BigBlueBox: Teardrop Camping in the Southwest

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...

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.