Saturday, September 10, 2011

GETTING THE HONDA INTO TOW MODE

Tuesday, September 6 – Paul took the CRV to Summit Trailer Sales & Service today to have a hitch installed on the back for his bike rack. They did a super job....it looks really nice.

It's a little scary to take a brand new car into the shop and have a multitude of towing equipment installed. Hope it doesn't come out looking like a tank....LOL This is the same welding shop that installed the equipment on our Jeep Liberty over two years ago, so Paul's confident they'll do quality work.

Thursday, September 8 – Today we get the Air Force 1 braking system and Blue Ox tow bar re-installed on our Honda CRV. It will take all day today and a half day on Friday to complete the installation. Most of the tow bar installation is new equipment because taking it off the Jeep, our former toad, would be more expensive than simply buying new. It would also leave the Jeep fairly unsightly for a future buyer.

This installation is being completed by Summit Trailer Sales & Service the company that did the trailer hitch on Tuesday, and the same company that installed the equipment on our Jeep Liberty two years ago.

We closed up the motor home around 3 p.m. and drove up to Summit Trailer in Akron, about a 20 mile drive. We're spending the night in their parking lot so we'll be here and ready to go first thing in the morning. We won't wake up the neighbors by being parked in Marsha's brothers driveway and won't have to battle rush hour traffic driving up here in the morning. We have electric so we should be quite comfy for the night.

in-parking-lot

Friday, September 9 – We were ready to pull into the shop here at Summit Trailer Sales & Service first thing in the morning.

parked-next-to-bldg

The Honda installation is complete and looks great.

tow-equipment

The guys made the final connections to the MH electrical system. Poor Rick had the job of installing a LED light under the dash that comes on when the Air Force 1 system activates the Honda brakes.

rick-under-dash

That way you know it's working and also know if the toads brakes would lock-up for some unknown reason.  This is a new addition…we didn't have this light before…..nice!

brake-light-on-dash

When hooking the CRV up for towing, the last step is to pull Fuse 34. Instead of pulling this fuse each time, we had them install a switch that automatically turns the fuse off.  With the switch off, we don't have to worry about a dead battery when we arrive at our new destination.

fuse-lever

The technicians walked us through the new hookup procedure for the Honda. We were ready to pull-out and head back to Canton and Marsha's brothers driveway for the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!