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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Boneaded rookie mistake

March 9, 2011 12:22 p.m. Brett_Murphy Reader
I've loaded a few cars onto trailers and dollys in my time, and a couple of weeks ago I had the first incident that I can chalk up to being 100% my fault. The facts:
1. The winch I usually use somehow died between my house and the car, so we had to push the car onto the dolly.
2. There were just two of us, and the yard wasn't level and it was wet and muddy. We tried several times to push it uphill but couldn't get enough oomph to make it all the way up the ramps.
3. Prior to the photo being taken, I used my Jeep to push the car up a small grade so we could get a bit more momentum going onto the trailer.
Can anyone guess what happened?
March 9, 2011 12:24 p.m. Kendall_Jones Reader

Strap it down & go! Yee Haw!

Had a video camera been there, it would go viral for 15 minutes. :)

KJ
March 9, 2011 12:25 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

Been there, Done that... broke my arm doing it.
March 9, 2011 12:33 p.m. Streetwiseguy Dork

Looks loaded to me. When you get where you need to be, chain rear to tree and drive truck away.
March 9, 2011 12:37 p.m. Zomby woof Dork

That's not bad. It's when you do it with a trailer that you have some work ahead of you.
March 9, 2011 12:45 p.m. Brett_Murphy Reader

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter how hard you stand on the brakes if they're no longer getting any real hydraulic pressure. The pedal went to the floor; when we started moving the car around, they felt a bit squishy, but they were stopping the car. By the time I was grabbing for the E-Brake, I was already over the end.

I was just thrilled it was fairly low speed and we didn't run into the back of the Jeep.
March 9, 2011 12:52 p.m. RossD Dork

Been there done that, but it missed/fell off one of the ramps while pushing it up.
March 9, 2011 1:01 p.m. fasted58 New Reader

Looks balanced to me
March 9, 2011 1:01 p.m. bludroptop SuperDork

Looks like your tailhook missed the wire.
March 9, 2011 1:03 p.m. nderwater HalfDork

Awesome failblog material. At least you learned your lesson on a car which is only worth a few hundred bucks. And you got a great story out of it.

My own boneheaded rookie mistake: This week I swapped the stock suspension on my Miata using a set of Ebay coilover perches and springs. On my test drive afterward it was immediately obvious that something was very wrong - the car felt like CRAP.

It turns out that when I took off the stock bumpstop supports from each shock to fit the new smaller diameter springs, I didn't realize that the part I removed also functioned as the lower washer to keep the shock absorber shaft in place. Guess what? When your shocks are no longer coupled to the movement of your suspension, ride quality gets blown to smithereens. Time to take everything apart again!
March 9, 2011 1:08 p.m. donalson SuperDork

Funny when I read the title I though ti myself the time my bro in law and I did the exact same thing...... what an adventure... least I was on a street lol
March 9, 2011 1:10 p.m. Raze Dork

Could have been worse, I was driving with the XR4 on a dolly after AutoX and at a stop near my house it popped forward (as in the straps let loose and it was not chained to anything). Luckily it went forward, not back.

I'm confused why you would try to load the car onto a dolly not already attached to a truck? In the mud, how did you plan on attaching it after you got it on?
March 9, 2011 1:30 p.m. MCarp22 HalfDork

WHY DID YOU TURN!?!
March 9, 2011 1:58 p.m. Brett_Murphy Reader

In reply to Raze:

The dolly is hitched to the Jeep. U-Haul dollys have about an 8 foot bar between where the car sits and where it goes on the hitch. The slope of the ground and lack of 3D perspective makes the bar look like it is sitting a lot lower than it is, esp. in the top picture.

The front wheels are sitting right about where the diagonal supports meet the main.
March 9, 2011 2:11 p.m. Raze Dork

Gotcha, the picture is indeed deceptive, thought it wasn't attached,
March 9, 2011 2:11 p.m. Nitroracer SuperDork

I don't think I've had the luck of a running car being driven onto a tow dolly, I'd had to use human power for all of them.

My favorite was the 96' Probe that killed the timing belt in a friends driveway - three hours from home. The local place was closed so I had to drive an hour away to rent the tow dolly. The bumper on the car and the angle of the driveway didn't work so I pumped up the front tires on the car and let all of the air out of the trailer tires. Then pushed it up the ramps.
March 9, 2011 4:40 p.m. jhaas Reader

MCarp22 wrote:

WHY DID YOU TURN!?!

WHY DID YOU berkeleyING TURN!?!
March 9, 2011 4:58 p.m. Donebrokeit Reader

Two good ones:

Loading - Purchased a omni that did not run went to pick it up and used a chain-fall to pull it on to the trailer about half way up I had run out of chain , owner said the E-brake worked , released the chain-fall and the car went flying down the ramps and was stopped by the chain-fall itself (that was loud) but no damage.

Unloading - Purached a shadow with no powertain but a nice shell as my sister had wrecked her sundance but had a great powertain, got the shell home without any issues (Yes the E-brake was set) removed the straps and chains and was putting them in the bed of the truck when I noticed the rear bummper of the truck came up turned around to watch the car roll off the trailer (no ramps). The pass door had come open for some reason while rolling down the driveway (flat at least) and caught the end of the house and bent the (car) door around and in to the fender.

The car was now useless no powertrain and a smashed door post.(pops beer at 9:AM )Yep nothing like have TWO busted ass Shadows sitting in your driveway.

Paul B
March 9, 2011 5:58 p.m. wheelsmithy Reader

Oh yeah,... I'm building a shop. A nice(for in town)30X34. Rented a bobcat-never having driven one, and proceeded to knock down about 20' of knee wall. Fair, right? Weeeeel, I had the wall re-erected(heh, heh), and one day later, with a borrowed tractor, knocked down the same 30 blocks. The mortar was uncured as it was raining, BUT STILL!!!!! Now re-erected for the third time, it has stood for just over a week, and I've still got the tractor, moving earth and gravel...CRAP, I think I just jinxed myself again.

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