well good afternoon and a merry christmas they're getting close to christmas
this is not my christmas video but uh got smart car back here to base camp and robert start taking
her apart cause he is going to install my tow hitch my my base plate and all the towing stuff
so that i can flat toe miranda or tater tot behind miranda so i'm really excited he's getting after
it hopefully we've got all the parts we'll figure that out um uploading this video with some nomad
internet link below if you need some unlimited internet otherwise hope you guys are staying warm
there is some snow in the forecast i don't think tonight but possibly in the next couple days there
might be some snow and i got some fun christmas plans to share with you in my next video today
well for the next couple of days at least it is going to be a day to work on tater tots so
robert's already started to take off all the little plastic flaring pieces and he took off the
the front hood here so you can access these quarter panels that are all held in by
little clips and stuff you go get some more clips probably because some of these are a
little brittle because it's so cold out you got to take the tires off and then you know there's
just a bunch of stuff that has to be removed so that we can put the base plate right in there like
that so we're gonna get after it i appreciate your help robert we're gonna get her done
well it's been about three hours since uh robert started here on the car and there's
there's been some interesting twists and surprises along the way of course uh there's
also a the the base plate itself was actually bent so i'm going to work on that later but he's
he's working hard over there so i brought the fire from the backyard to the front yard so we are
going to be barrel bums i guess you might say to try to okay this is my first ever illinois winter
officially it's winter so i'm not used to this our high today was like
38 degrees and it's going to get down to the low 20s it's cold i wish i had a garage robert's
getting after it he's going to make quick work of this i think he also brought this 55-gallon
drum barrel from kansas city over here so it has found its new home here at base camp uh-huh
and we're putting that wood to good oh it feels so good that's so good so they it's hard to get
these nuts in there so they put the nuts on these little bendable wires you can see the end right
there and he's got to wedge him through there and try to get the part it's like really hard
careful oh i was staying a little too close to that thing there that butt got really warm
man horn well eric oh i love it it's a christmas wonderland out here i'm gonna be
so sad when i have to tear all this down i'm i love christmas so much i really really do
and spoiler alert my next video in two days on christmas eve it's going to be very very
christmassy i am sad that this year i'm actually not going to disney world i could
i just chose to take this year off i don't know it's not that i don't want to wear a mask all day
i will wear a mask all day it's just there's a lot of disney magic that's being held back
right now like no fireworks and parades and character greets and all that and i just
i didn't want to spoil it quite yet so just taking this year off but still going to have fun now it's
gotten dark so well we are doing our absolute best to stay warm yeah look at that burn barrel robert
is starting on the driver's side over here it wasn't hard he says but it was very very tedious
to get all of these nuts in with the wire inside there so and we still got to do the brake lights
kit and we got to do the manual brake system inside so this is easily going to be at least
a two day project but robert's going after it tonight to get as much done as we can
and uh we'll get a fresh start in the morning and then as sad as it sounds
right after christmas i gotta tear down my front yard and pack it up and put it in the shed
and wait till next year i'm probably not going to be back to base camp here for at least 10 months
i'm not going back this summer because i want to go explore in miranda miranda's
awesome i mean she's doing really really well so anyway we're gonna we're gonna stay here
robert's gonna work and i'm gonna feed him fuel yeah and keep him warm and we're gonna
see how far we get tonight all right all right i'll get back to you oh yeah queso on my chip
that's right worked really hard today so somebody worked really hard today it's beer 30. oh man
america oh yeah oh yeah so along with those uh adult barley pops we got food what'd you
get robert shrimp chorizo and mexican yeah nice i got the old chicken on the beach my my staple here
aren't too many places here in illinois uh willing to stay open so i'm kind of keeping this one
under the under the radar my hat looks weird this is my ear flap one that comes down and covers my
ears but it pops back up so yeah and get our grub on and celebrate because robert kicked butt today
always all right good afternoon we are well into day two here and uh
robert's been at it installing all these little components you know it may seem like something
easy because you're just gonna flat toe it anyway but there's a bunch of wiring and stuff and he
like the breakaway switch you have to do a battery disconnect on these smart cars because the battery
has to be turned off but you also have to power the supplemental braking system so you got to
run separate 12 volt back to the car and in the back i'll show you robert installed the kit that
i got that makes it so even when the battery is off we're going to be splicing into the existing
lights here so that the the brake lights and the turn signals and everything are going to
work on the car even though the battery is going to be turned off simply by what's going on in the
rv when we connect the power so it's all about simplifying this there's probably easier ways to
do this but you know i just want to make it as easy for me on the road so it's simple to just
disconnect or reconnect the car and not have to have auxiliary lights up here on on a magnet
and all that so we're doing it the right way you know because this is going to be the setup that
is going to work for me i i think i am getting a cold i have a sniffly no i know there's no
such thing as a cold anymore it's got to be the other thing no but i do have a runny nose so i'm
gonna make sure i drink lots of water and i'll get better i'll get better we got the fire over here
it's also been really cold and there's snow in the forecast tonight it's not gonna start till like
midnight or something like that so it'll be dark but maybe i can show you some snow
see gonna start putting the the front and back together here on tater tot i'm excited yeah and
probably once we get all this put back together i'll show you everything how it works this is
the patriot three blue ox brake controller so that when i apply the brakes and the rv this mechanical
looking device here is going to physically help you with the car and press the brakes of the car
it's really cool in some states you got to have something like that because they'll pull you
over and the state patrol they know what they're looking for so it's not really worth the risk i
know a lot of people are out there like i've been rving and towing a car for 20 years never had a
braking system well good for you i'm just i'm not going to take that chance so and plus it'll
help reduce wear on the brakes of the rv so it's a good thing it's going good man thanks it's going
good
do have to do some cutting into the smart car got to modify the front a little bit to fit
the breakaway cable and the brake switch and all those funky doohickeys but i messed up and maybe
it's my bad for not doing an inventory we knew we had some problems because with the missing parts
of the tow bracket kit but i actually bought the wrong receiver tow bar for the rv that you know
that actually connects to the car uh and we just realized it at the same time and went oops we're
not putting this on the rv tonight so uh i looked on amazon real quick and i got the blue ox model
that connects to these ends right here because the one i ordered i'll show you this is through road
master and it's a proprietary connection there much much different so that's my bad i messed
up but i fixed it but i'll send that one back get my money back and pay the difference because this
one's this one's 300 more for some reason but it's it's already all connected robert's just cleaning
up and then got to do the uh the the brake lights in the back a little bit more wiring cleanup but
it's coming along it's coming along looking forward to this snow it is supposed to snow
and look at the sky it looks like it wants to snow right yeah i think it's gonna be a
magical christmas here in illinois i have never in my life had a white christmas and
guys that's snow and we're just a couple days from christmas so yes i am very excited uh work went
really well today here on tater tot robert got the front all put back together on tater tot
got the clips in there right now uh everything's wired up in there except for the brake lights so
tomorrow we'll do the the brake lights you gotta do a little bit of stuff over there
we'll test it on out on the rv make sure it's working look at that snow isn't that awesome
i know guys i i'm 39 years old and i have never in my life seen a white christmas and that's
not for lack of trying remember that week i spent in gatlinburg pigeon forge last year
and then just rained non-stop so i gave up and went to florida instead well
we may actually see a nice dusting of snow when we wake up i'm so happy man it's the simple things in
life plus i don't have to drive in this stuff i'm just parked enjoying it i'm going to sit
in the hot tub we're just going to kind of chill here and have a little fire here by the house and
just kind of enjoy it so we'll cut back in tomorrow after we get this all finished up and
i'll show you how it works merry christmas y'all i'm on i'm on the computer i'm on the computer
well i know but i didn't i didn't build that cat bed for you right there so that
i was going to work i was going to do some editing on the computer
i love you though you're precious i'm glad that you're looking over my shoulder making
sure everything's working okay are you nuzzling it you're needing it aren't you i can see that yeah
i like that you're so close to me that works pretty good but i do have to get a few things
edited because i got the snow part in there to work on here you want to see the snow look look
that cool it's snowed do you want to see the snow in the morning want to see some
kitty snow in the morning okay we'll try it out but right now i'm going to work a little bit so
you could just be a cool cat cool cool cool
what i'm i wasn't done yet i'm still i'm still working on while i'm still working on stuff i
have the best cat in the world i'm pretty much convinced this is the best cat in the world
yes do a treat let's get a treat let's get a treat trade street streets
papa
it's still in my hand the kibble is in my hand quit putting your whole schnauzer in the bowl
i was just saying what a good boy you are
hey hey now you you with the cat face you with the cute face
yes winter wonderland here at uh base camp nomadic fanatic so happy i got to see white
christmas although temperature today is supposed to go up to 38 degrees so i don't know if this
dusting will even stay for the whole day but that's okay we got projects i'm gonna light the
fire back up and we'll finish up tater tot here and uh i'll get back with i'll get back to you in
a little bit here we got snow yes all right well it is the next day the snow has completely melted
and uh look at this we got the right tow bar here all right well that was super easy to
hook up there's our lighting system there's our breakaway for the brake kit that's inside
and the cables everything looks good and chained and off the ground uh what we basically do is
once we set up the brake controller i'm just going to put it in drive to extend these out till they
click in place and they are locked in place they can't retract until you pull this when you're done
so super easy for one person i'm going to set up the supplemental braking system all right got the
blue ox patriot three got it clamped around the brake pedal there i'm just gonna move the seat
forward a little bit and then we'll set this up let's make sure we got power here there we go
it is blinking ready for setup which means it's going to apply the desired amount of braking help
there it goes testing things out checking for pressure
in that cool and there are some fine tuning stuff that you can do i have a wireless remote control
up in the rv where i can do all this but we are not done because there is still a seven
step process so i was turning the key neutral and the battery disconnect button under there and
everything to make this work so i'll get through that i won't bore you with that part though okay
so a couple quick updates uh i was gonna like film some updates as i was driving it i i just i don't
know it's one of those things i just was super paranoid about even though i stopped i pulled
over and checked everything and i can see it on the camera just fine you just never know i mean
i don't know now i know how people feel who like have a truck vehicle and then they have a trailer
behind it that they're not inside you don't know what's rattling around that's how i feel
with tater tot on the back of the rv being pulled however i did get here to sean's shop just kind
of a little short jaunt away from the house so i'm parked and modified right now i already turned the
car back on and reverse the whole setting unhooked the car so tater tot is right outside the window
there and everything worked fine as long as you follow those procedures in the manual that seven
step process in the right order and give the dash the 30 seconds to turn off and leave the key in a
certain spot when you do the battery disconnect it sounds complicated but really it's just you got it
you got to do the right steps with the smart card every car is different some cars make you
stop every 30 minutes of travel or you can't ever exceed a speed of 55 miles an hour or something
like that uh the smart car can be towed unlimited in that condition once it's put into neutral so
i'm glad it all worked this was a really good test away from the house although
i haven't decided if i'm actually going to spend christmas away from home base
i've got it all decked out for christmas it's just jax and i but i do have family here in any
well i have new family here in east alton i have beloved friends and family here of this area which
i think i'd rather spend time with them while also giving them their time to be with their family
however we are going to do a me day for christmas in my next video and i want to share that with you
it's not disney it's actually not disney this year i'm taking 2020 off i think you'll like it
so merry christmas thanks for joining me moving on man this channel is growing and changing
every single day man and it's exciting it's really exciting so see in a couple days merry christmas
bye-bye
hey