

| Subject: | Friday Dumb stuff...but not in a Vanagon... |
| From: | Don Hanson |
| Date: | Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:23:26 -0700 |
Reading the post about being in the kitchen and having to scramble for the E-brake to halt the vehicle.....that brought back memories of a really dumb move I made some years ago...similar panic to get stopped, but slightly worse if things had gone the way they were headed. We were building our house, up on a bench near the Columbia River. Living down below the bench in an Airstream while I built the place. The upper site is slightly sloped, maybe 4% gradient, then there's a steep pitch, then another flat, where the trailer was parked. So...I go rent a Bobcat, drag it home with my Diesel truck and do some site work around the new house. The truck got unhooked from the dually flatbed trailer to do some other chore, then I realized I had to get the Bobcat back by 7am the next morning to not pay an additional days rental. I am alone up at the new house, so I think, well I'll just load the Bobcat then hook the trailer up in the morning and go, when someone is around to help me with the hitching and backing.... (you see what is coming?) This Bobcat has one of those safety bars on it,,,,you raise it and get in the seat then you have to lock it down before the starter will even fire...So, I climb into the Bobcat and proceed to back it up the ramps onto the flatbed trailer....then, I notice I am still moving after I stop the Bobcat....the whole trailer is now beginning to head.....directly for the drop off and below that, the Airstream....and I'm trapped in the safety cage.... Well, I finally got out (the safety bar will only raise if you have the Bobcat in park and the brake is on, but of course that didn't occur to me as I was sitting up there gaining speed, rolling backwards in a Bobcat on a trailer...and I jumped off the trailer, which was by now going at a pretty good clip, about a jog trot pace and gaining speed...with the tongue jack lightly skipping along the ground as it heads directly for the Airstream... I run around to the front and induce the whole appx 5 tons of rolling menace into what could be described as a 'do or die' turn.... I got it cross wise to the fall line just at the breakover where the gradient goes from ~4% to probably 15%..... So I learned to never load a trailer unless it's hooked to the tow vehicle or firmly blocked and chocked...
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