So, lets say you have the carousel all folded up, as a trailer, and I'm nowhere to be found.
Use the trailer jacks to elevate, pull the truck away, unload all the camp stuff.
First thing to do to get more room on the deck is unfold the sides. They pivot down, and have braces that land on pegs on the bottom of the side-trusses. Disconnect the diagonal chains from the catwalk on both sides, and take off any straps etc. holding them up, and fold them down in teams of two, so you can wiggle the brace sticks until they go over the angled pegs. The step unit folds down, too, and is held in place with two 1/2" fast-pins. Once you've got that done, unload all crap from the deck, and remove the wheels and braces and railings from under the fore-deck. Put the gangplank into place - it pins to its hinges on the port side.
The railings are partially attached at the front, the back railings come off completely and roll up, and they're all stored under the foredeck. You string them along and slip the posts into their holes. They have a long bolt sticking out the bottom, which goes thru the wood and steel along the perimeter - a 1/2" nut on the bottom tightens them up. They are a little funky to say the least, but still there. Leave off installing the port-aft railing, as it gets in the way of moving the mixer, and will be done later.
The side braces go on now, too - they are diagonals that brace the side-decks to the trusses. They have two bolts thru the side panel, and one bolt crossways on tabs at the trusses. Easiest way is to put in the bottom bolt and swing up the brace, and bang in the two side-bolts. There are 4 braces in all. Labels help. Refresh if illegible.
Now we can put on the wheels. At the front, lower the winch, dropping the trailering frame until the hubs are aligned with the wheel centers, slip them on, and fasten a few lug nuts. Then keep dropping the winch until it can be disconnected. The trailering frame then can come out - first disconnect the trailer wiring plug, and then pull the pins & out it comes.
Side wheels bolt on - they are a little trickier. What works best is a come-a-long from the catwalk, with a strap thru the deck-sidedeck slot, and hooked to the sideplate of the wheel assembly. Hoist it up, and walk the wheel back and forth to get into place, and bolt it on. 4 bolts at the bottom, 2 at the top is plenty. Connect the air lines.
Also, lower the rear wheels. They are held up with a strap. Leave the car on jack stands until the air system is filled up.
OK, what's next? Fold down the stage sides. They drop down onto frames on either side. One person on a strap to lower them, a person on a ladder (or the truckbed) to help slow them down as they crash into place.
Then, on either side, lower the speaker tray and the equipment tray. There are some pins, turnbuckles & chains to deal with to secure them. Generator and air compressor go on the eqpt tray, you can plug them in & hook 'em up and start filling the air tank. Strap them down if you will be driving. Fold down the propane tray (by the driver's platform) at the same time and secure.
Now we need to clear the stage. It's usually loaded with speakers, drumkit, and the awning, although lately the awning has been traveling on the deck. The awning can stay, but pull the truck around, and transfer all of the onstage stuff to the back of it.
Next, get the mixer into position. It rolls out and around the horses along the port side. It barely fits so a person has to walk along with it on the ground. It straps down to the end of the deck, at the corner of the stage. Now you can put the port aft railing on.
OK, we're ready to raise the masts. Go up the catwalk with two people, with another person on the fore-deck. Get the platform ladder in place on the deck, between the horses, so you can reach the pivot of the mast to put in the big 3/4" pin. You'll want a hammer and a big crescent wrench. The people up on the catwalk free up any tangled lines, take off transport straps, until the fore-mast is free to come up. Make sure the block and fall is loose and untangled. Get everyone ready, it's a heave up, to get it going, it gets easier quickly. I've done it by myself, so it's a one-viking job in a pinch. But I don't recommend it. The mast will balance once it is up, wiggle it around a little while the person below puts the pin in & secures it. Once this mast is up, straighten & untangle and we'll be ready to bring up the aft mast. Move the ladder, get everyone ready.
This mast is a little more difficult, because you can't reach it to get it started going up. I use the prop pole, that supports it during transport, to push up from the stage, while another person uses the block and fall to the foremast to take bites and hold it while the pole-pusher gets reset. Once it's up a bit, the block and fall takes over and finally you can do the last bit standing on the catwalk. Basically, someone pushes from below, while someone hauls from the front, until it gets up enough for the person on the catwalk to stabilize it while the pin goes in from below.
Now, lets put the horse topper-ladders in place - they will have hoses, usually, tied to them, so they are matched up with the right horse. They sleeve into the horse poles. They are a little difficult. It helps to have someone guide the topper into the pole hole - while someone else, or a couple someone elses, keeps it straight up and down, it gets easier after you do it a few times. Then bolt them into place. 3/4" wrenches.
OK. Whew. Now we should install the horse lifting apparatus - they are cables with chains to attach to the horse crank-arms, to make lifting the horses & catwalk easier. There are two sets, they go from the masts down to the horse arms on either side, using chain-binders to connect. Tie off the chain-binders so they can't unlock when the chain goes slack.
I think we're done up here. Let's raise the catwalk.
OK. Everyone / everything comes down from the catwalk. Go around and disconnect the chain-stays fore & aft, and the chain ladder, and the side cables,. Check all around that there are no dangly lines caught up anywhere. Watch the aft / starboard chain especially, it catches on the throttle and the brake brackets. Go around to all the horses and loose the clamp bolts in their chest with a 3/4" wrench. Don't touch the socket cap screws. Wiggle / twist each horse to make sure they can move.
Install the strap-winch handles on the lower masts. Slowly crank up the masts, watching for binding, sometimes you have to stop & wiggle a horse as they bind & squeal. Lift them up from the ass, it will free the pole and it will free up. Also, the winches go at different rates - one has more strap then the other - so watch the progress of the masts, not counting turns, but watching for relatively equal movement fore and aft. Best to have a spotter with a side-view, who can coordinate the crankers. It goes up a ways. Watch for a hole to appear in the pin-hole beneath the winch as the mast goes up. When you see that hole, that is up. Wiggle/bang a pin through there when up. Yay!
Attach the fore-aft catwalk brace chains. Have someone look at ship from the sides and the front to make sure the masts are straight up and downish. Then attach the diagonal cables to the sidebraces - they make an x over the stairs / gangplank. Hook up the catwalk to gangplank block and falls. Hook up all the hemp lines. Hook up the chainladder.
Go around to each horse, and look up at the crank arm, rotate the horses til the crank is perpendicular, and tighten the chest bolts.
Climb up the chainladder, disconnect the horse-lifters, let the chains dangle and take the chainbinders down and store them in the toolbox.
Now is the time to run all the rigging. First though, we set up the stage awning. It's an assemblage of two crossbars-n-legs, a longer set for the front, and shorter set for the back. The front ones are round tube. It's all rolled up in the shadecloth, wrapped with its ropes. Drag it up to the stage, unwrap it all and spread it out. The legs will fold out, and are all pre-rigged with their lines. Start with the back. It's a two person job on the stage, with another person on a ladder below ready to clip in the lines. Make sure there is plenty slack in the awning and heave up the back crossbar by pushing up on the legs. The legs will land on pegs on either side, the lines clip into the arms sticking out at the back of the stage, and the rear railing. The longer wrope goes to the arm. Then move to the front, and do the same - this time one line clips into an eyebolt on the stage perimeter, and one to the deck, for each leg. Tension lines adjust as necessary to trim things up. They use a trucker hitch in the line to adjust. You want a little room between the chain ladder and the foreward edge of the awning so people can get by.
With that secure, we can run the rigging. Get the platform ladder, the ball lights, and the flags up onto the catwalk. Position the ladder aft of the foremast, climb up and un-wrap all the hemp lines from their cleats. You'll see colored paint on the clip ends, that'll help you figure out where they go. On either side, one line goes to the foredeck, where the brace chain ties in, and one goes to the aft side-brace. Just toss them into place loosely, because the catwalk still needs to go up. One additional line goes forward, to the forestay. Oh yeah, better put that into place. It slips into the forward tube at the very front of the ship.
Now run the rope, flags, and forward ball light line out to the foremast, and secure to the fleur-de-lis on the mast. They are all just clip hooks. They will be hanging quite low around the front horse. The rest of the ball light string will be strung to the aft mast. But, get its lines all freed up first.
Each side of the aft mast has three lines - a line to the forward side-brace, a line to the aft chain termination, and a line to the rear awning poles. The line to the awning poles has a metal ring on it - it slips over the stage pole, and then the line is clipped to the rear arm, same place as the awning line.
While we've got the ladder at the aft mast, run a 3-outlet extension cord up from below, and tie it off with about a 3' tail to the fleur de lis. Then run the ball light strand from the foremast aft, and clip it in. You'll have two more ball light strands to run - over the awning - they clip to the forestrand, all the plugs terminate here at this connection, make sure they are secure, use tape or knots or something. They unplug from wind slap. Gently toss the lines down over the awning and secure them to the aft stage braces, same ring over tube technology as the hemp lines. Plug them in, test them to see if enough of them survived.
Now it's time to install the speakers, connect the sound gear, set up the drumkit, run a few stage lights, mic everything while Dan sets up the fire system.