On one of my trips down to Bloomington to work on the boat I had the tires on the trailer replaced and I checked the wiring. I didn't know much about trailers and these seemed to be sufficient to make the trailer safe to tow... boy was I wrong.
I convinced a co-worker of mine who owns an Chevy 2500 to drive down with me and tow the boat back to Chicago; she agreed and we left at 6AM on a Saturday to make the trip. Upon arrival in Bloomington in the pouring rain my world quickly came crashing down around me. My coworker informed me of some rather serious safety concerns: 1) the trailer coupler was old and had had now way of locking into position on the ball of the truck. 2) The chains were old, rusted and the shackles didn't look very safe. 3) the icing in the cake came with the trailer wiring and brakes.
I made another trip down a week later determined to resolve all of these issues. I ground off the old coupler and installed a brand new bolt on coupler capable of towing 15,000 lbs. I installed new chains and replaced all of the wiring and even the trailer lights. To be doubly safe I even installed a breakaway box for safety should the worst occur. It is now essentially a new trailer with the exception of the brakes and bearings. I setup for a professional transporter to meet me on out at the boat before starting the haul. Unfortunately he blew the transmission on his truck and couldn't make it out for a few more days... so much for seeing the boat off safely.
Two days later I got a call from the transporter, he was at the boat ready to haul but had some concerns. He felt that the boat was sitting too far back on the trailer and that there was insufficent tongue weight to safely haul the boat... not another problem! I headed back down to bloomington to once again resolve a problem with the trailer, I've now officially spent more time working on the trailer than on the boat and was just beginning.
Down in Bloomington I hired a second larger crane to lift the boat and place her forward on the trailer. At the last minute the crane operator called to tell me he wasn't comfortable making the lift and declined the job. I was able however to get in touch with another local who would be happy to launch the boat at a local boat ramp where we could then pull her further up on the trailer. The plan went off well and we moved the boat nearly two feet forward, the tongue weight was perfect and I was all set to once again haul the boat up to her waiting dock in Chicago.
After calling up my transporter to setup another date I was dismayed to find out that he could no longer tow my boat since he was in tennessee working on a job and could not commit to a date to return. This is when the stubborn part of my personality kicked in... I got off of the phone and made a few calls to rent a truck to do it myself. As a note, I've never towed anything and can count on one hand the number of times I've driven anything bigger than a Chevy Malibu, I am completely un-qualified to tow a 7400# boat and 1500# trailer.
When renting the truck I was careful to get the total replacement insurance... better be safe than sorry especially when you are playing so far out of your own league. My wife and I left on a friday night and slept in the truck about half way down to bloomington. Upon our arrival at sunrise we found one of the brand spanking new tires on the trailer was flat. Luckily everything was under warranty and a truck came out for free to make the fix. We were finally off and I quickly learned the ropes of hauling such a large load up and down the valley roads.
I finally got to the highway and was excited that the winding roads were behind me and nothing but interstates and major highways was ahead... easy driving! At least that's what I hoped, about thirty seconds into the highway leg of the trip I learned quite a bit about towing things. I felt the steering wheel getting a bit squirley and looked in the side mirrors... I could see the rudder of the boat swinging back and forth! The boat was fishtailing probably 5 feet to either side at 50mph... this was not safe. I somehow managed to keep control of the truck and trailer and promptly pulled off of the highway. Here I am in the middle of nowhere completely outclassed by my own inexperience and the very large load I was hauling.
There was only one option open to us... go slow... very slow. We switched to back roads to take us back home along US41 where there was no speed minimum and the road was very straight and led directly to burnham harbor. The journey went from a 60mph, 5 hour trip to a 30mph 10 hour crawl to Chicago. After 10 hours of white knuckles we were finally in Chicago. The clouds literally parted and the sun came out as we pulled into Burnham harbor...
No comments:
Post a Comment