Practice What You Preach

It's sometimes easy for those of us who write these advice pages in magazines to start getting a little preachy. I remember many times reading some guy's column in a car mag and thinking to myself, "Yeah, sure buddy. Go ahead and preach to us plain old folks about how perfectly you can do it."

Well, last month, H&H was invited to be a sponsor for this year's Bullrun, a road rally from Montreal to Key West, and being a sponsor didn't mean write a check and send some hats and stickers. In this instance, David Green, the man who puts on this crazy event needed us to come along with a trailer, haul luggage and equipment, and be there on time, every time. So, we worked on short notice to get things lined up, and that's where my humbling began. I assure you that most of you have never had worse luck than I did on this trip, and I doubt that many of you have ever had such good luck while going through your bad luck. It's all a cautionary tale about trailers, towing, border patrols, parking garages, and traffic, told in the words of the man who experienced it - me.

Saturday - Ritz Carlton, Montreal. After spending three days getting this revamped, our used H&H "Big Brute" (with about 150,000 miles on it) started up to Canada. I had already experienced a fluke bad wheel bearing, which caused my center right side wheel not only to come loose, but catch the grease in the bearings on fire, smoke, wobble off, damage the fender lip and then come loose in Battle Creek, Michigan. We hobbled on into Montreal, found a small shop and had all of the bearings looked at, as well as the one freaky wheel fixed. And the bill, you ask? $1,700! Lesson one, test pull your trailer a little before hitting the road. Even a 30-mile pull would have shown that one of the new wheel bearings we had installed was not up to snuff. My fault and I paid for it.

The Bullrun started in Montreal and went to Boston, Atlantic City (where I had two truck tires mysteriously start separating and had to buy four matching tires on the road from a very high priced and happy vendor), on to Staunton, Virginia, where the steep mountain hills and tight streets started to strain the U-joints in my old fleet Dodge Cummins dually.

Pulling into Savannah, Georgia, the U-joint on our trusty old fleet Dodge (with 90,000 miles) let go with a vengeance. It destroyed itself and many things around it at the time, as you could imagine. The next thing to do? We put it in four-wheel drive and pulled a 23,000-pound truck, trailer and load into the city, though very carefully.

The next morning, we left Savannah without a rear driveshaft still, and slowly made our way to Orlando, where I found a good Dodge dealer with a great parts department. After a day and another $900, we were back on the road pulling with the rear wheels as God intended. I am not overly impressed with this truck at this point, but do have to admit that any truck capable of pulling nearly 12 tons for 350 miles at around 60-MPH is a decent piece of equipment, especially with only the front wheels pulling!

After Orlando, the Bullrun continued to South Beach in Miami, and then we all rolled into Key West for the big finish. The rally went well, no one was injured and everyone who was arrested for speeding apparently made bail. After unloading the 40-foot H&H Big Brute, I took four days of R&R, stopped for a few meetings on the way home, including a stop at H&H Trailers' newest plant in North Carolina, and then headed for home.

The final tally included 6,300 miles, four dually tires, one driveshaft (and a front end that really needs to be rebuilt from the abuse as well), 12 wheel bearings, and one brake kit (when a wheel comes loose it hurts things).

What I learned? Even if you own a trailer company and have an entire staff at your disposal, any trailer can have problems. But, if you keep your head and just think, you can always stay on schedule. So, before you start any long trip, hook up and take your truck and trailer for a short trip, just to check things out. It could save you a lot of grief down the road.

Good towing to you all.
Craig Hull DR