I got to spend some time with my Future TR4 over Christmas. I was a
whole lot more exciting than I had hoped though...
I bought the car in 1991 and stuck it in a barn on a farm owned by my
wife's great aunt. The farm was sold this fall so I had to move the car
to a new resting place. A friend of mine graciously offered the use of
one of his sheds until I could arrange to transport the car out west
where there is a better chance I will actually work on it. So I flew
out to North Carolina a couple of days before my wife (her family is
there) and arranged to borrow my friends pickup and trailer for the
move. (Same friend who offered the use of the shed! Good friend eh?)
Wednesday before Christmas, I drove up to his place and traded my
mother-in-law's Honda for truck and trailer and headed back to where the
car was. About 30 miles down the road, on I-85, I heard a clunk and the
truck started to fishtail wildly. A couple of seconds later, I felt the
trailer break loose. I swear I saw the trailer tumble end for end once
and land on the wheels with the tongue pointing back up the road. It
then veered onto the shoulder, bounced off of a guard rail tearing out a
10ft section, spun around once, and headed back towards the guard rail
ending up with the back end wedged under the rail. I was able to dig it
out and get it pointed the right direction, and I looked it over and it
seemed to be fine except for a missing light and a piece reinforcing the
tongue had torn loose. Both chains had broken. I limped back to Dave's
and told him what I had done to his trailer. We rounded up a new one
and managed to get the car moved but not until darkness had fallen and
snow had started flying.
Thankfully, no one was behind me when the trailer broke loose. Thankfully,
the trailer headed for the shoulder and not across the median into oncoming
traffic. Thankfully, the trailer was empty. The irony of the day was that
while hooking it up, Dave was telling me about some of his runaway trailer
experiences. I mentioned that it had never happened to me and he said "Oh,
it will sometime!" Also, he had lent it out to someone earlier in the
week and they brought it back bent. They had hauled some big American
boat on it and the back braces bent, so the bed was sagging in back. On my
way out the first time, Dave said something like "I know you'll take good
care of my trailer..." Ouch.
Mike
mburdick@unmc.edu
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