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Date:         Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:58:38 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Westrailia update
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

My little camping trailer, a repainted model consisting of a fiberglass body atop a steel frame model which was made in 1972 by the Ladybug Trailer Co. in San Juan Capistrano (and about which I can find nothing other than a few corporate filings on the California Secretary of State's website), this little trailer suffered a fairly major breakdown on my last camping trip. Busted the tongue right off the frame.

My occasional blog mentions the breakdown:

<http://thatjacksblog.blogspot.com/>

My son kindly drove his 4WD Jeep up to the site to help paste the trailer back together so I could tow it back home when I left. He took most everything I didn't need back with him so I could and drive back with an empty trailer.

The splint he & I applied to the busted tongue worked, the trailer made its way back home, and he made me an offer: for his 26th birthday, I buy him a $100 Harbor Freight wire welder, and he'd put the trailer's frame back together.

Deal.

Bought him the welder and some steel bits from Bend Steel Co.; he provided the welding mask and better-quality wire (the stuff that ships with the welder is rubbish); and he used the trailer frame to learn how to use the welder.

He modified the frame to make it miles stronger than it was (once the body was off the flimsiness of the original frame was evident). Adding a 2'' x 3'' steel 11-gauge box channel spine from the hitch to the rear crossmember strengthens a frame remarkably. Several other bonds were broken, he strenthened them with 11 gauge bar stock. Had fun. The thing will outlast me.

I brought it back home last night, and today I put on a new wiring harness for the lights: I replaced the crappy Harbor Freight stud-mount lights fitted with incandescent bulbs in amazingly crappy sockets that I got ten years ago with far better Harbor Freight stud-mount lights with LED lamps that should last far longer.

This evening, he and I set the body atop the rebuilt frame, drilled new mounting holes, bolted the body down, and Hey Presto! the Westrailia is ready to rock.

Nice to have son who is handy, and will help the old man. A confluence of his birthday and Fathers Day.

So, Cosette, the cat, and I are going camping starting Friday and won't be back until Thursday. It's special spot I know at the base of Pine Mountain, Deschutes County, Oregon, with nary a soul within miles. No water, no accomodations. But beauty, quiet, and long, long days.

-- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott 1984 Westfalia, auto trans, Bend, Ore.


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