The long, LONG, trailer Lucille Ball movie is one of the best and I could just
imagine the weight of that trailer! Highly improbably the they made it up those hills with the transmission in THAT convertible for the
entire movie??!!
My wife and I made a costly (if not dangerous) decision in Martinsville, Va. to
take a short cut(long ago...) up the side of a "hill" with our venerable '95 Suburban pulling
our 25' Airstream (5,500 lbs when loaded on the truck scale alone). Had the
standard big-block gas engine with tow package in the Sub, and had always gone up that hill easily to the summit (sans trailer, mind you...) but when we approached that fork in the road opted (w/o blinking an eye) to go the SAME
shortcut (instead of through town...) with trailer in tow. This was barely a
two-lane road, keep in mind, but negotiable with the Airstream. We just forgot how steep it actually was. She powered up like a tiger until about half way
when the clutches in the trans overheated and disengaged at the mid point.
So, there we were on a very steep incline, my wife looking down her side of
the "hill" w/o a safety rail, and me trying to figure out if I could BACK DOWN
the next 1/2 mile of curvy road. The dog was getting pretty anxious too
including me especially with the noxious smell (then) of burning clutches starting to make it into the cabin. I left the engine running, trans in neutral,
hoping the ploy would calm things down. Lo and behold, the clutches must have cooled after 20 minutes of this and after a test gear engagement(1st gear only...) they
took hold and I was gingerly able to make the rest of the grade and onto our
destination as if nothing wrong had happened. If somebody had come down
that very road when we were stopped they wouldn't have been able to pass us...that's how narrow this road was. That's the last time I'll ever tackle
that steep an incline with that kind of weight. Granted, the trans. had about
100,000 miles on it and it gave up the ghost the next day, when we were in
Martinsville, unhooked, shopping. Lucky for us, Martinsville is a racing town and all the dealers have excellent auto parts stocks. The local GM dealer gave us a great install price on a new transmission and we were able to continue the trip in a timely manner after visiting our son-in-law and our daughter. BUT, lesson to be learned, longer is better many a time when driving with that kind of setup vs. taking any kind of short cut unless you are SURE you know how steep it's going to be and certainly don't rely on old(quirky) driving habits,ever!
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