Roadtrip to VictoriaVille

I volunteered my time and my Grand Vitara to help friends go pick up a trailer in Victoriaville since I have a trailer hitch.  So first I had to pick them up in Verdun and I figured I'd take St Patrick to de l'Eglise, except I forgot that if I'm not careful, when St Patrick splits up I end up on Clement and not where I want to be. I found my way and was heading towards my friends place, found de l'Eglise but didn't realize it was one-way at that point and turned on to it the wrong way. I noticed it right away and stopped. I was honked at! I turned into a gas station and found my way to my friends house.

We drove to Victoriaville no problem. We found the place that was selling the trailer, my friend decided it was fine and bought it. We backed up the truck to attach it, that was no problem. Then we plugged in the electrical wire to make the lights on the trailer work and that's when the fun started. 

Right away, the brake lights stopped working.  I knew they worked before. The hazards were still working. But the thing that stunned everyone is that the gear shifter stopped working as well. That stumped us all. After a few google attempts on my android, I had figured out that it was possible the brake lights not coming on and a locked gear shifter might be related.  I also looked on the truck and found that there was a by-pass. We had to remove a little knob and stick some form of screw driver in the hole to get to shift in gear. 

So we figured that it was probably a blown fuse and so we had seen a Canadian tire and went there to get fuses. We realized at that point the trailer would not have lights but we would make due. We had not left the driveway 5 minutes that we get stopped by the local police of Victoriaville. I was not driving at the time, because I have no experience driving with a trailer. When the police asked who's vehicle it was, I offered all my papers, which he saw where in order unlike the plate on the trailer. 

He was very nice. He told us we needed papers for the trailer, we told him we just bought it, gave him the address and phone number of the person we bought it from etc.  He didn't give us a ticket but said we might get one in the mail. I guess at that point he felt sorry, he figured we might have just been swindled and we were just going to Canadian tire to get my tuck working again. We told him connecting the trailer blew stuff on my truck. If he had wanted to be a prick he would have given me a  48 hours to get it fixed.  

We picked up a mixed box of fuses at Canadian tire, but the problem was finding the fuse box on the Grand Vitara. I googled it and it said it was under the dash on the driver side. I looked, both of my friends looked, no luck. In the end we decided to take the trailer to Stukely minus the brake lights working on my truck - with the trailer no one would notice and it was best to get trailer there in daylight. 

We took side roads which means thankfully we were not stopped by any other police.  My friends dad even looked for the fusebox and he was really perplexed. Eventually my friend figured it out, it was exactly where google said it would be. We had to change 2 fuses, one for the brake lights, one for the gear shifter. After that everything worked perfectly again, and we drove back to Montreal in the dark with all the lights working and not having to by-pass the gear shifter manually. 

Now my friend has a trailer to go to festivals and sell all sorts of  yummy food in an Octopus Garden in the shade :) 

So that was my Sunday adventure. Left at a bit past 10am, got home around 11:15 PM, my gf who moved to New Brunswick was coming back for the week and she arrived at my place an hour before I did.