There is an old sailer's adage, " never start a voyage on a Friday"--which Marie reminded me of after the accident. We were very careful to follow this adage when cruising--never thought it would mean towing a C Dory!
We were bounding along some of Mississippi's I10, and I commented on the radio to Marie (I was towing the C dory behind the RV, and Marie was following with the Yukon.) about how the C Dory seemed to be bouncing a lot. She said her car was also. About 10 miles down the road some kind lady in a small pickup truck started waving at me. I couldn't hear what she was yelling about, but asked Marie if all looked OK--Yep, looks fine. I better pull over. I pulled onto the shoulder, and all looked OK, until I came to the trailer tongue!
It was bent at a 45 degree just in front of the winch post, the front jack stand was less than a half an inch off the ground, and as was the front of the trailer frame! Call to our USAA RV towing service--and within 5 minutes she had me on a conference call with "Make" at Marine Supply in Gulf Port MS. He said he could fix the trailer, or sell me another if I wanted. Now towing was a different story!
The flat bed arrived. A lot of drama, trying to pick up the trailer high enough to skid the tongue on the flat bed truck....with my holding a 4 x 4 on end, and his picking up the trailer, we were able to lift the foot of the jack and onto a piece of teflon. As he winched the boat trailer onto the truck--it became obvious that the tailer tires were wider apart than the bed of the truck, even after he pulled the side rails off.
Lots of "plan B's" failed. Finally he brought the "stinger" out, and put a ball hitch on it. I waived any resonsibility if the boat went flying, and I said I would follow closely, and if he heard 5 blasts of the air horn to stop! It was 11.5 miles on the roughest roads Gulf Port MS had to offer, and the trailer was dragging on the bumps.
There could fix the trailer, but we all agreed hat it would be far better to have a tandem axel trailer. So, for $2100 and I also bought 5 new tires, extra bearings etc. and ended up with a 7500 lb capacity trailer, which has slicks (means an extra strap and a chain forward), and looks like it was made for a C dory--and it is aluminum, plus the tongue is much shorter, and the winch post is inside of the "V" where the aluminum side channels come together. Mike and his crew worked for 4 hours, until 7PM getting us on the road again!
Photos of the folded trailer tongue later. There was no corrosion or sign of any damage. I guess the moral is --don't leave on a Friday, and watch out for MS roads! (I cannot say too many bad things because Ms. Marie is a born and bred Mississippi girl! )
We were bounding along some of Mississippi's I10, and I commented on the radio to Marie (I was towing the C dory behind the RV, and Marie was following with the Yukon.) about how the C Dory seemed to be bouncing a lot. She said her car was also. About 10 miles down the road some kind lady in a small pickup truck started waving at me. I couldn't hear what she was yelling about, but asked Marie if all looked OK--Yep, looks fine. I better pull over. I pulled onto the shoulder, and all looked OK, until I came to the trailer tongue!
It was bent at a 45 degree just in front of the winch post, the front jack stand was less than a half an inch off the ground, and as was the front of the trailer frame! Call to our USAA RV towing service--and within 5 minutes she had me on a conference call with "Make" at Marine Supply in Gulf Port MS. He said he could fix the trailer, or sell me another if I wanted. Now towing was a different story!
The flat bed arrived. A lot of drama, trying to pick up the trailer high enough to skid the tongue on the flat bed truck....with my holding a 4 x 4 on end, and his picking up the trailer, we were able to lift the foot of the jack and onto a piece of teflon. As he winched the boat trailer onto the truck--it became obvious that the tailer tires were wider apart than the bed of the truck, even after he pulled the side rails off.
Lots of "plan B's" failed. Finally he brought the "stinger" out, and put a ball hitch on it. I waived any resonsibility if the boat went flying, and I said I would follow closely, and if he heard 5 blasts of the air horn to stop! It was 11.5 miles on the roughest roads Gulf Port MS had to offer, and the trailer was dragging on the bumps.
There could fix the trailer, but we all agreed hat it would be far better to have a tandem axel trailer. So, for $2100 and I also bought 5 new tires, extra bearings etc. and ended up with a 7500 lb capacity trailer, which has slicks (means an extra strap and a chain forward), and looks like it was made for a C dory--and it is aluminum, plus the tongue is much shorter, and the winch post is inside of the "V" where the aluminum side channels come together. Mike and his crew worked for 4 hours, until 7PM getting us on the road again!
Photos of the folded trailer tongue later. There was no corrosion or sign of any damage. I guess the moral is --don't leave on a Friday, and watch out for MS roads! (I cannot say too many bad things because Ms. Marie is a born and bred Mississippi girl! )
Glad it all turned out well in the end. Sometime I'll have to share my story with you about USAA Insurance. The short of it was, they not only refused to pay out on a claim, but reneged paying a engineer that they hired. In the end I took my business elsewhere and have no problem badmouthing them any chance I get! (The rest of the story involved a ceiling collapse in my home, and the engineer they finally agreed to hire provided them with a report indicating that some coverage should have been provided. They decided to accuse him of not doing the work, confusing his work with their own 3rd party adjuster that simply came out, measured outside square footage of the house and took a few pictures inside of the damage, which was hidden behind a tarp that I had placed to keep the cold December air and insulation out of the house...) Colby
