Sometimes the questions are better than the stories !

 

For the overhead crane to roll on. The crane lift is operated with a 6.5 hp engine.
A new alternator was installed on the diesel engine that powered the re-saw machine, after 45 minutes it caught on fire.

 

That would be quite a load to make a corner with! Did any road signs die on this trip?

 

I have read this a couple times, you say 26' of beams and 24' of them hanging of the trailer. How long were they?

 

Uh, by my rough math skills, that's 50' beams...

:P

 

Worst pull out I have ever done was a dodge Dakota recovery on the way to work, all I had was my 60' slingshot recovery strap, at the start the guy was about 40' off of the freeway and I had a state trooper that stopped traffic so I could extract him, as I was stretched across 3 lanes of traffic a truck came screaming through and drove over my strap, the only thing that saved us was the fact he was still down in the ditch and the strap was pulled tight across the roadway, nowadays they don't allow you to pull out stuck motorists if they show up... unless you are a wrecker with the needed warning lights, although up north we still follow the leave nobody out there in bad weather. Having pulled several loaded and unloaded trucks out of harms way with my "old" F250 I am impressed... when the chips are down it never failed to deliver. I am sure the 2k+ in tools had a lot to do with the traction... along with extreme duty studded snow tires.

 

Actually no signs were damaged. Had it been a bumper pull instead of a gooseneck I bet at least 1 sign would have been hit. The beams were 50' long. 26' on the trailer, 24' hanging off.

 

2 stories here.
#1,

Pulling behind my 01 Explorer Sport a single axle utility trailer about 20 ft long from Oregon to Tennessee and back (moving my son's stuff from Tennessee to Oregon where he's currently attending OSU) well, loaded up the trailer, tarped it down and off we go. I'm driving and hit the interstate when OH ****!! the trailer starts wagging the dog once I hit about 45 mph (tongue weight was so light, I could lift it with 1 finger) .

OK, WTF to do.. either find something heavy to put on the tongue of the trailer or re-arrange the load. Well after packing the load like it was, no way did I want to have to undo everything move it all around and still not be sure of the tongue weight.

Got off the freeway and started taking side roads, looking up on line (smart phones) where I can buy something heavy to weight the tongue down when we drive past a state highway dump (concrete) and find the PERFECT chuck of concrete, about 5 ft long and 10" square. It's all my son and I could do to pick it up. Well, we got it on the tongue of the trailer right where it meets the flatbed part, tied it down good and OFF we go, with the "Arkansas Stabilizing Bar" as part of the new load, doing it's job to perfection.

Story #2
I have a 92 F150 reg cab short bed 4x4.. Fun pickup to drive. Any how I was headed to Vallejo California in it, when I it starts puking out transmission fluid badly. Well I stop, get some more fluid and crawl under it dumping it into the transmission. I get about another 100 miles, add more fluid and continue on my trip. I'm about 100 miles from Vallejo, all out of fluid, no light etc when the transmission starts growling. Aw crap well, not much I can do now, keep on going and hope it makes it. Nope, I'm about 60 miles and BANG something lets go and I have NO forward gears at all. I call a tow truck, wait an hour and he finally shows up, loading my busted F150 onto the back. I make it to Vallejo finally and unload the pickup at my mother in law's house. Well it sits there for about 9 months in her yard while I figure out what to do with it.

I've bought a 2012 Ram 2500 CrewCab 4x4 with Cummins since in the time since it died, and figure that I'll either rent a trailer, loading the F150 onto it and tow it back to Oregon. Checking U Haul they want 375.00.. hmm there has to be something cheaper, wait a minute my brother has a tow bar that I can borrow. So the next time I'm in Oregon, I borrow it and take it back with me. I pull the bumper off the F150 and bolt the tow bar onto it, and off we go flat towing the F150 (hubs out, transfer case in neutral). I tow it to Sacramento where I'm living at the time and the next morning my wife and I head out, up I5 to Oregon.

My Ram 2500 tows the F150 behind it like it's not even there, over hill and over dale headed up the I5. Well I almost get to Oregon when I notice smoke coming from under my F150.

I pull over and look under the F150, the entire tail shaft of the transfer case has busted off. (figure out later that a u-joint seized up, got hot and self destructed taking the transfer case with it when it broke) Well ****, what to do. I have my tools with me, so crawl back under it to remove the drive shaft from the rear differential, but it won't budge. Next idea, hammer out the rear u-joint. It works great, but I smash my thumb not once, but twice getting it out. Well, I get it out and head on up the road, where a month or so later my brother gets a used transmission and transfer case into it, and my son's driving it now as his daily driver.

pic of transfer case


busted U joint that took out the transfer case

 

My only one....back in high school was pulling my buddy's three wheeler to our cabin on my snowmobile trailer. I made the mistake of nit checking his tie down job. About 40 mikes into the trip the trailer tilted (he forgot to latch it!) and just as I got it to the shoulder the straps broke sending the wheeler into the weeds! After quite a tumble the only damage was slightly bent handle bars!

 

A couple of others I have seen....earlier this summer my neighbor towed their new 40' park model trailer 300 miles with his Toyota Tundra!

A few years back while on a snowmobile trip to Michigan's UP I saw a guy with a pretty sweet double deck 6 place trailer (12 in all)...being pulled by a RANGER!

 

Back in 2008 my wife and I were towing my 28 foot enclosed car hauler from Wisconsin to Southern Indiana to pick up some furniture. Just west of Normal, IL, we ran into freezing rain. One second I am driving down the road at 60 MPH, the next second my trailer is heading right and the truck is heading left. We were across both lanes of traffic and both shoulders! I was able to gather it all back into one lane (by luck or skill, still don't know) so we proceeded down the shoulder at 5 MPH for about 1 hour until we could get off of the freeway and find a room for the night. We spent the night in the worst, creepiest, ugliest motel we had ever seen.

We still laugh about it.

 

Great stuff!

 

I hate that i didn't snap a photo but the other day at home depot i saw someone loading 16 ft 2x6s on a 6 foot trailer....If that wasnt bad enough the hitch was way too high so the boards were about 3 inches from the ground at the end...

 

I used to work for a guy installing docks on the coast here in Maine. I had very little experience towing but I could back up and he said that was all that mattered. He had two trucks a 03 cclb 6.0 diesel and a brand new 6.7 f550 flat bed designed strictly for towing. Anyways we had two floats and ramps to deliver about 45 minutes away in a town called damriscotta. He asked which truck I wanted and the 350 was way more comfortable so I took that one. He then hooked up to a 30 foot boat trailer with a float on it and a ramp strapped to the float. I had occassionally towed a 5x10 trailer so this was a bit intimidating. I think it measured around 53 feet long. Anyway we get there and the driveway is half a mile long and basically a goat path with trees on both sides. It took me I bet 30 minutes to drive in there. Finally unload and on the way back out I see the trailer has a flat. He says keep going it'll be fine. I learned a lot about towing that day the hard way and wished I took the 550 with the shorter wheel base. A week later same trailer had his 24 or 26 foot carolina skiff on it. We launched and the job took longer so we couldn't load the boat from low tide. He said take the 550 home with trailer I will go by boat. So I am driving feeling pretty cool towing a big trailer in a new truck when I see a tire rolling next to me. I think "huh that's kinda odd" cars swerving tire falls over in incoming lane and I realized it was off the trailer lol. Grab the tire and go back on three wheels. When they repaired the flat apparently they didn't tighten the lug nuts. They may not seem like great stories but I love towing and do every single day now. It adds a unique challenge to driving

 

I love stories too.. Great stuff!