March 23 – 24, 2021

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

It was just a little over 200 miles to the load site near Madison WI, so we left at sunrise, and were there by early afternoon. Since we were empty, we got a mostly highway route because were only 12′ wide, which means we seldom have to manually steer any turns.  It’s when we are wide, and need to make 90 degree turns in towns with light poles, stop signs, parked cars, and other obstacles that I need to manually steer to avoid.  So we were fine without the remote. Here is the truck at 12′ wide from a bird’s eye view.

However, stretching the trailer is different without a remote. Our remote was not going arrive with the other truck until after dark, and we wanted the trailer ready to load by then, so we could pull in first thing in the morning. Not only did we have to stretch it out to 15′ wide, but this time we had to relocate all but one of those 13 cross members you see here

After removing all the pins, and setting them aside,

I had to stand by the pony motor and run the levers as we spread it out. That took much longer. Then, we had to unbolt 12 of the cross members (16 bolts each), and move them to match the engineer’s drawing, bolt them back into place, and pin it in it’s final position at 15′ wide.

We were able to accomplish that before dark, making the trailer now look like this.

I drove to my favorite hamburger joint (Culver’s) for a quick supper, and then on to the truck stop just 4 miles away, and slept in my van there.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

We met at 6 AM, and by the time my driver had programed the new remote to our system, we were told we could back in to the plant to start the load process. I steered him back in beside the piece we needed to load.

The engineers wanted to try a different way to load, which we did. After 4 hours of putting it into position, taking it off, making adjustments, and reloading – multiple times – they decided the old way was better. So, at 11:30 we began the normal process of loading, which normally takes 4 of us about 7 hours, but this time there was just going to be the two of us. We knew from the start that it was going to be a long, hard day!

We set the piece on the trailer, shimmed all the contact points to be sure the weight was evenly distributed on each cross member, then removed the piece. In order to be sure that the shims don’t work their way out, we then taped them in place.

Now we were ready to lay out the bottom three tarps, covering the trailer.

Once the piece was loaded for the last time, we started to cover it with layers of felt to protect the tarp from the sharp edges. You can see in the picture that the radiator is covered, and part of the front of the engine. When we were done, everything was well covered, so you could see almost nothing but the black felt.

Then we put on the final top tarps, which we then secured with several hundred bungie cords. (or at least it seems like that many!)

When we finally pulled out, it was close to 8 PM and the sun was beginning to set.