Husband is at it Again

Husband decided to give me an early birthday present last night (my birthday isn't for several months). Since the trailer is coming home this weekend for a couple upgrades and checks, he decided to go all out and give the truck some upgrades so the trailer can have even better upgrades!

On the list:

• New radio for the truck. "Radio" doesn't even begin to cover the all-encompassing magic box that will be going into the cab. It's one of those new fancy things with a screen and GPS and it's basically an Android tablet. I can download my Audible app right to it, connect to Wifi (or add it to my phone bill so it gets it's own service), and download all of my books to an SD card (it takes up to a 32GB SD card), and have all my books ready to go! If I buy it a data plan (I'm not), it can be a mobile hotspot and project Wifi to everyone in the truck. It also will serve as the screen for my trailer cams and new back up cams! Another perk: it has a working CD/DVD player. The CD player in Atticus (the truck's name, see Iron Druid Chronicles, pretty much my favorite book series) has never worked and I have a ton of CDs that need playing! DVDs not so much, but that could be fun if we ever just want to sit in the truck at a horse show and watch a movie out of boredom.

Just finishing buying Atticus, December 4, 2014!

• Back up cameras! Ok, so these are more of a luxury than anything. One will go in the back of the truck so I can see my hitch to hook up (I'm not terrible at hooking up, it only takes a few minutes but the last few inches always annoy me and are the worst), and then another will go on the back of my trailer. The trailer back up camera is more important- we spend a lot of time backing up in the pitch black darkness (the new cameras have night vision). He's also going to change the wiring a bit so we can flip flop between all four cameras (truck, trailer, horse 1, horse 2) while the truck is in forward motion. Back up cameras only work while the truck is in reverse, so this way I can see just how close that guy behind me is tailgating my trailer. We had joked before that he should put a marquee thing back there and in the cab we'll have a control box with pre-programmed messages that say flash things like "Thank you for keeping back." and "No tailgating." and some that are just middle fingers and other crude sayings that encourage a car to stop tailgating. Maybe he should tack one of those on too, hehe!

• New cable for horse cams. Since there's going to be a back up cam on the trailer, Husband is redoing all of the wiring for the horse camera's too since he has to run cable for the new camera. Right now, there's an Ethernet cable in the cab that plugs into the screen, runs between the seats, goes out the back passenger door, jumps into the bed, and pops out under the tailgate to plug into another Ethernet cable that feeds through the trailer. Basically, it's a phone jack on the bumper. Now it's going to be a properly-bolted-to-the-frame 6 pin trailer plug with a properly run cable under the truck into the back of the new radio in the cab. With the new radio, I'll be able to watch both horse cams at the same time.

The old screen. I love my trailer cams.

• Wheel well lights. Trailer will get one orange tag light on each wheel well so we can see it a bit better in the dark when parking.

• Flood lights. Each side of the trailer will get a backwards facing light to help us see when backing up in the darkness. I have a flood light already that points at the ramp for loading in the dark, and that one is going to be replaced with a better quality (and matching) light.

• Hook up light. Are you seeing a pattern? We do A LOT of hooking up, unhooking, and backing up in the dark, and I've done a fair bit of it by myself without any help. Side effect of doing winter hauling, evening hauling to clinics, and long distance hauling. Husband is going to put another flood light pointed down at the ball and hitch. We've tried turning on Atticus's cargo light, but the tailgate stops that light from working well. And putting the tailgate down is not an option otherwise we can't crank the trailer jack!

This is the only picture I could find on my blog the included the trailer.
Facebook mobile isn't helping me find the picture I posted on purchase day, November 5, 2011.

• Charge the big batteries. My trailer has a custom oak box in the tack room that holds two regular truck batteries. They create an electric current like what's in your house. Husband set that up so the trailer would have proper lighting- he bought steel cages for the curly cue energy saver light bulbs and then popped one in the tack room and two in the horse area. These make it like daytime in the trailer! Anyway, the batteries need to be charged a couple times per year, and with winter hitting, they're low and the cold could permanently damage the batteries (they were free to us from his parents, but it's over $200 to replace them).

• Charge the trailer battery. The battery on the tongue of the trailer that controls the wee lights and brake box has never charged well- it always seems low. It always passes its yearly inspection, but the mechanic suggested we take it home and charge it to see if it holds the charge. I don't run my truck and trailer often enough for long enough to keep it charged. If it doesn't hold the charge, I'll go out and get a new one because the brake box emergency battery needs to work well!

• Check the spare tire. This is a winter job because the spare tire has a cover and I was afraid bees were living in it (no proof of this) and I would get stung if I did this in summer.

• Add air to all five tires. Because this is something that should always be done!

I think that's the whole list. He kept rattling things off of how things work and I'm like, whoa, so much stuff! I really don't know what I would do without him. He can fix anything mechanical- cars, trucks, tractors. He's done a ton of work with house and vehicle electric (he did all of the wiring for a friend's barn, rewired a ton of stuff in our house, rewired my entire trailer, and wrote/created the program and parts for a custom tail light display for his Camaro so the tail lights blink like a Mustang's). Working for a family hardware store taught him how to haul anything big or small since they also did construction equipment rentals. He can do any kind of home repair/building except putting in a foundation and advanced masonry (he knew enough to do a short term fix to our chimney bricks). He can weld, fold a fitted sheet, and cook. I'm very lucky to have him!

I'll be bringing the trailer home tonight (hooking up in the dark for the last time!), and it will hopefully go back to the barn by 1/17. I think our neighbors will be very unhappy if it lingers for longer. When it's all done, I'll make sure to take a picture of it lite up like a Christmas tree!