An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

I'll check when I get to the shipper. As far as trailer damage, that's just what Brigit told me, so....I am still a newbie at this RGN stuff so I go by the advice of more experienced operators

 

Well, the potential height issue was nothing. Not sure where the company got it's measurements but loaded the thing isn't 146" high. And...Ford doesn't build vans that have good chain securement locations. It is rear wheel drive, but it has disk brakes all the way around so the back axle is the best location to secure to, but it has the brake line and ABS sensor wire behind the axle and the parking brake cable in front of the axle. And there is a large component! box between the frame rails behind the back axle that hangs down at the same level as the axle pumpkin. In the has a generator inside so the exhaust for the vehicle and the generator come out behind the axle as well...all that stuff in the way made it impossible to chain towards the back. And the front suspension is typical for modern vehicles...flimsy pot metal, but I found a place to fit my chains that has some reinforcement so all my chains are under the vehicle...the front holding it back, the back holding it forward. There were no options to even attempt to use the frame as an angled tie down point. These suckers are meant to be secured with the basket strap over the wheels, which we don't have.

Here is what I am hauling





I opted to take the southern route and avoid WY. The other day I saw favorable forecasts going across there but in the FCC thread @DonRobbie mentioned that there was an area under a winter storm warning. If you look at the individual city forecasts it doesn't look bad except around Elk...where there is a Winter Storm Warning from tonite thru Sunday, calling (the last time I looked) for almost a foot of snow...and we all know how well WY cleans their roads. So I am running 40 over to Gallup then up thru Moab and Green River, then up to I-15 and then up thru SLC. Only some winter precip in the corner of Colorado thru tomorrow.

 

Plus another fun part of this customer's location, their drive is narrow and on a curve of a narrow road. With this RGN, even though it is only a 48' trailer, with the fixed axles all the way in the rear, it has a very long turning radius so there was no way I was getting in their driveway without turfing the whole property across the street. That meant loading in the street...and I didn't have ramps, which normally wouldn't be a problem for a normal Ford Transit van but, this has a couple sensors hanging off extensions about bumper high in the back...I had to dig out every piece of 2x4 and 2x6 that was in the storage well in order to just clear the sensors backing it on. I am planning on a visit to Lowe's or Home Depot enroute for some 2x8's so I can make ramps to unload.

 

Been windy as heck the last hour of TX and all the way across NM...but it's still better than WY

 

Eeeeeeew...it's a LOT better than WY