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Thread: Yesterday's Adventure/ Roadtrip to Michigan

  1. #1
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    Yesterday's Adventure/ Roadtrip to Michigan

    I bought a 26' camper off ebay. It was exactly the model I wanted and the price was super.

    I live in western PA, the camper was in Hastings, MI.

    After I sent the deposit via paypal and made arrangements to drive to MI in the morning I was lying in bed to sleep at 10:30, I said to myself: "Self, We don't have an Electic brake controller on the Durango."

    I get one the boards and post a thread asking for advice. Nobody responding. I check out chat. Billy and Kilborg are in there. Good advice. They set me straight with the kind of controller to get.

    I go to bed at 12:30AM. Wake up at 6AM and start digging through the phone book and internet for local shops that might have what I'm looking for.

    I check WallyWorld (against my better judgement) Advanced Auto and NAPA. NAPA was the only place that had what I wanted. I pick up the controller at 8AM and install it. 8:45 I'm on my way to pick up dad. We finally hit the road at 9:30AM.

    No problems getting there.

    Coming home is a different story. We get the waaay bigger than I remembered trailer hooked up to the Durango. We open up the instructions for the controller to figure out how to adjust the power and level. Pull out, hit the brakes several times and get it adjusted nicely. Feels like the Durango is riding a wheelie. Very light in the front end. I didn't know nor did I have time to adjust the weight distribution bars. It was level and that's all I cared about.

    After an hour so, I get used to it and it's not as bad as I thought.

    Here comes the rain and wind. And more rain and wind, and yet more rain and wind. For about an hour or so we drive half blind through the rain. Not just a few sprinkles. We ran into some of the worst rain I've ever been in. Traffic on I-69 South was running below 20 MPH. People were pulling off both sides of the road and trying to wait it out. Rigs were crawling. At the Indiana Turnpike we sat through a small, but very real tornado. Five minutes before I asked my dad if Indiana ever got tornadoes. He said he had no idea. As we approached the turnpike exit, I look to my right and see this 100 ft tall and several hundred feet wide swirling mass of leaves/limbs/debris over the plaza to the right. I said holy crap thats a tornado. Dad says, "nah, just a few leaves blowing around." The "leaves blowing around" start making their way toward where we were driving. It comes across the interstate at the exit for the turnpike which is where we are. Road construction signs and barrels were blowing into the median and off the side of the road on the Northbound side and blowing into traffic on the Southbound side. We were heading south. I'm dodging barrels blowing across the road and watching this massive "Leaves blowing around" come across the road and whip everything in it's path off the road. It was awesome to see, but I was gettin concerned. Luckily we were able to pull underneath a bridge. We could see debris swirling 100 feet above us and at least 500 ft wide circle. The Durango was shaking, the car in front of us was bouncing up and down and side to side. We sat there for a few minutes and it was all over. Rain and winds slowed down and we pulled back onto the ramp and continued our merry way toward PA.

    By the way...If you ask dad now..it was a tornado.

    We left Hastings, MI at 6PM and I hit my driveway this morning at 4AM.

    I leave the trailer hooked up to the Durango and wake up to find the neighbors having a garage sale. Road is packed with cars trying to get through the narrow street that's even narrower now with my trailer. I finally was able to get it turned around and pulled back into my driveway.

    Just thought it was an interesting enough story to share.

  2. #2
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    thats crazy...

  3. #3
    Billy Golightly's Avatar
    Billy Golightly is offline Always finding new and exciting ways to not give a hoot in hell Catch me if you can
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    Glad you got back home OK man. And also good to hear that Napa did have what you needed Did the controller seem to work good enough for you on the way back?

  4. #4
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    Mar 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by 350Xhilaration View Post
    I bought a 26' camper off ebay. It was exactly the model I wanted and the price was super.

    I live in western PA, the camper was in Hastings, MI.

    After I sent the deposit via paypal and made arrangements to drive to MI in the morning I was lying in bed to sleep at 10:30, I said to myself: "Self, We don't have an Electic brake controller on the Durango."

    I get one the boards and post a thread asking for advice. Nobody responding. I check out chat. Billy and Kilborg are in there. Good advice. They set me straight with the kind of controller to get.

    I go to bed at 12:30AM. Wake up at 6AM and start digging through the phone book and internet for local shops that might have what I'm looking for.

    I check WallyWorld (against my better judgement) Advanced Auto and NAPA. NAPA was the only place that had what I wanted. I pick up the controller at 8AM and install it. 8:45 I'm on my way to pick up dad. We finally hit the road at 9:30AM.

    No problems getting there.

    Coming home is a different story. We get the waaay bigger than I remembered trailer hooked up to the Durango. We open up the instructions for the controller to figure out how to adjust the power and level. Pull out, hit the brakes several times and get it adjusted nicely. Feels like the Durango is riding a wheelie. Very light in the front end. I didn't know nor did I have time to adjust the weight distribution bars. It was level and that's all I cared about.

    After an hour so, I get used to it and it's not as bad as I thought.

    Here comes the rain and wind. And more rain and wind, and yet more rain and wind. For about an hour or so we drive half blind through the rain. Not just a few sprinkles. We ran into some of the worst rain I've ever been in. Traffic on I-69 South was running below 20 MPH. People were pulling off both sides of the road and trying to wait it out. Rigs were crawling. At the Indiana Turnpike we sat through a small, but very real tornado. Five minutes before I asked my dad if Indiana ever got tornadoes. He said he had no idea. As we approached the turnpike exit, I look to my right and see this 100 ft tall and several hundred feet wide swirling mass of leaves/limbs/debris over the plaza to the right. I said holy crap thats a tornado. Dad says, "nah, just a few leaves blowing around." The "leaves blowing around" start making their way toward where we were driving. It comes across the interstate at the exit for the turnpike which is where we are. Road construction signs and barrels were blowing into the median and off the side of the road on the Northbound side and blowing into traffic on the Southbound side. We were heading south. I'm dodging barrels blowing across the road and watching this massive "Leaves blowing around" come across the road and whip everything in it's path off the road. It was awesome to see, but I was gettin concerned. Luckily we were able to pull underneath a bridge. We could see debris swirling 100 feet above us and at least 500 ft wide circle. The Durango was shaking, the car in front of us was bouncing up and down and side to side. We sat there for a few minutes and it was all over. Rain and winds slowed down and we pulled back onto the ramp and continued our merry way toward PA.

    By the way...If you ask dad now..it was a tornado.

    We left Hastings, MI at 6PM and I hit my driveway this morning at 4AM.

    I leave the trailer hooked up to the Durango and wake up to find the neighbors having a garage sale. Road is packed with cars trying to get through the narrow street that's even narrower now with my trailer. I finally was able to get it turned around and pulled back into my driveway.

    Just thought it was an interesting enough story to share.

    Oh yea, we get tornados alright.
    where were you at on I69? Heck I don't know you to well, but if I'd known you were heading this way, I coulda offered you a place to stay while the storm blew over.
    Heck, all night last night we were experiencing heat lightening.
    1985 Honda 250R
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    1984 Honda 200s
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    1982 Honda 200


  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Controller worked great.

    We were traveling I-69 from Charlotte, MI down to where it hits the IN turnpike (80/90 East), took that across OH turnpike and hit the PA turnpike to home.

    Thanks for the offer but I wanted to get home asap.

    Wish I had the brains to pull the camera phone out and snap some shots...I was crappin my pants too much I guess at the thought of what could happen.

    From what I've researched, it was probably considered a CAT 0 Tornado:

    F0 Gale Tornado 40-72 mph Some damage to chimneys; breaks branches off trees; pushes over shallow-rooted trees; damages sign boards.

    F1 Moderate tornado 73-112 mph The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.

    F2 Significant tornado 113-157 mph Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated.

    F3 Severe tornado 158-206 mph Roof and some walls torn off well constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forests uprooted

    F4 Devastating tornado 207-260 mph Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.

    F5 Incredible tornado 261-318 mph Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel re-inforced concrete structures badly damaged.

    F6 Inconceivable tornado 319-379 mph These winds are very unlikely. The small area of damage they might produce would probably not be recognizable along with the mess produced by F4 and F5 wind that would surround the F6 winds. Missiles, such as cars and refrigerators would do serious secondary damage that could not be directly identified as F6 damage. If this level is ever achieved, evidence for it might only be found in some manner of ground swirl pattern, for it may never be identifiable through engineering studies

  6. #6
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by SpeedBump View Post
    One word....SISSY! LOL!!!

    your a trip!

    did ya check you voice mail? probley a long story about how mutch he loves ya and how he was never gonna see ya again..

  8. #8
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    Pics from the ebay ad...I'll get some tomorrow if I have time






  9. #9
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    killer SKUD Bro!

  10. #10
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    Current location...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails camper1.jpg   camper2.jpg   camper3.jpg  

  11. #11
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    What motor does your durango have? We had a 2003 durango that would have never pulled a trailer that big or not pulled it very well anyways.
    I had the RIGHT to remain silent, I didn't have the ability!

  12. #12
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    nice trailer. looks like it's time to trade up to a 4 door dodge deisel truck. it looks big for a durango.
    JASON LISKEY

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  13. #13
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    It's got the 5.7L Hemi

    I was surprised it did as well as it did. It lugged on some pretty big hills, but it made it up without too much difficulty and I didn't have to send the rpms to the moon. On the IN/OH/PA turnpikes it rolled along at 65-70MPH without straining to keep it there.

    The concerns were the balance and visibility. It has WD bars on it, but they aren't adjusted for my Durango. It felt pretty light in the front end. The stock mirrors aren't nearly wide enough. I can only see the first side marker light. I need to get those things straight before Labor day.

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