A Ride and a Party

As I mentioned in the last post, we towed the Honda CR-V home and dropped it off at the mechanic's for repairs this coming week.  (Hopefully).

Yesterday, I went with a neighborhood friend, Bob W. to meet another neighborhood friend, Jeremiah P.  We were going to ride the trails near Nederland, CO.  Bob drove in his new GMC truck with both our dual sports in the cargo bed.

Jeremiah P. with his truck transporting his new-to-him dirt bike would meet us in Nederland.  He'd brought it back from Wisconsin recently, having gotten it from his brother; and he was anxious to try it out.

We did about 20 miles of trail riding, some of it pretty technical.  In fact, we encountered what I'll call the "Hill of Death" early on in the ride.  Bob W. went first and made it up OK.  I went second but managed to drop/crash the TW200 about halfway up the rutted, sloping ad very rocky "trail".

Jeremiah, hit some sugar sand and went down near the bottom of the hill.  Once some bicyclists nearby helped me right my TW200 and point her uphill, I made it to where Bob W. had stopped to come help me.

I had my camera bag on my back, the camera came through unscathed and the UV filter did its job, protecting the lens:

We decided we better ride back down and rejoin Jeremiah.  After that it was about 18 more of rocky trail riding without things getting too technical.

We were done riding by 1PM and it would take us a bit over three hours to dive back down from the mountains and into the crowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area.

That evening, the neighborhood friends of Martha (called the BAGs: Bad Ass Girls) threw a small party to do a delayed birthday/retirement celebration for Martha.

Things went pretty typically for such gatherings until the "pie queen" showed up to both our surprise.  She sang three songs for Martha and left small pies to be consumed as dessert later that evening.

Not exactly within my comfort zone but it made Martha happy I think to enjoy this time with her friends.  

Dispersed Camping for "CR-V Towing Shakedown" trip. Towing the CR-V is fine, but found charging issues with it.

We drove out of the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area on Wednesday of this week.  We headed to the Vedauwoo Recreation Area's dispersed camping sites along FR700 in the Medicine Bow National Forest between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming....about three hours away.

We got us a nice set (#5) and settled in with no issues.  The CR-V towed fine, no issues starting after being towed.

The rest of Wednesday was spent relaxing/napping in our new gazebo.

Thursday's sunrise wasn't too bad, I missed the good stuff but caught the sun rising from the treeline.

Found the battery dead on the CR-V and I determined the tow brake cable had been left extended out enough to engage the brake lights.  Something to check I thought for future travels.  After I jump started it, we took the Honda CR-V we'd towed from home and checked out the area along FR700 to the junction with Happy Jack Road.  A bit of driving on Happy Jack Road saw us at a trailhead for some short distance hiking.

Returning to camp to rest and relax once again, the afternoon saw us in camp, doing not much of anything.  I did have one chore, re-installing the old Coulomb Volt/Amp Meter, as the one I'd put on last week was giving me bad readings.

A quick trip to Laramie, about 16 miles away, allowed me to return the faulty meter via Amazon, and for Martha to get some snacks and for us to get the CR-V's battery checked out at Advanced Auto Parts.  The test revealed a possible failing alternator, it showed barely 12.7 volts with the car running!

We returned to camp with no issues, and we drove the CR-V the few miles to the nearby Ames Monument.  We'd been there before with Scarlett, I must say it's much more comfy driving a cage though!  LINK

Martha's 2014 Honda CR-V seemed to be running fine and I was thinking that we'd schedule it for a mechanic's check up soon.

This morning, Friday, I went to check the wiring points on the alternator and didn't find anything loose.  I checked the battery's resting voltage (it'd sat all night) and was surprised to find it reading 15.5 volts!  WTH.  

OK, I thought, the cheapo multimeter I'd brought along had failed.  I went to check it by reading the voltage on both the RV's chassis battery and Yagi's battery, both reported expected voltages in the 12.x range.  So, my multimeter was OK.

Doing some troubleshooting with RichardM via text, I disconnected the positive terminal from the CR-V's battery and now it read 16+ volts!  WTH.

Tried draining the voltage some, at RichardM's recommendation, but running the headlights on High Beam and turning on the DRLs did nothing to lower the voltage readings.

Finally, I took a chance and started the car up.  Now the voltage reading on the battery was 27 volts.  Yes, 27 volts!  Way past the expected charging voltage of 14.5 volts from the alternator/voltage regulator!

Some communication with RichardM later, we decided to break camp and take the CR-V to our mechanic back home.

About an hour later, we'd taken down the gazebo and readied the VRRV for travel with the CR-V in tow.  We lost perhaps 30 minutes getting gas at a nearby gas station as I had to unhook the CR-V after not being able to make the U-turn needed to line the VRRV to the gas pump.  You can't back up when flat towing a car.

Still, in spite of that hassle, 3 hours after departing the campsite, we were in Parker, CO and dropping off the CR-V with the mechanic.  Hopefully, they'll be able to give the car a good look on Monday and see what's going on.

We go back out camping on Monday, Martha and I.  More to follow.

Learning about the Blue OX BX88100 Universal AutoStop Hitch Connector

Some background:  When we bought the '87 Suzuki Samurai, one of the things that made it so attractive to me was that it came with Blue Ox Aladdin Tow Bars (7500lb capacity), the Sammy had a tow plate installed on it and it also had a Brake Assist device, the BX88100, to engage the Sammy's brakes when the towing vehicle's brakes are engaged, this to help both vehicles stop quickly and smoothly.

However, the PO had told me he never used the brake assist as the Sammy was so light (2000lbs +).  I also ended up never using the brake assist with the Sammy and it all functioned as expected, no problems there.

Of course, now that the Sammy is history, it was time to outfit Martha's 2014 Honda CR-V for flat towing aka all four wheels on the ground.

This week we finally got serious about testing the towing of the CR-V with the VRRV.  Several test sessions resulted in serious doubts about the performance of the brake assist device!  The VRRV seems more than capable of stopping safely with the CR-V in tow so not a huge problem, but the law in most states says that towed vehicles weighing more than 3000 lbs must have brake assistance of some sort.  The Honda CR-V weighs about 3500 lbs!

Several consultations with the ever patient and knowledgeable RichardM, finally drove the concept of how the brake assist is supposed to function into my thick head.  I had it all wrong you see, I thought it was supposed to work one way but it turns out to be completely different.  So, not knowing, I didn't know what to look for during testing.

Just for your edification and mine:  here's a pic of the vehicles hooked together from a previous posting: LINK

In the pic above, the silver colored piece, located on the tow bar right below the orange sand ramps, is the Brake Assist aka AutoStop.

Concept of operation so that others don't have my mistaken beliefs re how this device works!

As the towing vehicle slows , the towed vehicle pushes on the tow bars because of its inertia, the tow bars push on the Brake Assist, which then is supposed to move forward slightly.  There's a spring inside you see, which compresses forward pushing on one of two sets of pulleys, which in turn as they rotate/move, pull back on the cable that's connected to the towed vehicle's brake pedal, actuating it, and causing the towed vehicles brakes to actuate proportionally, helping to slow things down.

As soon as the pressure stops and the towing vehicle moves forward again, inertia forces the auto stop's inner pulley components backward; which then release the cable amount they'd pulled in, which relieves the pulling pressure on the brake pedal's cable on the towed vehicle.  The towed vehicle's brakes are now off till the next stop.

Some thorough reading/studying of the BX88100's owners/service manual (with many patient answers and explanations from RichardM via phone/textig); finally allowed me to understand how to take it apart, service it and put it back together correctly!

Let's just say, I discovered whomever had last assembled the brake assist aka auto stop, didn't do it correctly and the pulley mechanisms were stuck/binding!

Here's a closer look at the Brake Assist device.  Note: the cable conduit shown below on drive's side of the device had been mistakenly mounted on the passenger side!

Here's how the pulley components came out, with the device oriented as shown above:

I eventually figured out, using the manual and RichardM's patient help, that the above components weren't in the right order. The cable anchor (rectangular piece on the right side pulley above) should have been on the opposite side!  

I also found part of the cable off the pulley, probably causing binding.  Also the dividers have to be oriented correctly as the sides aren't equal and will bind if forced in during assembly.

I did some cleanup of the components and managed to assemble things correctly.  RichardM had said it was a pretty simple device and I managed to overcome my doubts to find that he was, as usual, quite correct.

Below pics show correct orientation of the cable, pulleys and dividers.

The picture above shows the brake assist's body in the upside down position.  This is a key point in terms of orientation when assembling the pulley components and running the wire cable!

I got everything assembled with no real issues, verified the pulleys rotated freely  and then set up for a test.

As the VRRV was now in storage, I used the tow hitch on Martha's car as the anchor point.  I simulated the pushing forward by a towed vehicle using a ratchet strap.  In the video: you can see the brake assist device moving forward slightly as I apply pressure via the strap.  

I hope you also noticed the brake assist springing back slightly when I released the ratchet strap.  That's how it's supposed to work!  I'm pretty confident now that when we next do testing with the VRRV towing the CR-V, I'll get more dependable results!

More on this when we get a chance to do actual testing.

Update: August 2.

Another disassembly and  checking of the AutoStop was required.  I didn't put the primary pulley wheels on correctly it seems.  I also needed to check the cable routing and the installation of components was done under RichardM's watchful eye via Facetime courtesy of my loving wife and camera woman, Martha.

Subsequent checks showed a retraction of the cable of at least 3 inches when the AutoStop was actuated under pressure.  This is the desired effect.

Some more testing, adjusting of the brake cable link between the AutoStop and the CR-V's brake cable end (we're at 24.5" for now) resulted in successful tests.  The brake lights on the CR-V now come on when the VRRV brakes.  

I did have to add a small bungie (Rok strap) to pull back the brake pedal as there was some slight slack on the cable.  Just enough slack to keep the brake lights activated on the CR-V which of course isn't desired.

I think we're good for towing now.  I also added a small LED light bar that should show up on the VRRV's rear view camera.  When I see it shine, I know that the brakes on the CR-V are activating.  I did this by tapping into the blue wire at the connection to the brake sensor on the top of the brake pedal.

Boondocking along Rule Creek Road, Near Westcreek, CO

 I displaced yesterday to check out camping conditions in the area I'd reconned before.

I lucked out and grabbed one of the "prime" spots that are located in the first mile from the junction of Painted Rock Road and Rule Creek Rd.

Thunder Butte to the left of Uma

Uma with Devil's Head in the background

I'd spotted an interesting road in the distance, having noticed a small white square object.  I found the road, which is an OHV road, and found the object, a weather station.

Here's a view of Uma and my campsite from the weather station, with Pikes Peak in the background.

Here's the "white square" that lead to the finding of the weather station viewpoint:

Here's some pics take after the thunder storms which passed to the south of my campsite.  Got a bit of pea-sized hail, the winds weren't bad and the rain definitely made things noisy inside the VRRV!

Today, I made a run to nearby Woodland Park for some condiments for tonight's dinner.  Once I returned, I put stuff away and the spent about an hour or so on a slow pootle on FR 357 aka Rule Creek Road all the way till pavement started again that would lead to Divide, CO I believe.

The road was enjoyable in terms of technical riding, all of which was within my low ability levels!  Lots of puddles to dodge, one I couldn't dodge and resulted in getting my feet wet on the outbound ride, not so much on the inbound ride.

As I neared my campsite, got this nice view of Uma, again with Devil's Head in the background.

My view from under the deployed awning on the VRRV, now that things have warmed up again.

Dinner tonight was "Butter Steak", I call it that because the recipe which I found through Instagram calls for a half a stick of butter in the steak's cooking.  Yummy.

Pretty good sunset this Friday.  The weekenders have been arriving all afternoon, it should be interesting to see how crowded things get.  I know the southern end of Rule Creek Road was infested with campers this morning!