Post by livingstonatlarge on May 16, 2017 21:46:00 GMT -8
While not a vintage trailer, it was still quite the learning experience and I am sure might be useful to someone. The whole “ I make mistakes so you don't have to.” (Thanks Larry-Mobiltec) went buy the wayside when I forgot to download, or really even look at the checklist before we left on a 200 mile jaunt to pick up a FREE trailer!
We got there. The 1997 22ft Layton has been sitting in basically a rain forest park for seven years. I ice pick the corners. Solid. Well. That's good because the windows are surrounded by green slyme. It looks much nicer in the photo than it does up close.
I know that the appliances do not work but overall the interior is surprisingly decent. It reeks of rodent pee inside.
(My brother said it was trashed, but his idea of trashed and mine are vastly different. Nothing is hanging from the ceiling and all the walls are in place and the 100 pounds of rotting meat they were storing in the non working fridge has been cleaned out.
We hook it up and test the outside towing lights. They all work. Getting better and better.
There's paperwork. Hallelujah.
I don't like the tires. They look sketchy. We fill them and they hold air but I make a run to the used tire place and score three very usable spare trailer tires on rims for $45 each. (No matter what, that's a great deal.) Gorilla tape, new linkage locks for the chains (The other one is rusted solid open.), A wire brush, some WD40 rust releaser and a floor jack. I ask if we have a lug wrench and my husband says there's one in the trailer and one in the Suburban. (Why do I not check these things myself?)
We can't get the electrical to stay hooked in. I use Gorilla Tape. That works.
I give the guy a handmade glass marble. I just traded a handmade glass marble for a trailer!
Off we go. Slowly.
Ten miles down the road I see something flapping on my side that should not be. We stop and check. The door is open..........I Gorilla Tape it shut. HA!
Every 30 miles or so (Or if we have gathered a parade behind us) we stop and I check everything and do full light check. At mile 60, no brake lights. All other lights working. It's still daylight so onward, using the emergency lights if we need to really show a solid stop.
At mile 120 we are going through a small town on the pass. We pass the sheriff. Did I mention that the DMV was closed and I could not get a trip permit and the tags are 8 years expired? (And we have no brake lights.)
He lights us up. Comes up and smiles and says....”You have a shredded tire.”
Of course we do. I tell him it's a free trailer we're trying to get home. He laughs at us (nicely).
He helps us get across to the Subway where there is a large paved parking lot, says nothing about the other issues, wishes us a safe trip home......? (YAYAYAY!)
I go to get the lug wrench... Remember I Gorilla Taped the door closed? I did a GREAT JOB! I finally get in and get the lug wrench. Of course, it does not fit. It's too small. The one for the Suburban is too big. I find a nice guy with one but the lug nuts are rock solid rusted on and his little wrench breaks. I spray them with WD40 rust remover, unhook the trailer and Goldilocks makes a run ten miles back the other way to Napa with ten minutes to spare, gets a four way and a breaker bar and hopes that the WD40 will rescue.
It does, kind of. The lugs break free but are still so stiff it will be a year before they come off and will I be able to get them back on? My husband is not looking pleased at all and has cut his hand when the breaker bar slipped. I call Santiam Tow and Recovery and ask what they charge to come out and change a tire. (I know they have an impact driver.) $95. Well boys...come on out!
Robert arrives, looks at it and says that it's possible he's going to snap the bolts and I tell him to take his chances. He also says he can't see the other tire making it much farther. Well, I have THREE SPARES!!! $95 per tire. Hummm. Yep DO IT.
It all gets done, we get a sandwich for dinner, Robert decides I'm nice enough because we listen to the same music, and only charges me $95 total instead of for each tire. I give him another handmade marble. The two tires on the other side might possibly make it home and we test the lugs and know they are in better shape. We're going slow.
Another 20 miles up the pass and it starts raining........and raining....and …..
…..Our windshield wipers, which have never, ever been an issue, QUIT.
Now every fifteen to twenty miles we are pulling out, checking the tires and cleaning the windows.
Fifty miles down the road, this trailer is what we see on the side of the highway. TERRIFYING! A sign of what could be if we don't get smarter.
I jokingly said "Hey, maybe we could rehab that one, I bet it's free." My husband said, "We might need those tires."
At 10PM we pull in to home. 10 hours after we started a four hour drive. With the Layton still in one piece.
We learned a ton and were blessed in so many ways by nice people. Ken would not let me pay him for the broken lug wrench so when I got home I donated to his little radio station via Paypal and sent him an email that we did make it home. I got a nice one back.
I told my husband I love him very much for not leaving my strangled body in an abandoned trailer with four flat tires on the side of the mountain and someday we will be laughing about that trip where we had to keep stopping and hand wipe the windshield. "It will be funny then!"
"No it will not."
Some of you are shaking your heads laughing, because you've done it too. Right?
I now have three trailers and am officially grounded from any more at the moment. (I think I'll wait a week or so before I tell him today my friend offered me a 21 foot 1975 Layton.....for free, near home.)
Oh..and this morning, the windshield wipers work fine.
All's well that end's well.
Happy Trails,
Ginger
We got there. The 1997 22ft Layton has been sitting in basically a rain forest park for seven years. I ice pick the corners. Solid. Well. That's good because the windows are surrounded by green slyme. It looks much nicer in the photo than it does up close.
I know that the appliances do not work but overall the interior is surprisingly decent. It reeks of rodent pee inside.
(My brother said it was trashed, but his idea of trashed and mine are vastly different. Nothing is hanging from the ceiling and all the walls are in place and the 100 pounds of rotting meat they were storing in the non working fridge has been cleaned out.
We hook it up and test the outside towing lights. They all work. Getting better and better.
There's paperwork. Hallelujah.
I don't like the tires. They look sketchy. We fill them and they hold air but I make a run to the used tire place and score three very usable spare trailer tires on rims for $45 each. (No matter what, that's a great deal.) Gorilla tape, new linkage locks for the chains (The other one is rusted solid open.), A wire brush, some WD40 rust releaser and a floor jack. I ask if we have a lug wrench and my husband says there's one in the trailer and one in the Suburban. (Why do I not check these things myself?)
We can't get the electrical to stay hooked in. I use Gorilla Tape. That works.
I give the guy a handmade glass marble. I just traded a handmade glass marble for a trailer!
Off we go. Slowly.
Ten miles down the road I see something flapping on my side that should not be. We stop and check. The door is open..........I Gorilla Tape it shut. HA!
Every 30 miles or so (Or if we have gathered a parade behind us) we stop and I check everything and do full light check. At mile 60, no brake lights. All other lights working. It's still daylight so onward, using the emergency lights if we need to really show a solid stop.
At mile 120 we are going through a small town on the pass. We pass the sheriff. Did I mention that the DMV was closed and I could not get a trip permit and the tags are 8 years expired? (And we have no brake lights.)
He lights us up. Comes up and smiles and says....”You have a shredded tire.”
Of course we do. I tell him it's a free trailer we're trying to get home. He laughs at us (nicely).
He helps us get across to the Subway where there is a large paved parking lot, says nothing about the other issues, wishes us a safe trip home......? (YAYAYAY!)
I go to get the lug wrench... Remember I Gorilla Taped the door closed? I did a GREAT JOB! I finally get in and get the lug wrench. Of course, it does not fit. It's too small. The one for the Suburban is too big. I find a nice guy with one but the lug nuts are rock solid rusted on and his little wrench breaks. I spray them with WD40 rust remover, unhook the trailer and Goldilocks makes a run ten miles back the other way to Napa with ten minutes to spare, gets a four way and a breaker bar and hopes that the WD40 will rescue.
It does, kind of. The lugs break free but are still so stiff it will be a year before they come off and will I be able to get them back on? My husband is not looking pleased at all and has cut his hand when the breaker bar slipped. I call Santiam Tow and Recovery and ask what they charge to come out and change a tire. (I know they have an impact driver.) $95. Well boys...come on out!
Robert arrives, looks at it and says that it's possible he's going to snap the bolts and I tell him to take his chances. He also says he can't see the other tire making it much farther. Well, I have THREE SPARES!!! $95 per tire. Hummm. Yep DO IT.
It all gets done, we get a sandwich for dinner, Robert decides I'm nice enough because we listen to the same music, and only charges me $95 total instead of for each tire. I give him another handmade marble. The two tires on the other side might possibly make it home and we test the lugs and know they are in better shape. We're going slow.
Another 20 miles up the pass and it starts raining........and raining....and …..
…..Our windshield wipers, which have never, ever been an issue, QUIT.
Now every fifteen to twenty miles we are pulling out, checking the tires and cleaning the windows.
Fifty miles down the road, this trailer is what we see on the side of the highway. TERRIFYING! A sign of what could be if we don't get smarter.
I jokingly said "Hey, maybe we could rehab that one, I bet it's free." My husband said, "We might need those tires."
At 10PM we pull in to home. 10 hours after we started a four hour drive. With the Layton still in one piece.
We learned a ton and were blessed in so many ways by nice people. Ken would not let me pay him for the broken lug wrench so when I got home I donated to his little radio station via Paypal and sent him an email that we did make it home. I got a nice one back.
I told my husband I love him very much for not leaving my strangled body in an abandoned trailer with four flat tires on the side of the mountain and someday we will be laughing about that trip where we had to keep stopping and hand wipe the windshield. "It will be funny then!"
"No it will not."
Some of you are shaking your heads laughing, because you've done it too. Right?
I now have three trailers and am officially grounded from any more at the moment. (I think I'll wait a week or so before I tell him today my friend offered me a 21 foot 1975 Layton.....for free, near home.)
Oh..and this morning, the windshield wipers work fine.
All's well that end's well.Happy Trails,
Ginger
