chatcher
Silver Member
You may or may not be aware that I am suffering from an acute case of "Tractor Madness". While this is no excuse for what I did today, maybe you can at least accept it as an explanation.
I called my tractor dealer this morning, only to receive the bittersweet news that my long-awaited TC35DA was ready for delivery, and that although delivery had been promised for today, at the latest, he would not actually be able to deliver it to me until sometime Monday. There went my blood pressure. (Did I mention this weekend will be the first really nice weather weekend we've had this year?) At this point my mind began searching for a plan B. I do not own a suitable trailer for transporting a tractor. Both my vehicles have Class III trailer hitches, but neither is designed to pull much weight. My new TC35DA has a 16LA loader, quick-attach faceplate, a really heavy duty 72" skid-steer foundry bucket with toothbar, grille guard, 420 pounds of rear wheel weights, and a 758C backhoe with 12" bucket. I have not yet calculated the total weight of all those items. I did not do so this morning because I did not want to accept the fact that I had absolutely no business trying to tow it.
A few calls to tool rental places yielded a tandem skid-steer trailer that could physically be attached to my pickup (an F-150 V-6 5-speed short bed, probably the worst choice of all F-150's for towing). I headed over to NationsRent immediately. When I saw the trailer, my first thought was that it looked a little short, but I did not measure it because, again, I did not want to accept the fact that I had no business trying to tow it. I hitched it up and headed for my friendly, but not as beloved as before, New Holland dealer.
I should mention that my part of the country is not very flat, nor are the roads particularly straight. There are some real hills on the 50-mile route between me and said dealer. Two-lane, winding, up-and-down blacktop with a 55-mph limit in most places. I mention the terrain because it explains the reason why I had some difficulty towing the empty trailer to the dealer. No real problems, but I had to use second gear on a couple of the hills, and in one town with a lot of traffic lights I could distinctly smell burning clutch. Not a good sign, and you would think a sane individual would conclude adding additional weight to the equation would not be a good thing. I tried not to think about it, since I did not want to accept the fact that I had no business trying to tow it.
I arrived at the dealer, inspected my new tractor, and briefly considered what a shame it would be to never get it home. The dealer's people were very supportive, and all felt there was no reason why I would have any trouble at all. I wasn't so sure as I watched the back of my truck nearly come off the ground when they drove the tractor onto the trailer. The attached photo shows just how well the trailer fit my new rig.
I called my tractor dealer this morning, only to receive the bittersweet news that my long-awaited TC35DA was ready for delivery, and that although delivery had been promised for today, at the latest, he would not actually be able to deliver it to me until sometime Monday. There went my blood pressure. (Did I mention this weekend will be the first really nice weather weekend we've had this year?) At this point my mind began searching for a plan B. I do not own a suitable trailer for transporting a tractor. Both my vehicles have Class III trailer hitches, but neither is designed to pull much weight. My new TC35DA has a 16LA loader, quick-attach faceplate, a really heavy duty 72" skid-steer foundry bucket with toothbar, grille guard, 420 pounds of rear wheel weights, and a 758C backhoe with 12" bucket. I have not yet calculated the total weight of all those items. I did not do so this morning because I did not want to accept the fact that I had absolutely no business trying to tow it.
A few calls to tool rental places yielded a tandem skid-steer trailer that could physically be attached to my pickup (an F-150 V-6 5-speed short bed, probably the worst choice of all F-150's for towing). I headed over to NationsRent immediately. When I saw the trailer, my first thought was that it looked a little short, but I did not measure it because, again, I did not want to accept the fact that I had no business trying to tow it. I hitched it up and headed for my friendly, but not as beloved as before, New Holland dealer.
I should mention that my part of the country is not very flat, nor are the roads particularly straight. There are some real hills on the 50-mile route between me and said dealer. Two-lane, winding, up-and-down blacktop with a 55-mph limit in most places. I mention the terrain because it explains the reason why I had some difficulty towing the empty trailer to the dealer. No real problems, but I had to use second gear on a couple of the hills, and in one town with a lot of traffic lights I could distinctly smell burning clutch. Not a good sign, and you would think a sane individual would conclude adding additional weight to the equation would not be a good thing. I tried not to think about it, since I did not want to accept the fact that I had no business trying to tow it.
I arrived at the dealer, inspected my new tractor, and briefly considered what a shame it would be to never get it home. The dealer's people were very supportive, and all felt there was no reason why I would have any trouble at all. I wasn't so sure as I watched the back of my truck nearly come off the ground when they drove the tractor onto the trailer. The attached photo shows just how well the trailer fit my new rig.
