Last Day of Boondocking at Penrose Commons BLM

Not as hot a day as yesterday thankfully.

Still, clear skies and blazing hot sun.  Martha came out to join me after lunch and there was a nice breeze coming into the RV that didn't cause the awning to vibrate too badly.

I woke to see a SUV camper at the site near the road junction.  Didn't think much of it at the time though it was in bad shape and stuff seemingly strewn around to make sleeping room available.  Later that afternoon, after Martha had joined me, the "Dad" sent his 11-12 year old son to ask if we had spare water and perhaps tools to help fix their generator.

Martha and I went over, and began to get bad vibes about the "dad" and what he was actually seeking to do.  Wanted to borrow my tools to "fix" a generator that he told me he'd accidentally let run dry of oil.  He wasn't exactly presenting a great first impression, shall I say, a bit sketchy.

We'd brought a five gallon jug of water over with us, and at least the kid seemed appreciative.  We'd already given him two small bottles of water from the fridge beforehand.

Told the guy that I was willing to lend him my tools but I needed to stay with them....at this point he said he was very tired and might do it tomorrow.  Hmmm.

So we spent perhaps three hours in the RV, relaxing, I go back and tell him why not work on the generator now as I was leaving in the morning.  The guy said, through his son, that he was too tired and perhaps we could just "lend" them $10-$20 to buy some tools tomorrow.

I went back to the RV to discuss things with Martha....not too much later, the kid is sent over asking if we'd made a decision re the money; and did we have any extra food.

The kid didn't looked starved, but apparently the food choices available to him weren't "varied".  So we gave him some foodstuff and told him we'd give them some money on the way out.

We packed up, just getting too many weird vibes about them, and in under an hour everything was ready to go.  Martha gave the kid some money as we went by their campsite and she could smell pot coming out of the SUV....the "dad" didn't even bother coming out.  He apparently was too busy toking up in the SUV, a very sad situation.

So, the whole trip ended in kind of a negative experience.  Feel sorry for the kid, who's apparently the mature one in that relationship.  I hope things turn out well for the kid anyways, we just couldn't see spending the night there.

So, we saw the dark side of boondocking perhaps, perhaps I'm just too paranoid and there wasn't any bad intentions on their part, but I didn't want to take the chance.

Missed an awesome sunset as I drove the RV up the I-25 corridor back to the Denver Metro area and home.  Martha and I got home safely and with no issues.

Update:

Forgot to mention, moving the spare tire closer to the rail resulted in better ratchet strap angles.  No more broken straps and Yagi was held steady all the way home.

Boondocking at Penrose BLM, Day 2

Not much to report, besides a beastly hot day, I think the high was 93F and clear skies mean blazing hot sun.

So, not very long rides today.  Did ride both motorcycles.  Yagi took me around the back trails with ease; Scarlett took me on some of the same trails but with a much less comfortable ride!  I'd forgotten how rough the ride of a Ural Sidecar Rig can be on rough terrain! 

Or perhaps I need new shocks on Scarlett. 

Rode Yagi to the reservoir where I watched the three fishermen move about the lake trying to catch fish in the blazing hot sun.  I didn't see any of them pull in any fish by the way.

Rest of the day was working and trying to keep cool in the shaded areas of the RV and under the awning whenever the winds didn't threaten to rip the awning off!  I ended up rolling out and retracting the awning several times, no sense taking chances.

There was a dearth of pictures, either flat lighting or the boring landscape of this particular bit of BLM land.

Even the sunset proved even more "meh" than last night's sunset!  However, a little distance and some nice coloration in "sunset mode" highlighted the nearby mountains nicely I thought.

Testing the moto carrier on trailer with Boondocking in Penrose

Drove out with Uma the URRV towing both Scarlett, my 2014 Patrol sidecar rig and Yagi, the 2006 Yamaha TW200 on the trailer.

About a two hour ride to Penrose, CO where there's a BLM area I like to boondock in.  The ride down is mostly on Interstate 25 and the trailer was rock steady at her normal cruising speed of 60 mph, with no change when I tried 70 mph for a little bit.

So, how does it tow with both motorcycles onboard?  Just fine.

Got to the Penrose BLM and went slowly on the rough and rocky road that leads to my usual campsite.  Once I stopped, I noticed that Yagi was leaning towards Scarlett.  Hmmm.

The starboard side (right side) ratchet strap had

broken!  Looks like it was worn through by the edge

of the mount for the front fender.  Dammit.

Still, while I'm not sure how long the strap had been broken, Yagi had just basically been leaning into Scarlett's chrome guard on the front fender....and the result was a small abrasion spot on the left fork tube.  No big deal, and am happy that I had installed a "safety strap" that pulled Yagi towards the rear of the trailer!

I later moved the spare tire mount closer to the trailer and will use the hub as anchor points when next I load Yagi back onto the moto carrier, see how that goes.  Otherwise, the straps on the wheels and left side held up just fine.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working, watching a storm come in and dump a little bit of rain on us.

The storm didn't last long but did go a long ways to cooling things down, the thermometer in the URRV registered 93°F (33.8°C) as today's high temperature!  It was definitely warm.

The skies remained partly cloudy the rest of the afternoon and not too hot:

Penrose BLM must lie along some training course for local military aircraft.  I saw this C-130 flying the same pattern overhead for perhaps an hour.

Later on, an Army Apache Helicopter flew overhead but I didn't get a picture of it.  It also repeated a pattern about three times before flying away for good.

Tonight's sunset was "meh", but here you go.

So, a pretty successful test of the installation of the moto carrier from HF.  Found nothing loose (besides the broken ratchet strap), no cracks in the metal parts and all fasteners were tight.

It was way too hot when I had the opportunity to ride either of the motorcycles, perhaps tomorrow morning before things heat up too much.

Installing HF Moto Carrier onto the Aluma Trailer

July 4:

Using a 25% off coupon, Martha and I went to the Harbor Freight store to pick up one of these:

source: Harbor Freight

Haulmaster Motorcycle Carrier

When they first came out, some reviewers made sure folks knew the mounting plates were "not great", lots of breakage apparently.  They now come with a set of steel mounting plates, one welded to the carrier and one to the tow hitch assembly.

I won't be using the tow hitch assembly, just the carrier and associated hardware.  It's got a 400 lb capacity so the sub-300 lb weight of the TW200 should be fine.

The front tire will sink into the opening as shown in the above pic and be secured somewhat by tire clamp hardware..  Yagi's rear tire is too wide and will require a separate strap to secure it to the rack.

The carrier rack is as wide as the outer edge of the trailer's fenders.  I'll be using hardware brackets that came with the system for tie town points and instead use them to secure the rack to the small wall at the forward edge of the trailer's cargo area.  This to help support the ends AND prevent lateral movement of the U-Bolts.

July 6

Got the U-Bolts I needed Saturday, installation was pretty straight forward but I ended up using only 2 of the 3 U-Bolts for now, the installation is pretty tight and when I shake it, the trailer shakes too.

I'm not sure adding a third U-Bolt will buy me anything.

Wood spacer to eliminate spacing between U-Bolts

and the trailer tongue assembly.

Above is one of the two brackets I'll use to prevent both

upward and downward movement of the ends of the carrier rack.

Miles provided a safety as we figured out how hard it was to load Yagi onto the carrier by myself, using the engine to move the motorcycle up the ramp:

July 7

Sunday, retrieved the RV from the storage yard and tested clearances with the TW200 and Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol loaded onto the trailer.

The spare tire should contact the rear bumper of the RV before the carrier rack or the handlebar ends contact the side of the RV.

Then it was time to test how much weight was on the tongue of the trailer.  Used the bathroom scale method with the trailer loaded as shown below:

We got 268 lbs on the trailer's tongue, which works out 15.9% of the GTW or Gross Trailer Weight capacity.  The specification on the tongue says 15%, so I think we're OK on that.  It's best to have be heavier than lighter when it comes to the trailer tongue.

I'll have to go to a truck scale to be sure but am estimating a combined weight of 1100 lbs by Yagi and Scarlett.  So still have over 500 lbs additional capacity for the wood levelers (they were part of the platform for the bathroom scale, a five gallon gas can and the usual gear carried on both motorcycles.

Still experimenting with ratchet strap setups for Yagi, It'll probably end up being three straps:  One on each side, putting pressure on the triple tree and one final one attached to Scarlett as a safety.  I'd rather she fall towards the rig and cargo area rather than forward onto the tongue!

Note: With both vehicles onboard, I can no longer lift the tongue without the aid of the support wheel assembly!

Need to purchase smaller straps to secure Yagi's wheels to the rack, for extra security.

Carrying both motorcycles now means I've options on the longer camping trips but it also means an end to easy loading and unloading of Yagi.....When the Ural rig is present, I must move it back enough to be able to walk the T-Dub off its carrier! 

UPDATE:  Aluminum proved not strong enough, cracks were caused by oscillation induced by extending the trailer tongue and placing the TW's weight where it shows above.  I've since removed the front rack.