theboondork's RV blog

A mundane day

10/21/2017

Las Vegas, New Mexico is situated between the mountains and the plains. So if you look to the east. This is pretty much what you see

Not much going on today, I went to Walmart this morning and bought a few groceries. I'm slowly stocking back up on groceries since I was eating at my daughter's house most of the time while I was in Denver I let my grocery supplies dwindle down to almost nothing. But now that I'm having to feed myself again. I have to stock back up on things that I know how to cook, like popcorn and Campbell's Soup.

It was supposed to be kind of cold today so I was prepared with my electric heater going and my insulated flannel shirt hanging nearby, I was ready for anything... Except of course 65 degree weather, which is what it happens to be this afternoon.

I'm always utterly amazed at how the "climate scientist" can predict the temperature of the earth to the 10th of a degree 50 years from now and then miss today's temperature by at least 20 degrees.

theboondork

The view is a lot better when you're looking West

8 Comments

10/21/2017 06:32:25 pm

Hey Tom. I hear ya on the temperature predictions. It does seem like they never get the wind speed wrong though.

I've been reading your posts on the Anderson hitch. Do you have any issues hooking up by yourself? That is my only concern.

Good to see you are doing well!

Ed

theboondork

10/21/2017 07:12:49 pm

Thank you Ed. The biggest thing about hooking up the Andersen hitch is since it's a ball it has to be lined up fore and aft, and side to side. Whereas the regular fifth wheel hitch only has to be lined up side to side, the fore and aft takes care of itself.

I put some white tape on my trailer pin box and on the truck box a long time ago and this helped me line up my regular hitch side to side without any problems. So when I got the Andersen hitch the tape helped me line it up side to side so that wasn't a problem at all, but the fore and aft was a little tricky.

Before I go any further, let me remind you if you didn't read about it in my blog before, that I have a storage box that I built to go in the front of the bed of my truck and when I'm backing under the hitch, the storage box blocks my view of the hitch. So if you don't have a box or an extra gas tank or something like that in the front of the bed, you will probably be able see the hitch and be able to line it up without any problems.

But doing it by myself I would have to get out of my truck once or twice to see what my fore and aft alignment was before I would get it just right. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be a couple of inches from centered in any direction.

More out of laziness than difficulty I had a little wireless camera laying around and I put it in the bed of the truck and it shows me what's going on back there on the screen of my GPS. So now don't have to get out of the truck.

So the short answer to your question is, yes you can easily hook it up by yourself. And even if you have to get out of the truck once or twice to see where the hitch is, this hitch is well worth the effort.

Tom

10/21/2017 07:47:49 pm

Thanks Tom! Great explanation. I've heard a lot of good things about the hitch and am thinking about making the swap.

As always, thanks for all the great pics and articles. I never get tired of reading about your adventures. My Fox is now winterized and I am very sadened about the winter that lies ahead. A few more years and I won't have to worry about winterizing ever again. Until then, I will keep watching and learning from your experiences.

Happy and safe travels my friend!

Ed

10/21/2017 08:33:17 pm

Thank you very much Ed, I appreciate that. I just can't say enough good stuff about the Andersen hitch, you being used to a regular hitch you won't believe how smooth the trailer pulls with this hitch, and the feeling of security I get knowing it will take a catastrophic failure to lose that trailer and not just one small broken part that you can't even tell is broken in less you take the hitch apart, is worth the price of the hitch to me.

Oh, and I haven't winterized since I went full-time two years ago, eat your heart out.

Just hang in there, keep preparing, never lose sight of your goal, and one day the cold weather will just be a sign that it's time to head South.

Tom

Barney Ward

10/21/2017 07:41:06 pm

I really doubt that the anderson hitch is any were near the pain my travel trailer hitch is for getting the ball and coupler lined up. Before this truck with the rear view camera that sees the hitch ball, everything was totally blind hidden by the camper shell and truck bed. It usually took me a good 3 or 4 minutes to get the alignment good enough to drop the coupler on the ball.

10/21/2017 08:08:23 pm

I know that's a fact, I've never hitched up a travel trailer but I've hitched up many a boat trailer and motorcycle trailer, and I know you can't see a thing. The motorcycle trailers aren't too bad because you can move them around a little bit to line them up but you've got to back under the boat trailer just perfect. But with a boat trailer you've almost always got somebody with you that can guide you back.

I don't know how you did it for all those years. I think I would've given up and bought a fifth wheel or a seeing-eye dog or something.

Tom

Vall & Mo link

10/22/2017 12:14:21 am

Hi Tom and Ed,

We aren't "climate scientists" ourselves, but Vall was once interested in meteorology and studied the subject a little on his own.

The fact is that it's much easier to predict the behavior of climate at large (ie, the whole planet) 50 or even 100 or more years from now, than to predict the weather tomorrow at a certain city or region.

This happens because the models used for those at-large predictions are statistically based, and as in all statistics, when you look at a large enough data set the individual differences "average out" and the result is a very precise agreement between prediction and reality.

It's like predicting whether any of us will die tomorrow: it's basically impossible. But it's very easy to predict, within an entire population and a large enough time interval, how many of a certain age will die; that's actuarial statistics and exactly how insurance companies make money.

The same happens in other fields: it's impossible to predict the behavior of a single electron in the next femtosecond, but when you consider zillions of them (as in any electric/electronic circuit) over relatively large intervals, they become very predictable and we get generators, electric motors, radios, TVs, etc.

And Tom, thanks for the great description of the alignment process with the Andersen, it really helps us visualize how out would work for us.

Cheers,
--
Vall & Mo.

10/22/2017 10:35:52 am

Thank you very much for that information, I've never trusted weathermen and now I have a scientific reason to back up my beliefs... But I'm still out four bucks a day I paid to stay warm when it's 70 degrees outside.

Tom

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A mundane day

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