My trailer is a fairweather friend

I think I over did using my trailer by one day this year.

I have a smallish 5X10 flat bed trailer that I use to to move things around with. It's a road trailer, single axle and it's rated for 3800 plus 800 on the tongue. It's not big enough to move my tractor with. But it can haul about 5 yards of horse manure, maybe seven yards of wood chips. It can hold as much as I want to haul with my two wheel drive 92 GMC van.

I have been making regular runs to a horse farm about ten miles away, building up a serious pile of poo. I figured I was about done with manure for the year, but I wanted to do one more run. I wanted to cover up the goat manure I got a week ago and I wanted to make one more dent in the horse farm's pile. It's good for them, saves renting a truck or paying for hauling to get rid of it. And it's good for us, we need a lot of organic material to incorporate into our silt and sand soil.

I have been pretty spoiled with the weather. Fifties into December. Over the weekend, we just had our first snow that really stuck. I intentionally waited a couple of days to be sure the roads would be clear. When I spoke to the horse farm this morning he threw in an aside, be carfully of the downhills, there might be some ice... But it was just an aside. I figured he meant some drainage water had frozen over night.

When I got there, the farm driveway looked fine, wet gravel. It winds in, mostly down hill, until the end, where there is a little rise. But as soon as we got onto the north side of the hill, it was all solid snow packed into ice. And somehow I didn't have enough momentum at the end and I started spining short of the top. And with the trailer, there was no faking it by hitting the gas and hoping you dig in. The problem got trickier, not only could I not get up the hill, I couldn't hold where I was, I started sliding backwards. Behind me, there was a pond on the north side and a ravine on the south. The road was basically a dam that formed the pond. And I had a choice of brakes or stearing. Pretty soon, I had the trailer jacknifed and was headed for the ravine. A distinctly unpleasant prospect. In retrospect, the trailer saved me, as the ravine only got steeper. The trailer draging like that is what brought me to a stop. And even if I had manged to make it into the farm without event, I never would have made it out. The hill is twice as long and high going out.

I bent the step bumper and tweeked the bumper hitch pretty good. Other than that, I think my pride is the only thing that really suffered. Getting pulled out of the ditch is embarassing. But I stilled managed to get two loads of manure home, about 10 yards. And my pile is now full. No more manure runs till dry weather in the spring.

The Joads or Two trailers for the price of one

Does this look like something you would stake your life on? I suppose if you were driving behind me you were if you knew it or not. I borrowed a friends trailer a while ago and dragged it through three states. Lucky for both of us, I dragged it empty. I didn't a load in it until I got home and then it was behind the van.



It's a little embarrassing, but I just assumed it was Honda original equipment and I trusted that idea. Now that I have looked at it more than cursorily, I have come to realize it is just bolted through the tow loop. A rusty tow loop. An originally flimsy, now rusty tow loop that has driven for more 200 thousand miles and close to two decades. And by the looks of my fenders, this car spent most of its life on salty roads in the north east. Lets all just feel better that I didn't try to pull my new trailer full of trailer home through three states. It might have gone fine. Or it might have ended in a blaze of fire, twisted steel and broken glass. One or the other.






This is my new trailer. Full of trailer It came with a very nice pile of compost. And some started seedlings. The seller did me a great favor allowing me to purchase it. I am not kidding.

That's a second trailer upside down on the trailer. A friend, upon seeing my new trailer on the way home, realized immediately that his father's old Studebaker pickup bed trailer would look perfect pitched on top. I forgot to load the kiddy pool and child's bike he also offered.






I did not try to pull that load behind the Honda. My new trailer is well built. That's a polite way of saying it's heavy set. Husky. When speaking of a trailer, though it doesn't have the negative connotation it might otherwise.






The new trailer came with stake rack sides. The we swollen and a bear to get out of their sockets to load the second trailer. But they will be really helpful to bring bulky loads like compost home with. It also came with that dancer XS that is hanging from the ceiling of the van. The XS is a smaller version of Perception Kayaks popular dancer white water kayak. It will be a great boat to use when my son is ready to get out on the water. Vans are a great vehicle for the right application.