Another unsafe tow

[Iplayfarmer]

The old guys at work tell stories about transporting loader tractors to different sites by dropping the bucket into the back of the trucks, lifting the front tires off the ground, hop in the truck and go! and yes they were driving down public roads. I wouldn't dream of doing something like that now.

There was someone doing similar down the highway around here last week. Instead of a backhoe in a dump truck, though, it was a lawn tractor in the trunk of a sedan. No Joke. They guy had the rear wheels of the tractor in the trunk and the front wheels were on the road.

Are those wheels made to handle 50 MPH?

 

[CCOUGHRAN1]

Every time I see a thread with a title like this one, I open it wondering if I am going to see a picture of my truck and trailer....:laughing:

 

[tmajor]

"Towing" takes on all kinds of different scenarios. It has changed some over the years!

Back in about 1970, a farmer up the road about a mile, had a small building, which I thought I would like to have. The building was about 15' x 25', two story. I bought the building for ?? $200. Now, I had to get it home. Like I said, it was a mile up a paved road from my house. I checked the wires, made a "story pole" the height of the building.

I cut four straight trees about 8" in diameter, two for under the building and two to tie them together (front & back). I cross-drilled the trees and inserted a 1/2" steel cable. I was ready to drag this baby down the road!

I got my uncle's JD, I don't remember whether it was the "A" or a slightly newer one. I hooked on the cable, pulled it a couple of feet before one of the floor joists caught a rock under the building. I got over the rock (don't recall how), but one of the side trees had rolled a bit. After I got it out on the road, I noticed that one of the cable clamps was digging into the pavement. What could do? I kept going .. about 20 yards from my driveway the cable broke! I improvised it somehow and managed to get it pulled into position.

The groove in the road remained for many years, until they repaved. The building is still there. :thumbsup: Don't forget, that was 40 years ago.

I also, made a tow bar for the front of my Jeep, in case I had to take the P/U for service or something ... I'd have a ride home. However, I also added attachments, for the same tow bar, to the front of the tractor (Ford NAA) so I could tow that short distances, if needed. :laughing:

 

[High Compression]

Bobcat auto loading - Backhoe Excavator stunt tractor - YouTube


i'm sure some of you have seen this.

Well yeah, duh. How do you load your skidloader? :laughing::confused2::laughing:

 

[sixdogs]

A guy I used to work with who grew up in Coastal New Brunswick, Canada in the 1950's said his dad often moved telephone poles for piers by driving over them lengthwise and strapping them to the front and rear bumber of the truck. He said you had to take it east but they never had a problem.
Proud to say I did it a couple of times myself in later years. I can only imagine what they towed.

 

[slowzuki]

Also from NB even now you move things by dragging them. I've got two 1/2" chains with half the link thickness worn away from people using them to drag large buildings down both dirt and paved roads.

My sister just moved a garden shed by dragging it down the road a half mile.

I'm sure the police wouldn't like it though!

 

[sixdogs]

That gets me thinking. I used to live in Maine and back in the mid 1970's the State Police stopped a guy trying to drive with a chicken shed "around" his car. I don't recall the size but it was big--maybe 14' or 16' by that size or more. It was big. Anyway, he cut holes in the front and back of the shed and drove his car in. Then he built a supporting framework around the car (1960's green looking big Chrysler or similar) and was driving with the building around the car and the car inside the building. Picture on the front page of the Bangor Daily News and all. Got off with a warning. I later bought some fence posts from him and he was quite a guy.

A couple of years later he was right back on the front page with some huge amount of hay tied onto a wooden framework of the same car and on Interstate 95.