The first trailer I ever pulled was a little UHaul rented to take our meager belongings from Tampa to Atlanta after Ann and I were married. That was 1954. I was full of confidence about it, never once giving any thought to any problem. I got it home from the UHaul place okay, then started to back it down a fairly long driveway to a garage where our stuff was stored. Wow! That thing didn't begin to want to go where I wanted it to. After many tries, I finally got it back there, got it loaded, and away we went.
When we got to Atlanta, I had to back it down a long, narrow driveway to the second floor below grade apartment we had rented. It was an old coal cellar at the back of the building that had been converted into an apartment. I think the rent was $10 per week, but it was freshly painted and clean. Mastering that driveway made me think I was a pro at backing.
Six months later we had a 28 foot house trailer that had to be pulled to Atlanta from Tampa. Again, there was no lack of confidence. I found quickly that backing the larger trailer was easier than the small one. However, nobody warned me about sway. If we got above 35 mph, the trailer would start to swing back and forth on the tow ball. Sway bars and equalizer hitches had yet to be invented.
The trailer had a square profile and was particularly hard to handle in wind or when a car or truck passed us. We went first to Patterson for an overnight stop at Grandma Lewis's house, then took to the road again for Atlanta. I thought I'd lost it on more than one occasion, but we made it to Hapeville and the trailer park that would be home for nine months. I'd had enough of pulling that awkward thing though. One of the conditions I insisted on when taking my first job was that they would pay for towing the trailer back to Fl;orida. I did pull it twice more on short runs - once from Tampa to Sarasota, then from Sarasota to Fort Myers.
When Larry came along, we had to have more space. I built a cabana onto the side of the trailer - in four foot sections that could be moved without too much trouble. The roof was in four foot sections too. That proved to be the last straw though. The day I put the last roof section up and before it was fastened down, a storm came up. The wind peeled that last section back, and I had to stand out in the storm holding the walls up until the wind died down. There was never any feeling of security in the place again, though I had the roof firmly attached and anchored to the ground. We moved the couch into the cabana and put Larry's crib in the front of the trailer where the couch had been. We remained in the trailer for a few more months, then scraped together enough money for a down payment on a house and sold the trailer. It had served its purpose, but there was no grief in seeing it go.
It was partly the experience with that old, unwieldy square rig that influenced us later to buy an aerodynamic Airstream. As I write this, we are on our third Airstream, and they've all been dreams to pull (and to back) compared with that old house trailer.
The first trailer I ever pulled was a little UHaul rented to take our meager belongings from Tampa to Atlanta after Ann and I were married. That was 1954. I was full of confidence about it, never once giving any thought to any problem. I got it home from the UHaul place okay, then started to back it down a fairly long driveway to a garage where our stuff was stored. Wow! That thing didn't begin to want to go where I wanted it to. After many tries, I finally got it back there, got it loaded, and away we went. 