No SOUP...er I mean trailer,....for YOU!

[Bird]

Ah, how times have changed. I'd heard about their rental policies and refusal to rent trailers to be towed by certain vehicles, and a few years ago, one of my brothers tried to rent a 16' tandem axle trailer to tow empty 50 miles with his S-10 Chevy pickup, then the other brother was going to tow it loaded about the same distance with his Suburban, but U-Haul would not rent a 16' trailer to be towed by an S-10 at all. The brother with the Suburban had to make the hundred mile round trip just to get the trailer.

But in 1962 or 1963, I rented a trailer to move across town and towed it with an Austin Healy Sprite. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Trailer rental places didn't care what kind of vehicle you had as long as you had the money to pay the rental fee. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[jml755]

Here's the scenario that I imagine happens all too often:
- guy rents trailer to tow with some vehicle that wasn't designed to haul a trailer or it exceeds the GVWR of the tow vehicle.
- guy has accident
- lawyer hired by person injured in accident goes after deep pockets. i.e, uhaul.
- jury awards gazillions of dollars to plaintiff, saying uhaul should have foreseen every possible situation that could occur.

I guess I can't blame Uhaul for instituting provisions to protect themselves.

[Bird]

I think there's no doubt at all that you're exactly right, and like you said, you can't blame U-Haul, even though I don't agree with the "deep pockets" decisions of the courts.

[Pat]

Bird, Towing with a Sprite? That was ambitious.

I was towing a trailerable sailboat behind a 1943 Ford Jeep. A San Diego City police stopped me so he could look me over. He said when he came up from behind he couldn't see what was towing the boat and wondered if it was a motor cycle or what.

No ticket, just an interesting conversation. Boat was a bit beamy so it did obscure the view of the Jeep.

Pat

[Bird]

Yep, Pat, that was the original reason I had a trailer hitch made for my Sprite. Dad had a 16' Texas Maid Fiesta; pretty deep and wide aluminum run about boat with a 35 hp Evinrude. And it was the same as you say about your Jeep. People approaching from the rear couldn't see what was pulling the boat unless or until they passed me. I also usually drew a crowd of onlookers at the launching ramps at Lake Lavon and Lake Texoma to see whether I was going to be able to pull it out of the water, but I never had a problem at all.

I can't remember just what size that U-Haul trailer was, but it was an enclosed, or van type, I rented to move from an apartment in east Dallas to one in Irving. I didn't need a very big one because those were furnished apartments in those days. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

And I did a lot of things in those days that I wouldn't even think about doing now. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]