From: none@none.com99   
      
   On 2/9/2026 7:43 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:   
   > On Mon, 9 Feb 2026 11:05:11 -0700, Bob La Londe    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2/9/2026 5:20 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   >>> "Snag"  wrote in message news:10mbomj$2h1p8$1@dont-email.me...   
   >>>   
   >>> On 2/8/2026 10:06 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:   
   >>>>     Put brakes on anything that excedes 50% of the tow vehicle's weight   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>>     That may be a good rule of thumb for a highway application . But I'm   
   >>> talking about dragging a load of firewood a few hundred yards down a   
   >>> dirt road to my driveway and the splitter next to it .  Top speed MIGHT   
   >>> be around 10 MPH ...   
   >>   
   >> Been there done that.  In order to save money in college I rented a   
   >> vacant lot with trailer hookups.  Then I hauled in an old trailer.  It   
   >> was right at that dividing line between travel trailer and mobile home.   
   >> Really a small mobile home.  Hooked up to the receiver hitch on my 76   
   >> F150 it was pretty sketchy.  I towed it at 35 mph for 70 miles ont he   
   >> freeway.  At a little over 36 mph it couldn't be steered.  You could   
   >> make suggestions, but steering wasn't really an option.   
   >>   
   >> Just so you know a stabilizer hitch would have cured the problem, but I   
   >> didn't have one.  I had to scrounge and borrow a draw bar with a 2-5/16   
   >> ball to tow it at all.  I have used stabilizer hitches a few times   
   >> since, but none of my current trailers are tongue heavy enough to need   
   >> one on my 3/4 ton trucks.  On a 1/2 ton, sure, but not on a modern 3/4.   
   >    I'll bet stopping that rig even at 35MPH involved some" talking to   
   > the man upstairs" too - - -   
      
   I don't recall it being a big deal, but that was a long time ago.   
      
   I've had a few adventures.  Once I spent a long weekend hanging out with   
   a female friend and I had a dead battery on my bike.  (A VT500C)  Didn't   
   stop us from going places and doing things.  She push started me every   
   time, and I just circled back to pick her up.   
      
   I once took that truck down a brush choked trail as fast as I dared   
   around multiple blind turns in the dark just to scare my passenger, and   
   when I broke out into the open she just asked, "Okay, did I pass."   
      
   Another time we spent a holiday down on the beach at El Golfo (Golfo De   
   Sta Claire).  Our "beach buggy" was a 1984 GL1200 with a sidecar with   
   stock highway tires.  It was terrible, but there was almost always   
   somebody with a truck and a strap to pull us out.  I found if I could   
   catch just that right stretch between the surf and dry sand we could run   
   for miles as long as I didn't hit any sinks.  A few times I pushed while   
   my wife road, but mostly we went where we wanted.   
      
   I once spent the better part of a day backing that truck out of sugar   
   sand 4 feet at a time with a piece of plywood borrowed from what was   
   likely an illegal artifact site, because even with all 4 flat it still   
   wouldn't stay on top.  (That piece of plywood was up on some saw horse   
   covered in pottery shards.)  At least I didn't have to walk.  I had an   
   ATV in the truck that I unloaded to go "borrow" that piece of plywood.   
      
   I ran my trap lines the first year with a Plymouth Volare station wagon.   
     Shackled up the rear, and put an impact on the front torsion bars to   
   get some more ground clearance.  One day after a rain down in the river   
   valley there was a thin layer of water over top of a mud flat.  I had no   
   idea where the road/trail was, but the law said I had to check my traps   
   everyday.  With the tires nearly flat it would stay on top and keep   
   going once I got it going, but turning the wheel did almost nothing.  I   
   could nudge it a little, so I steered towards the breaks in the brush   
   lines (where the trail was known to be) by nudging it towards the random   
   bush here and there.  When I'd hit the bush I'd jerk the wheel hard in   
   the direction I wanted to go, and then look for the next bush.   
      
   Another time out quail hunting right after a rain I came upon a fancy   
   jacked up 4x4 stopped in the road.  I went around him in my station   
   wagon the same way.  Took me between 1/4 & 1/2 mile to get back on the   
   road.   
      
   I haven't always made the best choices, but as a result I can drive okay.   
      
   Stopping an overloaded truck with a floating front end on asphalt with   
   all known stopping points probably doesn't even break my top 50   
   shetchiest driving skills.  Driving it did at first, but not stopping.   
      
      
   --   
   Bob La Londe   
   CNC Molds N Stuff   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)