So I sold the 82 240d formerly known as Pancakes to a fine young man in Miami. I have been planning to deliver it tomorrow.
So today I finished loading up the spare parts I am including in the deal and began the process of loading the car into my enclosed 26' trailer. It snowed a few days ago so there is a fair amount of snow in back where the trailer was parked so I plowed it yesterday and went out today to load the car into the trailer. I was going to use my Mitsubishi plow truck since it has 4wd and the big dodge is not.
The area behind my garage is full of little hills and valleys and is tricky to negotiate with a big trailer anyway because you have to thread the needle around two ninety degree corners and a steel fence post, a utility pole and a telephone splice block which serves the whole neighborhood.
So to get a favorable angle on the ramp I had to set the trailer on one of the hills. When I started to drive the 240 onto the trailer I was surprised that the back of the trailer went right down (I had forgotten to lock down the hitch and further had neglected to attach the safety chains (I was just going around the block, right?)) So to avoid pushing the trailer hitch into the back of the Mitsubishi I paused and killed the motor in the 240d. While starting it back up I noticed the trailer was moving
(WTF?) but being inside of it I could not figure out which direction it was headed....toward the mitsu to smash the back of it, off the side of the hill into my neighbors sunken back yard?
I restarted the 240 and drove further into the trailer to bring the nose back down and stop its progress.
Suddenly everything was quiet....and dark. But no large crashes so I counted my lucky stars. I got out of the car and looked around. somehow the back ramp/door of the trailer had closed. The front side door was locked from the outside since I did not think I needed to use it.
I went to the back door which was open about 2" at the top. I pushed it out....no dice, it first appeared that a branch was randomly holding the door shut, then I realized I was nearly in the alley, having rolled about 60' back from the mitsu (which was idling faithfully). The trailer had rolled down the hill until it struck and came to rest against a small tree which was holding the door shut.
I tried various ways of pushing but could only get the door open maybe 16" at the top and I am not agile enough to shimmy out of that.
I called the mrs. "Hi honey...where are you?" (I was hoping she was up at the house but no luck she was at the store). I called my son and he was able to come over and let me out.
So his friend who he had been showing a house to was driving an suv with 4wd and before it was all over he had attached his truck to the front of mine and helped keep the heavy trailer from dragging the mitsu back into the telephone pole, 8" d steel fence post or the telephone splice block.
It was very dicey a couple of times but we made it without any damage to pancakes and only minor damage to the trailer from dragging the bottom on some of my little hills and valleys.
When I went to unhook the trailer from the Mitsu I found three of the four 1/2" bolts holding on my hitch had disappeared and it was hanging loosely from the one left.
I tell you, I am no longer safe towing anything!
My friend Homer says I am the luckiest guy he knows.
I have to agree.
