Wellll, it's home. still on the rental car hauler, and almost a ticket later, but we made it!
Packed up and left on saturday morning, drove the 400 or so miles with the empty trailer, no problem. except Dimitri (son) got sick on the way. by the time we got to Ft. Stockton, he was running a pretty good fever. this meant my wife was not going to be able to help me load the truck.
Part of what I was niavely trying to do was change the tires on it before I loaded it on the trailer, in the assumption that round tires roll better
I ended up spending the rest of saturday trying to change one tire. and trying to get teh other front rim off.
the one rim I did get off, someone in there brilliance had used a split rim that had been cut, and welded back together, so it is just a bit smaller than it should, 3 pry bars later, I gave up. that tire was flat on two sides, so I cut the old tire off completely.
it is now 8am sunday, the truck hasn't moved and I am due back that evening at 8 to unload it with some freinds to help. so I start working smart AND hard. I set up my hand winch on the trailer to the front axle. I put the rim back on the hub, set a steel pipe under it, bolted down the other rim I had been trying to remove, jacked up the back and sput the tires so the flat spot was not down on both at the same time, and began to load the trailer with the truck. the hand winch had 4 ft. of cable, so i winch the truck about 3 ft up the trailer, starp and chuck, reset the winch further up the trailer, winch, set, move, repeat....
4 hours later, the truck is on the bed. strapped down and ready to ride. it is now about 2:30 on sunday, I had meant to leave at noon... and we still needed to eat and load the rest of the parts... by 4:30 we were finally on the road home.. problem was the ball hitch trailer I had to rent was not too stable in the wind (it was gusting to 25 and 30 just east of Ft.Stockton) so I was limited to about 60 miles an hour, and the hills slowed me down even more. so the normaly, 5 and a half hour drive stretched into 7 hours.
In fredricksburg I got pulled over, it turns out that the marker bulb on the trailer burned or shorted out, got a warning (think that the load I was hauling had a hand in that) and had to drive the rest of the way with the flashers on.
got home at 11:30, determined I was too tired to even try and figure out how to get the truck back off the trailer. so it will wait till this afternoon.
Pictures of the loaded truck forhtcoming, and probably some of the un-loading... none of the loading as I was alone for that part.
-Mike R.
I finally have it home!!!
I had a flat while trying to get the thing lined up with my driveway... and in the process of changing the tire (thank goodness for 15 ton floor jacks!) I bent the cheapy trailer stand by the ball hitch... teach me to rent a cheap trailer... anyway.. Gus is now proudly sitting in my driveway here in roud rock texas. IH35 South to Sam Bass rd. right on meadows... (first street after train tracks) it's in the driveway, so hard to miss!