adventures in trailering

[notaclue]

i got it figured out. notaclue, currently resides n the foothills of nothern ca, an area where hi speed internet is but a dream on the distant horizon, being a computer neophyte and finding slow speed dialup somewhat frustrating, i opted for an AT@T AIR card foolishly thinking it would improve my already marginal computer commnicating skills....wrong....instead, for the mear price of 60 bucks a month [plus fees of course] i am now sending this kite out on my bride"s 14.95 a month dialup.. if i am unable to extricate myself from the 2 year contract hopefully it will better serve me when I"m on nataclue in the california delta. however, i digress.... the trailer adventure. i left anacortes wa. around noon 10 dec. with the full intention of visiting andrew custise [sp] at the factory in kent. about 2 hrs later and realizing that i was south of the exit i needed to take i decided to stay ahead of an impending storm with grants pass as my destination for the nite..... towing a 4ton plus ranger 25 with a chevy duramax [enhanced suspencion and performance hardware, made the entire trip to auburn far less of a grind than i had expected execept for, and i can't remember the exact exit, but needing diesel turned of at the southern most exit of [the town i can't rmember] only to disccover there was only gas at that particular exit. in a town with many one way streets, most going in the direction i didn't want to [it's now dark and i"m tired] i managed to work my way north back to the first exit where there was diesel and [thank god] an on ramp going south. so don't ever stop in that particilar town i can't remember the name of. around 10 o'clock i hit the wall [no where near grants pass] but did pull into one of oregon's beautifull rest areas, stuck my rig in between two idleing 18 wheelers crawled up onto the swim patform, then fired up the wallace crawled in the berth and had a most restfull sleep since sleeping on her out on the waters in the san juans a month earlier. averaged 9.5 mpg in the mountains and 13.5 on the flatlands, not a bad fuel burn at 55knots!!!! I sure hope this one goes thru,, skipper steve.......i have......not-a-clue

 

[CaptMac]

Great to hear you made it - and thanks for the perseverence - the story was worth reading!

Mac

 

[captain's cat]

Steve, don't give up in the air-card. I don't have one but there are bunches of nerds here or on the c-brats site that do and I'm sure they can help you get up and running.

Charlie

 

[Tom Ray]

Ranger Tug vs Ranger pickup...Don't try this at home!!! 😉

 

[notaclue]

hey, tom ray, please tell me this guy [or girl] is only going from one parking lot to another.... that's what you want to do haul your 160 grand boat with a 7 grand pickup, surge brakes or not!!! this guy reeeally has not a clue [ooh....wait ; that's my line... great shot, thanks for sharing it.. skipper steve.....i have....notaclue

 

[Tom Ray]

OK, OK, the back story.

That's our dealership's boat, and my little Ranger truck. I got to work and found that one of the other sales guys had already pulled the boat out front, and I thought I'd just nose up to the trailer to park my truck. Then I got kind of a grin on my face and decided to turn my truck around and back it up to the trailer as if to hook up and tow. I left it like that all day, just for grins. 😀 No, it's not really hooked up. I don't want to squish my poor little truck! 😉

 

[captain's cat]

Be even more impressive if you did it with a golf cart! :shock:

Charlie

 

[Stella Maris]

Here you go, one R25 being towed by a golf cart!

This is how the boys at Catalina Yacht Sales in Oxnard move boats around the yard!

 

[captain's cat]

I like that! I've got a red Yamaha cart that we use in the neighborhood. It's got the white full winter cover with windows on it now, my grandkids call it the "PopMobile"!!

Sure would like to see that golf cart back that Ranger Tug down a ramp to launch it....or better still, pull it back up again!! :shock:

Charlie

 

[j&lgray]

We trailered the Laurie Ann from Seattle to Iowa and then from Mobile, Alabama back to Seattle; about 3,500 highway miles. Our gas engine Dodge Ram with the 5.7 Hemi did 9.5 MPG. We only had one glitch: hit black ice in Cheyenne, WY, jackknifed and slid spinning 360 degrees across 100 feet of level shoulder. The King Trailer was a champion with a 90 degree bend in the tongue. The truck had $4,000 of body damage from the trailer and boat slamming against it. And the tug? All that happened was a hull scrape that looked like I hit the dock to hard-something I routinely fix!

By the way, the BoatUS towing insurance that we got and at the last minute checked the box, for $10, to receive roadside towing insurance was a blessing. They paid the entire $1000 towing bill without a whisper. I am writing an article for the BoatUS magazine of our adventure.

About an aircard for your laptop. We used a Verizon aircard for our MacBook and it was great. Not as fast as the home connection, but faster than dial up. We used it everyday while on the road and on the water. Two things that work very well for us: (1) I installed a booster or amplifier for our cell phones that also connected to the air card. (Kester Communications in Kirkland, WA were the magicians for this though I did all the install work.) The amplifier got us coverage where there was none and improved the quality of the signal when it was marginal. I have $650 in parts for this and the "Laurie Ann" now has a twin antennae on the port side. (2) Pay a bit more for the unlimited data sending and receiving. I reluctantly took the advice of the salesman at the Verizon store when I wanted the $39 a month a plan. When I saw how much data we sent and received at the end of a month, we would have paid a lot more in over-charges.