grizz wrote:Having Google Earth viewed your small farm, I am pleased you could get her out the shop.
If I had it to do over, I think using a helicopter would be a wise choice.
The whole process was a comedy of errors. At one point I just had to sit on the wet ground and laugh.
That old, steel wheel on the tongue jack has two problems. One, it was designed to slide on from the bottom, then a partial twist to lock it in place. The twist lock channel is no more, rusted. So, the wheel has a tendency to drop off at the most inopportune times. Secondly, the wheel rolls fine but doesn't rotate freely so you can change direction. The danged jack and wheel hadn't posed a problem yet and was therefore low on the to-do list. After all... I hadn't planned on a major move yet.
I had created a tiny runway of 2 x 6's for the jack wheel and everything was going fine. I planned to snap a few pics and then push her back in the shop. Everything went downhill (pun intended) when the tires got too close to the sloped area of the concrete and she came rolling out. Instinctively I tried stopping her but I'm not as young as I used to be. With thoughts racing through my mind of being crushed to death by my own almost-finished camper , I bailed. The steel wheel reached the end of the runway and disappeared in the mud. Super!
Ok, what to do now? I'm running out of daylight and for some reason I'm compelled to get DD on the driveway. I get the jack out, some short lengths of assorted 2 x 4's and 4 x 4's and begin raising the jack. You probably know how well that works on soggy ground. Lose two inches for every inch gained in height.
As the tongue comes out of the muck, the wheel is left behind. I dig it out, work it back on to the stem, lay down the next section of runway and smack the wheel with a piece of 2 x 4 to line it up. Then, lower DD off the jack and muscle her into a tight 90 degree turn. I gain about 8 inches of forward progress before the wheel won't turn. Get the jack supports in place, raise the jack so that pressure is off the wheel, line it up again, lower and gain about 6 inches of forward progress. Ok.. time for plan B.
I back my Ford to the shop, the plan being to get DD on the hitch and pull her out to the driveway. That ought to work, huh? Well, not quite. I knew that there was going to be quite a difference in the height of my 4WD truck and the low-rider, squatty body DD and had measured the difference and purchased a drop hitch. I figured I'd just take the 1-7/8" ball off the straight tube and install it on the new drop hitch. Into the shop for the monster wrench. Snugged it up on the nut and no go. Cheater bar, no go. Ok.. plan.. what is it now, C? I'll just jack DD high enough to get her on the straight hitch. Piled the lumber up, got jack in position and was about 2 inches from being on the money when the back end of the chassis met the shop concrete. Oh, and the jack height was maxed out too.
Hmmm, maybe if I put my 2" ball on the drop hitch, I can pull DD far enough to clear the concrete shop floor, with a chain wrap added for grins. I swap out the hitches, lower DD on, fire up the truck and gain just enough forward progress that the chassis clears the concrete before coming off the ball. Yes! With that hurdle overcome, I then swapped hitches again, jacked her onto the straight hitch and pulled her on out to the driveway and backed her in place.
One of my neighbors was having a pool party and as I was driving by, just a few feet from their fence, I wondered what they would think when seeing a truck and trailer pass by, lights ablaze. Sure enough, next afternoon the neighbor wandered over and asked me,
"Was I that blitzed last night or did you drive a travel trailer past my back yard fence?"
"Turst me, it wasn't exactly planned to happen that way."
by StPatron » Sat Sep 24, 2011 2:20 pm 
