Donna gets her cat

We're beginning to see the end of our 2018 fall service session.  It's been a long one as we got the trailer painted, and Donna got her cat as you can see here.  As I write this, the trailer is at Indiana Interstate Enterprises where some of the accessories removed for painting are being reinstalled, 4 new AGM batteries installed, holding tank valves are

replaced, and some troubleshooting to try to find a wayward ground fault is being done.  The trailer still remains winterized as the local weather is catching up to us.  Elkhart experiences it's first accumulation of snow this weekend.  Once, again, we've stayed north for too long! 

Our last appointment - we hope - is this coming Monday at MORryde where we

hope to have a new suspension installed. 

If you look closely at the third picture from the top, you can tell we don't have enough clearance between the bed rails and the "chin" of the trailer.  We've got about four inches of clearance at the tailgate.  Ideally, we should have five to seven inches between the bed rails and the "chin" of the trailer.  We had a new, taller hitch installed Monday evening at Dan's Hitch to get us that additional clearance.  Of course the trailer now travels too high in the front and we need that corrected so the trailer travels as level as possible for proper weight distribution over the trailer's axles.

Consequently, part of the plan with MORryde, besides the new suspension, is to add additional risers to help level the trailer when it's hitched to the truck, install new trailer steps that stow inside the door of the trailer, and put a storage box in the location where the old steps are stowed for travel.  As always that's the plan and may change depending on what really fits. 

Our plans to de-winterize the trailer here and ensure everything works before we leave have been destroyed with the weather predicted for this weekend and next week.  At one point, the Weather Channel was indicting the highs would not go above freezing until late next week.  That's changed a little, but we've realized that we need to just take our chances and head south as quickly as we can.  Hopefully, we'll be at Cave City, KY this time next week de-winterizing the trailer and fuzzing with appliances that don't want to work.  That's the new plan, anyway...until it changes!

Why get the trailer painted?  Our trailer's exterior was gel coat with painted graphics and decals for the large D & Mobile Suites emblems.  The gel coat was beginning to deteriorate and we could no longer make it look good and clean after washing.  The decals had faded.   DRV gave us (via Indiana Interstate Enterprises)  the proper paint color codes to match the 2011 Mobile Suites colors.  I wanted the trailer to look as original as possible  (being it's a 2011 model), but knew that was unlikely.  What you now see is a trailer painted by Mike's Custom Painting (Bremen, IN) with the 2011 Mobile Suites model colors.  The graphics are different, but give us the general appearance of a 2011 model trailer.  The emblems are now painted on (all in gold) and using the current DRV fonts.  The white is Mike's Custom Painting's basic white (Donna's choice) vice the white DRV recommended.  Luckily for us, no delamination was found.  That made the painting process go a little quicker and at a little lower cost.  For comparison, I've posted a few of the pictures of the trailer when it was new at the bottom of this post.  Take a look and see what ya think.  We think they did great job trying to make it look original!

OK, it's been a longer than usual post.  I'll let you go.  Thanks for dropping by and checking on us!  We're doing fine, and Donna can't wait to be back in her house.  She was excited just to tow the thing from Dan's Hitch in Elkhart over to Indiana Interstate Enterprises in Lagrange Monday evening in the dark.

Until next week, David