Stories about towing in tight places....

[crzybowhntr]

First off I hope this is in the correct place????? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

Comming home from Ocean City last week my daughter started getting sick around the point in which we needed to make a turn off of US Route 50 west. Needless to say she caused us to miss our turn and drive right into Washington DC. We drove from one end of Massachusetts Avenue clear to the other end. I had my truck in sig. plus our 33' 5`er. Did we ever get some funny looks as we drove through there.

Anyone else have any funny WRONG TURN stories???

[boatpuller]

Comming back from the east coast once I overnighted in Columbus Ohio at a Interstate hotel on the east side of town. A few minutes before we departed the next morning they closed the west bound enterance ramp for repairs, and posted detour signs, which we followed... right through downtown during morning rush hour. At times the lanes were so narrow the trailer wheels on both sides were touching the painted lines at the same time. Would have loved to have stopped, but there was no place to pull off. Was pulling a 34' boat and trailer with 8'6" width.

This spring in MD with a 40' tripple-axle trailer, and low on fuel, I pulled off the express way at an exit that said "Diesel". (Why can't MD have regular truck stops like most of the rest of the country has... he says in a whiney voice) It ends up being a little gas station with a hidden diesel pump, that I noticed while driving past it. Turned onto the next road looking for a parking lot to turn around on, but the road quickly became a tight rural residential street with hills and blind corners, and no parking lots. Found a little subdivision on this road and turned in expecting to be able to drive around a block and then leave. This subdivision ended up having one road, that dog-legged and then dead ended at a cow pasture with a fence. All the driveways in this subdivision were too narrow and had mail boxes too close to back the trailer in to turn around. So I backed up all the way to the front of the subdivision and pulled on the side of the road to consider options. It was too dangerous to back onto the rural road, and driveways were not going to work. The yard on the corner had a smooth ditch near the easement of the rural road that looked like it would allow the trailer to back into, but there were signs and bushes, but it was still the best option. I walked upto the home, saw a woman inside watching TV, and heard her dog barking. She ran for the back of the house and would not answer her door bell. I don't know why, and don't really care. Figuring this meant she was okay with my using her yard on the easement near the rural road to turn around on, I did. It worked okay, and I made it back to the little station and got enough of the most expensive diesel I've ever bought to make it down the road a ways.

[390pony]

You name the tight place, I've been in it with my 22-foot-long enclosed car trailer. One of the worst was last summer when I was trying to find the Quality Inn I had seen from the freeway in Lancaster, California. I missed the turn and needed to go back. None of the lots I saw looked big enough and there weren't any streets to turn on. I finally saw a small shopping area and it looked like I could go in one driveway and out another. Nope, I got to the end of the row, and it had metal pipes blocking the way through. So, I had to circle this tiny lot and go out the same driveway. And, of course, just as I'm about to make it, this soccer mom in her minivan pulls in and wants to go where I'm coming from. Talk about ridiculous, you could easily see my rig from the street and instead of pulling up the main row she looked at me as though I should move. Didn't happen. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smokin.gif[/img]

Then, I pulled back out on the street and spotted a subdivision about a block away. I pulled in there and there was a darn security gate that you couldn't see until it was too late. I did another u-turn and got out. Finally, I found my motel and had an adult beverage.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]

Oh yeah, before the beverage, I spotted a nice safe place for the trailer next to the hotel right in front of the dumpster. I had to back in and as I'm working the trailer into a nice parallel-parked position, this idiot in a little car tried to pull in behind me to park so he wouldn't have to walk 20 feet to the building. He sure moved fast out of there when I just kept backing up at him. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

[Believer45]

98 Kenworth, 48' van trailer missed a turn in Williamsburg, VA at about 02:00 in the morning. I did a "U" turn in a large intersection while a member of the local constabulary watched. He didn't say a word.

Another time I got directions from a local to get to a stop, it was a shortcut. Single axle GMC tractor, 26' refrigerated trailer. 12 1/2 miles from the turn I came to a 12' overpass with my 13'6" trailer, no place to turn around. I backed 12 1/2 miles out on a narrow country lane. At least I had calmed down by the time I backed all that way.

Dave / Believer45

[Greenie]

In Mexico there's tight places aplenty. The worst was a private campground that was accessed through a motel - the RVs parked in the rear. I drove in (after paying) and found the RV spaces and the field to turn around in were gone. I had to back all the way out and into a fairly busy street and then back all the way in again.
Just trying to follow road signs can lead someone into a dead end pretty easy. I have really sharpened my backing skills and learned to control my temper towing a trailer in Mexico.

[hypoxia]

Believer45, 12 miles backwards? As Larry the Cable Guy says, now that's funny [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Believer45]

Yes it was 12 1/2, took a couple hours. With that short trailer on a single axle semi-tractor backing was a bit of a challenge.

At least it took long enough I was not mad anymore and the road was not busy so I did not have to deal with traffic.

I also once took a shortcut on a state route in West Virginia with a 45' flatbed loaded with drilling pipe. Figured it was a state route, how bad could it be (in January)? Well, I found out. Another one where we could not turn around, I was new to driving semi and my trainer said it was a good idea to save a few hours instead of going around the mountain.

Dave / Believer45

[seanR]

Last year returning form Utah, we wanted to spend one more night in the mountains so we found a camp ground near Idaho Springs, CO. on the computer and plugged the route into the GPS.
It said it was 9 miles away.
We pulled off of the Interstate and headed up a two lane blacktop.
That road turned gravel, then cobbles, then nothing but a dirt path less than 12 feet wide.
The road was so rough and steep that I could only go 5 or 10 miles per hour.
The worse part was, there was nowhere to turn around and it was getting dark!
I do not know how long we went, but I found a split in the road, I gave each of my two boys a flash light and I had them shine them in the back of my 37' fith wheel (yea, I an going to turn that around up here).
I did a 215 point turn, at one point I think the front left tire was suspended over the edge.
My wife turned white and had to get out of the truck.

I learned my lesson that day!

That was the second time Streets and Trips sent me some where I sould not have been!

From now on, I take the truck ONLY first if I am looking for a new campground!

[BurnedBronco]

kenworth tow truck pulling a tandem day cab eagle truck with a 35' fuel trailer hooked onto it in wriglyville in chicago.
truck was broken down in an alley and had to turn it onto a one way street. took me 1 hour to get it out of the alley and onto the street.......
had to drop the trailer, pull the dead semi onto the street, drop the semi, go back grab the trailer, pull it onto the street, drop the trailer, go hook up to the semi, then back the semi underneath the trailer and hook up.

[Superfly]

Firs ttime out in my New freighliner pulling a stack of 53'Cargo chassis containers from cali to Chicago, I missed my exit and well ended up in the hood, 13.6 High O yeah did you know that there is over 1800 low underpasses in Chicago. Well lets say there is a few stop signs that are rather flat now, God was i pissed at myself. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

[07HEMI4ME]

I once had to do a U-Turn... On a 6 lane road with a center divider...

Now that was terrifying!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]

[BEECHBM69]

I was towing my TT, following some friends of mine to their property in rural central VA. We missed a turn and they proceeded to turn down a blacktop lane and a half road. At this point I didnt think anything was a miss until my phone rang....."Do you think you can turn around here? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]" (They were NOT towing [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img])

You know you're in trouble when all of the driveways are angled the same direction, where clearly nobody ever goes the other way. They had picked one of those driveways. After a few attempts, and realizing with the angle and the width of the street, I was not going to extracate myself from this here, I drove all the way up the drive to the farmhouse and did one of those 120 point turns as mentioned above. In the process I managed to undo my trailer wiring at the splices. One positive thing. I had the good fortune of the people not being home while this circus went on in their front yard. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

Dan

[ProDriver18]

[ QUOTE ]
One positive thing. I had the good fortune of the people not being home while this circus went on in their front yard. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].


[/ QUOTE ]

It would have been funny to be there when those people came home, saw all the tracks in the yard and tried to figure that one out. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]

[zmc501]

One time, we were hauling my 32' box horse trailer and wanted to pull off the interstate to get fuel. We saw a sign for a diesel station and took the exit. We went down the road in the direction that the sign said to go... and kept going, and going. Ended up on a one lane country road in the middle of nowhere. We had one choice, keep going, because there was a steep bank on one side and a drop off on the other. Luckily, after a couple miles we saw a trucking business on the side and pulled into it to turn around. The men there said that the diesel station had been out of business for a few years but the state never changed the sign!

As for GPS, NEVER tryst them when hauling a large trailer. They give directions for cars, not haulers and I was once directed into a city area with my large trailer and had to go around a narrow rotary with it. NOT fun! I always use maps first, Mapquest as a "sorta" quide, and GPS as a "verbal directions but I still know where I'm going guide".

[ProDriver18]

Many many moons ago I got kinda misplaced once in Chicago on the east side of I94, between I55 and I90 with a 53' long & 13'6" high dry van on the back of a 272" Pete X hood at about 3:30 in the afternoon. I could see I94 but didn't know how to get back to it.
I had a Chicago city cop give me directions back to I94.(btw if you walk up to a city cop sitting in his car, approach it from the front, not from the rear, they get real nervous when you do that) I wrote the directions down and followed them exactly as he said.
I made a corner at an intersection (which was a job in itself) and after clearing cars and street signs by about the thickness of a piece of paper I looked up to see an viaduct about 3 blocks ahead and I94 just past it. As I got closer I could read the 12'4" sign on it.
Nowhere to go and nothing to do but quit and call for a bus ticket home or back up down that street....in all that traffic.
As I was attempting to back through that same intersection that I had so much trouble getting around a few minutes earlier another city cop comes to a screeching halt behind me and puts his lights and siren on.
He's madder than a wet hen, writing in his ticket book and wants to know what the %&#! I think I'm doing down in there with that &^*(%#! truck in his &*%$#* city.
I just looked at him for minute, didn't say anything, shut the truck off and climbed down out of it and leaned back against the steps and let him flap his gums.
After a minute he finally shut up and I explained the situation to him and that I would really appreciate some help getting my big beautiful truck outta his city.
Now mind you, I'm blocking the intersection and horns are blowing and people are yelling and traffic is screwed up for blocks in any direction.
He looks at me like I'm an alien from space or something but finally calms down. He gives me another set of directions and after about 30 minutes of directing traffic helps me get backed through the intersection and pointed in the right direction.
Then he wants the paper with the directions on it I got from the first cop and wants to know where he was at. I pointed down the street and said about 10 or 12 blocks thataway. He jumped in his car and took off with the tires smoking and I followed his directions right to I94 and off I went.
Gotta love the big cities, as long as I only have to visit and don't have to live there.