number9
Member
- 455
- 0
- 18
- Location
- Lexington, KY
Headed out in the M35 Friday morning with my brother to Twinsburg, OH to pick up the M85 Laundry Unit trailer. Was a LONG HOT ride up. Stopped a time or two to top off the fuel tank and stretch the knees out. Truck was getting pretty close to 10MPG running along at around 2300-2400 RPM and 53-54mph.
Had a convoy of about 8 HMMWV's pass us and was honking and waiving. Couple of them were pulling trailers. I wanted to fall in behind and convoy with them but they were running too fast for the M35 to keep up with.
At one of the fuel stops two little boys were standing by their mom's car staring at the Deuce all googly-eyed. I asked them "you boys ever seen the inside of one of those trucks?" and they just shook their heads. When I told them to climb on up in there I thought they were going to bust. They really seemed to get a kick out of it and their mom took a couple picks of them up in the truck.
We got to Twinsburg facility around 2:45PM. Small shop with a bunch of nice looking toys out back in the fenced area. The atmosphere there was very laid back compared to the other facilities I've been on. They guy walked me out back and found the trailer and said, "well, there it is, good luck" and walked back into the shop.
I drove the Duece around back and we hooked the trailer up and pulled it out in the open lot to take a better look at it. We checked for loose items that may fall out going down the road and put those in the back of the truck. Checked the brakes / brake lights / tightened the lugnuts (all wheels were WAY loose) / aired the tired up and headed out. We were there about two hours and when we pulled to the gate it was closed and chained. I checked the time and it was 4:45PM - he told me they closed at 4:30. I walked around to every door and they were all locked. I thought for sure we were going to be spending the night there. All I could think about was a kid being locked in a toy store. There were lots of nice toys there to play with all night for sure. I finally found a door that was open and went in the service bay and all the lights were off. Found the door that led to the office area and yelled inside. Lights were off in there too. I was almost back out of the service bay when I heard a faint voice yell back at me. There was ONE guy left there and he walked out and looked at me with a "who the #$#@ are you and what the #$@#@ are you doing in here" look. I quickly explained that we had been locked in and he opened the gate and let us out. That was a close one.
We got down the road and I could tell the trailer was too heavy on the rear as it was on the verge of wagging at the slighted input of the steering wheel. A couple miles later a big rig blew past us and the wind blast blew the trailer and it started to wag its tail and got progressively worse. It pushed me over onto the shoulder before I could get it under control. We backed the speed down pretty slow and headed into the next truck stop. We got a bite to eat and then went to work on the trailer. Removed the tarp so it wouldn't act as a sail from big rig blast anymore. We removed the spare tire and strapped it up on the tongue of the trailer. Then we removed the water pump and slid the water heater (HEAVY) up to the front of the trailer. Found some more items and put them up front as well. Headed out from the truck stop around 8:30PM.
That solved the wagging and from then on the trailer pulled real nice. The truck actually pulled it real good except for the hills and it stopped MUCH better than the truck alone.
The rest of the trip back was brutal. Being drained of energy working on the trailer out in the sun and humidity made it very hard to stay awake and focus. We stopped a couple times to take a brake and get coffee. I finally made it to West Liberty around 7:30AM Sat morning. Only picture I took was of the GPS trip details just before I shut the truck off to go inside and get a shower and go to bed.
I really wish the genset would have been on the trailer, but all in all I'm happy with it. I'll keep some things like the ladder, water pump, air compressor and some other things and probably scrap the rest and just use it as a flatbed. The water heater was made in 94 and has 4 hours on the meter. I bet that genset was a good one.
...
Had a convoy of about 8 HMMWV's pass us and was honking and waiving. Couple of them were pulling trailers. I wanted to fall in behind and convoy with them but they were running too fast for the M35 to keep up with.
At one of the fuel stops two little boys were standing by their mom's car staring at the Deuce all googly-eyed. I asked them "you boys ever seen the inside of one of those trucks?" and they just shook their heads. When I told them to climb on up in there I thought they were going to bust. They really seemed to get a kick out of it and their mom took a couple picks of them up in the truck.
We got to Twinsburg facility around 2:45PM. Small shop with a bunch of nice looking toys out back in the fenced area. The atmosphere there was very laid back compared to the other facilities I've been on. They guy walked me out back and found the trailer and said, "well, there it is, good luck" and walked back into the shop.
I drove the Duece around back and we hooked the trailer up and pulled it out in the open lot to take a better look at it. We checked for loose items that may fall out going down the road and put those in the back of the truck. Checked the brakes / brake lights / tightened the lugnuts (all wheels were WAY loose) / aired the tired up and headed out. We were there about two hours and when we pulled to the gate it was closed and chained. I checked the time and it was 4:45PM - he told me they closed at 4:30. I walked around to every door and they were all locked. I thought for sure we were going to be spending the night there. All I could think about was a kid being locked in a toy store. There were lots of nice toys there to play with all night for sure. I finally found a door that was open and went in the service bay and all the lights were off. Found the door that led to the office area and yelled inside. Lights were off in there too. I was almost back out of the service bay when I heard a faint voice yell back at me. There was ONE guy left there and he walked out and looked at me with a "who the #$#@ are you and what the #$@#@ are you doing in here" look. I quickly explained that we had been locked in and he opened the gate and let us out. That was a close one.
We got down the road and I could tell the trailer was too heavy on the rear as it was on the verge of wagging at the slighted input of the steering wheel. A couple miles later a big rig blew past us and the wind blast blew the trailer and it started to wag its tail and got progressively worse. It pushed me over onto the shoulder before I could get it under control. We backed the speed down pretty slow and headed into the next truck stop. We got a bite to eat and then went to work on the trailer. Removed the tarp so it wouldn't act as a sail from big rig blast anymore. We removed the spare tire and strapped it up on the tongue of the trailer. Then we removed the water pump and slid the water heater (HEAVY) up to the front of the trailer. Found some more items and put them up front as well. Headed out from the truck stop around 8:30PM.
That solved the wagging and from then on the trailer pulled real nice. The truck actually pulled it real good except for the hills and it stopped MUCH better than the truck alone.
The rest of the trip back was brutal. Being drained of energy working on the trailer out in the sun and humidity made it very hard to stay awake and focus. We stopped a couple times to take a brake and get coffee. I finally made it to West Liberty around 7:30AM Sat morning. Only picture I took was of the GPS trip details just before I shut the truck off to go inside and get a shower and go to bed.
I really wish the genset would have been on the trailer, but all in all I'm happy with it. I'll keep some things like the ladder, water pump, air compressor and some other things and probably scrap the rest and just use it as a flatbed. The water heater was made in 94 and has 4 hours on the meter. I bet that genset was a good one.
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