Date:         Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:23:26 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Friday Dumb stuff...but not in a Vanagon...
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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...