the pins with something like this, a locking pin. The other issue with the cooler and stove is that they need to be tied to the drawers, so even if the drawers don't move, the items don't fly off the drawer into the galley door. I use a strap for the cooler and a flat bungie for the stove. The Yet...
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Canopy Weights

We have an 8x8 canopy that's nice to have in the sunny West. It's a collapsable roof without tent walls. The structure is such that it can stand on four legs without guy ropes like a thing my parents had 50 years ago they called a dining fly. The dining fly had two ropes at each corner that attached to steaks in the ground. It took some work, and soft ground, to set up, but it never crossed anyone's mind that it might fly away. It was steaked down! Not so, the canopy. The wind will push it around. We had it up covering the galley in Palisade last week and it was the first time we left it up unattended. It comes with a sturdy bag you fill with water and hang from the middle  to weight it down. It works OK. There was a bit of a stiffer breeze overnight that would gently shake the teardrop. The canopy staid put, but had walked about 4 inches downwind by the end of the night. The next day, we went into town and checked out a small festival in downtown palisade. The night...
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Palisade, Front-Rear Weight Balance and Tongue Weight

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Palisade is a great place. Must return for more wine tasting tours and bike rides. Hot though. Wine in Palisade history The trailer sway story took an interesting turn on this trip. As is becoming usual, we noticed the trailer sway, but it was worse after getting better. This time we had two bikes on the back and the sway was pretty bad. It was bad enough that we stopped in Arvada to move the bikes, two this time, into the car from the hitch behind the trailer. The sway improved (reduced) tremendously. By some stroke of luck, Mandy noticed that we didn't have bikes on the last trip, and had two on this trip. Then she thought it seemed better when we moved the hitch into the car on the way home last time. It seems trailer sway is something you can  control. Some web searching revealed that trailer balance is a big deal and sway is the consequence. You want about a 45/55 split of weight between back and front. This translates into  10-15% of your trailer weigh...
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