I really wanted to try and get everyone together last weekend but that just wasn't possible so it was all hands to the wheel this weekend, Sunday, first things first Dave, Steve and Al had to get into the storage depot but! the keypad entry has now been disabled and you can only gain entry with the correct key fob so...when I turned up they were all waiting very patiently outside.
We had a few jobs to do and the list kept getting longer and longer...as it does. So what we decided was that Dave was going to open up the trailer and clean the oily floor out, Steve was going to crack on with the dragster, fix the sump leak and, put the body panels and wheels back on while Al and me sorted the car out, Al was going to wire up the electric brake controller, then we were going to replace the tow hitch and start swapping over stuff from the truck to the trailer..simple yes...err no!
After we had checked the trailer lights all work once connected tot he Dodge Al set to work wiring up the trailer brake controller somewhere during this the doors were closed on the Dodge and my keys were in the ignitions and...yep it locked itself!!!!!, with no visible means of entry I borrowed Steve's car and left for home two hours there and two hours back with the spare key, however just as I was entering the M25 from the M1 I get a call telling me they have got in using a very well bent coat hanger...so turn off at the next available exit and back I go.
Not long after that Steve had managed to finish the car off so it was mobile again so we pulled the old truck forward so we could go through the unloading procedure one last time.
As you can probably see the weather wasn't actually playing ball with us it was wet and drizzly all day it fell a little harder at times. unloading the dragster from the old truck is at least a three man job two winches to operate and a large jack all his because of the very low ground clearance of the dragster. I wont be sad not to have to do this anymore. I reckoned it took us about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to get the car in and out of that truck which is why we were always the last to get packed up and leave a venue.
It was good to see the cause of my impending poverty on it's wheels again and looking as it if it is ready to go..which it is near as dam it. We then pulled the trailer out very carefully as we still had the wrong size tow hitch on and then we put the dragster into her new home.
We have a hydraulic jack on the front of the trailer which when raised we could just push the dragster in, so much easier and only a two man job and a lot quicker too.
Now obviously we don't have anywhere near the storage room in the trailer as we did have in the truck so we have to be a bit ruthless in what we keep and what we will have to get rid of, life will be easier once this all sorted, I will be sad when the truck goes as she has been our garage / home for three years but we had to try and get the teams costs down.
The picture above shows our only real problem, the tow hitch, it isn't the right size I have had to get a bigger one but, we can't get the old one out and boy did we try everything, of course with it we can't go anywhere so a call to John O'Sullivan and on Wednesday we hope this problem will be solved. We still have lots to do to both the trailer and the truck,I need to wire up some 240v lights in the trailer and maybe some cupboards for storage and I need a number plate for the back of the trailer I also need to wire up the hydraulic jack a bit more permanently than it is at the moment. The truck needs emptying of all crap that we wont be putting in the trailer and then cleaning her up a bit and I still have an annoying squeak on my Dodge grrrr!!!!!! The dragster still has to be run in and the axle needs running in properly, and we need to install the fuel puke tank and the trans brake cooler but this will not stop us running her so we can do all that stuff as we go along along with cleaning her up a bit.
It's nearly time to go racing in 2017 "bring it on"
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