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Old 08-26-2014, 11:53 AM   #1
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"Situations" you've gotten into while towing

It seems every trip is a learning experience. While I'm fortunate to be married to a man who is very good at towing, and remains cool, calm and collected when issues pop up (I'm like the chickens in the Claymation movie "Chicken Run" when the panic button is pushed) this last trip put us in a situation that took his towing expertise and know how to a new level for me;

We were in Arden, NC for a business commitment. The company was located deep in a "holler" business park. The warehouse offices were not numbered so we passed it up. We found ourselves in a *tight* gravel parking lot which was situated on a steep slope/incline.

IMPRESSED, I was, that when we were attempting to back Buffy up a slope on a gravel/loose rock surface and the wheels began to slip/spin on the rocks, Sneak dropped 'er down into 4X4, stayed totally calm and with lots of small forward and back adjustments, smoothly worked us out of there.

(yeah, I needed a few minutes to run back into the 5er for a change of clothes)

The only reaction I got from him was "sure glad I opted for the 4 wheel drive when I bought this truck" spoken quietly with a grin as we pulled back onto the blacktop.

OK, you all's turn. What tight spots have you wound up in while towing these behemoths?
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:05 PM   #2
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Maybe "sneak" should jump over a seat and let you take the reins once n awhile maybe you won't be "so uptight" [emoji16]

Ms amy drove down the hi way pulling the 36' sabre like a pro on the way home from goshen! [emoji106]


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Old 08-26-2014, 12:08 PM   #3
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:11 PM   #4
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........ Navigation error..... gets blamed on the Navigator ....


A pilot will always 'fly' through the flak.... it is up to the Navigator to make sure that he flies around the flak


There has been more than one time that I said.... Thank-you Lord for the 4X4....
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:16 PM   #5
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Most any situation you are capable of getting yourself into, you are capable of getting yourself out of. Some times you just gotta stop and think.

I don't worry about much, but the wife lives her life based on the idea that if you don't worry hard enough, something bad will happen. 26 years, and she still hasn't learned to just calm down and stop freaking out, and I will handle it.

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Old 08-26-2014, 12:29 PM   #6
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Turbs,

I *DID* drive coming home from this trip! I towed the V-Lite *ONCE* before we traded it in on the 5er and that was heart attack inducing.

When we hit the LA state line coming back from this trip I took the wheel and drove it from there on in to just outside our home town. It was 11 PM, (he'd been driving several hours, was feeling a bit of fatigue) lights everywhere and with all of the off/on ramps and interchanges I didn't feel I was ready for that, first time behind the wheel.

I gotta say, towing the 5er was a DREAM compared to towing the V-Lite. It feels and moves like one unit. No buffeting as the big boys came by (nope, I didn't get over 65 MPH...towed at 60MPH most of the way) and no "unstable" feeling when hitting the short/flat bridges that seem to come up every 5 miles or so on that stretch across the delta.

When I towed the V-Lite he took a nap. This time I said NO NAP! You gotta co-pilot! He says my only issue is that I tend to stay too far right in my lane. Explained, in detail, the reason you don't want to hang too close to that white line and what happens if you drop off the edge, as well as the correct way to recover from it.

He's very patient, very detailed; a good teacher.

He graciously offered to have me drive that run from Pigeon Forge up to OC's place in NC. yeah, right sharp curves, steep inclines, steep down hills, and TUNNELS! He had switched to manual part of the way and the engine brake was doin' its job....loudly I might add.


"are you sure you don't want to drive?"

"I've never been more sure of something in my entire life honey, you're doing GREAT....carry on"


I'll get there....baby steps...not ready for prime time yet.
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If age is a state of mind, and I've lost my mind, I'm AGELESS, right?
Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around:
Flagstaff 5er 2014 8528 IKWS, Platinum Package, Regency Interior "Buffy"
F250 Super Duty 2013 Tuxedo Black "Biff"
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:30 PM   #7
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Not a camper story but a snowmobile trailer situation. Staying at a house in Pittsburg NH with a very steep access road followed by an even steeper driveway. I knew I had to keep momentum to make it, and going from road to the driveway required a sweeping right turn that was all snow and ice covered.

Well, I got to within 20' of the top of the driveway and that was it, 4 tires spinning and we started to slide backwards. Was able to get front tires caught up in the snowpack on the side of the road to actually stop. At this point there was almost no room to turn around, I had no chains, no sand, or any other traction support etc.

Ended up doing what must have been a 19 point turn to get the truck at 90 degrees to the road w/o losing the trailer too deep into the woods off the side of the road (I couldn't disconnect the trailer else it would have sailed down the road a 100 yards before inevitably finding a tree).

Once at 90, I had DW push the nose of the truck by hand and she was able slide the truck the rest of the way so I was facing down the road again (as I said, it was all basically ice at this point)

Made it on attempt #2 with a little more speed but that right turn was pretty hairy with a snowmobile trailer fishtailing behind me!
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:32 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by f1100turbo View Post
...Ms amy drove down the hi way pulling the 36' sabre like a pro on the way home from goshen!TURBS
She had too, you were passed out and she did as she normally does, takes responsibility and gets the job done while her "child" sleeps. Poor Ms. Amy and her 6 "kids".

Note to Ms. Amy: Meet us in Trenton Thurs and you can come back to NC with us and live the life of a princess. You can even use Mardy's house while he's in Alaska. Furnished with a motorcycle and Caddy.
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:41 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by Brother Les View Post
........ Navigation error..... gets blamed on the Navigator ....


A pilot will always 'fly' through the flak.... it is up to the Navigator to make sure that he flies around the flak


There has been more than one time that I said.... Thank-you Lord for the 4X4....
(chuckle) Speaking of navigation....yeah, that's my job, but the stupid app we used took us parallel to the PF "strip"....10PM, first day of the trip, and we're on a two lane, DARK road, NO shoulders, lots of curves....

GOOSE GAP ROAD

Saw the small print on our park reservations later; DO NOT follow directions given by mapquest or google maps.

DUH

right about then we remembered (OC's CRS is contagious) that we called them last year for better directions

We were both wondering which curve we'd come around to see a low overpass/bridge. Fortunately NO bridges! ***

At one point we looked at each other and laughed; Yep, we wanted adventure, this is an adventure!

*** I *have* seen Sneak do a three point turn on a two lane road (cow pastures on each side) when we took a wrong turn in Hot Springs, AR last year, with the V-Lite. That one was NOT my fault....I told him to take a left. He didn't listen.

Not the navigator's fault if the pilot usurps the navigator's authority.

Sometimes I think he prefers flying thru the flak. I prefer not to even have flak to begin with.
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Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around:
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F250 Super Duty 2013 Tuxedo Black "Biff"
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:44 PM   #10
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Sooooo On the way to Goshen, I planned a stopover at a KOA in Jeffernsonville IN, just over the Ohio River from Louisville (Plan being I was gonna take 6 Actual to some of the local attractions)

Well the GPS got us to the exit on I65 and was routing us along what looked to be a pretty sketchy route. Turned down this one >narrow< road with the GPS claiming the KOA was only .2 Miles away...

Come around a sharp bend and *STOP* where did this "10' Low Bridge" come from?! Sure enough you could look through the underpass and make out the KOA sign...but NO WAY (we need 12'8"!)

Remember I said >NARROW< road

Well about that time a car came under the underpass and the driver had a familiar Yellow shirt on - turns out the KOA mnager was on a bank run.

She said "I'll get you to the KOA um, when you turn your rig around...and pulled ahead and waited"

I waived the cars behind me around and backed the Bear Cave up about 100' (yeah backing around that curve was fun...not LOL) to an area of the road that I could do a 12-ish point turn

After about 12 min of patient back and forth turning (and watching the mounting traffic jam) We got her turned around! Waving to the stream of cars as they went down the now-opened road was a measure of success I must say LOL

Off to the KOA we went - this time without any low bridges in our way!

W*H*E*W
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:44 PM   #11
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OK, force, my hat's off to ya! ICE? Towing? Steep incline?

I absolutely have a deep appreciation for those of you who tow these monsters, keep calm and figure it out.

Smart thinking on having the Navigator do "adjustments".
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Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around:
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F250 Super Duty 2013 Tuxedo Black "Biff"
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:50 PM   #12
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We got LOTS of laughs out of my iphone's GPS during this trip. Somehow (innocent look) my phone's GPS got switched to *WALKING* instead of driving.

53 miles=six days, 14 hours

walk 70 feet and turn right

t'was a hoot!
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If age is a state of mind, and I've lost my mind, I'm AGELESS, right?
Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around:
Flagstaff 5er 2014 8528 IKWS, Platinum Package, Regency Interior "Buffy"
F250 Super Duty 2013 Tuxedo Black "Biff"
Days camped 2014: 30
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Old 08-26-2014, 12:55 PM   #13
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...(I couldn't disconnect the trailer else it would have sailed down the road a 100 yards before inevitably finding a tree)...
No way to chock it?

I haven't had too many issues. I've had quite a few "Well that didn't work the way I planned, let me pull it out and try again" situations, mostly backing into my own driveway.

The only situation I can think of where I was almost stuck though was at a campground that I had to use a dump station that was set up where you dumped and then drove into the seasonal section of the park to turn around before going back past the dump station on the way out (though now on the passenger side of the rig).

Well, back in those tight corners, I tried to take one turn but in my avoidance of the flower pots and fences on my right, I put the trailer into a track that would have collided with a truck parked on my right. I'm now in an almost jack-knife, can't go forward, and she wouldn't go backwards the way she came kind of situation.

Thankfully, the owner of the truck was in his trailer and came out to move it forward so I could get around him. Though with choice enough words that I cemented my decision not to return to that particular campground. (It wasn't the only reason, there were many others, but it just added another one at the end of a bad weekend.)
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Old 08-26-2014, 01:58 PM   #14
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Yup. Early on with a rented C class wanted to go to Como Lake near Chapleau. The road comes out to Hwy 101 so we went that way as it looked faster. After getting on Esher-Healy road we found the road getting narrower and less easy to follow. We ended up on a massive granite outcropping and could see nothing but sky out the front window. I got out and had a look. The space was so narrow I could not turn the vehicle around to go back so standing on the brakes all the way down, down we went. The road teed on to a flat gravel road. Flat as a pancake with no potholes. The only issue was that the undergrowth was hitting the side of the vehicle.

We finally made it and found out we should have taken the road from the town of Chapleau. The camp owner was surprised we made it down the granite face. So were we.
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Old 08-26-2014, 02:43 PM   #15
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[QUOTE=Kaadk;688122]No way to chock it?

Good question. I wasn't carrying wheel chocks at that time, and with 4' of snow on the ground I couldn't exactly scrounge up a log or rock or something.

I now carry chocks, rope, chains, and two sets of "tow-truck-in-a-box" (as seen on TV!) anytime I hook that trailer to my truck. A bag of kitty litter or sand on top of that and I should be as stuck-proof as I can get. <knocks on wood>
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Old 08-26-2014, 03:25 PM   #16
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I exited the freeway for lunch and headed to a fast food place that I knew had wide parking. After making the first turn in the parking lot I realized I was wrong or confused about the wide parking area. I had to back up the TT while missing parked cars on either side and also behind me. I couldn't see behind me so I used the GOAL approach but was getting dizzy with jumping out to check so many times. A lot of people watched but no one offered to help. I finally made it out of the parking area and headed back to the freeway without lunch.
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Old 08-26-2014, 03:39 PM   #17
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Yup. Early on with a rented C class wanted to go to Como Lake near Chapleau. The road comes out to Hwy 101 so we went that way as it looked faster. After getting on Esher-Healy road we found the road getting narrower and less easy to follow. We ended up on a massive granite outcropping and could see nothing but sky out the front window. I got out and had a look. The space was so narrow I could not turn the vehicle around to go back so standing on the brakes all the way down, down we went. The road teed on to a flat gravel road. Flat as a pancake with no potholes. The only issue was that the undergrowth was hitting the side of the vehicle.

We finally made it and found out we should have taken the road from the town of Chapleau. The camp owner was surprised we made it down the granite face. So were we.
You actually reminded me of another situation I was in, though unrelated to towing. A colleague and I were working a project over in Dingolfing, Germany. Heading out for dinner one night, he was driving and after turning one corner, we found ourselves at the top of a set of stairs. Since the place we were looking for was at the bottom of the stairs, my colleague decided to just drive down the stairs!

We went down these a little Mercedes A class:
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Later on, we found out the white circle with the red trim meant 'no cars allowed'.
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Old 08-26-2014, 03:51 PM   #18
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Before I got the current towhauler I just used a enclosed 20 trailer and had a make shift camper with a bed, heater, and garage. We were going to a new riding area, and we always camp on utility roads where were allowed and hardly even go to a camp ground. I prefer it that way. It's just us, no annoying people around. Well I turned down the road that we thought was the one on our map. Went about 2 miles down it and it dead ended with no turn around. Just a utility access road about 10 feet wide with larger trees all around.

All I could do was laugh. Buddy looked and me and said a few words I can't repeat. It took me about 30 minutes to back up the winding hulking access road. That's about the worst I can think of
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Old 08-26-2014, 04:33 PM   #19
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We were in Texas and were heading to a COE campground on Sam Rayburn Lake. EITHER I input the GPS coordinates incorrectly, or they were incorrect on the COE website (I prefer to think the latter was the case). We got so far down a narrow gravel road and found two houses side-by-side. It appeared that nobody was home at the first one. At the second, a pregnant woman with 5 little boys (all in shorts, but no shirts or shoes) and 6 or 7 dogs that looked like they were all put together out of spare parts greeted us. The woman had no idea where the LAKE was, much less the campground. I called the Corps and tried to tell them where we were, to no avail. Their best advice: Go find a road with a NAME on it and call them back, and they would try to help.

I managed to get the Windjammer jackknifed and backed 90 degrees into the yard between the two houses, with the woman's permission - but I'm not sure it was HER yard. As we left - accompanied by the shrieks of all the little shirtless boys, Yvonne said she could swear she heard the banjo music from Deliverance playing somewhere in the distance.
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Old 08-26-2014, 04:39 PM   #20
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You actually reminded me of another situation I was in, though unrelated to towing. A colleague and I were working a project over in Dingolfing, Germany. Heading out for dinner one night, he was driving and after turning one corner, we found ourselves at the top of a set of stairs. Since the place we were looking for was at the bottom of the stairs, my colleague decided to just drive down the stairs!

We went down these a little Mercedes A class:
Attachment 61504

Later on, we found out the white circle with the red trim meant 'no cars allowed'.
Now THAT's funny. How many times do they do that scene in movies, where somebody drives their car down a flight of stone steps, usually somewhere in Europe?

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