Your towing tales - CDL & non

[tea&jam]

I don't have any of my own (yet), so to kick it off, here's one from a buddy who is a goat farmer:

100F, on a Sunday in rural Missouri hauling 50 pregnant goats, 1991 F250 goes into limp mode. "Just disconnect the battery terminals and reset the ECU."
After the 4th time doing that, the transmission finally gives up the ghost. Stuck in 2nd, they drive it into the nearest town, and miraculously find someone who fixes it.
Pulling out of town, one of the trailer axles breaks, they chain the 2 halves up and do a u-turn. A guy who knows a guy who works on axles, takes pity on the goats and they are back on the road Monday morning. Made it back with all 50 goats.
Also, during the trip they parked uphill, and snapped the shifter rod getting it out of Park...

 

[sgtsmmiii]

Dang - hard to beat that.

 

[chevy_man]

I hooked up to the trailer today, pulled the 305e on, chained it down, drove 40 miles, and parked it.

Turns out, if you take care of shit that's how 99% of the stories go. The other 1% is generally "damn, I bet that tire cap made it 150' in the air!" And then you put the spare on.

Side note, when hauling a mini excavator you have a really quick hydraulic jack when chained to the deck appropriately. Coupled with the big M18 1/2" impact and it's a 10 minute or less adventure.

 

[The D]

I have a crazy story that’s sort of related.

Several years ago a group of my friends were helping someone move. We were loading up a long enclosed trailer from a storage unit. The layout of the storage place meant the truck/trailer had to take two 90* turns, making a U, to the unit. There was an exit gate at the end of the row that the truck was going to leave from, but... It was the weekend and there wasn’t anyone available to open this gate. Our friend called the number of the storage place but it only went to a phone in the entrance gate, that was empty because nobody works in the gate on the weekend. So everyone starts brainstorming on how to get out. Nobody wanted to try to break the exit gate at our row(that we had to pull the front of the truck right up to, to empty the unit), for obvious reasons. The final solution ended up being that everyone would try their hand at backing the truck/trailer out of the storage unit property. This was also a crew cab, long bed F350 and the trailer was long enough to fit an old mustang that the owner towed to car shows. Nobody had any success, or wanted to get that frustrated trying. I was stubborn enough to give it a real shot and with the help of a few spotters managed to back this fucking monstrosity around three 90* turns, out of the storage unit rows and back into the street.

 

[tea&jam]

I've got a crick in my neck after that story

 

[ACW39]

Not the same, but this made me remember an incident back in college with a tow truck driver. So, I had new tires put on my roush mustang and as I was on my way to football practice after picking it up, my rear driver wheel came off. The tire shop didn’t put the lug nuts back on properly and now here I am with my wheel rolling down the road. Once I figured out what the hell happened and retrieve my wheel, I called a tow truck and the idiot who comes to pick up my car places a cable under my front bumper to pull it onto the bed of the tow truck. Problem with this is that the cable cuts through the bumper like a hot knife in butter. At this point I’m pissed, but I’ll deal with it once we get to the dealer as I have the tire shop and now the tow truck company to deal with.

Upon getting to the dealer this idiot backs into a spot that has a new Shelby in the spot behind it. As he tilts the bed to let the car down he hits the release on the cable and my car rolls back and slams into the Shelby. Best part about it, he tried to blame me to his boss. At this point my roommate is keeping me from losing it on him. Thankfully the dealer had film of it and was able to talk to the tow company and let them know their driver was at fault. They did fix what they messed up, along with the tire company, but it has to be the worst example of towing I’ve witnessed.

 

[mercracing]

@Geno C. any tales from driving truck?

 

[Expert684]

Loaned my dozer to a buddy, went pick it up blew out one of the tires. Didn’t want to jack the trailer and the dozer, pulled into an empty parking lot, off loaded the dozer, chained the trailer to the blade, lifted the trailer, swapped tire reloaded the dozer, then hit the road. Took a whole 15 min. And didn’t break a sweat.

 

[264win]

Buddy and I are on a long windy two lane leading up to a mountain pass, we catch up to an old Ford towing a big cattle trailer that is fully loaded. Every time he hits a bump, there is a big cloud of cow piss mist that comes off the back, so we are staying way back and laughing. About 10 minutes in a red BMW with the top down flies past us and right up to the bumper of the trailer. Next bump in the road, That cloud of mist settled all over that car and the couple in it. It’s hard to describe their reaction, but the two of us were laughing so hard we pulled over for 5-10 minutes

 

[Geno C.]

@Geno C. any tales from driving truck?

Most of mine are from the summer lol

 

[memtb]

I don't have any of my own (yet), so to kick it off, here's one from a buddy who is a goat farmer:

100F, on a Sunday in rural Missouri hauling 50 pregnant goats, 1991 F250 goes into limp mode. "Just disconnect the battery terminals and reset the ECU."
After the 4th time doing that, the transmission finally gives up the ghost. Stuck in 2nd, they drive it into the nearest town, and miraculously find someone who fixes it.
Pulling out of town, one of the trailer axles breaks, they chain the 2 halves up and do a u-turn. A guy who knows a guy who works on axles, takes pity on the goats and they are back on the road Monday morning. Made it back with all 50 goats.
Also, during the trip they parked uphill, and snapped the shifter rod getting it out of Park...

My wife and I were Owner/Operators for a brief time and have been towing rv’s since the 70’s. I could write a book on misadventures!

Our most recent road trip which started out to see my family 1700 miles away, which for various reasons I hadn’t seen in 3 years. The visit turned into a marathon trip, towing a 20K pound 5 th wheel, covering a bit over 5,000 miles in 9 travel days of the 13 day getaway! . Actually because of a truck issue, we only covered a little over 100 miles one day.

The other 4 quality days tacked on an additional 400 or so miles ( no camper) visiting family, and attending 2 HS baseball games watching my grandsons play. During some downtime, got 2 of 6 5th wheel tires replaced, and a headlight replacement. Somewhere during that 13 days .....I did get a little sleep!

Believe it or not, that may be one of our less exciting trips!

Those kind of trips are for younger men.....not a worn out 68 year old! memtb

 

[The King]

I was hooking up my new Airstream in Nebraska. I was looking every direction waiting to get ambushed by the “Fresh DNA” sniffing females that I always fucking run into in Nebraska and Idaho.

The 40 year old guy who sold it to me went on some 10 minute crazy fucking rant about how his mom wouldn’t let him have a girlfriend.

Then he left for work. As I was securing shit inside the trailer a girl shows up. Smoking hot. She lets me know she just started college, and that everyone on the ranch had left for the day, and would I like to see her room?

I did a literal ninja cartwheel backflip into the cab of my truck and drove the fuck off.

To this day I still don’t know if the half a sentence I tossed her way for her pregnant. Them trailer trash seedlings are more fertile than the average Quinceanara party.

 

[S197]

We had tankers running west into Oregon i believe. A local farmer decided to move his combine in the middle of the night on a two lane highway. He had no permits, no chase vehicle, no wide load markers and had his lights off on the truck and trailer to avoid detection. Our first truck ran into the back of the trailer 10-20 minutes later our second truck ran into them. The first truck recorder showed no abrupt braking or steering the second showed both. The only survivor was the farmer who later apologized for moving the equipment at night. He did not have the funds to pay for the permits to moving the equipment a few hundred yards up the road to the rest of his land.

 

[S197]

I don't have any of my own (yet), so to kick it off, here's one from a buddy who is a goat farmer:

100F, on a Sunday in rural Missouri hauling 50 pregnant goats, 1991 F250 goes into limp mode. "Just disconnect the battery terminals and reset the ECU."
After the 4th time doing that, the transmission finally gives up the ghost. Stuck in 2nd, they drive it into the nearest town, and miraculously find someone who fixes it.
Pulling out of town, one of the trailer axles breaks, they chain the 2 halves up and do a u-turn. A guy who knows a guy who works on axles, takes pity on the goats and they are back on the road Monday morning. Made it back with all 50 goats.
Also, during the trip they parked uphill, and snapped the shifter rod getting it out of Park...

Pre trip, pre trip, pre trip.
mid trip
post trip
check your lug nuts for signs of movement and threads for stretching
Carry oil, distilled water, fifth wheel grease, spare fuses, light bulbs.

 

[TxWelder35]

Hauling my 20’ deck over goodseneck the other day, doing 80, 10 over, not going slow.

was at a 2 lane section of the hwy going down to 1 lane due to construction. I’m in the right lane, with the orange barrels making me merge left. Guy in a brand new Titan is coming up on me at well over 100 trying to get past me. I see him in the mirror, I have no choice to get over or I’m hitting the barrels. Guy in the titan gets to test how well his brakes work. He just about nails the back corner of my trailer starts skidding, fishtailing, etc. he manages to keep it on the road after I’m sure staining his britches and that brand new seat with shit and piss. Approximately 1 mile later one of my trailer tire treads desides it doesn’t want to tire anymore and launches itself at the titan behind me.

sorry bout ya bud.

 

[jmp1]

I hooked up to the trailer today, pulled the 305e on, chained it down, drove 40 miles, and parked it.

Turns out, if you take care of shit that's how 99% of the stories go. The other 1% is generally "damn, I bet that tire cap made it 150' in the air!" And then you put the spare on.

Side note, when hauling a mini excavator you have a really quick hydraulic jack when chained to the deck appropriately. Coupled with the big M18 1/2" impact and it's a 10 minute or less adventure.

This is a fact!! Things can happen anytime........but way less if you take care of your shit!!

 

[Aftermath]

Self move from TX panhandle to home...ID panhandle.
Just a couple weeks before move, replace transmission in Dodge 2500 Quad-cab diesel.
About 250 miles into trip, U-Haul trailer blows passenger front tire. Call/wait for U-Haul authorized flat tire repair guy. I point out and take pics of damaged fender from blow out. Guy says above his pay grade. I point out the other tire is showing threads. Guy says it looks bad but he only has the one tire/wheel combo.
About 75 miles, other tire blows, I see the brand new tire is also showing extreme wear. I call/wait for the same dumbshit to show up. he replaces the flat, this time with zero help from me. I point out the brand new tire with 75 miles has worn excessively. Guy says it looks bad. I say it is due to bad alignment and U-Haul should arrange to meet me soon with replacement trailer. I call U-haul and say such.
I drive about 300 miles, first repair blows out, tread separates. I call/wait for dude. Different dude. While waiting, other tire "pops" audibly and goes flat. New dude shows up about 2 minutes later, now pissed because I only said one bad.
He comes back with second. Calmer. I tell him the whole story. Ask him to have U-haul meet me somewhere with new trailer, He calls, no dice.
I drive about 300 miles......
I do this shit for about 2000 miles. 8 days. Think I'm pissed?
I get to Idaho....unload, take the trailer to U-haul....they want to charge me extra time out......
Think I'm pissed?
I tell local guy, who I happen to have known since grade school, my entire ordeal. He can see all the data on U-Haul computer. Now he's pissed. He ends up getting my all of my money returned and a voucher with no expiration for $2,000.
No longer as pissed, still pissed, been over 10 years.

 

[Jackjam]

When I first started on the railroad I drove a dump truck pulling a flat bed trailer with a 20k lb backhoe on it all the way (an hour interstate) to the yard in the middle of a major city. Morning traffic. When I got there a buddy said hey come here and look at this.

Walked to back of the truck and he asked “did you open this pintle hitch when you got here?” I was like ummm nope. Oops. Lucky day, lesson learned.

 

[Jackjam]

Second dumb thing. Bought a new f250 a couple years ago and installed a b&w gooseneck hitch. Hooked up my trailer and was so excited to try it out. Got 5 min down the road and thought to myself did I latch the ball? Pulled over, nope not latched. Latched it, kept on going. Few miles later thought to myself, did I tighten those side plate bolts (b&w people should know the bolts) got out checked. Nope finger right.

Turned around drive home. Went over everything. Luckily nothing happened.

 

[rtB]

I tried to tow a fat chick once. Only once. I swear only once. Ok maybe thrice.

 

[Bryan W M]

Rented a dingo with trailer had to drive 35 miles home . Get 1 mile from house on gravel tire blows . No spare in trailer. Call rental place they tell me it’s on me to fix it..... I’m pissed I drag the bitch the last mile home. Take care of the work I need to do. Put the tire and dingo in the bed of my 350 and take it back to town. Friend and I are splitting the rental cost and both doing small stuff with it.
We unloaded it in the ditch and I take tire to rental place.
They again say the tire repair is on me. I take them outside and show them the tires on the other 2 rental trailer are shit. They fix it for free. I go back to get trailer . When I take everything back they try to put the tire on the bill.
After an hour evening is free.
I now check and take pictures of all trailer tires on rental trailers.

 

[hino895]

You all wouldn’t make it as a tractor trailer driver.

 

[rjacobs]

Not me, I shockingly havent really had any issues towing, but im anal about my equipment and pre-trip stuff...

My buddy's dad owned a dirt moving company for 30+ years... big equipment...lots of work. Always used semi trucks with low boys and pro drivers to deliver and pickup their equipment from jobs... Things slow down in 2010 or 2011 with big equipment so they decide to buy a skid steer and start doing smaller jobs. They buy the skid steer, nice 12k lb bumper pull trailer, used diesel F250(all they had before was F150's cause no need for something bigger), etc... First day out, buddies dad is driving the truck/trailer, gets to job site, parks facing downhill. Buddy tells his old man "might not want to park downhill, its muddy"... old man says "i been doing this shit 30 years I know what I am doing"... My buddy gets out, stands about 30 yards away, watches his old man back the skid steer off the trailer, and just as the skid steer starts to come off the trailer the weight shifts, ass end of truck now has no weight on it, trailer now missing 9k lbs of skid steer, truck and trailer start to slide in the mud down the hill. My buddy said the whole rig slid 100 or so yards down the hill before coming to a stop... He said he just looked at his old man(who was strapped into the skid steer and couldnt do shit...well except probably shit his pants) and said something like "told you not to park down hill"...

 

[Jackjam]

You all wouldn’t make it as a tractor trailer driver.

You are definitely right about that. Those tractor trailer drivers a rare breed...

 

[Porksboy]

Put a reciever hitch on the front of your tow rig. Use it to back out of tight spots. Thank me later.
Also put your winch on a plate with a reciever hookup on it. Again, thank me later.

 

[Texasflyer]

Hmmm ya want almost killed by a chain or almost went down the mountain in reverse but saved by garbage?

 

[Texasflyer]

Ill give ya almost down the mountain backwards. I was working outside of morgantown wv and all the roads are tiny and crooked, it takes 2 hrs to make a 30 min trip there. Anyways i got my equipment set up on a location that was in a bottom, the hill out was at a crazy angle. Well end of the job comes and its time to rig down and leave and being the operator on location i was the last to go, towing a large goose neck heater treater. I got 3/4 of the way up the hil and lost momentum, then everything started to go all wrong, i was going back wheather i liked it or not, so im trying to steer and pump my brakes while im craned backwards and i see a gate, so i go to the gate and blow thru it and to my horror its just a 300 or 400 foot drop down the mountain side.... luckily some farmer had put a few rail road ties on the other side of the gate. The trailer caught one and finally stopped perched way close to the edge. I dropped the trailer, called a dozer and went home and changed my pants.

 

[mahlv]

Just introduced a buddy to CW McCall and wolf creek pass. Good towing story in that song

 

[GUN NUT in IA]

Just introduced a buddy to CW McCall and wolf creek pass. Good towing story in that song

"Like stepping on a grape"

Love that song.

 

[oneshot86]

I was hooking up my new Airstream in Nebraska. I was looking every direction waiting to get ambushed by the “Fresh DNA” sniffing females that I always fucking run into in Nebraska and Idaho.

The 40 year old guy who sold it to me went on some 10 minute crazy fucking rant about how his mom wouldn’t let him have a girlfriend.

Then he left for work. As I was securing shit inside the trailer a girl shows up. Smoking hot. She lets me know she just started college, and that everyone on the ranch had left for the day, and would I like to see her room?

I did a literal ninja cartwheel backflip into the cab of my truck and drove the fuck off.

To this day I still don’t know if the half a sentence I tossed her way for her pregnant. Them trailer trash seedlings are more fertile than the average Quinceanara party.

Booo booo...
I thought it was going to end differently.

 

[vh20]

I was about 18 or 19 and driving my dad’s C60 dump truck pulling a tandem dual with a backhoe on it. The truck had recently been in the shop twice for mysterious “intermittent” brake failures and was on its second master cylinder replacement in about as many months. They were “certain” they had it fixed now.
I was on a 2-lane highway and stuck behind an elderly couple who seemed to be doing more looking than driving. I was young, impatient, and probably just a bit too close. Just as we were passing a gas station on the left side the old man suddenly decided (almost too late) to SLAM on brakes and stop in the middle of the highway so he could turn left into the station once the traffic going the other way cleared. No problem, my young, catlike reflexes were all over it and I jumped on the brakes with just enough time to safely stop if I stood on them. But, the pedal hit the floor with no resistance. The rig seemed to just get faster and the back of their car was looming huge. I pumped once more in vain but headed for the shoulder and went screaming past them on the right shoulder, just missing clipping their bumper. Here we go barreling down the shoulder in a shower of dust and gravel. The truck is precariously straddling the edge of the shoulder and I’m fighting to keep it from sliding down the slope into the ditch. The trailer has already slipped off the edge and is sliding nearly sideways on the slope at a 45 degree angle to the truck, and is trying to pull the truck off the shoulder and into the ditch with it. This will surely result in rolling over onto the passenger side. All I could do was hang on to the wheel and fight to keep the truck from sliding off the shoulder until we COASTED to a stop. When we did I immediately looked back at the gas station now far behind and saw the little old man puttering around his car completely oblivious to the brush with death he just cheated. Then the shaking started - half rage, half fear-borne adrenaline hangover. My dad, who was following a few miles behind, finally shows up in his pickup and asked what’s wrong. I stammer through the explanation, then tell him he can drive it if he wants to continue (we were only 2 miles from his shop where we were taking the rig back to). He fires it up and of course now he has a full pedal again. He limps it back to his shop at a crawl without further incident while I follow in his truck and continue to deal with the post-adrenaline crap. Apparently, the THIRD master cylinder finally fixed it for good. But I never trusted it again.
@Jackjam One day that same rig left the shop with the pintle hitch open (long story as to how, but thank goodness I wasn’t involved with this one!). It made it 13 miles at 60 mph on the same highway as my incident. Dad was driving. Going up a hill he hit a big bump on the road, then noticed in his mirrors the trailer slowly drift off into the right of way on the right side of the road. I can’t remember if the safety chains stayed connected or broke. Anyway, the trailer and backhoe gracefully rolled over on their side in the ditch and slid to a stop, still chained together. A wrecker came out and stood them back up and they were on their way again with a properly secured hitch this time. The only damage was to the sheet metal cover on the canopy of the backhoe.

 

[Texasflyer]

 

[The King]

Booo booo...
I thought it was going to end differently.

Don’t like teenage girls. Don’t like child support bills every month.

So I don’t do things that put me in a position to choose between those two.

I didnt realize quite how much I disliked the female edition of modern youth until my daughter moved away finally.

She was fine - it was all the stupid, ignorant, self centered little cunts she was constantly bringing over.

I now know that the degeneration of decency amongst today’s youth is noticeable with the males but downright unsurvivable with the females.

 

[E. Bryant]

Non-professional trailering stories of woe often contain one or more of the following elements:

1) Didn't check my tires before the trip and one blew up because it was 20 PSI low and weather-checked from sitting outside for the past dozen years.

2) Didn't lock the coupler and failed to hook up the chains properly.

3) Exceeded the trailer load rating by a couple of tons, and then something "unexpectedly" broke.

4) Non-functioning brake controller on the truck.

5) Driver doesn't understand the reversing process. Bonus points for the guys trying to look over their right shoulder while reversing a trailer that either blocks the rear window, or is too low to be seen. No foul if you've ever trying to back up something small like a log splitter that disappears if it's not at a 45° angle to the tow vehicle

6) Excessive speed for conditions. In the Midwest, that usual means towing your 4-sled enclosed trailer at 10 MPH over the posted limit during a winter storm.

7) Improperly secured load. Yes, that one nylon ratchet strap might be rated for the full weight of your tractor, but you simply ran it over the floorboards and now it's rubbing on the step.

8) Grossly overloaded tow vehicle. Yes, I'm talking to you, the guy I spotted towing a tri-axle deck-over and TLB using a SRW pickup.

 

[supercorndogs]

9) Put all the weight on the front or back of the trailer instead of over the axle, and now they are all over the road.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

2 of my co-workers, towing their truck behind the camper, and going through the Pine Pass in Northern B.C.

After just cresting the summit, driver looks to his brother in the passenger seat, and comments that "this idiot is trying to pass us on this windy, downhill grade with double-solid lines."

Through some maneuvering because the idiot driving that truck was doing so erratically, they lament to each other that "this idiot has a truck just like ours..."

Then it passes them and goes flying by.... they each comment that "yeah, that's identical to your truck, Frank."

WAIT JUST A MINUTE,,,, THAT IS my truck..... dammit!!!!!!

Said truck coasted to the right side of the road, and aimed perfectly for the Railway Bridge Base that was about to cross the road.... it was lined up perfectly and going at a good clip.... then the right wheels went into the ditch and the truck high-centered itself and slowed right down till it finally came to a stop a few feet away from the previously mentioned solid concrete bridge-base.

They did some fancy re-engineering on their towing hitch, right there on the side of the highway.

Talked about OFTEN in the lunchroom. But not nearly as often as the broken nose, 2 black eyes, and broken glasses of/on Frank because he was walking across the catwalk with both hands in his pockets. He tripped, and couldn't get his hands out of his pockets fast enough, and face-planted himself right square into the catwalk.

If others hadn't seen it happen, then everyone else would be sure to believe that he got tuned up in the warehouse. But no, it wasn't like that.

 

[LeftyJason]

No stories but these belong here.

Btw they are internet pictures. Found in either Funny and Awesome or Motivational thread.