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