Phoenix I quickly became Phoenix II.
At the steepest part of the driveway, the Rebel trailer became a heavy enough drawbar load that the mover would try to drive out from underneath the trailer ball. Literally, Phoenix would 'wheelie', literally lifting the operator, as the trailer weight became immovable. This was definitely a safety issue; the mover must remain stable on its five drive wheels and two front support wheels. Experiencing this it became evident that a 'wheelie bar' on the mover could be a solution. We were not interested in re-locating the mover's hitch ball mast further away from the drive wheels; loss of traction would surely result. The first photo shows the addition of a removable section with two smaller wheels ahead of the five main drive wheels. Phoenix I was now Phoenix II.
The first test of Phoenix II was placement of a mid sixties Shasta trailer into the lower area next to the garage. This area was quickly becoming a 'trailer park' with three trailers now on-site. The restoration of the Shasta 'Canned Ham' trailer is another project that's making wood workers of the skilled (?) metal men. That's the subject of another lengthy blog with pages of nano-details!
Phoenix II got its first real proof test pushing the light weight single axle Shasta travel trailer down and around the 19% left hander. See attachments two and three. The 14' Shasta still had enough force to drag the puller as the tongue weight lightened. The quick solution was to back the trailer to a lower elevation with the van, reconnect Phoenix II, and proceed to park. But, that surely meant the much heavier Rebel wouldn't be manageable on the grade going up or down.
Test results, so far, don't support a quick and easy trailer moving process. This was further complicated by the fact that Phoenix II, now equipped with the 'wheelie bar', couldn't be used with the Rebel trailer because the trailer jack was mounted near the hitch ball receptacle. The retracted jack would interfere with the steering motion of Phoenix II. The factory Rebel tongue setup is shown in photo four. Interestingly, the original design of Phoenix was based on pivoting the mover around the nearby location of the retracted trailer jack. So much for that!
As usual, the Team converged on a rational solution after an extended clipboard sketch session with refreshments (remember the refrigerator in the garage!). The next attachment shows the interference of the mover with the trailer jack seen looking down on it with the propane bottle removed. The trailer jack was moved rearward to a newly fabricated cross member, the propane bottle was moved forward, and the battery rack was mated to the new trailer jack cross member. A second battery was added also. By the way, the Rebel was purchased without a sound system. And since there's a wide selection of unused speakers, amplifiers, and miles of wiring in the garage from other projects, that will surely be another hi tech add on. The sixth attachment shows the space freed up inboard of the relocated propane bottle for the cross member, jack and second battery. Phoenix II can swing around the trailer ball 180° or more; problem solved.
So far, I've described several weeks and weekends of focused activity. Phoenix II can move the trailer around comfortably on flat surfaces and medium grades, but cannot drag the trailer completely up or down the driveway, or make the sharp 90° turns in a single pass. The next installment describes how this problem was addressed in the face of deadlines for planned camping trips.