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Site last updated:
January 2011
Build Diary
May 2010  

A busy week off work this week. As well as getting the Road Rat and the trailer ready for the journey to Wales I also helped my mother with preparations for the forthcoming house move.

In preparation for this trip I bought a couple of things to bring with me. These were a winch for the trailer and a set of sun visors for the Rat. The latter were sourced from a Cinquecento and are the perfect size and fit. I'd also had a set of ramps made for the trailer; more about these later.

I started the week by doing some small jobs on the Rat. I fitted the sun visors, continued the stripe from the bonnet up the panel under the windscreen and over the roof, and started making a panel for the inside of the drivers side door.
The ramps I'd had made turned out to be not quite strong enough for the job. I tried loading the Rat onto the trailer by driving it on but the ramps were bending under the weight, making it more difficult to drive up them, even with 4x4 engaged so I abandoned that idea for now.
I took the ramps to a local welder and had them straightened and strengthened and fitted the winch to the trailer.
With the trailer now properly prepared I loaded the Rat onto it using the winch which was quite easy and straightforward. It has to go on backwards because the trailer wheels are near the back so the car is better balanced that way. Having done this I strapped the Rat down and took it for a test drive to make sure everything was going to be OK for the long trip back to Wales.
Unfortunately, there was a slight problem. Two of the ladder rungs snapped off under the weight of the Rat and it ended up as you can see in the two pictures below. Fortunately I was travelling very slowly at the time and no harm was done. I stopped and retrieved the two rungs and made sure it was safe to carry on. It was so I carefully drove back to the house. Apart from this the trailer towed perfectly.
After getting home it was quite a tricky operation to get the Rat off the trailer again but it was eventually achieved with judicious use of wood blocks, planks and a trolley jack.

After the car was unloaded I tested every rung by hitting them very hard with a lump hammer. A couple more snapped off under this punishment but better to find out before the long journey down the motorway. I took the trailer back to the local welder and had him repair it after which I was much more confident about the forthcoming journey.

That was all that got done this time apart from reloading the Rat onto the trailer and driving it down to Wales. I'm happy to report that the journey was conducted with no incident at all.