retmil46
Full Access Member
Well, just got back to SA from 2 weeks in NC back on Friday. The reason for the trip was not pleasant - my 73 year old father's long history of health problems finally took their ultimate toll, and he passed away on Aug 12th.
Day after the funeral, the mail carrier delivered a recall letter from the Freightliner Cleveland NC plant, offering my previous job back that I got laid off from 2 1/2 years ago. This would give me the opportunity to be back in NC to help my mother settle all the affairs over the next few month's from my father's passing, and reoccupy my adjacent land and house that's already paid for - plus, my present job here in SA was going away on Oct 1st anyway, and I'll be starting back at Freightliner with my previous seniority and pay.
Passing strange, I'd given HR my address here in SA back in June, but the letter ended up being addressed to my parent's house in NC. Sounds like someone upstairs knew where that letter needed to go.
So, here over the next couple weeks I'll be packing up and heading back to NC. Fortunately, when I moved down to SA back in '09, I only brought what fit into the CRD - even at that, it was packed like a sardine tin. I've checked out U-Haul to try and rent one of their small Sport trailers, about 60 cu ft, which would probably hold better than 3/4 of my goods - but U-Haul is claiming the smallest trailer they have available is a 4 X 8 - not too keen on learning on the fly for the first time how to tow a trailer that's nearly as large as the KJ.
Given that I just need some extra room so I don't have to map out how to pack the KJ like I'm planning for the D-Day invasion, I opted for one of these -
http://www.stowaway2.com/store/p/575-StowAway-Hitch-Rack-Swingaway-Frame.aspx
Store in my hometown in NC had one of these swingaway cargo racks on display. I got it off them for a reasonable price so they could get it out of their inventory, and had it on the KJ for the drive down so I could get used to driving with it and make any needed adjustments ahead of time. Neat thing is I can swing it out of the way to get to the spare if need be and still be able to open the rear cargo door.
Rack size is 53" by 25". Now the question is, which of the advertised cargo bags would be a good value and work well with this rack? Right now I'm leaning towards either a Highland or Carpod (both 13 cu ft) or one of the large etrailer bags (20 cu ft).
Anyone have any experience or comments on a suitable cargo bag?
My friend up in Austin had another suggestion - that I could get a cheap plastic lockable truck bed tool box at Wally World and bolt it to the rack - but the biggest version I've been able to find on line is only 6 cu ft.
Anyone have any comments or suggestions on this option as well?
Day after the funeral, the mail carrier delivered a recall letter from the Freightliner Cleveland NC plant, offering my previous job back that I got laid off from 2 1/2 years ago. This would give me the opportunity to be back in NC to help my mother settle all the affairs over the next few month's from my father's passing, and reoccupy my adjacent land and house that's already paid for - plus, my present job here in SA was going away on Oct 1st anyway, and I'll be starting back at Freightliner with my previous seniority and pay.
Passing strange, I'd given HR my address here in SA back in June, but the letter ended up being addressed to my parent's house in NC. Sounds like someone upstairs knew where that letter needed to go.
So, here over the next couple weeks I'll be packing up and heading back to NC. Fortunately, when I moved down to SA back in '09, I only brought what fit into the CRD - even at that, it was packed like a sardine tin. I've checked out U-Haul to try and rent one of their small Sport trailers, about 60 cu ft, which would probably hold better than 3/4 of my goods - but U-Haul is claiming the smallest trailer they have available is a 4 X 8 - not too keen on learning on the fly for the first time how to tow a trailer that's nearly as large as the KJ.
Given that I just need some extra room so I don't have to map out how to pack the KJ like I'm planning for the D-Day invasion, I opted for one of these -
http://www.stowaway2.com/store/p/575-StowAway-Hitch-Rack-Swingaway-Frame.aspx
Store in my hometown in NC had one of these swingaway cargo racks on display. I got it off them for a reasonable price so they could get it out of their inventory, and had it on the KJ for the drive down so I could get used to driving with it and make any needed adjustments ahead of time. Neat thing is I can swing it out of the way to get to the spare if need be and still be able to open the rear cargo door.
Rack size is 53" by 25". Now the question is, which of the advertised cargo bags would be a good value and work well with this rack? Right now I'm leaning towards either a Highland or Carpod (both 13 cu ft) or one of the large etrailer bags (20 cu ft).
Anyone have any experience or comments on a suitable cargo bag?
My friend up in Austin had another suggestion - that I could get a cheap plastic lockable truck bed tool box at Wally World and bolt it to the rack - but the biggest version I've been able to find on line is only 6 cu ft.
Anyone have any comments or suggestions on this option as well?
