St. John's River, FL

We got a little fishing done! Curt Anderson invited us out for an afternoon on the St. John’s River. 

Captain Curt

The shad were running and he thought it would be fun for us. He is out fishing several times a week, so he let us catch the fish today. Barbara and I tied at five shad apiece, but she says she got the biggest one. It was hard to argue since it did not quite get all the way into the boat to tell. Should we count those? 

I also caught two sunfish and a speck, so I am declaring myself King of the River for the trip.

Use both hands, Curt. I think I have a whale!

Oh, another shad. It FELT like a whale!

We loved the chance to get out on the water. Thanks Curt!

Mercedes Ready to Tow

Well, we finally got the towing equipment installed on Mercedes, our 2005 Wrangler Unlimited. On New Years Eve we had Camping Connection in Kissimmee, FL remove the Air Force One (AFO) auxiliary braking system from our Honda Pilot along with the Blue Ox baseplate that the towbar connected to. We elected to do this rather than buy a new Air Force One system that would have allowed us to pull either vehicle. These systems are quite expensive, so we decided to reuse the one from the Honda.

We returned on January 7^th to have Camping Connection install the Blue Ox adapters and the Air Force One. Blue Ox produces these adapters for those who wish to fabricate their own baseplates or modify existing third party bumpers to use with the Blue Ox towbars. We chose to do the latter after discussions with Blue Ox technical support. The adapters were mounted inboard of the shackle mounts of the Bestop HighRock bumper on the jeep when we purchased it. It is a solid 3/16 steel frame mounted bumper built to support winch operations. It is plenty tough enough to act as a towing platform. At this time we had the electrical and air fittings mounted to the lower edge of the bumper. Enough slack was left in all lines to allow these items to be relocated to the top of the bumper once a winch is installed and suitable mounting locations could be determined. For now they are in a more exposed location, but our off-roading will be limited until other modifications such as a suspension lift and winch are installed.

Below the adapters are the breakaway switch, air fitting and light hookup.

AFO Operating Unit under hood.

AFO Brake Actuator attached to brake pedal.

Completed hookup.

Ready to Roll!

The thirty-mile test tow back to storage proved everything works as well as with the Honda. Next month will provide another checkout as we take the coach to Gaffney, SC for annual maintenance service.