We picked it up today. Now the fun begins!
Jeff and Taylor
Gave it her first wash.... had to hose down the driveway when I was done.
Jeff
Really nice 55 Jeff!
Don't you love putting old Cadillacs on the U-Haul Auto Transport trailer! I used it now 4 times including this past Saturday. I have a 4WD 2000 F250 Super Duty Diesel with a 10,000# hitch. I show up after driving 3 hours to pick up the trailer, and they say... you can't haul that car using that truck. I pulled out my phone and showed them the picture below (done it 3 times now!). Anyway, after 30 Min's of me complaining, the guy let me take the trailer. My car is a coupe but all they had in the drop down window of the program was a series 60. But I see your car also "just" fits nicely on the trailer.
I live in Southern NJ (TP exit 2). Castle Cadillac in Wappinger's Falls NY is who did my engine and mechanical resto. I had a RMS leak that took another trip up to fix. Driving North 3.5 hrs through NJ near Manhattan is a feat of sheer mayhem haling a 7,000# load. I am a Jerseyite but those people in North Jersey and NY area are CRAZY drivers. They think I can stop like a Chevy Volt..
My other option was hauling using a transport company. Frank at Castle said he gets cars on transports all the time. He warned that my car would be offloaded multiple times from the trailer shifting it to get cars on and off. They never understand the Hydromatic transmission stick with the "R" at the far right and often damage the tranny. They also forget to shut the key off and run the battery down and burn up points. I said...naaaa. Those transport guys called/texted/emailed me for almost 2 months trying make a sale, I could not make it stop...
I am happy that you and I got our cars home in one piece this weekend!
If you go to uhaul for the trailer they ask you what car you are hauling if you tell them 1961 cadillac they wont rent it to you. I tell them it is a 1999 dodge intrepid ok no problem.
Now that's some funny there! Good advice!
Funny you say that.
We were going to rent a 3/4 ton from Enterprise and just pick up a trailer. Then Enterprise tells us no towing and hitches removed. So call u haul. Their computer doesn't go back as far as 55 so they can't rent a trailer to tow one. But it does for a 75. Then they say if I want to use their truck they wont rent me anything less than a 15' truck. Ok. I get there and they don't have a 15' but have a 20' at no extra charge- ugh. So I end up driving an empty 20'truck 200 miles towing the 55. All in a 30 knot crosswind. My arms are still sore--- but she's home baby, she's home.
Jeff
Also, when getting a uhaul trailer, make sure the tiedowns aren't new.
I had assumed that was a plus when I hauled my '89 Crown Victoria from Vegas to Iowa for graduate school.
Nope.
Tied down good and hard, but they stretched over the first few hundred miles.
Someone flagged me to let me know a wheel had slid back off (this was the tow dolly, not the full trailer).
Took a chunk out of my tire . . .
Out of curiosity, will a '72 Eldorado fit on the uhaul trailer? I know they say it won't, but . . .
(and I have a van with Class IV towing to do it.)
Jeff,
Strange about U-Haul. I live in Missouri as well and have transported my 1940 LaSalle three different times on one of their trailers. Told them what my vehicle was, how much it weighed and wheel base. No problem either time???? Also towed my 1985 Lincoln Town Car twice. It just barely fits on the U-Haul.
Bob
On one of the previous trips (last year), I stopped a few times during the 175 mile journey to check the front wheel straps. They are the main thing holding the car on the trailer. When I finally arrived, both had come off the tires! I was horrified. They do have small front and back chains that you can wrap around something underneath but those straps are the main holding apparatus. The trips I just took (last month) I added more chains. I stopped and checked the straps more frequently too. It could have flipped over and the car would have still been on that trailer! Don't trusts those fabric straps on the front tires!
My closest experience to what you guys went through was towing a 1939 Series 75 home from Indy with a 1941 Buick Century. I stopped twelve miles from home at my uncles' service station to check things over. I took a picture that I wish I still had. I made sure I had the spare from my 1941 Series 67. (When I got home, I found that the wheels on the '39 were six lug vs. the '41's five lugs.)
What do they say about fools and drunks? The '39 didn't have an engine and after I sold a few parts and the radio, it went to Detroit. For convenience's sake, it rode inside while Mae West's 1938 V-16 rode outside. (The guy was coming back from Auburn.)