Besides “slaving” at the cottage for Sue and Paul, Dave and I have been shopping.
New truck, it’s a BIG one!
In early May, we bought a new to us monster truck! A 1 ton dually, Ford Lariat 350 diesel with full crew cab, long box. and 5th wheel trailer hitch already mounted. It’s loud but it’s a beast and can pull just about anything! Plus, it’s in excellent shape, looks sharp and gets better mileage than our old truck.
After looking at a number of trailers in Ontario and Michigan, we finally found one in Michigan that was in our price range and just about exactly what we were looking for. On June 22nd our new to us, 5th wheel, almost 40 ft long, Dutchman Victory Lane toy hauler was delivered to Sarnia! After traveling in the 18 and 25 ft trailers, this one feels like a mansion. Lots of room for all our stuff. Oh yeah, a toy hauler means the trailer includes a garage...ours is 10 ft long, big enough for the motorcycle, bikes etc.
Did all the paperwork to import it within a couple of days and then Dave and Ian drove it to Newmarket to park it at his brother’s place. Oh yeah, on that first drive, another flat....some things never change! Turns out only 2 of the 4 tires on the trailer were good enough for hauling a big load at higher speeds. Add the cost of 2 new tires to the expense of upgrading to a new trailer.
So right now, we’re in Newmarket doing trailer renovations. We knew when we bought it (it’s a 2005) we’d tear out the uncomfortable couch and dinette and replace them with a new residential couch with recliners on both ends. And the old carpet is out, new laminate flooring and carpet are in. Looks way better and much more comfortable.
Oh yeah, one other thing....believe it or not, in order to legally tow a trailer that weights over 10,000 lbs in Ontario, you have to get the same license (Class A) as a transport truck driver. But you end up with a restriction on it that says we can only tow an RV. Can you say government cash grab! It’s a fairly recent (within the past 5 years) change and lots of the “blue hair” gang with big trailers probably don’t even know they should have it, but, if you get into an accident without the proper license, insurance companies could refuse to cover you. So to be safe, we both did the written test in June and Dave just passed his road test on July 13. I won’t be going for my road test until I get a lot more practice in.
We figure we’ll be another week or so in Newmarket getting the trailer in shape for travel and then head up to North Bay and then Ottawa area to visit family. After that, we don’t have any specific plans...keep you posted.
Check out the new truck and trailer pics!