Where is my trailer?

[Gene]

In another post today I mentioned that I would share a funny story, of course it was not too funny when it happened but it is a good story.

I bought a used 38' diesel pusher moho in 2004 and a new 20' Hallmark enclosed trailer to haul my sand car. My kids came up to visit for Spring Break and we loaded up and headed for Winchester Bay. The selected route was I-5 south to Eugene, 126 West for Florence then 101 south to Winchester Bay.

After driving west on 126 we got to Mapleton and turned left headed for the coast. A river flows along to the left and at points is very close to the road. We drove around a corner where an active lumber mill was located and everything was good. All that's there now is a flat lot that you can see in the picture below.

The lumber mill was served by rail and the railroad tracks crossed 126 on a diagonal, as represented by the red line in the picture. The rail runs on the north side of the road and a spur crossed the road so you have that picture, right?

We are mohoing along at about 60 MPH and we cross the tracks. The moho does the normal thing softly pitching front to back and I think little of it, in fact, I think nothing of it at all.

About 2 miles down the road some lady drives up beside me franticly pointing back with her hand. I think to myself, "what the hell could she want" and look in my mirror - only to see that I do not have a trailer anymore. At this point the river is just to my left and I feel really sick and my kids are beginning to freak.

I quickly pull over, run to the rear only to confirm that the trailer is AWOL! Jump back in the moho, 3 point u-turn and black smoke like hell to go find my stuff. I was sure I'd see it floaing by on its way to the Pacific Ocean, uninsured. Hell, I only just licensed the trailer for the trip!

Imagine going back and finding that your trailer - in fact the entire tow hitch assembly - had torn free of its moho frame mounts on the rail crossing and decided to play SLOT CAR!

Yes, my friends! My trailer played slot car and ran down the diagonal tracks to the switch along side the north side of the road - where it stopped - UPRIGHT! The trailer was connected to the hitch with chains still hanging! The hitch assembly dropped into the track groove crossing the road and played like a slot car! Minor trailer damage - car tied down inside trailer with one strap loose.

My daughters were screaming, afraid that a train was coming and would scrape our stuff along the tracks or just smah it to smithereens. Thank Gawd there was no train that day!

AAA Plus is a wonderful thing and I used it that day. Snatching the trailer wasn't too difficult so off we went to an RV shop in Florence. The shop discovered that the hitch had been installed improperly. The hitch was too narrow for the frame so some fabribrainiac decided that some 3/16 angle iron was the perfect solution, probably along with some grade 1 bolts.

So I had a new hitch installed, bought a used Banshee and spent the night at the RV shop in the fenced yard so our adventure could continue the next day. Luckily for me it began raining and that minimized another match with dunebuggy death.

So that's my story! See you at the sand my friends!

[plkracer]

Damn, that must have felt scary when you looked back. We had a friend who lost their camper on the bridge crossing the columbia at vantage. The thing tipped over and blocked traffic for 3 hours.

[busasandrail]

Damb.... that must have been a site to see.
Gene you have no luck when it comes to duning. *
hopefully 2008 will be a better year for ya.

[plkracer]

I hope so too. I want to see his car in action. Somehow I always go when there are no minibuggies around. My uncle went later last year and there were a couple at sand lake. BTW, what was the used banshee for? Did one of your toys get destroyed?

[Gene]

I bought the Banshee for the kids and for when the car breaks, as it did again and again. then I bought a nicer Banshee for me so my son and I could quad together. He sorta went negative on the whole thing this past year after a few crashes. I have not ridden mine since breaking my back at St. Anthony summer of 06.

Both of them need minor repair. I decided that first I had to finish the car - that became an obsession that keeps me going. I need to put the car in the trailer and the quads in the garage to perform the work. Seriously considering building a shop in my back yard to solve the space problem.

[rowycoracing]

Good story. *I guess we all have one. *I borrowed a home made flat bed trailer from a friend by the name of Larry. *He always bragged at work about what a great fabricator he was. *I never inspected his work, just hooked upithe hitch and took off. *I was on the way to pick up a tractor so at this point the trailer was empty. *I came across a bridge doing about 55 mph and when I went over the expansion joints on the other side the trailer came free. *It went directly into the oncoming lane and a car was headed right for it head on but luckily it kept drifting left and went off the side of the road, dug the remainder of the tounge into the dirt, stood straight up in the air and hovered there for a second, then went on over and landed flat bed side down. *When I stopped and went around to the back of my truck to look the entire hitch assembly was still attached to my truck along with both chains. *All the welds where he had attached the hitch assembly were broken as were the welds that were supposed to hold the safety chains to the tounge. *Just a bunch of weld snot remained with zero penetration. *I recovered the trailer, ground out all the welds on the whole thing, rewelded every one of them, repainted it and then took it directly back to his house and parked it. *Expert fabricator my azz! *I rented a trailer the following weekend and used that to go get the tractor.

[JetTech]

I had something like that happen to me driving through the hills of Tennesse right around Ashville, NC/ Tennesse Boarder. Only I had my brand new Snap On Tool box on the back. I lost a wheel because the bearing ceazed up right on the spindle and snapped it off. The wheel flew off with the hub and all. The tool box stayed strapped down though thank god.

[renegadespec1]

When we went to SYRACUNT I had a strap break on the buggy...I was following luke, We stopped for gas and the front tires of the buggy were off the trailer...it was hung up on the battery box that I didn't build Never felt a thing in the crappy brown jeep Sometimes you just luck out