[TheForge] Demo trip

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Well after Philp got such a response from her demo trip letters I thought I
would give it a go.

I was going to Arrow Rock for their visoting artist program.  All summer
each weekend they bring in two artists to demonstrate as a tourist draw for
the town.  I usually do two weekends each summer.  They pay me to come and I
can sell my stuff to the tourists.  Usually a pretty good program.

Well with my truck loaded down and all my forging equipment on a trailer in
tow.  It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive and about half way there I noticed that
when ever I hit a dip in the road the trailer would buck.  I've had this
happen before when I didn't have enough tongue weight, so I just thought
that I needed to do a better job of balancing on the way home. When we got
there I was shocked to see that my rear bumper had broken nearly through and
the hitch was only a couple inches off of the pavement. My wife and I are
very thankful that it didn't break all the way and send the trailer into the
ditch or oncomming traffic.

I have a friend in the area that's a welder but I couldn't get ahold of him.
So after demoing all day in the 102Deg heat we left the trailer and
equipment in Arrow Rock and headed for home.  Jan was going home any way to
milk  the goats, but I usually stay with the equipment.

After looking through my stock/scrap piles I decided to go with 3" "I" beam
for the new bumper.  The only really hard part was getting the old bumper
off, you know the drill, heat the nuts and then try to get them off without
burning myself or having hot rust fall in my face.  I finally got smart and
used the angle grinder with a cut off wheel to hack the bumper to pieces so
I could get to the bolts from the top.  I didn't have any other problems but
it took me until 12:30 to get it built and put on.

Sunday's demo was worse than Saturdays, it was 103Deg and the tourists just
ran from their Air conditioned cars to the AC stores. Some slowed down to
tell me that it was hot, no kidding!

The trip home and madden voyage for the new bumper and hitch went without an
incident.  I inspected it on Monday and all the welds held so I think it
will probably out last the truck.  A 92 Mazda with 240K on it, and they
weren't easy miles always towing or hauling heavy loads.

Bob Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo