Disclaimer: I do NOT know WTF I'm doing.

So, I want to tow to Roebling. Fortunatly my uncle has 2 trucks and lives ~ 30 minutes from my new job. How convienient.

So I'm leaving work to go pick up his '92 F150, and I discover my Eclipse has a flat tire. Joy. It's a slow leak from an old plug, so I pump it up and I'm on my way. I'll deal with that next week.

I get to my unlces and the truck has been parked a while. It is so dirty I can't see out of it. I mean, damn. At least it's been parked under a canopy, only has 62,000 miles and he used synthetic oil, so I'm upbeat as I drive 1/4 mile with my head out the window to the nearest gas station to clean the windshield.

On the way home, I notice it's running a little warm. So when I get home and wash the truck, I pop the hood, take off the radiator cap and see....nothing. Interesting. I fill up the radiator with water and hope for the best.

Today on the way from Shelby to Durham, she's still running rather warm, and I'm not towing anything. This does not bode well for the trip south. At this point, I'm thinking head gasket or something terminal as the gauge creeps ever higher everytime I hit a slight incline. At least I got 12.awful mpg on the way home towing nothing. Oh damn this ain't gonna be cheap.

I get to Durham ~5:30 and decide to give things a good once over after I mow my grass. I find that the coolant is...brown. Now, I like brown things as much as the next guy, but when it comes to coolant, I'd much rather it be green. This must be the original 10 year old coolant. I KNOW those radiator hoses are 10 years old. At 8:00 on the night before I tow 5 hours to Savannah GA, I decide to do a coolant change on the tow vehicle. I R Dumb.

Amazingly, it went rather smoothly. The coolant that came out could be best described as "buck narsty". A gallon of distilled water, ~2/3 of a gallon of coolant and 1/2 bottle of water wetter later, I'm done.

As I start it up to make sure I don't have any leaks, I decide to check tire pressures. Everything was at 24 psi, when the front should have been 35 and the rear 41. Might have something to do with the 12.awful gas mileage.

So I get the car on the trailer (U-haul), strap it down and go for a test drive. Driving around town this evening with the A/C on, the temp gauge was rock solid. In an upset, the truck feels MUCH better with the correct tire pressures. Perhaps I do know WTF I'm doing after all.

One concern: tounge weight. I am SURE that I'm over the 500lb tongue weight with the car positioned the way it is on the U-haul trailer. If you have ever seen or rented a U-haul car transporter, you know I'm talking about. The way the front straps are, you have to pull the car ALL the way forward. I hope this works. In any event, the SE-R looks GOOD on a trailer.

I've been going non stop since 6 am. I'm drinking a , taking a shower and going the **** to bed.


[Modified by MaddMatt, 9:24 PM 9/19/2002]

 

Like I said to Matt G (I SAY EH on this board) a few days ago ... for the first 2 weeks of f*cking with the rig, tow straps, connectors, etc, etc -- you wonder "what the hell am I doing?". It gets a LOT better after that.

But to quote Mr. Karl B. Shults, "That first time you show up at the track, pull the car off the trailer, and you're ready to drive -- it changes your life"

 

Everyone has that "First Tow" story... glad you got the truck to be happy... See you and the pimpy tow rig at the rendevous point...

 

They do that so people that don't know what they are doing will get enough weight on the tongue. WAY better to have to too much than too little. Take my word for it. Seeing the hood ornament of my track car in my side mirrors was not fun.

Joel

 

Knowing that you will still be able to get the car & yourself home if something happens to the car will make you faster. I kid you not. Good luck this weekend.