I made it back from Oklahoma. Thanks to Ok Don for his contact info and offer to help. It made me feel a little better that I could call somebody nearby if things went terribly.
If you are interested, it was quite an adventure: My decided to buy a car that was her son's. Or more accurately, it was her son's ex wife's car. It was very cheap and is intended to be a first car for her daughter that is turning 16 this month. It is a 2005 Cadillac STS. It has 175,000 Miles and we knew when we started it was going to need some work. The car was initially located in Davis Oklahoma. Two weekends ago, we went down to Oklahoma to get the car. We knew it needed a crankshaft position sensor and at least one tire. One of my other stepdaughters lives in Ardmore Oklahoma and her husband has a shop and is fairly handy with vehicles. So we planned to Dolly the car to her house and look it over get a new tire and hopefully drive it back to Wichita. When we arrived we discovered it needed two tires had no battery and was going to need more work to be able to drive it back. We rented a U-Haul flatbed and towed it from Davis to Ardmore. I changed the oil and put the spare on and looked the car over for other issues. We decided it was not really drivable for the 250 miles to bring it back to Wichita. My step daughter's father has a flatbed trailer so we decided to borrow it and use my truck to tow the car back. My truck is a 92 F150 with the 5.0 and 147,000 miles. I had actually never driven it down to Oklahoma or any other long-distance other than using it to haul things around town. So I was a little concerned about its ability to tow the trailer and the 4000 pound car. But I did some research and I believed that it was capable of towing. I had previously replaced the rear tires on the truck although I did not replace the front. The truck had a new water pump and coolant flush, oil change, spark plugs and wires. I had done this work last summer. I took off Friday afternoon with the truck and trailer. I had a checklist of everything I thought I would need for the trip including extra oil, transmission fluid, coolant, etc. BUT, the one thing I forgot to add to my list was the spare tire for my truck which I had taken out of the bed previously when we hauled a new desk my wife bought. So, 60 miles down the road and I have a blowout on the truck. I called my wife and she brought the spare tire and a jack that was in my garage. As it turns out the Jack she brought was the jack for my BMW and the lug wrench for her car (a Cadillac). So I was on the side of the Kansas turnpike trying to use a smaller BMW jack to lift a full-size pick up. It finally worked and I got the tire changed. The spare tire had some dry rot but I was hoping and praying it would make it the remainder of the trip. There is more to the story about traveling down to pick up the car but this is already getting too long. I arrived about 1 am in Ardmore. By the time I arrived I realize that the spare tire and the other front tire were going to have to be replaced before I could travel back. So in the morning I went to Walmart to replace the two front truck tires. By 11:30 that morning I was on the road with the car on the trailer. I forgot to mention earlier that the air conditioning does not work in my old truck. So leaving about 1130 was a bad choice in terms of the heat of the day. I was a little concerned about pulling such a heavy car and trailer with my old truck so I stopped after the first 60 miles to check it out. It was actually doing great. The truck wasn't getting hot. It was having no problems pulling the car and trailer and was performing much better than I had expected. I was even getting 12 miles to the gallon with the car and trailer. More than halfway home I was feeling confident although very sweaty in the hundred-degree heat. I was singing the praises of my old Ford truck as it chugged along like a true workhorse. I stopped and filled up the gas and got myself an extra large diet soda and planned to complete the remaining hundred miles without incident. 2 miles later one of the tires on the trailer blew out. So, i'm on the side of the road with a BMW Jack and the spare tire for my truck. I learned that a BMW Jack will not lift a 1500 pound trailer with a 4000 pound car on it. I ended up calling a tow company to come out and change the tire. When he arrived we realized that the wheel on my truck spare was a different diameter than the wheel from the trailer. Although I had noticed that the tire on the trailer wheel was the same size as my truck tire. The tow driver gave me a ride 5 miles down the road where I found a shop willing to take the trailer wheel and mount a proper trailer tire on it. We drove back and got the trailer fixed back up and I was finally back on the road. I arrived later safely with no more problems. The amazing thing was that The truck had performed flawlessly. So now we just need to repair the issues with the car and get a new tire and it will be on the road! Don Snook -----Original Message----- From: Kaleb C. Striplin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, July 29, 2016 9:07 AM To: Mercedes Discussion List <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MBZ] Towing in Oklahoma -- Member Contact? Ok don lives just off i35 Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 29, 2016, at 8:37 AM, Donald Snook via Mercedes > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm going to be driving my old 92 Ford F-150 today or tomorrow down to > Ardmore, Oklahoma (straight shot down I-35) and will return towing my > stepdaughter's new-to-her car on a flat-bed trailer. > > Any members close to I-35 along that stretch? I'm hopeful the trip will be > uneventful. If it's not, I'm wondering if anyone is in the area for some > mechanical assistance. > > The truck has new rear tires, a very sturdy extra heavy duty tow bumper, new > water pump, new plugs and wires, coolant flush, and all fluids checked and > topped off. > > Donald H. Snook > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
