Leslie and David's Wanderings: 19 September 2024 Loveland to Colorado Springs CO

The new hitch took a few tries to get it lined up properly, but we loved the way it automatically locked when the king pin slid in correctly. We ran our safety checks and all looked good. We headed through the RV park to get to the back entrance. When we went over a speed bump with the trailer there was a loud bang! We immediately stopped, which caused another loud bang. We got out and inspected the hitch and could see nothing wrong. We called Lazy Days RV and told them what was happening. They had no explanation but agreed to look at it if we stopped by. As long as we started and stopped gently there was no noise. We pulled up to the Lazy Days RV Service center and as we rolled up, several technicians came out. When we braked it of course made the loud bang. Don, one of the smaller guys climbed in the back and had us drive around the service area parking lot while he watched the hitch. He could see a portion of the head attachment (“the saddle”) moving when it banged. So, we pulled around to a parking area and disconnected the Wanderer. We pulled over to the service bay and Melvin checked the torque on all the bolts on the hitch. Surprisingly, over half the bolts were not torqued properly. The two bolts on “the saddle” were only finger tight. Keira did not like the bangs. Convinced this was the fix, we hooked the Wanderer back up, did our safety checks, and drove around the service area again. We still got Bangs but only when we accelerated hard or braked hard. So Melvin called the manufacturer and discussed it with them.

They asked us to film the hitch while it banged. So, Melvin climbed in the back seat with Keira to film the hitch with his phone while we drove around the service area again. Then email the film to the manufacturer. An hour later and several phone calls, they called back and said the hitch was moving in the bed puck system. They could see it when they slowed the film down and watched it. They said it was normal for the hitch to move around in the pucks a little but they had never heard one bang before. They assured us that it was safe to go down the road and they would send us some washers to use to tighten up the pucks.

So, we headed on down the road to Colorado Springs. We had some bangs when we hit big bumps on the road, but everything seemed ok otherwise. We could definitely feel more chucking than we had with the Comfort Ride Hitch. Otherwise, things went as normal. We pulled into the Colorado Springs KOA ($72 per night with KOA discount) about 2:45pm. We had a timed entry pass for Pikes Peak from 2-4PM. So, we dropped the Wanderer off at our site, grabbed some warm cloths and headed to the Pikes Peak Highway entrance. We arrived at 3:45 (15 minutes to spare). We drove the highway towards the top of the mountain. We stopped at Crystal Lake for some pictures before heading on up to the top. About halfway there was a checkpoint where they were stopping people coming down the mountain. That seemed unusual. We arrived at the top about 4:45. There were a few places on the road where the drop offs with no guard rails was a bit worrisome. The truck definitely did not have as much power as usual due to the altitude. At the top it was only 44 Degrees and the wind was blowing hard making it pretty chilly. But we walked all the way around the summit area with Keira. Keira was not liking the cold wind and was anxious to get back to the truck. Another visitor was kind enough to take our picture in front of the Pikes Peak summit sign showing the 14,115 foot altitude. The views were spectacular! The wind chill chased us back to the truck to get warm. The trip down was with the exhaust brake and low gear. We pulled up to the checkpoint halfway and they checked our brake temperature! (It was only 110). The ranger taking the reading was surprised at how low it was. David explained how we had used the exhaust brake and low gears to crawl down without using the brakes except in the hairpin corners. We continued on down and with a few stops, back to the Wanderer to finish getting set up.