New old toad

[johnhicks]

Since my Tracker went across the rainbow bridge in Florida I dragged it along to my son-in-law's house in Charlestown, Ind., and gave it to him to fix or junk.

Luck was with me and I found a Fiat 500 Sport in good shape for a reasonable price in New Albany. Gregory Automotive in Charlestown installed the baseplate and wired the lights up for a quite reasonable price in one afternoon.

That left me to make it work with the coach wiring. Back when I rigged the Tracker I didn't care what was connected to the "proper" terminal as long as it worked. I plugged in the Fiat and nothing worked.

In a Twilight Zone moment, I'd had a dream the night before: "What if I plugged it in and nothing worked?" In that dream I said, "Self, you idiot, that means there's no ground."

And sure enough that was the cause. The Roadmaster cord has ground wired to a different pin than I had used for the Tracker.

Also I had to get a four-inch drop hitch, which put the towbar level.

The maiden voyage was about 170 miles on really rough I-265 and I-65 and the little beastie did just fine. No wobble or anything odd.

Now I just need to figure out how to get an air line through/around the firewall to hookup the Roadmaster Brakemaster cylinder. I know I don't really need it but since I already own it it would give me breakaway braking. I'm thinking I could set it up to apply the toad brakes only upon hard braking when they'd be really needed.