Lessons in towing a car
After surviving a snowstorm, Ed learns a lesson about towing a car
The day after surviving a big snowstorm, we headed from Valemount to Clearwater to meet up with our travelling companions. That trip was uneventful with the exception of washboard roads. Wow, I have never seen anything like it. The storm had gone through about a 10-mile section of highway that left enough snow on the road to create the worst washboard I have ever seen. We were going about 10 miles per hour and it was like driving down a railroad track without the rails. That was a long 10 miles.
By late afternoon we were at Clearwater and met up with our friends. They had left two days before us and had smooth sailing all the way.
I decided to do a thorough walk-around the unit to see how it had weathered the storm. Before we left, I was concerned about my tow car getting rock strikes as it was being towed. We spent much time and expense mounting a bra on the front of the car to protect it. That turned out to be a bad choice. As the sand and rocks accumulated on the hood, they worked their way down to the top edge of the bra, sanding the bra edge down to the metal. I was now starting to call this trip my ongoing gong show.
The next morning we were off to Chilliwack. The highway produced some long, steep grades. To my surprise, John was soon leaving me in the dust with his 25-foot gas unit pulling a small car. I had expected better performance with my 330 horsepower pusher, but we were carrying a big load.
We were soon in the lower mainland with the fall colors and milder temperatures. We planned on staying at a Wal-Mart store, but it turned out to be a very small lot. Fortunately, there was a larger mall across the road and we spent the night there. This gave us another chance to inspect the units, where we discovered much of the rubber was missing from the front tires on John's new car. John was new to car towing and the company that sold him his tow bar went to great lengths to show him how to take it on and off, but did not tell him he needed to unlock the steering to tow it. He took the car for a quick test drive and everything worked fine.
The next morning we were off to the U.S. border. But that is my next story...
