Not in the Planning Stages Anymore!

So, it's official: We are no longer in the planning stages of our Tiny House Build! The first part of our actual build is complete: We've picked up our Trailer and SIPs and drove them back home! It's a long story, so I'll tell it in a few parts. First up is The Story of How We Got Our Trailer.

Sam signs the sales document, and the trailer is officially ours! 

Tuesday morning we woke up early to get our U-haul pickup truck from the rental location and drive it all the way our to Chambersburg, PA, where we would pick up our Tumbleweed Trailer. We arrived in Chambersburg late in the evening, checked into the hotel we had booked (about a mild away from the trailer dealership), and settled down for the night.

Wednesday morning we got up, helped ourselves to the complimentary hotel breakfast, and drove over to B-wise Trailers around 9 o'clock. It was my hope to  be on the road to Danville, VA (the place where our SIPs were made) with our trailer by 10, but that wasn't to be. When we got to B-wise trailers, we found to our dismay that the 4 Pin to 7 Blade adapter we had purchased to connect the U-haul's electrical system to the trailer's didn't work! This electrical system controlled the brake lights, turn signals and running lights on the trailer: without them, there was no way to to the trailer safely through traffic. (We also discovered that the truck we had rented wasn't wired to connect a trailer brake system- but our sales rep from B-wise said that there wasn't much we could do about it, and that if we drove slowly and carefully we'd be okay without them). So we had to get the lights fixed: even if by some miracle we didn't get into an accident, there's no way we could get to Virginia and back to New England without getting pulled over for not having working tail and brake lights.

Fortunately, a quick Google Maps search showed a nearby U-haul dealership, and so a few minutes later we were pulling into it's parking lot with defunct electrical adapter in hand. There was a middle aged man sitting behind the desk, with a well worn name badge identifying him as Lenard*. He had black and grey hair down to his shoulders and a rough southwestern drawl. He looked at me while I explained the problem we were having.

"Oh- I know what's wrong, alright," he said, reaching out to take hold of the wires protruding from our adapter. "You got to connect the ground to the frame of your truck, or else you don't get a complete circuit", he waved a white wire in the air in front of me. I signed with relief: that sounded like an easy fix.

"Can you help us do that, then?" I asked. Lenard looked at me seriously.

"So, are you askin' me to modify one of our vee-hickles which I am not s'posed to do?" Something about the way he spoke made the statement not quite a question.

"Oh- no, I don't want-" I started to backpedal. Lenard signed.

"Well let's go see what we can do," he interrupted, standing up from behind the desk and heading for the door.

It took Lenard about 15 minutes to get the ground wire secured to the frame of the truck.

"Now," he cautioned us, "be sure to take this out before you return the vee-hickle." Adding "and just between you, me, and the wall, even though you can tow your load without trailer brakes, if your trailer is rated to have 'em, and you get into an accident without 'em- you are lie-a-ble. Their lawyer will own you." And, with that ominous advice in our ears, we set out back to the trailer dealership.

Back at B-wise Trailers we found that Lenard had been right, and that with the ground wire in place the adapter did function. We had brake lights and turn signals on the trailer. We did not, however, have running lights and a quick investigation showed us it was in fact a problem with the U-haul's 4-Pin socket, not our adapter. This was both a relief and a worry: On the one hand, since it was a problem with the truck's electrical system, it was U-haul's responsibility to fix it and we wouldn't have to brake any rules to get it done. On the other hand, who knew how long it was going to take for U-haul to get the problem solved?

It was already 10:30, and Danville was a good 5 hours from Chambersburg. Even if we got on the road within the hour, we would still only get to Danville 30 minutes before the SIPs manufacturer closed at 5, and that just wouldn't be enough time to get the SIPs loaded onto the trailer. We would need to make some adjustments to our plans. While Sam called U-haul's Roadside Assistance number to find out what we should do, I called Jimmy, my contact at the SIP manufacturer, and told him that we wouldn't be able to make it today. Jimmy was extraordinarily nice, and said it would be no problem to meet us tomorrow instead.

It took Sam 30 minutes of navigating U-haul's automated Customer Service line to get on the phone with a real person, who told him to go to the nearest U-haul center, so at 11 o'clock we drove away from B-wise trailers for a second time, head back to Lenard and the U-haul center.

Lenard was as helpful with this problem as he was with the last. As we started to describe our trouble with the running lights, he broke into our story saying, "Oh- that's just a blown fuse. Lemme change it out for you. I'll charge it to the truck." It took him less time to change the fuse than it had to attach the ground wire, and in almost no time we were back on the road to B-wise trailers.

I smiled sheepishly at the woman behind the reception desk at the trailer dealership. "Third time's the charm," I said. She told me that Sean would be out with us momentarily. He was, and this time when we hooked up the trailer, all the lights worked. We firmly duct taped the adapter in place just beneath the truck's bumper and Sean went through the basics of how to hitch up a trailer, how to perform safety checks, and gave Sam lots of good driving advice.

It was around noon when we pulled out of B-Wise trailers for the final time, waving a goodbye to Sean as we left. It was too late to get to Danville, but fortunately, that wasn't going to be too much of a problem. We had planed to leave Danville around 5 that afternoon, and so had booked at room at a hotel Culpepper, VA which was about 3 hours north of Danville. As it turns out, Culpepper is about 2.5 hours southeast of Chambersburg, so we decided to just drive there from B-wise, extend our stay to include a second night, and we would drive from Culpepper to Danville and back the next day. With that plan in place, we drove to Culpepper, checked into our hotel room, and enjoyed a comfortable afternoon and evening there. The next morning, we would hit the road to Danvillle.



*This gentleman's name has been changed, however no other aspect of this story has been falsified.