loose connections

Happy Sunday, everyone! I teased a few days ago during my conversation with myself about all things exasperating relating to the truck and trailer, that there was this sort of magical contact grease that seemed to help resolve my electrical issues.

now this is an intriguing picture.... what on earth could be going on? where could we be??

The long and short of that story was that I used a friend's trailer to trouble shoot whether the connection issue stemmed from my truck or my trailer. Her trailer lights worked while connected to my truck - including the pesky driver's side blinker that I'd given up on in my trailer. Hm.

She also had this grease - a dielectric grease - on her trailer's plug that then transferred slightly to my truck's socket. Which, when I reconnected my truck to my trailer, miracle of miracles!, the lights worked.

getting connected, the old fashioned modern way. hard to tell bc it's a still picture, but that's actually my driver's side trailer blinker blinking. what a novel concept!!!

So I ordered a tube on amazon (there are literally zillions of options, apparently) to test for myself. I was a little unsure, bc there seems to be a lot of contradictory information on ye olde google about this stuff. Some claim it improves electrical connections, some say it'll make a bad connection worse.

I decided to go off my experience with my friend's trailer plug and gamble that it'll improve my issues. Which, spoiler alert, it totally did. My trailer's plug has always been a little loose in my truck's socket - which I've tried to remedy by wrapping the plug in duct tape or foam or whatever to make a tighter fit. But when I added a little smidge of this grease to the pins in the trailer's plug? Boom. Everything worked!

ok but yes, things did actually happen this weekend. keen observers will recognize that charlie's wearing his big boy jump bridle for this first time since his surgery. fucking boom.

I don't say any of this claiming to be some sort of mechanical magician -- rather, I've just decided that a tube of this stuff is really handy to have in the truck and trailer kit. Considering it runs about $10 on amazon, it's a no brainer. So for any of you out there wondering if there's some sort of extra little thing to help keep your trailer bone connected to your truck bone, this type of grease might help.

per usual, Brita and Bella set a pretty baller example

Because. Ya know. Truck and trailer connectivity is a pretty critical element of hauling out. And hauling out is often step 1 in fun amazing fantastical adventures with friends :D

It's kinda crazy bc, looking back on things, it's been something like four months since Charlie's had any sort of real fun outing, not including his surgery (obviously) or normal lesson-related travel. That's actually the longest 'dry spell' since I brought him home.

charlie held his own tho, even if he ended up uber jealous of Bella's lunch (conveniently forgetting his own lunch completed about 5 minutes earlier.... lol)

Luckily for all involved, we finally got all our ducks in a row to get out this weekend and make fun things happen! It was definitely easy to tell in our ride that.... it had been a while lol. Charlie's surgery didn't set him back any in his training, but it also didn't really magically teach him about things like half halts or whatever. Go figure.

via GIPHY

That's cool tho. We had a gorgeous weekend here to enjoy whatever activities we may. With hope and optimism of more fine weather to come to keep on chipping away, getting back to where we were and closer to where we want to be.

Stay tuned for more details on this particular outing soon! And in the meantime, let me know if you have any experience with this dielectric grease. Or, if you have any other tips or tricks for useful products or tools to have around the truck or trailer when things go awry!