Tony
02-13-2010, 10:20 AM
So... we got a call that one of our dispatched trucks broke down and the load 'had' to be delivered. Anyway, long story short jumped in the truck and hauled azz... without my typical "does everything work?" question coming to mind.
So fast forward past 10+ hours of driving, etc...
Since the truck/trailer combination's are different, I obviously took my trailer with me to go complete the run. But failed to check the winch and remembered that one of the vehicles is a rolling inop, a Ford Explorer.
We get the trailer unloaded easy enough, but then comes the question of how to get the Explorer up on my trailer. I of course messed with my winch but realized that the bad solenoid caused both of my batteries to completely discharge. So something else had to be done, and without a wrecker nearby this was decided upon...
Extra cable from the winch was pulled out manually. Unhitched the trailer and turned the truck around to get access to the front hooks. Take3 trailers have a small stinger with a pulley on the front of the trailer. We removed the pulley(pulled the pin) and attached my snatch block. Chained the snatch block to the trucks hooks, and hooked up the Explorer on the other end of the trailer.
Backed up the truck a few times, shortening the truck-snatchblock chain a few times since the truckstop wasn't very big. But it worked just fine. Actually figured out that it took less time to do than running out the winch the way it should be. :)
But this is definitely NOT a suggested method for loading an inop! :D
FYI... we ended up doing this twice since the broken truck was apparently repaired while we ate breakfast getting ready to head out to complete the load. So we ended up reloading the first trailer(also without a winch) using the same method, but replace the existing winch cable with a chain and take the snatch block out of the picture as well.
So fast forward past 10+ hours of driving, etc...
Since the truck/trailer combination's are different, I obviously took my trailer with me to go complete the run. But failed to check the winch and remembered that one of the vehicles is a rolling inop, a Ford Explorer.
We get the trailer unloaded easy enough, but then comes the question of how to get the Explorer up on my trailer. I of course messed with my winch but realized that the bad solenoid caused both of my batteries to completely discharge. So something else had to be done, and without a wrecker nearby this was decided upon...
Extra cable from the winch was pulled out manually. Unhitched the trailer and turned the truck around to get access to the front hooks. Take3 trailers have a small stinger with a pulley on the front of the trailer. We removed the pulley(pulled the pin) and attached my snatch block. Chained the snatch block to the trucks hooks, and hooked up the Explorer on the other end of the trailer.
Backed up the truck a few times, shortening the truck-snatchblock chain a few times since the truckstop wasn't very big. But it worked just fine. Actually figured out that it took less time to do than running out the winch the way it should be. :)
But this is definitely NOT a suggested method for loading an inop! :D
FYI... we ended up doing this twice since the broken truck was apparently repaired while we ate breakfast getting ready to head out to complete the load. So we ended up reloading the first trailer(also without a winch) using the same method, but replace the existing winch cable with a chain and take the snatch block out of the picture as well.