Yes Sports Fans...
its another "Adventures in Saving Spridgets" episode...
3 weeks ago, I drove my new (well, new to me) Dodge dually (thanks Elmo) 1
ton on a biz trip thru St. Louis, Tulsa, Dallas, and ending up in Phoenix.
That Fri., the lovely Veronica flew into Phoenix to meet me , and we headed
off to San Diego... arriving at Jacques place in the early evening. There,
waiting for us, was the newly purchased Red Rat II on my new little single
axle open trailer. Also included in the deal was a truck load of spares. We
all went out for a good greasy burger, and Veronica and I stayed at Casa de
Clainches (Jacques home) for the night. (Thank you Jacques for your
hospitality.)
We were up and out the door somewhere near 6 Am, as the return trip from San
Diego, CA to Lake Villa, IL was going to take three hard days of driving. We
ended up the night in Albuquerque. Up bright and early, we set out again, on
a route that parallels old Rt. 66. The little trailer and Sprite tub were
all but invisible behind the bigass dually. (In keeping with my penchant for
naming vehicles, the truck's named "Duallyville", since its big enough to
have its own zipcode...) Anyway, we're motoring along, somewhaere between 75
to 80 mph. Remember that scene in National Lampoon's Vacation where they tie
the dog to the bumper and forget about it? I'm headin' down the highyway,
and something black catches my eye in the passenger side mirror. I pull over
to investigate, and it turns out the trailer tire is shredded, and the wheel
is ground down almost to the hub. Yikes!. (Felt fine from where I was
sittin'...)
So, of course my brother's plea of "you're gonna take tools with ya, aren't
ya"? is ringing in my head, as I look into the tool box that came with the
trailer. No jack. No lugwrench. But, I do know there's a decent spare as
Jacques aired it up, and I'd tosssed it into the back of the truck. The
Dodge's bottle jack sufficiently raises the trailer... but the lack of
trailer sized lug wrench is gonna be an issue. Picture me standing at the
side of the New Mexico interstate, holding the truck lug wrench and pointing
to it as cars go by. (I'm sure they all thought if they'd stop they were
going to get clubbed liek a baby seal..).
Luckily a state trooper pulls up. He checks me out, surveys the situation. I
ask if we can try his lug wrench, which works. Yee hah!. We'll be back on
the road soon. Ummm... no. Toss the spare up there, and its a 14", wrong
bolt pattern, and even the center won't clear the hub. F**k! So, next
thought is, I'll drop the trailer, and drive into Tucumcarie, get a spare,
and get it all back together. Since my padlock didn't fit thru the safety of
the hitch, I'd asked Jacques to tighten down the 1/4" bolt & nut combo he
had on there. This is a point where a nyloc threaded on a good inch is gonna
be a problem. The tropper paws around in the squad, and we come up with a
pair of needle and a Leathurman's pliars set. We manage to finnally get the
nut unthreaded, get the trailer free from the truck, and head off for our
most excellent adventure 20 miles away in Tumcumcarie, NM.
Stay tuned... part 2 to follow...
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