Northern Virginia Roll Call

Random tidbit of information I thought I would share. Whenever I'm looking for weather at Flagpole Knob, I triangulate its location with stations from Weather Underground to have the best chance at an accurate forecast.

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/va/hinton/KVAHINTO6

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/wv/brandywine/KWVBRAND7

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/wv/sugar-grove/KWVSUGAR3

 

You camping out this weekend?

 

I'm on the fence. We (COVA Overland) are hosting a meetup on Saturday, but there's also the Toyota Takeover at Rausch up in PA that I want to go to. A close easy trail and hanging out with good friends or a further, more technical (and enjoyable) trail with people I'm not as good of friends with. It's going to come down to weather, I'll make a decision in a couple of days. As of now it's supposed to rain at Flagpole and be nice in PA, so I'm leaning towards PA.

 

I saw that and had a friend from your area who was planning on camping with your group, it's not too far from me, would be great to see ya there but totally get hitting nicer weather.

 

I was thinking about a new small sticker, thoughts?

 

Nerve racking dropping the truck off to someone else.. also weird not having a truck for the moment

 

Nice! Would love a new NoVA sticker to put on the new truck (if I ever get said truck).

 

Who was this?

 

I need the correct grill for mine:

 

Pay attention if you are outside your truck up near Flagpole. Especially if you have a dog with you. I have seen 3 rattlesnakes either dead in the road or crossing the road in the last week and a half on the road between Flagpole knob and Reddish knob.

 

I will be transferring to Norfolk in October and look forward to hitting some trails. My buddy is already out there with a green SR5 on kings and GFC.

 

So my BiL picked up a 7 pin RV plug outlet for his wife's and my wife/his sister's VW Atlas' (they're rated to tow 5K)...but in true VW fashion they don't include this essential piece of the street legal towing.
Anyways, I hooked it up in her VW and went to test it with the camper trailer, since it now has backup lights. Well the brake/tail/turn functions worked, but the backup lights didn't turn on when it was in reverse.
Hooked it up to the Taco, boom backup lights came on. Now I'm looking into a 7/4 pin plug tester, but figured I'd see if anyone had thoughts or other ways of diagnosing the root cause?

 

Hope you have a smooth relocation!

 

That 7th pin isn't always a reverse light. You could save money and test it with a multi-meter or test light. In my 30+ years of experience with VWs I would look at the owner's manual. The Germans like to do things differently. Not only that, but towing in Europe is a little different than here.

Even with the V6, I'd be hesitant to tow 5k pounds with that Atlas. Just my pennies.

 

thanks bro!

 

Yeah, I looked at the plug at the dealer when we were buying it (they do the online parts thing like Toyota). They use the Pollack plug which is what we got, and it ID's the center as backup, but what your saying is those Deutsch engineer minds likely wired the harness/female end differently?!

Also figured since I have some fired 12v wiring that needs replacing, I'll just plug it into my SiL Atlas...plus my FiL has a multimeter.

RE: towing...it'll never see anything heavier than the camper trailer, or the utility trailer loaded for a trash center run, so maybe 2k max.
My in-laws have used my utility trailer with her VW to pull their golf cart to camp grounds and say it pulls great.

 

Is the wiring on the VW end even wired for a 7-pin? Or is the t-harness only built for a flat-four and you're just using an adaptor? I'm missing some vital information here. I have so many suggestions of what the issue could be, but I could probably narrow it down if I had more information.

 

I'm assuming you purchased this? VW Trailer Hitch 7-Pin Connector | VW Accessories Shop

 

Anyone need LCA skids for their 3rd gen taco? I have a set brand new from Victory 4x4. You can have them for $100.

 

thats a good deal! I’m already running the R4T skids