Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[WinterDeere]

The thing I love about the trailer, at least for my firewood collection chore, is when I get home with a big load of wood after dark. Back when I was using only a truck to move all the wood, and it was nearly always over-loaded, I'd feel the need to get it unloaded right away... no matter how spent or exhausted I was at the end of a long day.

When that happens with the trailer, I'll just drop the rear stands and jack up the tongue, and let the load sit until the next morning. Heck, I'll even leave it connected to the truck, I don't mind, as long as I can crank up the tongue jack enough to take the load off the truck for the night.

I bring up to 30 cords of logs home, some years, but usually average about 10 cords per year. It's a lot of wood for one man to move, using just a few Saturdays per year, especially when that man spends his weekdays exercising little more than a mouse and keyboard.

 

[Hughman]

My neighbor saw this and sent it to me.

 

[spitter]

I'll take a bigger shop and more storage space any day over a bigger house.

 

[Renze]

My neighbor saw this and sent it to me.

Yes, i used to have a neighbour who put shetland ponies in the back of his Toyota HiAce van... needless to say that it smelled like horse **** all summer..

I keep a rubber trunk mat in the back of my V70 all the time. Spilled chicken feed, gas, chain oil, it doesnt matter, just hose off the mat and throw it back the next morning when it has dried.

At my employer we had a Nissan pickup. The boys wanted to have it to go play around in the weekend, but it was very impractical to take on a welding job on location, the 8000 euro welder wrapped in some tarps when it rained, and the tarp flopping around in the wind needing regular checks along the way.

My mate has a VW chassis cab as a farm van, with a dropside bed. As a farm vehicle its practical because you can throw anything in there whether it smells or not. Electric tools can go in the rear bench because it is a double cab. With the sides dropped down, you can load four pallets with ease, from three sides.

I think in the USA it is same as in Europe; A pickup is as expensive as a chassis cab (or in Europe a full frame chassis cab is as expensive as a semi-unibody van) thats why you dont see many dropside beds, even though they are much more practical in most commercial applications...

Stellantis selling the front wheel drive Fiat Ducato in America as a replacement for the Mercedes/Dodge Sprinter was somewhat surprising to me; the Ducato is one of Europes most popular vans because of price, yet the front suspension and CV joints arent exactly suitable for heavy towing...
The Sprinter is sold as 5th wheel tractor with air brakes here, up to 10 ton (22k pounds) and its the only one that lasts doing so. The ProMaster isnt a replacement for a Sprinter

 

[Renze]

It's also safer and more convenient to haul my ATV or snowsled in the pickup bed. When I was commuting 500 miles to New York, the last thing I wanted to do was drag a trailer. When I am working, the last thing I need to do is drag a trailer.

When i have a small load and a 150km trip i borrow my mates 2x1 meter single axle trailer. Its tricky to back up because you dont see it in the mirrors, but it doesnt cause much wind drag either. Once a heavy truck was trying to overtake me when i was doing 100kmh (he obviously had disabled his mandatory speed limiter set at max 90kmh) so i gave it some gas. At 130kmh he was still beside me, all nervous because he just wanted to pass me, though he was exceeding his speed limit (for trucks 80kmh) by 50kmh which could cost him his license for a year, so i stopped teasing and took off with 160kmh (100mph)

You really dont notice that little trailer behind there.
And for 3 ton loads i take my own 2x4.2 meter trailer. It almost weighs a ton empty

 

[Eagle1]

Really, 15 bales 4x5 hay, Four load Sunday nothing but up and down on gravel roads.

 

[Renze]

Really, 15 bales 4x5 hay, Four load Sunday nothing but up and down on gravel roads.
View attachment 882781

Here in Europe, bales get typically hauled by a 50kmh tractor with cab and front axle suspension, on a big rig flat bed trailer with a dolly. On rural roads, it barely pays off in time if you can drive with a truck, some longer stretches of road faster than the 50-55km top speed of the tractor.

Another factor is that theres no farm exemption, so you'd have to take a CDL that sets you back about 10.000 euro in certificates, technical training, hazmat, etcetera, all mandatory. So its just not worth it here.

Off course in North America most of the land was shaped in the bulldozer era, and not built in the 1500- 1800s with wheelbarrow and shovel by serfs, dictated by a baron landlord, so you guys have more chance to maintain 60mph with a truck on long straight roads. Here in Europe it only pays off to use trucks if you can use a highway because most of our roads were horse cart trails rolling around terrain obstacles, which eventually got paved because after people built houses along them, we're stuck with the trajectory of the ancient horsetrail.

 

[WinterDeere]

Here in Europe it only pays off to use trucks if you can use a highway because most of our roads were horse cart trails rolling around terrain obstacles, which eventually got paved because after people built houses along them, we're stuck with the trajectory of the ancient horsetrail.

A wise man once said, "In America, 200 years is a long time. And in Europe, 200 miles is a long distance."

 

[Renze]

A wise man once said, "In America, 200 years is a long time. And in Europe, 200 miles is a long distance."

Here, in the Flevoland polder (sea bottom reclaimed between 1933 and 1967 ?) infrastructure is pretty much like North America: Drawn with a ruler on the map, dividing it into... i think 16 hectare blocks.
The clay soil is so fertile that the going rate is 200.000 euro per hectare, or 86.400 dollar per acre.

Just 20 days after the 1953 flood which took 1835 lives, the Dutch parliament said "Dam it, we're done with it"

As of today, Dutch contractors are the dominant force in waterworks, whether the Dubai palm islands, or dikes in central Asia.

The Dutch dominance in marine salvage has a different reason, it is that our culture is much more suitable for this work than for example, the British: in Britain there is historically a big difference in status and authority between blue collar and white collar jobs. The Dutch directness is notorious: They dont wrap things up nicely but say it as it is. So when the diver says it is too dangerous and hes not going to put his life on the line, the salvage master can resist pressure to meet the deadline, by answering the headquarters "my diver says its unsafe, so we wait for better conditions". But when the diver says "within these circumstances, i'm willing to take this risk and get the job done to take the reward" the message gets forwarded to the upper management and the job gets done. Hah! And Americans think they are the pinnacle of capitalism, while the reposession officer takes the truck they didnt need, payd by money they didnt have
There are branches of industry where things work differently..

Where my family lived, in Fergus, Ontario, the Jones Baseline road was straight for miles, before dropping into a river trench and following the shoreline because of the change in geography. I was told several people misjudged that sudden change and tumbled into the river or got their car hung up in a tree crown along the river.

Off course the German with the funny moustache (when i type his name on TBN, it gets censored) made the Autobahn system to transport his troops in a hurry, in the 30s. This became the blueprint for the entire European highway system in the 60s.

 

[LouNY]

Here in Europe, bales get typically hauled by a 50kmh tractor with cab and front axle suspension, on a big rig flat bed trailer with a dolly. On rural roads, it barely pays off in time if you can drive with a truck, some longer stretches of road faster than the 50-55km top speed of the tractor.

Another factor is that theres no farm exemption, so you'd have to take a CDL that sets you back about 10.000 euro in certificates, technical training, hazmat, etcetera, all mandatory. So its just not worth it here.

Off course in North America most of the land was shaped in the bulldozer era, and not built in the 1500- 1800s with wheelbarrow and shovel by serfs, dictated by a baron landlord, so you guys have more chance to maintain 60mph with a truck on long straight roads. Here in Europe it only pays off to use trucks if you can use a highway because most of our roads were horse cart trails rolling around terrain obstacles, which eventually got paved because after people built houses along them, we're stuck with the trajectory of the ancient horsetrail.

One thing many people that don't live here is the dramatic differences in the various parts of the country. Some of the roads around here are very similar to yours, houses and barns built on both sides of a horse trail which has grown into a road. It's hard to find a straight road in the Township that I live in.