[ihc] The weekends "road trip"

["Ryan Moore" <baradium@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I reckon it's time to do a write up on the road trip from this past
weekend.

Todd (a friend of mine and fellow IH'er from Ballground, GA) agreed to haul
the B182, formerly of Joel F's, to a certain area in Woolsey, GA where it is
hereafter stored until our own Mac can find time to claim possession of it.
I'll probobly attempt to get it running whenever I happen to be down.  It
last was registered in 1997, so things might not be too bad.

I agreed to join Todd on the trip to make it easier for him to make it, and
he gave Mac a bit of a discount since he's an IH'er.  Todd has just obtained
an 18' gooseneck trailer and this ended up being the break-in run for it (we
used an F-250 superduty diesel 2wd as the tow rig).  Joel asked about
getting the 184 hauled to NC and Todd jumped on the opportunity to get a
little more out of the run.

We started out around 3am or so Saturday morning.  This meant that I met up
with Todd around 4:30-4:40AM at GA exit 115 (mall of GA), which put us half
an hour ahead of schedule.  I left the old '70 chevy pickup at the exit and
we made the ride up to N.C.  We ended up getting to the trucks around
10:30-11am, with Joel's excellent directions and still ahead of our planned
schedule for the trip.  We found the B184 still had battery power, but ended
up using another battery I'd brought along to help jump it off.  Was obvious
it hadn't run in a year or so, but it still ran and after the initial
startup it had the battery charged up strong enough to start itself.  The
farmer who owns the field (and also has quite a collection of IH's, he was
eager to talk shop with us and show us around, but we were close to behind
schedule at this point and remained well behind schedule for the rest of the
trip) used a tractor to pre position the 182 so we could get it on the
trailer easier and hopefully without needing any help from him.

We knew the 182 would be fine with the fenders on the trailer, but when we
arrived we noted the saddle tanks on the 184, which were much much lower
than on the 182.  We didn't know if it'd fit (didn't know about the lower
tanks so we didn't plan for it) but decided to try anyway.  We ended up
backing the trailer up to a slight bank to minimize the angle and got the
truck up on the trailer alright.

We then headed out to VA.  The trip went slower than expected due to some
enroute delays.  It was uneventful until we found out Joel had forgotten
what road he lived on... sorry Joel, it's part of the story, gotta tell it!
We eventually figured it out thanks to some other signs he'd told us to look
for.  Unfortunately, the ones for the direction we'd come from were knocked
down so it wasn't until we'd had to turn the combo around that we found
them.

Once we were on that road we found Joel's house with no problem... except we
encountered another set of problems.  1) our combo was too long to fit in
Joel's yard and unload the truck at the same time.  2) we needed a rise to
unload the truck due to the fender clearance (it was really tight).  After
some headscratching we went to the neighboring quarry since we'd noticed the
gate was partly opened.  We pulled just inside it and walked down to see if
we could find anyone.  Fortunately there were a couple guys working some
overtime and they said it was alright if we pulled in to find a place to
unload.  We found a dip down the driveway a little ways where there was a
little driveway turning off to the right and were able to get the truck off
with less than 1" of clearance to spare.  I then drove the truck up to
Joel's house and parked it in fashion with the other vehicles.  I imagine
he'll have to move it to get anything else out now though.

We checked over the trailer and got back on the road as quick as we could to
head back to N.C.   By this time we were a few hours behind schedule and
didn't arrive in the area in N.C. until around midnight.  We then discovered
that the construction had hidden the farmer's driveway, which we were
supposed to use to get back in due to the positioning of the 182 (it was
blocking the back access).  We eventually found it and were able to get into
the field and to the truck.  We went to install the driveshaft so we could
have some form of a brake when we noticed that the parking (or emergency)
brake was locked up.  This meant that we had no brakes and since we had no
way to stop the truck from moving forward once it started on the trailer we
had to call on the farmer for help (I felt really bad about this one, he's a
great guy btw, his name is Jeff Burkes and he's planning to be at Dixie for
those of you who plan to attend).  He brought out a 1 ton dodge and helped
us by providing tension on a chain at the rear of the truck so we could get
the 182 onto the trailer without it trying to keep going.  It took some
persuading but we eventually got it onto the trailer and continued on our
way.

We started back but ended up stopping at a rest area for a nap of a few
hours.  Finally pulled into GA around 1pm on sunday.  Unloaded the 182
uneventfully (seemed like it took forever though), I took a shower and made
the long drive back to TN.

Todd would still like to do some transporting to help recoup the cost of his
trailer if anyone needs any somewhat short hauls done... but don't expect
him to agree to haul anything that big again.  Was a neat looking combo to
see on the trailer though, looked fairly funny.

Thanks,
Ryan


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.647 / Virus Database: 414 - Release Date: 3/29/04