Jesus Freak
Full Access Member
......heyyyy @IDIBRONCO , this is similar to when I went and picked up my tow truck and it's THE REASON I BOUGHT A TOW TRUCK!!! So I went to St Augustine to get it, I think @250-300miles but I borrowed a trailer to get it, the trailer was rated for the weight, the 99 F250(with 4.6 gasser, that's another story)was capable of pulling it, BUT when I finally got it loaded there was just a bit too much weight behind the axles of the trailer, but I was married to it.For several years, back in the 90's, I had a 1975 F150 that someone had swapped a 1971 429 into. I guess I did most of my dumbest stuff in that. Not all, just most of the dumbest. I had a friend whose sister was driving a 1989(?) Mercury Tracer. The ones that were their own car, not just a rebadged E scort. I had noticed it sitting in a parking lot right off of the highway just over half way on my 50 mile drive to work. After a couple of weeks, I happened to be visiting the friend and we saw her. I asked why the car was sitting. She told me that it had broken down. I offered to drive my truck to work the next day with a trailer and bring it back to town for her. Naturally she accepted. Since it was Saturday, I only had to work until noon. The smart thing would have been to leave, pick up the car, and drop it off. Of course, I went to see my girlfriend instead. The hours went by and I finally left to get the car at about 10:00 at night. My plans to load the car went awry. After about an hour of trying, a guy in a white Suburban drove up and asked if he could help. We got the car loaded and it was about perfect on the trailer. I was tired and just wanted to get home at that point. As I was driving, I kept going a little faster and a little faster. I got up to about 80MPH by the time that I had a stop sign on a cross highway. No cars were coming at that time of night so I though "F... it!" I put my foot down and let that big old gas hog come to life. I was driving 105 pulling that car on the trailer and I could barely tell that it was back there. I did that for 7 or 8 miles before I had to slow down for a sharp curve in the road. I didn't do that after the curve, but I sure was awake. I never did tell her about how fast her car could go. Nothing bad happened, but it sure could have. There's no way that I'd try that these days.
Guys, i didn't realize until after I went over a long tall 2 lane bridge coming out of St Augustine how bad my situation was, PRAISE GOD the traffic was really bad on that bridge and all I could do was about 25mph as I was getting out of town and I could gain some speed the trailer would pick up the back of the truck and I could barely control it. I almost creamed a state trooper head on the first time it happened. I was scared to death. I figured out that I could do 30-35mph and I was fine, so I took back roads and hwy 90 all the way to Crestview from st Augustine, it was like 2am before I got home. I'm soooo glad I have a tow truck, but I'm still a bit nervous going over bridges because of that.
Here's a picture I took just this side of Tallahassee in a Walmart parking lot. I ate something and collected myself before I went again.
To be candid, it's actually kinda hard to think about it.