Macca’s Useless Information: Elementary Logic

Read this in our online magazine here.

I was walking through the exhibits recently at a caravan show, minding my own business, not intending to eavesdrop when I heard a man’s voice say, “Your ball weight is too much”. Now I know it’s 2016 and we no longer bat an eyelid when we see two men holding hands, and I know I’m not a homophobe but a line like that at a caravan show? I turned to see two stereotypical hetero guys with a tow hitch between them (and they weren’t gazing longingly into each others eyes either).

I was mesmerised: I had to hear the rest of this conversation and I became that guy that loiters around trying not to seem like he’s listening into your private conversation. There was something about this situation that was doing my little head in and I wanted to know how the salesman was going to go about putting the customer’s mind at ease about this potential barrier to purchase.

The product was a camper trailer, it was a base model, with no kitchen at the back, no tool boxes on the front and a single axle. Now I spent enough hours in the school playground on the seesaw to understand that if you put the big kid on one end and the little kid on the other end it won’t work. But you can slide the big kid along (being careful not to get splinters in his bum) and get that kids’ playground equipment to work perfectly.

Now rocket science wasn’t my strong subject at school but seesaws were and it was troubling me that these guys couldn’t see what was in front of them: heavy stuff at the front=heavy ball weight; light stuff at the front=light ball weight… see a pattern forming?

Now opinions are like backsides: everyone has one and most of them stink, but this is mine: if you want to be a happy camper, find out what the ball weight is then work out what you are going to put where to get your RV sitting and towing how your vehicle likes it.