Dr.Gerg.com Things That Work

Shakedown for The Bug

We traveled to Mississippi and did an overnighter at a KOA campground 150 miles away. It was a good test of The Bug's systems.

The Bug Proves Its Metal

This project has FINALLY reached its end. We just wrapped up a 300 mile round-trip overnight shakedown test of The Bug and all associated systems. It was an unqualified success. I say unqualified with the understanding that no first-use of anything as complex as The Bug is going to happen without some small punch-list being developed in the process. The items on our list are so small as to be hardly worth mentioning. A couple of mods in mounting choices, relocating a thing or two for convenience, and the addition of a few small pieces of equipment pretty much sum it up.

Two Short Lists of Interest

There are a few things that I did during the course of this project that I'm particularly proud of. They are:
    - Revitalizing an old trailer for a new purpose.
    - Designing for full independence. Self-sufficiency for a minimum of two days.
    - The sliding mounts for the refrigerator and our Pelican luggage cases.
    - The skeletal open-frame design. Saves cost as well as weight.
    - The all-thread/unistrut/wood solution for tank hanging. I believe it's the best I've seen DIY.
    - The "main switch by door, independent zone switches" lighting methodology.
    - The use of an inexpensive window unit for air conditioning in a stealth design.

There are also a few things that will be done in the near future to enhance the project. They are:
    - Build a folding table so the stove can be used just outside the side door. Always part of the plan, just not done yet.
    - Add a hide-away mounted 24-27" monitor under the top Pelican luggage slide. I have a plan for that.
    - Finish and install my Pi-based environmental sensors / MPD music daemon / MQTT broker/client / local web server.
    - Build a hard mount to replace the straps currently holding the Bluetti down.

The project has been a lot of hard work, but wow, what a great result. It's been a blast!

The Full Report

We left home in the early afternoon on Friday. Getting the house ready for three unmonitored cats took more time than prepping The Bug. We got everything stocked up, hooked up, and locked up and hit the road.

Pulling a 7x14 foot cargo trailer is no real challenge. The weight behind the truck is noticable, but not worrisome. The weather was nice, traffic was light. It was a good time for the test run.

We stopped at Love's in Loxley, Alabama for fuel. I did a quick visual check as always at any stop, and all was in order.

Next is the I-10 bridge over Mobile Bay followed by the George C. Wallace Tunnel under the Mobile River. Both completely uneventful. That is wonderful and as it should be.

Alabama gives way to Mississippi, and before too many miles had passed we got a little wake-up call.

Let me mention here The Bug was born a cargo trailer. There are no shock absorbers. Normally that is just fine. In this moment, however, they would have been nice to have.

There is a bridge with an obsoleted poured concrete design. This design had been replaced nearly everywhere. It had not been replaced here, and when we started across it at 70mph, it let us know it was there. The undulations in the surface of the roadbed set up a harmonic dissonance between the axles of the truck, the hitch point, and the trailer axles. The whole package started bucking like a rodeo mustang until I tapped the brakes to slow us down.

At one point I glanced in the rear-view mirror and watched the 4,500 pound Bug leap up into the air behind us. It was a sobering moment. We survived, but not without a moment of increased heart rate. We both thought it will be interesting to see how the contents of the trailer rode that out.

The remainder of the trip was pretty calm following that ten seconds of terror. The pickup pulled well as always. It is a 2005 F150 with a 4.6 liter V8. It came with the factory towing package which is very good. It is rated to pull around 6,700 lbs of trailer, so The Bug is well within spec.

Over the years I've been asked several times why I don't use anti-sway bars with this trailer. The answer is, in my experience, if you load your trailer right, you don't need swaybars. Keep your load as low as possible, as balanced port to starboard as possible, and keep the fore/aft balance just slightly nose-heavy. The tongue should weigh 9 to 14 percent of the trailer's weight. Using this scale, I determined The Bug's tongue weighed right at 440 lbs which is perfectly within that range. When I follow those rules, I have no issues. Years ago, before I understood those rules, I did have a problem. After that experience, I learned the rules.

We arrived at the KOA on schedule and unscathed.

The KOA.
The campground. Typically nice KOA. (The pic is from the camp's website, we both failed to take one.) In the foreground is a pull-through spot with an all-concrete slab. I chose a back-in spot with gravel. It was perfect.

We backed into our spot, unhooked and leveled The Bug, hooked up shore power, and we were set. We opted to not hook up city water or septic dump hose. We already knew those systems were good, and we were just going to be here one night, so that was unnecessary. I will empty the tanks when I get back home, which is easy to do at my place. The real test is doing the whole stay with the water in our tank (about half full). That was something we had not tried before.

I did a thorough visual inspection of everything. All of the parts I had installed on the exterior and underside appeared to be exactly where I left them.

I used my new ladder, another Amazon purchase, to check the things on the roof. The solar panels and vent cover were all nice and solid. The ladder is fantastic. Well worth every penny. (Again, I get nothing from Amazon. That's just a convenience link for you.)

It's not very exciting to write that there were no surprises. But that's the truth. We cooked and ate. We cleaned up and stowed away following dinner. We showered, set up our bedding and we slept. I did have to get up and adjust the thermostat so the air conditioner would come on. Once that was done all was well.

I was a bit concerned the noise from our water pump might be too loud outside, but after checking that I decided the noise from trucks on the highway nearby was louder than the pump. The pump cycles on briefly when you use water. Sometimes that happens in the early morning hours. I had already determined our air conditioner was really quiet both inside and out. Concerns assuaged.

On Saturday morning we woke and went about our business as usual. Coffee, breakfast cooked in The Bug, cleanup and stow, brush teeth, wash hair and we were ready to attend the birthday party that brought us here in the first place.