05-11-2007, 05:42 PM
I saw this on another Porsche forum (not a 968 owner) and just had to share it.... <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Enjoy some laughs...
Thought I’d share a story (well, it’s funny now) about something that happened to me yesterday. Moral of the story “don’t get in a rush when working on something of value when you're an idiot like me.”
I was finishing up a tire rack on my trailer and wanted to verify where the car should be positioned based upon the new additional weight over the tongue. I had been working on this for a while and wanted to watch the Tivo’d VIR race so started to hurry. Well, since I was only putting the car on for a few minutes and not driving anywhere, I didn’t hook up the power cable, safety chains, etc. to the truck.
So, I load up the rack w/ tires, put the car on, then back into my garage to measure tongue weight. Throw a scale under the tongue jack, jack the front up, then position the car where I need it. Lower the tongue back onto the ball, put away my scale, then go to unload the car. It's about 5:30, so I'm thinking I'll have time to shower, get some Armand's pizza and still watch the entire DP race before I go to bed.
Some background. The street in front of my house has a moderate grade, which is great for loading/unloading the car and saving the clutch. Park downhill for putting the car on, uphill for unloading. So, I proceed to pull out of my driveway, turn around in the cul-de-sac ~ 50 yards away and head back uphill. I stop across from my house and proceed to unload. My neighbor parks his older Jeep GC on the street (his 3rd car) but I’ll have a 3 or-so car length gap when I back the car off the trailer so I’m not worried. Of course, I don’t bother to chock the trailer wheels as this will only take me a second.
I put the car in reverse and start to roll the car off the trailer, when all of a sudden the front of the trailer kicks up, and I’m going backwards down the hill and I’m STILL ON THE TRAILER!!! At first I think I’ve lost my car's brakes but then realize the whole darned trailer is rolling with me still on it!!!!!
Trailer ramps and trailer tail are scraping on the street making a heck of a racket and I think to myself, WTF?!?!?!?! Then I see my neighbors Jeep getting closer and couple thoughts came to mind:
“Well, at least it’s his old Jeep that I’m going to run into and not his wife’s new MDX.
I hope I can fix the rear end and tail lights before the Mid-O club race. Maybe it’s a good opportunity to install a fiberglass bumper?
How in the heck am I going to explain this to my insurance agent?
At least his Jeep is there or I would have picked up a lot of speed by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.”
Well, I assume it’s better to sacrifice the P-car instead of my neighbor’s Jeep (and see my insurance costs escalate), so I gun the engine, popped the clutch, and got the car off the trailer. Hit the brakes immediately and the trailer’s front end crashes down and the trailer proceeds to roll into the car. Luckily the ramps stayed in place so they wedged under the front wheels and stopped the trailer. With the trailer’s nose all the way down, the ramps were steeply angled and pushing up on the bumper cover a bit but no damage was done. Whewww...... And heck, I still had all of a car length to spare between my car and the Jeep. All told, trailer had rolled about 20 feet.
So, I’m still thinking to myself “how in the heck did the trailer come loose??” Well, I had forgotten to put the ball lock down when I lowered the tongue back onto the truck. It will still pinned open.
Luckily I didn’t decide to unload pointing downhill or I would have put the trailer into the tailgate of my new truck.
I’m laughing about the whole episode…. now……
Thought I’d share a story (well, it’s funny now) about something that happened to me yesterday. Moral of the story “don’t get in a rush when working on something of value when you're an idiot like me.”
I was finishing up a tire rack on my trailer and wanted to verify where the car should be positioned based upon the new additional weight over the tongue. I had been working on this for a while and wanted to watch the Tivo’d VIR race so started to hurry. Well, since I was only putting the car on for a few minutes and not driving anywhere, I didn’t hook up the power cable, safety chains, etc. to the truck.
So, I load up the rack w/ tires, put the car on, then back into my garage to measure tongue weight. Throw a scale under the tongue jack, jack the front up, then position the car where I need it. Lower the tongue back onto the ball, put away my scale, then go to unload the car. It's about 5:30, so I'm thinking I'll have time to shower, get some Armand's pizza and still watch the entire DP race before I go to bed.
Some background. The street in front of my house has a moderate grade, which is great for loading/unloading the car and saving the clutch. Park downhill for putting the car on, uphill for unloading. So, I proceed to pull out of my driveway, turn around in the cul-de-sac ~ 50 yards away and head back uphill. I stop across from my house and proceed to unload. My neighbor parks his older Jeep GC on the street (his 3rd car) but I’ll have a 3 or-so car length gap when I back the car off the trailer so I’m not worried. Of course, I don’t bother to chock the trailer wheels as this will only take me a second.
I put the car in reverse and start to roll the car off the trailer, when all of a sudden the front of the trailer kicks up, and I’m going backwards down the hill and I’m STILL ON THE TRAILER!!! At first I think I’ve lost my car's brakes but then realize the whole darned trailer is rolling with me still on it!!!!!
Trailer ramps and trailer tail are scraping on the street making a heck of a racket and I think to myself, WTF?!?!?!?! Then I see my neighbors Jeep getting closer and couple thoughts came to mind:
“Well, at least it’s his old Jeep that I’m going to run into and not his wife’s new MDX.
I hope I can fix the rear end and tail lights before the Mid-O club race. Maybe it’s a good opportunity to install a fiberglass bumper?
How in the heck am I going to explain this to my insurance agent?
At least his Jeep is there or I would have picked up a lot of speed by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.”
Well, I assume it’s better to sacrifice the P-car instead of my neighbor’s Jeep (and see my insurance costs escalate), so I gun the engine, popped the clutch, and got the car off the trailer. Hit the brakes immediately and the trailer’s front end crashes down and the trailer proceeds to roll into the car. Luckily the ramps stayed in place so they wedged under the front wheels and stopped the trailer. With the trailer’s nose all the way down, the ramps were steeply angled and pushing up on the bumper cover a bit but no damage was done. Whewww...... And heck, I still had all of a car length to spare between my car and the Jeep. All told, trailer had rolled about 20 feet.
So, I’m still thinking to myself “how in the heck did the trailer come loose??” Well, I had forgotten to put the ball lock down when I lowered the tongue back onto the truck. It will still pinned open.
Luckily I didn’t decide to unload pointing downhill or I would have put the trailer into the tailgate of my new truck.
I’m laughing about the whole episode…. now……
