Trey’s Blog

This year I purchased my first diesel, a Jetta to be exact, and I did so to gain fuel efficiency.  The Jetta TDI compared to it’s gasoline counterpart is head and shoulders better in the fuel arena.  The standard engine gets about 32 MPG highway, while my TDI gets 42 MPG with combination of highway and city miles.  In fact, when I did my research a year ago, I found that as long as diesel prices do not exceed gasoline prices by $0.80 per gallon, my TDI would be more efficient than the gasoline version.  The point of this story is to now point out that gasoline has moved above the price of diesel in my area.  At the station I frequent, gasoline is now $2.99 while diesel remains at $2.75 per gallon.  I found another Kroger in Cypress, Texas that offers diesel for $2.66, E85, and gasoline all at the same station.

I recommend everyone get a diesel powered car.

What is being done?

The time has come for the first of many camper projects. This time, I’ll be outfitting my popup camper with a receiver hitch to allow the use of a bike rack while in tow. This would be very easy for larger RVs since they typically have a 4″x4″ bumper with many choices of bike racks aftermarket. However, the standard popup camper bumper is only 1″x3″, which hardly offers an easy solution.

What is the plan?

the bumper is slightly offset from it rail mounts as they are only 1″x2″ leaving approximately 1″ gap between the bottom of the bumper and the side rails. It was decided to purchase an 1/8″ thick 2″x2″ square pipe to be fitted across from side rail to side rail. To account for the gap mentioned previously, grooves will be cut lengthwise in the square pipe and the pipe will be fitted tightly to each side rail. After the pipe is positioned, small spot welding will add to the strength of the new bar. With the new bar in place, there are now two points to which a receiver hitch can be mounted giving it the strength we need to support 200 lbs of bicycles.

What we need to purchase?

2″x2″ steel square pipe 52 inches long, Sawzall blades for cutting through metal pipe like butter, and a receiver hitch combo bar. The combo bar is similar to a hitch extension, but is only the receiver portion straight through. I found this at etrailer.com in 6″, 8″, 12″, and 18″ versions in their Fabrication section. The 18″ was my choice since it would leave plenty of room for cutting away excess if necessary.

Steps

1. cut support pipe to fit between side rails
2. measure distance between bottom of side rails and bottom of bumper, then cut a 1″ groove (1/8″ thick) that distance from the bottom of the pipe
3. cut through one side rail near the rear bumper to allow access to slide the new support into place
4. once in position, make spot welds to assure to movement and good bond with side rails
5. weld the cut made in the one side rail to put bumper back into original position
6. put spare tire back into place, then clamp hitch receiver into position
7. put empty bike rack into receiver hitch to check for clearance
8. adjust receiver distance from end of bumper as necessary allowing for full access to bike rack pins
9. remove bike rack and spare tire
10. weld receiver hitch into place
11. for added support, run a bolt up through the receiver hitch and the support bar
12. sand bumper
13. paint with high gloss black paint

Pictures

before project

new support bar resting across side rails.

Support bar is now welded in place.

Receiver hitch ready for installation

Receiver hitch installed and painted

Bike rack fits nicely in the new receiver — I know I painted this sloppily

Let’s go camping!!

Project Summary

The project was a success. I now have a place for my bikes when I’m hauling my camper. Most of the time was spent waiting for the hitch receiver to arrive, but as projects go this one went pretty quickly. There are a couple things I would have done differently. I should have ordered the hitch receiver before starting the project, but at that the time, I had no idea the fabrication receivers existed. The other thing would be to tape off the camper rear before spraying the bumper and hitch receiver. It shouldn’t be that hard to remove the paint as it is not that much, but it could have easily been avoided had I taped off that area.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been actively camping with my daughter this past year, and it has been very exciting.  We are part of the YMCA program, Safari Princesses.  This being my first year I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it has been nothing short of great.  The people in our tribe are fantastic people and we all enjoy getting out to spend time with our daughters and giving them an opportunity to play freely.  Now that this program is over for this year, I started planning for the next season.  I found a good deal on a popup camper on Craigslist, and made the purchase.  My girls couldn’t be more eager to go on the next campout.  They’d be plenty happy camping in the driveway if I’d let them.  Anyway, what most new buyers don’t realize and old buyers already know is that you aren’t just buying the camper.  The are a lot of other expenses associated the purchase.  Besides the obvious license registration, there may be some sales taxes, storage costs, maintenance costs.  You’ll also find yourself needing to purchase items for camping you didn’t need before.  It adds a new level of complexity, but it sure makes ‘roughing it’ pretty comfortable.