Posted in: Bike Rack, Broken/Damanged Things, Newbie Mistakes

Let’s Not Move On A Wednesday Again

Moving day! The boys and I got a lot of the RV ready to move while Ben worked. When he was done we finished packing up and got on the road. We were still going to be in Colorado and it was going to be a pretty short drive to our next campground (just 1 1/2 hours).

There was a lot of construction on our way down. The RV park only had a back-in spot when we booked and I had called down a few days before to see if they had any pull-throughs available. They said they would see what they could do.

Unfortunately, our site was a back in. The plus was it was a little shaded! It’s been pretty warm and dry so far in Colorado (getting to 90 most days), so the shade was really nice. We had just enough room to put up Ben’s tent.

That was where the decent day ended.

The new bike rack made the turning tighter. I didn’t notice right away because I was paying attention to the RV back up camera and truck side view mirrors. I knew when to stop when it was just the RV and the truck, but hadn’t accounted for the bikes. I thought (stupidly) that they wouldn’t be in the way. The bolts on Will’s bikes tires ended up scratching the paint on the truck and the truck cap. It also made the rear wheel of Will’s bike now rub against the frame. There is no visible big bend in the wheel. We’re going to see if anyone can fix it, but it is the back wheel with the gears.

We have some extra paint for the truck, if I can find where we packed it, so I can help fix the truck and the cap.

Now the next part is not so easy to fix, nor do I have any idea of how it happened.

The rear passenger stabilizer arm bent. We didn’t have it down yet. We had leveled before putting the stabilizers down. I really can’t think of what we could have done to have caused this.

On the plus side, it’s nothing that is integral to the moving of the RV. (I don’t think.)

It was just not a good day and very stressful. Tempers were high and there was some arguing. Having loud neighbors up until long after quiet hours probably didn’t help anyone’s mood.

Posted in: Bike Rack, Costco

Bikes and A Rack

We didn’t really have a plan where to store the bikes when we bought them. The back bumper of the RV can only support 150 pounds. I was worried about being too close in weight with the combined weight of the bikes and a rack. We also did not have a rack attachment for the front of the truck.

Back bumper is welded on, so can only hold 150 lbs.

So far, Nick’s had been laying down in their room. Eventually we tried hooks to hang it off their bunks. That way did work, although we kept hitting our heads on the hooks when we went to get anything from the under bunk areas.

Will’s was wrapped in the outdoor rug and placed on the dinette once it was folded down for travel. (Which of course meant that everything was covered in a layer of dust/dirt when we unpacked again. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying.)

Once we got to a campground, we could chain them up outside, so it was a lot easier.

Ben saw a bike rack he thought would work while he was walking around the campground. It attached on the front of the RV, over the jack. After looking online, we found it at Camping World: the Jack-It Double Bike Rack. I checked online and it showed they had some in stock, so we headed over. Nope, they didn’t have any! The guy at the parts department told me to never trust the website, as it doesn’t update stock often. I called another Camping World to make sure they had it in stock and asked them to hold it for me (it was another 40 minute drive). They did hold it for me, and we also found a collapsible dish drying rack.

On our way back home, we stopped at Costco for some groceries and a pizza. Ben surprised me and bought me an electric bike for an early birthday present so I could ride with the boys, even if my ankle or knee are bothering me. The boys were very excited that I could ride bikes with them. Ben even took a ride on it.

Once home, we unpacked groceries and started to work on installing the bike rack. It took a little finagling to get it into place. To install it, we had to remove our electric jack. We then had to angle the Jack-It just the right way so we could slide the electric RV jack through the opening in the middle and not squish the jack’s electric cord.

We got it attached and arranged the bikes on it. We may have to play around with it a little more to get the bikes situated just right.

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