Question of the Week: What’s Your Best Car-Hauling Story?—WINNER’S UPDATE

WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:

Happy Monday! We’re back to announce the winner of our Question of the Week contest, where our winner will take home the prize to end all prizes: a $25 credit to the BaT Gear Store!

Our question was: What’s your best car-hauling story?

Thanks to everyone who participated! A number of your stories featured some extremely sketchy techniques, and had us on the edge of our seats. This week, we were particularly drawn to a comment left by the one and only @jwrestore of ICON fame, whose adventure (naturally) involved hauling an FJ40, much like the early example currently live on the site.

He wrote:

Wish I had photos, but a recent road trip to Arizona. Reminded me of my epic tow adventure back in the late ’90s.

Me and my old Labrador, Walter, used to go on buying missions for old FJ40 Land Cruisers in my 1965 F-250. This was right before we started our TLC4X4 brand. My friend had an 18-wheeler car hauler, but on this trip, I ended up buying more than I thought. The last one was up in an old mining town, called Globe, Arizona. I didn’t want to wait and have my friend make a second trip just for it, so we went to the local U-Haul dealer. All they had was a super beat-up car dolly. I generally avoided those and would rent a full-size trailer.

But Walter and I decided to go for it. The problem (or one of many problems) was that the old FJ had stupid big tires, and despite my many MacGyver techniques, the best setup we could achieve resulted in it kind of working until we turned right. Every time we did so, we would get stuck in the intersection and have to wrestle it back in line. So, we ended up driving all the way back to LA, with no right turns at all! Took a while. Interesting challenge. Never again!

Ho boy, talk about a challenge! Congratulations, jwrestore! Be sure to check your email to claim the prize.

Now, let’s take a look at some other popular nominations from this week’s discussion thread. 

BaT member mikeroten‘s comment received a lot of love from the BaT community this week. His car-hauling story was fortuitously short, and he lets us know why:

Well, I’m going to go with the “bring a tow strap” whether ya like it or not 😎

The year was 1986. I’m scouring the Sacramento Bee classifieds with pops, and there was this short ad: “1973 Fiat 124 Spider – starts, won’t run. $125 firm, tow it away.”

I called my buddy Bruce with the 289 Cougar and said, “Hey, wanna go pick up a car? It’s right across the river in West Sac,” and of course, he was totally game. So we grabbed the tow strap and hit the road.

We got to the guy’s house, and there the car was on a battery charger. The guy was clearly not into Fiats. He said, “I just want a few bucks to put into my Harley.” – he poured some gas into the carb, hit the key, started, and then died. I hopped in the car, and the fuel gauge was PEGGED at zero, and I asked him, “What’s up with this?” and he said, “Oh, that fuel gauge has been dead for years.” – okay. Fine!

So I gave him the $125, and we hooked the Spider to the Cougar and got it out of the yard, with an agreement between Bruce and me that we’d take it up the block, check the strap for safety, then hit the road.

While we were doing the safety check, I said, “Let’s tow it up to the 7-11 and put some gas in it so I don’t have to gas can it from the local shell when we get home.” So we did that. I put $5 in, and we hit the river road to tow the car back to my folk’s house and sort it out.

About a mile down the road, I got the wiseacre idea to turn on the key and drop the clutch in fourth while we being towed, and lo, behold! The fuel gauge indicated 1/4 tank, and when I dropped the clutch, she fired right up! So I laid on the Fiamms, and Bruce hauled the speed down and couldn’t believe the car was sitting there idling as if nothing was ever wrong.

We unhooked the cars, I drove it home and put 100,000 miles on that car. It’s one of my all-time favorite rides.

Bikeric says:

The year was 1992, and I was transferring duty stations from upstate New York to San Diego, California. I had 2 cars at the time—a 1986 IROC-Z and a 1971 Fiat 850 Sportster Spider. I had driven the IROC through a horse corral because I had no skills at the time and still needed transportation, so I bought the Fiat to get me to and from the work site. For the move, I rented a U-Haul box truck big enough to pull the car trailer. I fitted the Fiat into the back of the box truck and the IROC on the trailer. The first leg of the road trip was back home to Oklahoma to drop off the IROC with my Dad to “fix” it. I pulled the Fiat out of the truck and placed it onto the trailer for the last leg of the trip to San Diego. Somewhere on HWY-8 in Arizona, I spotted a junkyard that had a Fiat 850 parked near the road with a line of other cars. I made a U-turn and went back. My Fiat purchased in New York had some pretty nasty rust and frame rot, so I needed a few things from this salvaged Fiat that was rust-free.

Needless to say, a deal was made for $350, so I removed the trailer from the U-Haul and backed the box truck down into the ditch. From there, we were able to push the non-running Fiat into the back of the truck (at 20 years old, I really didn’t have many possessions, so plenty of room). I made the rest of the trip to San Diego with a Fiat 850 inside the truck and a Fiat 850 on the trailer. That was not the start nor the end of my car craziness, just a single example.

The knowledge that one can get a Fiat 850 into a box truck could prove dangerous…

BaT user Pennoak had us sweating bullets, and he writes:

During the year of 1994, I authorized the construction of a unique 24-foot automobile trailer that would be able to accommodate all types of automobiles without the use of ramps. The trailer had a mechanism release near the hitch, and with the brake on, you would pull your truck forward slowly, and the body would come to rest on the ground, and a vehicle could drive in comfortably. Shortly thereafter, I had a 1937 Cord Cabriolet that had just won Awards at Amelia Island and Eastern United States Concours. This time, I was heading to Auburn, Indiana, for the 40th Annual Auburn Court, Dusenberg event. My tow vehicle was a 1993 Ford F-250 diesel truck. Heading from our home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I did not feel very comfortable hauling my freshly restored vehicle such a long distance. Everything seemed to be fine until heading to the western part of the state of Pennsylvania (turnpike), where the numerous hills were putting a strain on the truck. From a speed of 65 miles an hour, I saw the mileage indicator constantly getting lower and lower as I downshifted to ascend the mountainous areas. 65 to 60. 60 to 50. 50 to 40. 48 to 35 is where I felt like I was breathing heavily and, in my mind, trying to push the truck forward and make the incline. At some points of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, what appeared to be a downhill incline actually was a mirage, and there was another hill to climb.

All along, I felt like the trailer was too much of a load pushing down on the trailer hitch, but I had no choice. I had to make the show… then I heard a thump as the trailer broke off its hitch. The sway bars were holding it together somewhat as I stopped. I don’t remember how I was able to get to a phone, but I looked up Towing services and welding services, and one person said, “No problem, I’ll be there in 15 minutes.” sure enough, a huge welding truck pulled up, and the driver/mechanic assessed the damage, and he jacked up the trailer and aligned the section of the frame and did his welding. He looked inside the trailer, stating, “No wonder it broke. You had your car too far forward. Move it back a foot, and you’ll be fine.” He handed me a bill for $75, which was shockingly so low. I couldn’t stop thanking him. A short time later, we arrived at the ACD meet. Our car had the highest points. I’ve never seen any judging so absolutely critical. The awards ceremony wasn’t until the following day, so we had to stay over. On the way home, the driving was a pleasure. It seemed like everything was downhill from there.

Image: Car and Driver

I took the car for our drive near my home, and after gazing up at a four-point intersection, I went to make a U-turn to head back home. I literally had to stop and back up to make my turn. I was disappointed that this magnificent black beauty with a tan top and Cordovan interior handled so terribly. The next day, I called my friend who owned MBNA, the credit card company that eventually turned into a Bank of America credit card. I told him that I would sell him the car since he had admired it a couple shows. It was absolutely stunning, but I like beautiful cars that are comfortable to drive and handle well.

Gene

Mapguy writes:

Easy answer for me. The free bus. I had a friend in grad school who had a ’70 VW Westy camper bus, and I loved that thing. We would kick around South and Central Texas and had some good times. I was and am an air-cooled VW nerd, and a Westy bus had always been on my bucket list. This one ran well, still had the camper goodies all intact, and had no rust at all. It was a gem!

Well, years passed, and he and I graduated and began hewing out our lives post-college. The bus developed engine trouble and got parked at a storage facility, where it stayed for several years. One day, while catching up with my buddy on the phone, he mentioned the monthly storage fee was getting tiresome. “If you want the bus, you can have it,” he said.

Free bus! And a bucket lister at that! How could I refuse! There were just a couple minor kinks. The bus had been sitting for almost six years; the tires were dry-rotted and the engine still didn’t run. It was generally not in good shape. Also, there was the tiny matter of the bus being in Texas and me now living in Southern California.

Image: Driving Line

No matter!! I had pulled off more crazy hair-brained schemes related to cars, and why should this be any different? I needed a truck. No worries! I had a shiny black Nissan D21 Hardbody! I needed a way to get it home. Bob’s your uncle! I could rent a tow dolly, pull the driveshafts out of the bus, and away we go! I made no note of the towing capacity of my little four-cylinder truck or its comfort level on long drives. Focus on the positive! The bus would be mine!

Image: Car and Driver

So I started scheming. Of course, I lied to U-Haul about what I was towing. A Beetle, I think I said. Whatever got them to agree to rent me the tow dolly. I may have embellished the condition of the bus to my wife at the time (pleading the fifth on that one). A close friend even volunteered to go with me. He had owned buses before. I still believe he thought this would go horribly wrong, and he wanted to be around to witness it.

So we headed off. I’ll quickly sum up that I do not recommend long extended drives with two full-grown adults in a Nissan Hardbody. Anyway, we had enough Ween CDs and spirited, naive youth to make the trip. Then, the bus.

It was rough. The years in storage had not been kind. There was surface rust now, 3 of 4 tires flat, and someone had broken in and stolen, of all things, the wardrobe cabinet. That’s it. Just the wardrobe cabinet.

Anyway, I pulled the shafts and needed an impact to get the rear wheels off, but I eventually did and got new rubber on them. Then we mounted it up. I say mounted, as when the bus was on the dolly behind my pickup, it bore a striking resemblance to the raunchier sections of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. The bus was clearly trying to mate with my pickup. We had a good laugh at the overall bravado of our endeavor. My Dad still talks about this and gets a laugh every time.

Anyway, we set off. We hit severe winds in West Texas (bad enough to blow the VW emblem off the front of the bus and break the radio antenna off), driving rain, and no shortage of fast-passing big rigs trying to blow my amorous duo off the highway.

Through it all, though, the little Nissan was a rock. Had to hit second gear on a few of the climbs, but she made it back! The bus was a member of the family for many years before I finally sold it. Never underestimate the resolve of a gearhead in pursuit of a free bucket lister, and never, ever underestimate a D21 Hardbody.

Great story, Mapguy! 

Tnaf says:

Back in 2019, one of my fellow gearheads and co-conspirators of generally foolish automotive endeavors found a 1974 Nova roller advertised online. It was rusty, covered in hundreds of stickers at one time in its life, and generally just ugly… but the price was right, so who were we to pass up such a prime opportunity.

Plans were made quickly to leave after we were both finished up with work on Friday and make the six-hour round trip that night. We borrowed a pickup and trailer and made our way east.

The load-up was generally uneventful, although if I remember right, the winch on the trailer was not functional, so we used a pair of rachet straps to slowly inch it onto the trailer. The engine, cherry picker, and engine hoist that came with the car fit comfortably in the bed, and once everything was strapped down, we headed back home long after the sun had set.

We rolled into my buddy’s driveway somewhere around 2 am, both heavy-eyed. To our absolute horror, we realized the trailer was empty. The Nova had unloaded itself without our noticing somewhere along our journey home.

In our panic, assuming we’d have to backtrack to find the new beloved project car upside down in the median somewhere along our homebound route, we finally noticed the headlights of the Nova under a dim street light at the last stop sign we went through less than a hundred yards from the house. A strap had severed over a sharp part of the subframe, and it had just gently rolled off the trailer. Younger, dumber me had not checked thoroughly enough for sharp edges when I ran that particular strap… We hurriedly pushed it into the drive before anyone could witness it.

Less than a year later, my buddy sold the car before we did any meaningful work on it. Oh well. At least the memory remains.

That’s perhaps the best-case scenario that could’ve happened. Phew!

That’s it for this week’s Question of the Week! Congratulations once again to our winner, jwrestore! We’ll be back with a new question soon. 

ORIGINAL POST:

Welcome to the BaT Question of the Week! For those unfamiliar, here are the rules: we ask an automotive-themed question, and the author of our favorite answer from the comments is awarded a $25 credit to the BaT Gear Store.

This week, we’re asking: What’s your best car-hauling story?

This here website takes its name from the language once used in classified ads to describe project cars requiring transport. That’s one reason to “bring a trailer,” and the hitch also comes in handy when getting to the track, the lake, or the campground, among other places. Car hauling is a fact of life for many of us, and it’s also something that can dramatically complicate the most well-laid plans.

Of course, interesting hauling stories don’t always involve mishaps; maybe you have a fortuitous or mysterious tale.

All we know is; when we ask you for personal anecdotes, you never disappoint! With that, we’ll pass it over to you.

What’s your best car-hauling story?

Nominate your favorites in the comments, and give a thumbs-up to any other nominations you deem worthy. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.