It Seemed So Simple

Several years ago, when I bought the Dakota, I had Camping World set the truck up to be towed. Part of that package was a "BrakePro" auxiliary braking system. It uses pneumatic pressure to fire a piston against the brake pedal. Obviously, a compressor is required and it runs off the truck's battery. On my annual trips to South Padre Island it has never been a problem because I make the trip in a couple of days. However, last spring when Carol and I took eight days to make the same trip, the truck's battery shot craps about four days out. So it became necessary to find a way to keep the battery charged. Why CW didn't offer to do this I will never know.

In a conversation with the automotive specialist who takes care of the motor home and the truck, I asked how best to keep the battery charged. His recommendation was to run a charge line from the M/H to the truck. All he would need was a couple of hours with the truck to run the line. So we set the appointment. On the annointed day, I took in the truck and the M/H. Low and behold, while the M/H has a seven pin receptacle, only four of the pins were wired. That was the first kink. So he had to run 30 feet of wire to provide a charge line to the pin. Then, the truck had a four pin receptacle. Obviously, it would require a change. The order for the parts took another day. But wait, Christy had committed to help a friend move to USC this morning. So it worked like this: Tuesday morning the truck and M/H to the shop; at noon, the truck came home; the M/H returned home at 5:30; this morning, the truck, loaded with stuff went to USC and returned to the shop by 11:00; at 4:00, I picked up the truck, with new wiring at a cost of several hundred dollars. And it seemed so simple. But, it needed to be done so I just sucked it up and paid the bill. Looks like we won't be trading in the truck anytime soon.

All we have left to do with the M/H is to pack clothes and some food stuffs. I spent most of today cleaning and dusting the interior. I still need to check the tire pressure, but all else is good. We're counting down to Sunday morning.