About one year ago you all may have noticed that i fell off of the face of the earth... Well I really just rolled out of Texas. My wife's father was dying, we were having a child and i figured that moving back to the great state of New york was cheaper than a divorce. It was not a real hard choice, I am a new Yorker to the bone...but i did get attached to South Padre Island...
I sold my restaurant, my condo, vacant land...transfered funds to a different bank and rented a 26 foot penske truck. the first problem that i had was too many vehicles... the suburban had to go. that got sold to a friend... then i came upon a really good deal on a 740IL...i bought it...back to my first problem. I now have a 740IL, a 1973 914-6 and my 750 k8 and they all need to get to upstate new york... I call penske, the porsche is too low and wont get on the car hauler, the beemer is 600 pounds too heavy. they say no car hauler for you, so i lie and tell them i am hauling a ford ranger, i now have a hauler...
all of our stuff gets loaded first into the truck, clothes, TV, stuff. then i made a bike holder out of 2x4's and a sheet of 3/4 plywood...that worked great and fit perfectly with the bike standing sideways in the truck...with a Little bit cut of the end of the board. but i still had 2 cars to haul...called a friend with a roll back. he scooped up my porsche and we put it right in the back of the penske truck. i made some wheel chocks and used 2 motorcycle tie downs. down went the door. sounds safe huh.
The beemer was still in Dallas, so off we go. now i have never driven a truck that big, nor have i towed a 2 axle trailer. all you could see of the trailer was the wheel fenders in the side mirrors but i figured if the trailer was tracking behind the truck straight and not swinging about wildly all was fine...i was a bit nervous the first few hundred miles. i was worried that my 914-6 was going to roll trough the back door of the truck or if i slammed on the brakes it was going to come through all of our stuff and into the cab...well the brakes got stomped once, real hard... nothing...the wheel chocks and the tie downs held... full steam ahead... did you know that penske governs their trucks to only do 70 mph top speed? well they do.
the second day we picked up the beemer and had to pump up the tires on the trailer a bit, but all seemed fine. my wife's father died on our way. i was a little concerned about towing 90 thousand dollars down the road but hey...it did have 2 axles under it and what is 600 pounds... a mere formality. the second day was kept down to 55 mph...every 10or 20 seconds looking in the mirrors to makes sure my car was still there.
the third day i was confident. 70mph all that i could. we hit the nys thruway, got our toll ticket and gone. 10 minutes later, 70 mph, we hear a horn and see a man waving his hand at us... he yells "you lost your car". it is hard to explain the terror running thru my mind... you must remember that i lied to get the trailer... the insurance would only cover a ford ranger not a BMW...TERROR!looked in the mirrors...2 fender tracking straight and just the hint of a black trunk. all was fine...just an #$%*... or so i thought. 30 seconds later another guy was doing the same thing but he said we were losing tires off the trailer... big stop... apparently penske does not grease wheel bearings. one of the wheels tore right off the thing, wheel breaks, where the wheel mounts...all of it. got the car off and my wife drove it the last 2 hours home. called penske and told them the bad news... no sweat, just unhook it and leave on the side of the road... fine... done. i guess they got it back...
Made it to new york fine and dandy... i am tired of typing...more will follow...
