The plan was to hit the road Tuesday morning, heading north to Sacramento. But on Friday when I was in having the brake pads on the front axle of the 5th wheel replaced, the controller would not work correctly with the braking system. Argh!!
After working for a couple of hours trying to understand what was wrong, Scott of Precision Brakes sent us over to see Gary at Western Mufflers (also does brake controllers and such). Gary pointed out that the cable and connectors between the truck and trailer were obsolete, and my existing brake controller was not designed to handle electric-controlled disk brakes, so he replaced them.
But when Gary hooked up to make them work together, they didn't. After checking he determined that the truck was sending the right signal, but the trailer was not receiving such. Manual manipulation indicated that the brake system on the trailer was working properly, but there was a failure to communicate. It was raining, and the time was approaching 5pm, so we left the trailer in their lot with the understanding they would take up the problem Monday morning.
Monday was a Board meeting that lasted until after 12noon, and then Alice and I headed in to town. We took the documentation on the braking system to Gary, and he worked on the problem during the afternoon. It is now Monday evening. He did not solve the problem, so we will continue Tuesday morning.
We now have plan A & B that did not come to fruition, and have worked out through plans P & Q. We might have to drive to Sacto in our truck sans trailer and stay with Deb and Paula until the time for the train. Hope that is not the case, but it may be what is required. It is called going with the flow.
So we hope to get back on the road with the trailer, but at least we have a back-up plan. Always good to have an alternative to cope with adversity, especially with the RV lifestyle.
sam
