Episode 4
In this episode we talk about our experience with the Hershey Show in Hershey, PA, The Blue Ox Sway Pro Weight Distribution Hitch, RV Industry News and Rumors and what we are doing during the slow down.
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Hey everyone. We are Tom and bunny AKA, tow away couple. And I’m the driver and I’m the sandwich maker, sandwich maker doing this video in our video room. We actually have a full on youth, YouTube studio in our house. So we, we do another, we do other channels elsewhere, but we are going to be embarking on our new journey as tow away drivers for.
Horizon transport. Yes, we actually leave in, um, 11 hours and 20 minutes. Yes. They had to NBN. So we said, we’d do start to finish. And we did a couple of videos already. We did an introductory video and then us installing the fifth wheel hits only because we had to get that installed. Yes. And we done, um, what you’re putting in the toolbox and that hasn’t released yet, so, Oh, that’s right.
And we did what. What’s in Bunny’s bag of tricks, but those will be released after this one. So, uh, and we’re going to separate them out by a few days. So that way we can make you wait for a little bit. It’s a teaser, it’s a teaser. So what got us into, well, first off we did create a website tow way, couple.com.
Well, you did well. I did. And it’s basically tollway couple.com. We’re going to put. Blogs. We’re going to put videos and we’ll put pictures on that website because apparently we’re going to have a lot of downtime. Okay. Uh, you can only drive for 11 hours a day, then you’re screwed for eight. So they want you to sleep and everything.
So what else are we going to do? We’re going to work on websites, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube videos. So. And, uh, along with that, definitely go like us and follow us on tow away, couple on Twitter and Instagram. Right. And definitely subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Please, please follow us. Is that begging?
That is begging look the little bell. So, uh, what got us into doing the tow weight and we haven’t started officially yet. We have our orientation. I’m playing with my drawer. We have our orientation on Wednesday, so, and we’re going to go out there a couple of days early right now. It’s Saturday, and we’re going to leave Sunday.
We’re going to be out there Sunday night, and we’re going to take our truck over to Dan’s hitch and repair shop. Uh, I guess everybody knows about. Dan shop. So we got, we got in there, we have a scheduled maintenance, but we will discuss what we have to do there on a different video, but that’s why we’re going to go.
Yeah. So that way he can have it for an extra day and not. They’re not rushed and we’re not rushed and we’re there and we’re ready to roll. Yeah, exactly. Plus for having a lot of stuff done. Yes, we are. So, all right. So as you go bigger, go home, go big or go home, baby. Now we, yeah, go look at the hitch video.
Now we work for a travel company and me and bunny travel all over the nation and the world. And we. I do social media and I do marketing. We do videos. We also bunny does the sales and she’s a travel consultant. So, and we’re, we could be typically found all over the United States and are in Jamaica.
Mostly we spent about six weeks a year in Jamaica. We’re Jamerican American. So anyway, we been laid off since March 8th and we came back from an event in Jamaica and the whole Corona COVID hit everybody in the face. Like, uh, like you just got punched. Yeah. And let me tell you, we were, like we said, we were gone.
Oh, um, 15 days that time. So when we came back, you know, after being in Jamaica and not watching the news or anything, no, they don’t, they got one channel and then half the time it’s nothing of importance. Right. So we had no clue what was. What we were coming back to. I think they limit their population on what they know on the outs.
Well, they want people to have fun on vacation. That would be about the news. Didn’t even think about that. I’m a news junkie. So we, we come back. We are literally. Uh, we’re employed, but they’re, they’re furloughing us. So what, now we’re going to get unemployment. We never been on an appointment, so it’s, that was a stressful, I’ve been of all of our life.
The first time we go on an appointment, stressing out that government, unemployment, everything under the sun. So our unemployment actually was going to, it’s going to run out the end of January, right? Yeah. Cause the pandemic and the pandemic. Insurance runs out July 31st. Right. And so therefore we started panicking here.
We are June 27th and that’s only a month and we have bills to pay. We have car payments, just like anybody else in the world. And if we are not on unemployment, it’s kind of hard to find a job when you have no money. Exactly. Especially cause we live in an itty-bitty tiny little town in Alabama and. We’re too old to go to work in the plants and at the mills.
So, I mean, if we needed to start a new job, a regular job, we would have to load up our RV and move to a bigger yup. And find a campground. But again, with no money coming in, now we did our savings, but kind of blew a lot of that on this venture here. And we always taught our kids, um, be self-sufficient get a job, move out of the house.
Right. We don’t want to. Moved back to their house without a job. So, so I started, uh, thinking about what can I do? Uh, we’ve been working in the traveling history. I was a network administrator for blue cross blue shield and also a network administrator for IBM, but that was 20 years ago. So I know I’m totally out of date for those jobs.
And I’m. Little old for those jobs. Yeah. So I was getting a little panicked on my employability. It’s down to word. It is a word. Okay. So I get a little panicked and I, um, anxiety. So I was thinking, what can I do? What can I do? Well, we have a awesome truck and we literally drove. We, we put 75,000 miles on it, the last two years, just going from state to state city to city.
Event to event promoting our travel to people. Yes. With our own RV, with our own RV. And I thought, well, hell my truck is equipped to pull anything. King pin, fifth wheel bumper pole, you name it. I can attach it to my truck. And I’m like, we have a monthly payment. And if our unemployment runs out, I would rather the truck make its own payments.
We might as, um, with the, with the payment that we have on that truck, we might as well have a, a house, right? Yeah. Or definitely some type of a high-end Mercedes. Right, right. But yeah, it’s an $80,000 truck, that truck payments over 900 a month. And we were just panicked because we’re already half more than half paid off.
We all, we only owe like 36,000 or 35,000 now. And I’m thinking I don’t want it to be repossessed fast, no, over something so stupid and not figuring out how to make the payment not and then have bad credit on it and all the other. Crap that made me sleepless nights. So now we’re going to make the truck, make its own paint.
So I thought, well, let’s make the truck make its own payment. I know I’m kind of rambling because we didn’t really think this through because you always ramble. They’ll find out soon that we ramble. So I started researching, what can I do? What can I do? Yeah. And I even looked at pulling FEMA trailers because they were going to be sending all these hundreds of trailers to California, um, New York and all these places.
I went out and bought a forge bumper pull hitch because you gotta be able to pull 20, some thousand pounds on your hitch. And I have a class five and I’m like, okay. I went and ordered that I submitted out and they didn’t pull any trailers from our area. So I never got a call, but I invested that money.
Into that hitch. So that kind of sucked. So I thought, well, what else can I do? Can I go? Like, I saw that Mo that show, um, where they transport all the, the stuff for people, they’re shipping Wars. I saw that and I’m like, I don’t want to get stressful on that, but that’s something I can, and on the road though, but on the road we seen, you know, everybody hauling RVs and we started seeing a lot of RVs on the road and I’m like, Wonder how to get a job doing that.
And I honestly didn’t know. So I start, I was getting, I was waiting for the RV manufacturers to reopen and we are going to call them directly and say, what does it take to haul your RVs? And the more I researched, the more I started finding out they actually contract through transportation companies, such as the company.
We took a job with horizon transport. But we also submitted applications to Indiana transport because we were talking to, uh, an acquaintance through a mutual friend who drives for Indiana transport. And I came across a video on YouTube for synergy transport. So I put a application in there. So all the application, I only put in three and then I find out there’s a bunch.
Of transportation companies, but I only did the three applications at the time and all three companies contacted me, but horizon contact me within minutes. I don’t can’t believe how fast it was. They contact me within minutes and I was still doing my research and everything. And then I got a contact from synergy, which was the third application.
And then I got contacted from Indiana transport. Correct. Now the ball’s in my court. So I asked, yeah, so I started researching each company now because I didn’t want to go with the wrong company and I might, I might be going with the wrong company. I hope not. Right. Well, we won’t know until we get on the road, but I did talk to people and I asked him that drive her horizon.
I said, what do you think of the company? After two years of working for them, do you still enjoy it? Are the people good? Uh, any issues I should be aware of and it’s all been positive feedback. Well, up until this point, um, with our recruiter and we had to get a couple other people involved. Because of another issue, they’ve all been Johnny on the spot and very, very helpful.
Yeah. If I email them are, if I call them, I, if I can’t get a hold of my, leave a message, I literally get a call back right away. And if I email them, I get an email back right away, as long as they’re working, as long as they’re working and we emailed and the girl was. Aw, because I needed something from the doctor and she emailed the very next day and she apologized profusely explaining she was off for the day.
So I asked a synergy at the time when I was talking to them, I said, Hey, uh, how many trailers do you have right now for people to tow? And they’re like, we have 211 right now on the dispatch board. And I’m like, Oh, okay. I thought that was quite a bit. So I told them I was still doing research. I was going to go visit my kids.
And then I come back and I was talking to Indiana transport. And I’m like, how many do you have on your dispatch board? And he’s 330. And he says, yeah, that’s what the average, every day, about 330. And I’m like, that’s even better. And the guy I was talking to was from India. Oh, well work for Indiana transport.
So I thought that’s awesome. And then I talked to horizon. I said, how many do you have? And she unfortunately. Didn’t have the ability to tell me right there, because she’s not a holler, she’s just a recruiter. So she goes, I don’t have access to that right now. I can find it for you, but I don’t have access.
And I said, okay, no problem. I was just curious. So I reached out to somebody who drove for horizon and I said, Hey, Can you look on your dispatch app and see how many trailers right now? There are IEDs. I’d appreciate just, I don’t care what they are. Just want to know a number. And he came back with over 550 trailers that are waiting for drivers.
And I thought, okay, that’s another upgrade Mark. Yep. Okay. So now they’re contacting me. They’re emailing me. They’re answering all my questions. Cause I’ve never done this. No, no. We’ve always done something completely different. Yeah. So all new to us, I’m out watching YouTube videos. Like you’re watching us and you know, everyone tells their story, but.
I’m a very analytical person. I want as much information as humanly possible. And everybody seemed to have started their channel, uh, you know, long after they’ve been on the road. So they didn’t have the back information as far as how’d it get started, or if they did go and get back information, they, they didn’t forget.
They just didn’t include a lot of stuff because you forget things. So we, uh, We’ve been watching all like hot shot videos, where they have the gooseneck trailers. We’ve been watching the, uh, tow wave videos and everything in there. They’re very, very informative because they’re teaching us stuff that we didn’t think about.
I mean, we’ve been pulling our own trailer, not a customer’s trailer commercially, and I didn’t re you know, when you’re driving down the road, we didn’t know that. If a rock kicks up, you’re responsible for that rock, even though you didn’t personally throw it at the trailer, you’re responsible for every little blemish on that trailer, unless you.
Do a, pre-trip like you do a full pre-trip inspection, you know, kind of relate that to, if you rent a car from Hertz or from somewhere, you do a walk around first to verify there’s no dents and scratches and point that out or on your home, home inspection, it’s the same thing you need to inspect those trailers before you pull them out.
Otherwise you’re responsible. Exactly. So now I, now I informed both Indiana transport and synergy because they both called me to. Follow up. And I told him, I said, well, uh, one of my, I told him, unfortunately, horizon was Johnny on the spot. They were contacting me left and right. Um, didn’t leave any holes in the, in the gap.
I said, so I went with the, and I researched them. They are the, they are the largest transport company out there. So I that’s what I wanted. I’m go big, go home. I mean, I understand smaller transport companies are probably little more personal. Uh, so I don’t know. So the quick answer was they still need drivers.
They said, you know what, go do your hauling. Go, go, go, go to work at horizon. Enjoy your time. If for some reason it doesn’t work in a workout. Call us. Yeah. That made me feel good. That made me feel good. That made me feel good. So. In a nutshell, we are doing this because our unemployment’s running out. We’re excited, but we’re very nervous.
And I don’t like the thought of sleeping in my truck two or three days. I don’t like the thought of not knowing when we’re going to take showers and where we’re going to eat, how we’re going to eat because every dime you spin. Is profit that you’re spending, you’re spending your profits, the name sandwich maker, because that’s going to be my job every morning, any before, because we, Tom doesn’t want me to have sandwiches stuff, spread all over Walmart.
Cause I think it’s a hazard before we take off every morning, it’s going to be my job to make our, make sure that we have our sandwiches and our lunch and ready to roll. So we’ll get to eat. At least one meal out, whether it’s going to be breakfast or dinner, we haven’t decided yet. Now I, I, I mean, we enjoy doing our videos here in the comfort of our own home.
One of the things that we’re going to do is we’re going to try, we, we have lapel microphones. We’re not going to use the camera microphone, but we’re going to try the microphone in the, on the windshield of the truck. And with our lapel microphones, and we’re going to see how that works. Some of the videos I see where they’re driving, I hear so much background, wind noise.
It does drive me a little bit nuts and I’m deaf. And I can imagine if I had great hearing. So we may opt to do most of our videos when we’re pulled over. Right. So we’ll be either be doing them for rest areas, hotel rooms, hotel rooms, trucks, ups could be anywhere. Yeah, absolutely. One thing though that we have going for us is the fact that we have hauled around the whole us anyways, in our own RVs.
So we do know a little bit of what to look for and where we can go. And we definitely know that it’s virtually impossible. You get a parking spot in a rest area after 10 o’clock or after seven at night. Now, when it starts getting dark, you start losing rest areas, spots, and we’re going to talk about all that we are going to videotape.
Everything from our pre-trip inspections to when we have to pull over and we reinspect. Cause you should always check your hitches, make sure no one pulled your fifth wheel while you’re sleeping. And you didn’t realize it because that has happened to people checking your tire pressures, uh, making sure you have your tires, making sure you have your tires and torquing.
Everything under the sun, we are going to be doing different videos on, and we definitely invite you to subscribe to our channel, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, because we’re going to be posting pictures and different little, little tiny videos along the way. And also too on product product that we’re trying because I’m a girly girl.
So I am not going to be able to just throw my hair up in a hat. No, um, you know, go without makeup. So different things. I’ve already got some things waiting for me at the hotel. So definitely in Indiana, cause I couldn’t get them in my small town in time, so definitely, uh, keep an eye on our channel and definitely subscribe and follow us.
Yeah. And everything that we talk about, we will put a description down in our. Description of the video. And if we can, we’ll put Amazon links. Cause that’s the cheapest way of getting it. And we invite you to check it out, check it out. I just got these toolboxes. And I didn’t do a video on it, but I’ll do a video on the install.
Yeah, those are pretty cool. I didn’t even know they existed in here rusting on it. Cause it didn’t come with any install papers. They had a one little image on their promotion on Amazon and it said, step one, two and three. And that was it. And literally I had it installed in five minutes. It was so easy.
So we’re going to do an install video on the. Driver’s side, uh, when we get to Indiana. Yes, absolutely. So, all right. We just want to add to our introduction. Yes. Now that we’re comfy and clean and not sweating. If you have any questions, if you have any comments, if you have any suggestions, if you are a tow weight driver and you can add to our channel, we would love for you to comment on our videos because we don’t know everything.
We don’t know nothing right now. But we also, we learned from other people and, uh, and we hope whatever we put out here helped you. Right. And that’s the whole reason why we do them so we can help somebody else get started too. Um, we hate to learn by mistakes. Unfortunately it happens, but you know what, if we’ve made a mistake and we can put out there, so somebody else doesn’t make it.
And it helps and wait until you see the videos. Cause we haven’t done them yet. Where we talk about are my DLT physical, the DOTD drug test. Oh, that was so stressful. And no, I don’t take drugs, but we’ll explain all that. Uh, what else we go through? Oh, my registration. So we’re, it’s the worst. And by these videos, we hope they help.
Yes, definitely. Definitely. All right. Until next time and these videos, videos will be very randomly put up. Yeah. Cause we can only do them when we get time. Definitely subscribe. You see it at the bottom right underneath bunny and click the little gray bell to be notified of our videos. Please comment.
Yes, please comment. And, uh, if you could help us, we would appreciate it. Yes. So definitely please subscribe. And, um, I guess it’s about it. Yep. All right. So we gotta go, we gotta go to bed. We gotta be off and on our way to Indiana and we will be doing a video launch. Correct. So we’ll see you down the road.
Here are some items we highly recommend you have doing Towaway or Driveaway
We highly recommend a DASH CAM that also records GPS and SPEED as well as Audio
Rexing V1P Pro Dual 1080p Full HD Front and Rear Wi-Fi Car Dash Cam with Built-in GPS & Speed Logger https://amzn.to/38TZPAA
Officemate OIC Carry All Clipboard Storage Box, Letter/Legal Size, Black and Gray https://amzn.to/30WxUMc
Click the image above to go directly to our YouTube channel
We don’t like to call on friends, family or neighbors to help us install or remove our Fifth wheel hitch so we decided to use an engine hoist to assist us making this a one person operation vs 4 big dudes lifting this in and out of the truck.
Hey everyone. We’re tollway couple Tom and bunny. And I’m the driver and I’m Sam is maker sandwich maker got to have a sandwich maker with you. And after 35 years, my sandwich maker still works. Yes. He hasn’t put the out on their part in there either. So pretty lucky this time. So today we’re going to tell you about.
Putting a fifth wheel hitch in your truck by yourself. Now, if you have a long bed truck, the fifth wheel hitches are a lot lighter and you can pretty much do those, those by yourself because you don’t need a slider. And fortunately, we are going to be pulling fifth wheels on a short bed. So we have to have a slider.
Now we pull our own fifth wheel. It’s a 40 foot toy hauler. So we are already set up with it. Problem was, is we always had to rely on family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, to help us get the hitch out and then back in. And when you need it, a lot of times they’re not available right in this beast is heavy.
It takes four dudes. To lift this sucker up. Right? So obviously you could tell Tom and I, by ourselves, we’re not going to be able to lift all of this fire. Right. I’ve had four hernia surgery, so I really can’t lift too much anyways. So we set up an engine hoist with the load leveler system and our truck requires a puck system.
We do have in bed mounts and this sucker mounts in four places. And then a fifth wheel mounts to four places on this, and then the head mounts on the fifth wheel. And like Tom said in the beginning, definitely. You’re thinking about doing tow away. If you have a long bed, you are in a much easier place than we are.
Uh, we absolutely love our truck after years and years of having a long bed, we wanted a short bed because honestly I can’t park a long bed sometimes. So, so it was a nice truck, but we have to go with this system now and we have to go with the sliders so we can pull. Yeah. And so we can pull our bigger trailer, right?
So our trailer is only 13,500 pounds. So I could’ve gotten a 16 pound Hicks or some are 18,000 pound hitch. I always do the go bigger, go home for the few extra bucks. I got the 21,000 pound hitch. I’m glad I did because driving tow way, you’re required to have 21,000 pound or greater hitches. So for the few, few extra hundred bucks, Even if you’re not going to do tow way, get a heavier duty hitch.
That’s just more peace of mind when you’re driving down the road. The fact that when you do have an RV, you’re always looking to upgrade. I mean, where our next step grade would definitely be one of the big momentum. So we absolutely love those so we can actually live in it. Right. You could see I’m sitting here wiping the sweat off.
We’re an Alabama and it must be 150% humidity today. So we’ve picked today. To install it. But realistically, we actually had to Indiana to go to orientation and drive our first load. So we have to get it installed air regardless of what the weather is. So, and if we sound like we’re yelling, it’s because we’re using lapel microphones.
We normally have a boom microphone, but if we turn our back, you can’t hear us. So we decided to go with our lips, right? That way you can hear us yelling and cussing at each other. As we install the spinner. We’re going to show you me assembling the hoist and watch my shirt. Now it’s wearing different clothes earlier.
I’ve taken three showers today already. You’re going to see my shirt go from nice and dry to wrenched and about four minutes, because I’m going to speed it up really fast. On this episode here, we’re going to actually show you us installing the hitch, but again, We’re not going to talk. We’re just going to speed up the install process.
You don’t really care about that. You’re just more interested in learning about tow way. So, all right. So we’re going to move all of our cameras and lighting and face the truck and we’re going to start stalling. All right, I’ll see you guys soon.
so for all of you paying almost a hundred dollars an hour for hot yoga and just move to Alabama and work out in your garage. You don’t know how hot this is. Holy mother of God.
If you’re wondering. Yes, I lived it all up before we’re putting it in.
Holy cow, that’s Alabama weather. Y’all gotta help me next time, but I’ll tell you what to hit. The hoist worked out right. Worked out a whole hell of a lot better than we have done in the past. Taken a bath. It looked like you peed your pants. I looked like, Oh my God, it does. Doesn’t it? That is pure sweat.
My whole back is sweaty. So now it’s all set and ready to go and suckers. I feeling very comfortable. Good. All right. So that’s how we install our hitch. Now it only took a few minutes. Yeah. Related. It were only wasn’t that long at all. It was a hell of a lot faster than trying to get four neighbors over here to help lift it up.
Exactly. And no damage to the truck. So you could see, I lubricated everything back here. Maybe, maybe not. But realistically, it makes sure that’s your lifeblood. If that thing doesn’t work right, it could kill you and people on the road. So basically make sure you check your hitch maintenance, your hitch. If there’s any issues, look for cracks in the welts.
Uh, if it moves around too much, the value of the hitch isn’t working, I was just gonna say that. You know what don’t go a court or go according to get you get what you paid for. Don’t say, Oh, look, I got the shits for 50 bucks. You’re just taking your, your life in the life of somebody. Else’s no, I mean, some people will suggest buying a hitch off of Craigslist or Facebook marketplace.
You know, we actually have a full warranty on this hitch. You don’t get that. You don’t know how they pulled with that Hicks. You know, these. Um, bumper poles hit or miss. I mean, you just don’t know if they jerked off the line backed up. I get forecast hitches, but a lot of them have the welded. Yeah, that always scares me.
Right. Right. So definitely invest in your life. So invest in a good quality hitch and it will definitely get you down the road a lot farther than you expected. Now we’ll put in the description of this YouTube video, all of our truck, all of the equipment we have on there. Plus we’ll put links to all the equipment as well.
So definitely check out the description. Please subscribe to this channel. Like it, we need a thousand subscribers. We commoditize so we can make money, but no, realistically we do this for fun. We enjoy doing the videos and we enjoy the positive feedback. If you have negative feedback, don’t waste your time.
We click delete just as quick. So, so definitely follow us down the road and, um, see what kind of shenanigans we can get into. Yeah. And if you have questions that we have not answered up to this point, because this is only our second video. Ask a questions and we may not get to it right away, but we will put it on our to-do list.
Absolutely. All right. Have a good one. And we’ll see you down the road.
Below are links to some of our equipment we use on our truck or for our business.
We highly recommend a DASH CAM that also records GPS and SPEED as well as Audio
Rexing V1P Pro Dual 1080p Full HD Front and Rear Wi-Fi Car Dash Cam with Built-in GPS & Speed Logger https://amzn.to/38TZPAA
Officemate OIC Carry All Clipboard Storage Box, Letter/Legal Size, Black and Gray https://amzn.to/30WxUMc
We are Tom and Bunny AKA TowawayCouple and we are embarking on a new chapter in our lives where we will be transporting RV’s from the manufacture to the dealerships around the country and into Canada. We invite you to join us as we explain how we researched Tow-away driving, looking up the different companies, choosing which company would be the best fit, going through all the hoops to get ready with all the requirements, DOT physical, DOT Drug Test, DOT inspection, DOT Weighing and going to Orientation to driving our first load and continuing throughout our new fun and exciting adventure!
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