From: clare@snyder.on.ca   
      
   On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:30:37 -0700, Bob La Londe    
   wrote:   
      
   >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.   
    I ran my old mini (Morris 850 Mk 1) down a road allowance in the   
   spring past about 4 stuck jeeps and 4X4s. I don't know how I got   
   through but I just didn't slow down. It had all of about 6 inches of   
   ground clearance and the tires were only about  4.5 or 5" wide.. It   
   didn't hurt that it only weighed about 1275 lbs.   
   I took that thing through a lot of places it had no business going   
   through.   
    The '67 204 Peugot took me through alot of places that should have   
   required a Land Rover in Africa too - - -   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)