Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[duramaxsky]

How about LOWERING the roadway?

A lot of times it can't be done without damaging the bridge support. Also sometimes the road would be too low for drainage. In either case it would be cheaper to build a higher bridge. There is a low railroad bridge at 12' 6" between Tumwater and Tenino on old Hwy 99. Every time a crash closes I 5 near there some truck hits it. There are warnings on many roads miles in every direction. They made a large turn around before it on the south side. There is a way around it with signs at both ends. But still it gets trucks stuck under it.

 

[aeblank]

I have a 35' bumper pull toy hauler... sucks to pull. 12k toy hauler with a WDH & sway control sucks. 12k of tractor on my 22' bumper pull deckover is perfectly fine even hitting 75 on tbe freeway with no WDH or sway control.

If I try to pull the toy hauler with no toy in it I'll go WAY over max hitch weight & it will suck even more to pull. Between balance issues & being a huge sail I hate going over 65 with it. 65 isn't the funnest pull either.

I'm sure some could get negative tongue weight on them, but they often balance differently than you may expect.

Anybody put a side by side on a bed rack partially over the cab? Thinking of doing that and a 25' 6-7k bumper pull trailer. The smallest 5th wheel toy haulers are even bigger than what I have now. Othe option I've seen is a 25' 5th wheel & pull the toy as a double on a small trailer behind the 5th. Legal in Colorado where I mostly camp, but not in all states.

My dad does this from MI to AZ every year. He's probably overweight on his rear axle, but it's stable and has thousands of miles on it. It's how I would roll, if it were me. (Or double tow with a 5er, I suppose).
I don't seem to have a pic though.

 

[dieselcrawler]

There's actually nothing wrong with hauling this, but my wife thought it quite sketchy! Backed the box trailer onto the GN flat trailer with the other truck, unhooked and chained down at hitch and axles, straps on tires... box trailer wasn't going ANYWHERE... but wife was very concerned... I laughed, as the tractor was loaded on the other flat trailer behind the truck she was going to be driving was less secure than the box trailer!

 

[California]

...case it would be cheaper to build a higher [railroad] bridge.

Good luck trying to schedule that 'improvement'. As I understand it our state DOT has to budget funds to reimburse the railroad for them to do any rail crossing improvements using their own employees or subcontractors. Likely a legacy from back when the railroads were the major political force, that in effect ruled over everything that affected their monopoly.

And aside from funding a higher bridge, a higher bridge is impractical because it would cause lengthy railroad uphill/dowhill grades to climb the 8 ft or so elevation increase at the bridge location. Maybe 12 or more ft of new elevation needed, if you want to make the roadway under it level, a likely goal for a modern road.

I suspect both of these considerations have prevented improving that undercrossing.

 

[BigBlue1]

Yes... When railroads are involved everything is more difficult and harder to make happen. They have incredible powers to override state and local units of government. And everything is way more expensive when they are involved.

 

[DieselBound]

A lot of times it can't be done without damaging the bridge support. Also sometimes the road would be too low for drainage. In either case it would be cheaper to build a higher bridge. There is a low railroad bridge at 12' 6" between Tumwater and Tenino on old Hwy 99. Every time a crash closes I 5 near there some truck hits it. There are warnings on many roads miles in every direction. They made a large turn around before it on the south side. There is a way around it with signs at both ends. But still it gets trucks stuck under it.

And perhaps there are times when it's possible...

 

[BravoXray]

When I was 19, I took my Dad’s truck, (“Heavy F250”, The stock F250 with the springs and shocks from an F350 under it. Dealers in Utah used to special order them, so the farmers could buy them, and get the license as a 3/4 ton, to save on taxes, and load them as a one ton.), to the gravel pit to get sand to make mortar for a new block wall with.

I pay for the yard minimum, and drive down into the pit, and hand my slip to the guy on the loader, get down as he feathers it in until I cut him off with about an inch before the rubber rebound bumpers make contact. About the time we get done, a guy drives in with a Datsun pickup.

He hands his slip to the loader operator, who had about a half scoop left in the bucket, so he rolled over the Datsun and started to feather in the sand. The Datsun is really squatting, so he quits loading him. Driver of the Datsun goes ape, swearing at him, calling him names, and saying he paid for a yard, and by God he wants a yard. Operator dumps what is left in the bucket in his truck. Which snaps both axles. And, the operator just drove off.

I stopped at the scale house and told them the guy in the Datsun deserved it. I was down about two weeks later, and the operator was still in the loader.

Back in the '70s, I was hauling limestone out of Erie Stone in Huntington, IN to Warsaw to finishe the last stretch of US30, I was at the scale house getting my ticket when a guy in a pickup rolled up. He came in and said he wanted a load of limestone, he scale operator told him they didn't load load pickup trucks, only regular dump trucks or semis. PU guy was pissed and asked why. Operator told him they got tired of idiots in PUs wanting a load and ended up bending and breaking axles and frames on them when they had the loader operator put on way more than the PU could handle. Then they would be in the way while the PU driver shoveled the stone out and got a tow truck to pull his junk out of the quarry. He referred him to a landscaping dealer that carried their stone for retail sales.

 

[BravoXray]

How about LOWERING the roadway?

Reminds me of an old joke about a farmer that had a mule the wouldn't go in the barn because his ears were taller then the barn door opening. His neighbor was watching him trying to get the mule through the door for a while, and not having any luck. He ambled over the the barnyard and motioned the farmer over to the fence, He asked the farmer "why don't dig a trench through the doorway deep enough that when you walk the mule in, his ears don't hit the doorway?"
The farmer looked at him, shook his head and said "It's not his legs that are too long, it's his ears and it's gonna be a lot of work to raise that door casing."

 

[California]

After posting above about raising the railroad track to clear a taller undercrossing, I went to look for some specifics.

Trains Magazine has an article on this. It says rise/drop exceeding 1%, 1 ft per 100 ft, is rare on main lines.

And "...for each percent of ascending grade, there is an additional resistance to constant-speed movement of 20 lbs. per ton of train. This compares with a resistance on level, straight track of about 5 lbs. per ton of train. A given locomotive, then, can haul only half the tonnage up a .25-percent grade..." compared to level. [And the RR won't like that].

If the overpass is to be raised using that quarter-percent slope specification then that's 400 ft of rail line raised for each ft of rise at the overpass. For 400 ft on either side of the overpass. Times the number of feet raised.

Railroads don't want their route to be taken out of service for as long as that rebuild would take.

Looks like replacing the undercrossing with one far deeper, is the only solution that the railroad would accept. Cost to the local taxpayers would also include whatever modification the adjacent roads, and drainage, are needed to do the project to modern standards.

 

[goeduck]

Elderly neighbor was going to donate this 2003 GMC 2500HD to charity. Supposedly not that many miles. His wife asked him to give it to me for free since I so a lot of work and look out for them. 8.1 gasser. I will crack the hood tommorow and see what I am dealing with (squirrels, whatever). Anyone have opinions on these? A good tow truck? Specs show some good grunt.