Towing a trailer any number of miles to pick up a car should be an easy task. You just hitch up a trailer to a truck and drive. People do this every day without fail. Yet, I somehow managed to screw up a straightforward road trip to pickup a car and turn it into an unmitigated disaster. In the span of just twelve hours, I lost the key to a $111,000 truck, then I rented another truck only to get it stuck while trying to save the first truck. Here’s what happened.
What you’re reading is part two of my three-part series on how many times I failed while trying to perform the simple act of driving 773 miles from Illinois to Maryland to pick up my 1997 Honda Life from the Port of Baltimore. In part one, I explained that I actually managed to drive 697 miles of my trip entirely without drama. The 2025 Ford F-350 Super Duty Platinum Plus Power Stroke dually that Ford loaned me was a fantastic truck. Its 48-gallon tank and 17.2 mpg highway fuel economy with an empty trailer meant that I could have even driven all of the way there without stopping for fuel even once.
Unfortunately, this smooth ride was unraveled almost instantly after I stopped to eat dinner in Hagerstown, a place only an hour away from Baltimore. I left the truck’s key fob on the cowling ahead of the windshield, then forgot it was there. I didn’t realize my mistake until about a mile after I pulled onto I-70 East and then heard the thump of a fob bouncing off the truck and disappearing into the dark of night. The truck never warned me about the missing fob until I came to a stop and put the transmission in park on the right shoulder of I-70. Then, the truck shut down and effectively bricked itself with its windows and sunroof open.
This is one of the major downsides of vehicles that use smart fobs rather than physical keys. They will continue driving for a time after the fob is lost. If you then do the wrong thing, such as put the vehicle in park, you’ll find yourself stranded.
The Recap
What then proceeded was a night of misery. I was so stuck on the side of I-70 that I ended up walking a mile down a highway median at night, nearly getting clobbered by hundreds of speeding and distracted motorists. I was initially saved by Maryland state troopers, only to be told to use an Uber to go back to the truck to retrieve my valuables. That Uber driver abandoned me at the truck. Desperate, I called Ford Roadside Assistance, which was powerless to help me. They couldn’t even get me a tow truck because the Super Duty was too big for the tow trucks operating that night. Then, it started raining, so I had to fashion a makeshift sunroof out of a blanket and floor mats. Then, I had to walk down the median one more time, and that time it was extra terrible because it was raining.
Finally, another Maryland state trooper picked me up, and we went on a short ride-along before he finally dropped me off at my hotel. I got into my room just after 2 a.m., or a little over four hours since the disaster began. It was hard to believe that only four hours had passed. It felt like I was fighting all night. If you want to read the full story, click here to read part one.
At least for right at that moment, I was safe in a dry hotel room with a cozy bed. But there was a storm ahead, as this photo suggests:
(Full Disclosure: Ford loaned me a 2025 F-350 Super Duty Platinum Plus for a little over a week to haul home my new-to-me 1997 Honda Life. Ford took such great care of me during this whole ordeal, and I cannot find the proper words to thank those lovely people enough.)
Fob Dilemma
Truth be told, I didn’t do much sleeping at all. That night, Ford Roadside Assistance told me that I was more or less screwed. The only solution I was given was to have the truck towed to Hagerstown Ford to have the dealership pair a new fob to the truck. My only comfort was knowing that the truck was covered for Ford Roadside Assistance, so the tow to the dealer would be free. I couldn’t imagine the cost of hooking and hauling a one-ton dually pickup truck.
Still, I started researching how much replacing a fob would cost at a dealership, and my heart sank. Dealer pricing is all over the place, but it seems to be common for dealers to charge around $1,000 to fix the situation I was stuck in. Somehow, I did manage to calm myself down enough to get about four hours of sleep. Thankfully, I had a pleasant dream and not a continuing nightmare.
I woke up at 6 a.m. in a cold sweat and probably in a bit of a panic attack. Nothing had meaningfully changed since 10 p.m. the night before, and I was still a wreck. I got dressed, sat on the bed, and waited for 7 a.m., the time when the Hagerstown Ford service department opened. Right before I placed the call, I got a call from Diane, my emergency contact at Ford. I called her the night before, but, understandably, she was probably sleeping at the time I called her.
Diane was very understanding and outstandingly comforting. I probably sounded like I was in full flight mode when I was on the phone, so she helped me keep a level head.
Diane placed some calls to the dealership that morning. We had hoped that maybe the dealership would be able to make a single new fob based only on the VIN and a blessing from the mothership, which Diane was able to give. This was a best-case scenario. If the dealer was able to help, I’d just get an Uber to the dealer, buy the fob, and then Uber to the truck. I’d lose maybe a few hundred bucks and have a bruised ego, but I’d be back on the road and might even arrive at the port at the time I originally planned to.
Unfortunately, I could tell there was bad news coming when I answered one of Diane’s next calls. Due to how the truck’s security system works, all keys would have to be present to make a new one. The dealer could then just clone the existing key. The second key was with Motor City Solutions in Detroit. So, as far as the dealership was concerned, this was an “all keys lost” situation.
Of course, this creates a bit of a paradox. If I had the second key, I wouldn’t have been stuck. I would have been able to continue my trip as normal and then deal with the missing first key later.
Either way, Hagerstown Ford takes an aggressive approach to a no-key situation. I was told that they would have to cut and program two brand-new fobs. The original second fob would be deleted from the truck during this process, too. It was, for all intents and purposes, a nuclear option. Unfortunately, this would mean that I would have to pay dealership prices for two new fobs, dealership labor to have them cut, and dealership labor to have them programmed. That $1,000 bill was back to being a reality again. However, as Diane noted, at least I’d be back on the road again that day.
Diane also gave me two other options. She could have the second fob overnighted to my hotel, which would get me back on the road sometime on the day after. She also offered to send out a driver with the second fob. This was estimated to take about seven hours. I didn’t want to burden someone with driving to Maryland just to hand me a key.
Waiting for the key to be overnighted also didn’t seem appealing to me. It was Friday, and the port isn’t open on the weekend. So, I’d get the key on Saturday, and then have to wait until Monday to pick up the car. That’s extra days I’d have to pay for a hotel and the U-Haul trailer rental. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to work on Monday, either.
I chose my least-favorite option and called in the tow to have the truck brought to the dealer.
Hatching A Plan
That’s when our secret designer, the Bishop, chimed in with an idea I hadn’t considered. Alright, so the second option involves a guy driving from Detroit to Maryland, right? Well, what if I spent those seven hours renting a U-Haul, picking up my Honda Life, and then dropping the trailer off at the hotel? Once I had the key, I just had to hitch up and go. I’d be leaving for home late, but still not too far off schedule.
I thought this was genius, so I canceled the tow, asked Diane to have the key driven down from Detroit, and got an Uber. I estimated that a round trip from the U-Haul store to Baltimore and back with a U-Haul would have been about 170 miles. U-Haul charges $1.09 a mile to use its pickup trucks. So, that would have been about $185.30. Toss in $20 for renting the truck and that’s about $205.30. I figured I’d rent a car hauler just to make things easy, which would have brought me to $260.30 plus tax and fuel. Not bad! That’s a price I’m willing to pay for messing up.
Unfortunately, this plan came off the rails almost immediately. First, I could not find any U-Haul “BP” pickup trucks available in the area. The next smallest truck I was able to rent that had a tow hitch was the U-Haul “TM” 10-foot cube van. Ugh, I wasn’t happy about this. Mileage on the TM trucks is $1.59 a mile and they tend to get much worse fuel economy. But fine, whatever, that was going to mean paying like $300 total, plus another $55 for the car trailer.
Oh, right, except for the fact that the U-Haul shops in the area also didn’t have car haulers available for the time I needed it. That’s when I had what I thought was a stroke of genius. Look, I already have a U-Haul car hauler on the back of the F-350. What if I detached that trailer, figured out a way to move it about 30 feet back, and then just hitched it up to the 10-foot truck? Shoot, I’d even save $55!
I figured that couldn’t have been too hard, so I got the 10-foot truck and got on the move.
If At First You Don’t Succeed, Fail Again
Once I arrived at where the F-350 was stuck, I turned on the U-Haul’s hazard lights and began inspecting the situation. The first bit of good news was that my makeshift sunroof had worked. It rained the night before, but the rain was light enough that the water didn’t get through the pathetic barrier, and the interior was safe.
Back to my trailer problem, I figured I had about two choices. I could detach the U-Haul trailer from the Ford and then use Mercedes power to move the trailer back. Unfortunately, I found that Mercedes power was good for about three inches at a time. It would have taken forever for me alone to create a gap large enough for the U-Haul truck to fit into.
I looked at the truck, and then back at the trailer. I looked at the truck again, and then at the trailer again. It was then that I realized that I could replace Mercedes power with horsepower. U-Haul car haulers have safety chains on their rear ends. This chain was just long enough to reach a recovery hook or similar. The U-Haul had nothing up front to grab onto, but there were hard points in the rear, including the tow hitch.
Excellent! The only problem now was that the U-Haul faced the wrong direction. I figured I’d wait for a break in traffic, pull a quick U-turn, and then do the business. Unfortunately, I underestimated just how busy I-70 was going to be on a Friday morning. The break in traffic never came, even after 30 minutes of waiting. Alright, I had a plan B.
The paved shoulder terminated in a grassy area. Much of this was a ditch, but I found an area where the grass became perfectly flat. I walked on this grass, and it seemed pretty hard-packed enough for my maneuver. I figured I would stick the nose of the truck into the grass, leaving the rear wheels on the pavement where they would have the most traction. Then, I’d just inch the truck back and forth until I was facing the correct direction.
This plan was thwarted by the fact that the U-Haul had objectively terrible mirrors. I could barely see what was behind me, let alone be able to monitor a roaring highway behind me.
Fine, I reversed my plan, deciding to put the rear wheels into the grass, leaving the front tires on pavement and me with all of the visibility to monitor traffic. I mean, look, the traffic was crazy for the Google Maps car:
The next mistake in my train of thought came from executing this. Remember when I said that the U-Haul had terrible mirrors? Well, I used the mirrors to help me steer the truck into the correct patch of grass. Unfortunately, I aimed poorly and put the rear wheels down a tiny slope into the grass. I missed the mark by about 10 feet.
Thankfully, I didn’t completely screw up. My logic of keeping the front wheels out of the grass worked. The truck had more than enough traction to pull itself out. Perfect. I waited for the right lane to clear out, then went for it. As I was pulling out, my eyes spotted a Chevy Tahoe that had wandered from the left lane, across the right lane, and into the rumble strip on the shoulder. I couldn’t see the driver, but if I had to wager a guess, they were distracted. I waited for a second before reacting. Then, when I feared they were going to hit me, I put the truck into reverse, drove it fully into the grass, then stomped on the brake. The Tahoe narrowly avoided wiping out the F-350.
The frustrating thing for me was that I had almost completed my maneuver. All four tires were back on pavement!
Now, I was in trouble. I had a feeling that the U-Haul having its huge V8 engine over its front tires was going to be bad for traction, and I was right. The front end sank down past the top layer of grass and found some mud. The rear wheels had traction, but they couldn’t dig me out of the hole.
I proceeded to spend maybe 30 minutes driving the truck back and forth, trying to rock my way out like I would while off-roading. I tried to help myself by throwing boards and sticks down in front of the tires. All I achieved was throwing the U-Haul sideways. I even dumped my clothes and toiletries out of my gym bag and tried to use it for traction. None of it helped dig the front end out of the muck.
Eventually, I came to the realization that there was no way I was getting out of this myself. I then glanced at the F-350, which had to be no more than 100 feet away. In the span of about 10 hours, I managed to get two trucks stuck in about the same place, and I was no closer to getting to the port. Heck, I basically just pre-paid $300 to get the U-Haul stuck in mud. I screamed and cried for I don’t remember how long. “How could I be this much of an idiot?” I thought. I then thought that I didn’t deserve anything good that had happened to me in life up to that point. I mean, just look at what I did.
Eventually, I got out of the U-Haul and made a sad march to the F-350. I weighed calling in roadside assistance from my insurance versus calling U-Haul’s roadside assistance. Either way, I had to own up to some outrageously stupid behavior.
Just as I was about to pick up the phone and call my insurance, I heard the sound of a large diesel engine idling nearby. My jaw dropped as a glistening AAA truck had magically appeared behind the F-350. He saw me doubly stranded and offered to winch me out. Hot darn, maybe this day isn’t a total fail, after all!
The AAA guy assessed the situation and then told me he’d do it for $350. Ouch. The last time I had a vehicle winched out of a situation like this, it cost me only $108. But, there was a pretty big difference between now and when I got winches out of a hole in Florida. When I got stuck in Florida, I had the luxury of calling a tow truck and then waiting three hours for it to show up.
This guy was right here, right now, with a winch ready to go. He had me hooked, figuratively. Had I sent him away, who knows how long it would have taken for help to show up again.
So, I held my nose and agreed to the winching. The AAA guy perfectly illustrated just how barely stuck the U-Haul was. It took him all of two minutes to free the truck. There was no drama, no damage, and no struggle.
The AAA guy, who was built like The Rock, then helped me out by using his huge muscles to manhandle the U-Haul trailer 30 feet in maybe just 10 seconds. It was shocking how easy he made moving it.
I correctly guessed that about 30 feet was needed. I swooped in with the U-Haul behind the still-stranded F-350, hitched up, and hit the road. After tax, I paid $371 to free the U-Haul truck I stupidly got stuck with. But hey, at least I was finally headed to Baltimore.
Earlier in the day, I had checked the forecast. It was hot and sunny, but the forecast called for heavy rain in the evening. I considered driving the U-Haul to Walmart and buying a tarp to cover the F-350 with. However, it was estimated that the key would be in Hagerstown by 3 p.m., or long before the rain would get there. So, I marched on to Baltimore.
Picking up the car went swimmingly well. I got my port escort, drove in, got my paperwork stamped, loaded up, and rolled out. Obtaining the car was thus far the easiest thing I had done in the past 12 hours. I desperately needed a win, too, so it felt really good.
I love driving around the Port of Baltimore. You get to see some awesome ships and some really cool cars. If the win didn’t have me feeling good enough, seeing all of these sweet cars and trucks really brought up my spirits. Sadly, I didn’t really have enough time to take it all in.
In theory, all I had to do now was drive back to the hotel, drop the trailer, return the U-Haul, get the F-350 key, and then get back on the road. I spent a ton of money to get here, but things were finally ‘coming up Milhouse!’ Or, that’s what I thought.
As I left Baltimore, I noticed dark clouds in the distant sky. I flipped open my weather app again and noticed that most of Maryland was either under some kind of Tornado Watch or Severe Thunderstorm Warning.
Centering my app on Hagerstown resulted in my reborn enthusiasm sinking back into dread and despair. However, there was still a chance to beat it. In fact, Ford’s guy was scheduled to be there before I got back, so everything might go well. Besides, the storm was still far enough away from Hagerstown that I thought I had time to pick up a tarp, anyway.
For now, I was looking down an hour’s drive and now what felt like a potential race against the clock. That will be a story for part three.
I feel like these stories should have a lesson of some kind to teach. There are a lot of criticisms I levied against myself here. I went forward with a plan after multiple elements failed to come together. I then tried to rescue the plan with a dangerous maneuver. Sure, the maneuver almost worked, but as the Tahoe driver illustrated, I could have also gotten harmed, or worse. You can’t enjoy a cool car if you’re not alive to drive it. I then failed to plan ahead, expecting that everything else would work out despite at least 12 hours of evidence showing that some sort of bad luck was following me. Finally, I tried to do all of this on four hours of sleep, with a totally and completely fried brain, and in an absolutely broken emotional state.
If there’s any takeaway here, it’s that you shouldn’t do anything that I did here. I’m lucky to be alive and have lost only time and money. It might also help to bring a friend or spouse along because two brains and sets of muscles are better than one in a situation like this. At the very least, I’m being a little nicer to myself now. There’s no help in destroying myself over dumb mistakes.
And to think the whole time you were struggling in Hagerstown, I was only 4 miles away.
The Autopian Staff needs to get better about asking members for help. Maybe they need a GIS system that can pinpoint which members are nearby. I would even give them my mobile number so they could reach me when needed.
For sure, I feel bad I didn’t know.
Don’t feel bad! I had no idea! I suppose I could have made a post, but I wonder how many of you are reading at midnight. 🙂
NOPE lol
Add a field to the Account page where we can opt in to emergency calls.
I’d even add you guys to my emergency contacts list so it would ring through my nightly do-not-disturb setting.
I’ve yet to meet any of you in person, but you feel like family. I’ll come if the need ever arises.
12:56 AM – catching up after a busy evening ????
Hold up. You don’t think some of us are up at night?
Not sure how accurate it still is, but I recall many late-night conversations occurring on Oppo. Especially on the east coast there’s bound to be someone nearby, or at least someone that knows someone.
Did you really have to be that guy?
I live about 6 miles from where she was stranded. Like you, I would have been happy to help.
Look I’ve been pondering this since your first article…. How in the actual hell did the F350 start with key not actually present in the vehicle in the first place? Like how badly built is this thing if it can detect the key outside the vehicle. Neither our Subaru or BMW will let you start the car with the key sitting on the cowl. I know there is an ounce of personal stupidity in this story and perhaps in hindsight some of your actions are batshit crazy. But quite honestly the truck should never have started in the first place and all of this would have been avoided
this right here, our Kia will scream holy murder if you step out of the vehicle with the fob, and certainly won’t start with it anywhere but in the car!
Eh, to be fair to Ford, the antenna for sensing the fob in the car is probably in the dash and the dash is just behind the cowl where she left the fob, so the fob was probably only a foot or two from the antenna. If she had left the fob in the bed of the truck and it still started, then that would be just cause to point the finger at Ford.
Most cars stick it in the centre somewhere or create a digital fence using antennae in the doors. So this is just Ford being cheap
Great point, my Bolt knows key position down to what door I’m near to let me unlock, if the wife doesn’t have her fob on her it won’t let her unlock the passenger door or open the back hatch, even if I’m standing right by the driver’s door which opens right up for me.
Yeah, our bmw knows what driver profile to use based on what side of the car the fob is. My wife can unlock it from the passenger side with her key in her bag and it will still move the seat for me when I open the drivers door. And it’s not like this a new car, it’s 7 years old.
Well the kids will start with the Fob in the house it is based on having it read the signal so the fob strength is the key. Think start from your house in the winter/summer to heat up or cool down.
Never considered that, I assumed the same signal response from the fob that lets your hand in the door handle unlock the car if the key fob is near would also let the vehicle start. Now I’ll have to try that with my Focus ST.
We get in a rush and we f*ck up. Happens all the time. Take a breath and sit back and THINK. A second set of hands and a second brain would have helped things go smoother.
And yeah, I 70 is a nightmare. Glad you got out safe.
Mercedes. Dont be too hard on yourself. I do not suffer fools- at all. 90% of time I walk away and say you deserved it. However, in this case you did not. It was 1 tiny mis step after another. And another. Those dam fobs. If they dont fit in my pocket, I do this. On my backpack-ever present on a trip, I have a carabiner. Carabiner the fob to my belt loop. Done and dusted. PS- I love your new honda.
I do much the same.
Careful, some of those carabiners fail after a while. This can result in keys being lost on a beach at midnight or som other inconvenient situation.
Spent a hot & aggravated 45 minutes search for the work van keys one day after the spring in a cheap carabiner failed. Now use NiteIze double gate with stoppers: still secure 4 years later. Important considering several years at remote mountain top cell sites
(but I also secret keys about the vehicle like an ocd hoarder: once was more than enough)
Working in the security/alarm industry I figured out the first thing to do when do a full function alarm test at any site was to leave my van keys on tor of the alarm panel first thing when I went in. Why? you have to disconnect the siren to do these tests. First time I realized I left the siren disconnected 20 minutes up the road this became canon in my company.
Can’t leave without going back to the panel.
I got in the habit of clipping my keys to the HVAC disconnect when I cut it off at cell sites for the same reason—except I was 20+ min in 4Lo plus a good 20 on the interstate before the penny dropped that time.
—if the keys were not on my belt loop, I was safe to work on the system as a side benefit
Once bitten twice shy.
Buy a high quality stainless steel carabiner from someone who supplies sailboats, like West Marine. They are so very nice compared to anything I’ve found anywhere else.
They’re also about $35 each when not on sale, and worth every penny. It hurt like hell the day I bought my first one, but I’ve had mine for twenty years and have given them as gifts many times since. It’s the sort of gift that gets a “meh” on reception, but later on you get a call saying “You know that carabiner you gave me? That thing is so much nicer than I thought. Where can I find them?”
Or a climbing locking carabiner from someplace like REI, more in the $10-25@ range. Agreed, the ones marketed as keychain clips can be of much lesser quality.
I wonder if you can put the fob on a carbeener club and wear it on your belt?
I’m glad you’re safe and I’m sorry you had to go through all of this but this is a fascinating story so far!
After returning the box truck my dinner would have been 25 or so beers and maybe some tacos or pizza. Glad you’re OK!
Pass out until the key is overnighted to me. I support this plan.
sorry about the adventure. I’ve refreshed the page 10 times as a go-fund-me to help contribute $0.000046 in ad revenue. oh wait, I’m a member, no ads. hopefully the added page views help cover some of the costs
Looking forward to the next chapter as
I hope the next import goes much smoother.
This is why I’m a firm believer in putting a key in the ignition where it will serve it’s purpose. All this keyless nonsense is just an answer to a question nobody asked. Except maybe thieves with scanners.
I’m glad to see the rear widow of your Life is still intact though! That proves you are not that incompetent! /s
Agreed. Fobs are fecking BS!
Especially since those $700 keys don’t actually improve our lives! Okay, when I get in it moves my seat and side mirrors. It does NOT turn off my spouse’s seat and steering wheel heat, remember my thermostat preferences, or even my radio settings.
So the fob tracks my movements, constantly begs to connect to the mothership, and does the same seat and mirror thing as the programmed buttons on the car door.
Am I missing something? Oh, it allows me to open doors with the key in my pocket.
If it was standard practice to have a dedicated fob cubby in the dash or console, it’d be a wee bit better, but for some reason that isn’t a very widespread feature. I guess carmakers expect you to figure out where to keep the fob in any of the non-fob-shaped spots in the cabin.
The question asked was “how can I drive the car without having to dig the keys out of my pocket/purse every time?”
Which also solves this “hur dur where do I put the keys in the car” supposed problems. You don’t put the keys somewhere in the car, they stay on your person.
Hey Mercedes, on the trip to get the MGF, you should just fly in and drive it home. Don’t check the oil, don’t even put gas in it! It couldn’t POSSIBLY go any worse than this!
What not to do when you pick up your MGF
When she buys the MGF, she can just get some “Farm Use” plates and drive it home without all the hassle.
It won’t be without hassle, but it’ll be a different type of hassle.
Driving anything with a Rover K-series in it should start as a few small trips, building up to longer ones very gradually.
Also bring coolant. And tools. And a truck, with a trailer.
I don’t think Ford will lend her any more trucks.
Over all it seems like good press for Ford.
U-Haul, on the other hand…
(Hopefully, my fascination with U-Haul equipment saves me here.)
I really feel for you, Mercedes. I’ve had some adventures go really sideways back in the day, but usually with a fellow idiot which makes it much more bearable.
Once the kids came along I started planning much better and try to leave little to chance. Still, stuff happens when you own an old junky fleet of cars and haul stuff around. The kids usually take it in stride saying “here’s another chapter for Adventures with Dad.”
Damn. It took one “you are a father now” from my wife, and the antics got cut down drastically.
Theres a concept in offshore sailing (where there is no one to call for help) known as cascading poor decisions. This is a great example.
Every human needs at least one major clusterfuck in their lives. It, um, builds character. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I’d say you’re probably already at Clusterfuck Capacity. May the Gods of Chaos and Despair never visit you again…or, at least not to this horrifying extent.
I loath that saying, “It builds character.” My response is that I have enough effing character. But, unless you never leave the house, there will be plenty of “character building” events in your life. Hopefully Mercedes recovers from this one quickly.
I lived in Hagerstown for over a decade. I know that exact location, and that is NOT a pleasant place to be on the side of the road. I’m glad you’re OK.
I’m a cheap bastard but even I have breathed a similar sigh of relief when I was able to solve a sticky situation with my wallet.
2 years ago I was towing my Lemons racer back from a race about 4 hours from home. As I was driving through Pomona one of my trailer tires blew at like 8PM. It was in an area under construction with no emergency lanes so I had to keep towing like 1/2 mile while the tire shredded itself to pieces until I got to an offramp.
I parked in a Walmart parking lot so I was out of immediate danger, but tire stores were already closed by that point. I thought I was stuck and was weighing the options of staying in a shady motel nearby and having half of the gear and equipment in my truck stolen.
Thankfully I found a 24 hour tire service mainly for semi-trucks and amazingly they had the correct size tire. After a 2 hour wait the tire dude showed up and was able to change it, and I was on my way. Total to get out of that situation was nearly $500 but totally worth it.
I’m having visions of the guy who “fixed” the tires on the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
Actually this guy was very nice and professional, but what you describe does match the guy running a tire store in Baker, California in the middle of the desert. I had to visit said tire store when I got a flat tire on the famous Zzyzx Rd off I-15 and I wasn’t sure I’d come out of there alive.
It was near Buttonwillow instead of Baker, but my then girlfriend now wife, also had a very sketchy experience with a flat tire (and a flat spare) in the wee hours of the morning. It ended up being epic enough that they (along with the other band members along for that ride, I wasn’t along) turned it into a blues song!
This Mercedes saga is certainly worthy of a blues song! Any Autopian staff or members up for that?
Note to self. Have a trailer? Always have a spare.
Definitely. I have about a 50% failure rate on trailer tires every time I’ve towed my race car. For my most recent race 2 weeks ago I was insistent on having a spare tire for the trailer and would have bought one myself if necessary. Thankfully the trailer I borrowed from a friend had 5 brand new tires including the spare and towed the 1500 miles round trip without issue.
Actually two spares – mounted on rims. Also may want spare bearings and maybe even extra spindles…,
I always like to hook up a spare trailer behind my trailer, just in case. 🙂
The car keys (or fob, dongle, multipass, whatever) only lives in one the following three places:
In the ignition switch (if applicable), with the engine runningOn, in, or hanging from it’s “nighttime” position, kitchen counter, bedside table, hooks, etc.IN YOUR POCKET
I’m always most nervous when I am travelling and have a rental and none of my normal routine. I typically clip the key to my computer bag.
I particularly love it when the rental comes with 2 big, bulky fobs… tied together… on the same non-separable cable. I cut the cable on the last pair I got.
My list had numbers, but they didn’t come through.
In the ignition switch (if applicable), with the engine running
On, in, or hanging from it’s “nighttime” position, kitchen counter, bedside table, hooks, etc.
IN YOUR POCKET
“Gloom, despair, and agony on me.
Deep dark depression excessive misery.
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
Gloom, despair, and agony on me!”
Hell of a story you’ve got here. Some day you’ll look back and LAUGH!
Man those lyrics brought back memories.
Whooooah!
These are great lessons. What’s done is done, and you did the best you could with the information and equipment available. In the future, you know that two heads are better than one and will know to bring someone along. And we’ve all been reminded of the same.
Most times I’ve caused myself trouble and pain have been similar. “Oh, this should go smoothly enough. I can handle it myself.” Whether it’s pulling something moving things by hand, getting stuck, or whatever else, it could probably be avoided by bringing along some help.
I generally call one of my brothers and if that doesn’t work my motor club provider and have it towed. Seems to be happening far too frequently these days but it doesn’t seem like a great time to upgrade right now.
Mercedes in a few months:
Here is how I plan on getting my imported MG home from the shipping yard now that Ford won’t let me borrow anymore trucks.
There I always RAM. They must be fairly desperate at this point.
And if Stellantis doesn’t come through, Nissan is in an even more desperate state. An Armada or Infiniti QX80 can tow 8500 lbs.
Truth!
“Don’t bother returning it. We’ll bank it as a sale.”
I mean, I wouldn’t mind a free Cummins. Granted, that would be the weirdest disclaimer for a story ever written. “I asked Ram for a truck to tow my MG with, and they gave me both keys and the title.”
My VW Touareg V10 TDI: Oh, take me! I promise not to break! 😉
ROFL! That will guarantee some *excellent* posting material at least.
Or you could just be like Hoovie and have them shipped as a general rule. But what’s the fun in that?
I’ve done all three methods, but I usually just fly and drive. The time I trailered I had one undrivable car to deliver to it’s new home, then I picked up another on the way back (because I was a glutton for punishment). Two I have had shipped – one was not roadworthy, the other was but I didn’t have the time to drive a Peugeot 504D from CA to ME. It would have made it fine, that car was as reliable as death and taxes.
Nothing makes bad times look good as effectively as even worse times to come.
Hey, now. My V8 Touareg has been great at towing my Audi S4 Avant.
(Knocks on Wood)
Your V8 is also a smidge easier to work on and a tad less complex. Ha. I’ve considered getting a Touareg V8 as a tow rig!
A Touareg as a backup to your Touareg. That’s even more epic than my GTI as a backup to my N54 BMW.
Mercedes, I agree, you should not travel alone in this type of scenario. (☉_ ☉)
To look on the bright side, it’s highly likely the near miss in the U-haul un-distracted the Tahoe driver enough for him not to plow into the back of the trailer and press truck.
Someone plowing into the Ford would’ve solved the truck stuck on the side of the road problem though.
Oof, that would have been a weird call to Ford.
“Good news, I no longer require the key. Bad news…well…”
We had a strip joint in Memphis called Platinum Plus many decades ago, so the Ford name made me chuckle.
This is like one of those David stories where he has to overcome disaster to triumph against all odds. Now he’s retired to a life of leisure with his family in California.
I was thinking that this odyssey felt like one of DT’s more harrowing “Driving to Moab in (INSERT TERRIBLE) Jeep” adventures.
Total cost of all the vehicles in DT’s escapades? Four, maybe low five digits?
This one trip – let’s just say if the bean counter used an old vehicle odometer, it would have rolled over and been well on its way to doing so again.
Heck, some of Tracy’s antics involved cars that cost less than the “hidden fees” Mercedes had to spend on this trip.
Well, yes… The costs are many orders of magnatude beyond one of DT Classic’s escapades. I was more referring to the cascade of questionable decisions made in a horribly sleep deprived state leading to a series of entertaining reads.*
*it should be noted that these stories are only entertaining because; a) they didn’t happen to us, and b) everyone ends up OK in the end (although DT and Torch may have some lingering side effects).
Yeah, sleep deprivation is very unhealthy, that’s for sure.
Pulling off the road as that Tahoe approached was a very good move, though. Better safe than sorry, and while the ridiculous cost of that tow sucked, it’s much better than a trip to the emergency room (or morgue).
I’m awaiting part 3. Hopefully that will have more mechanical mayhem and less threat to bodily injury.
Don’t worry, all of part three will be mechanical misery, and then triumph!
> Now he’s retired to a life of leisure with his family in California.
You must have missed his recent posts…
This trip is getting out of control every chapter of it lol glad you made it, I think it will help next time to bring someone else to help with whatever, sometimes we make the worst decisions when we are by ourselves in complex situations, having another brain around can help with ideas, keep yourself calm and think twice before executing.
Just look at all the “experience” you got out of this. Glad you’re OK.
Lesson learned: Carry traction boards when renting U-Haul trucks. Wait, that’s not it…
To quote a former coworker: “You were handed the instrutions but you just drooled on the cover…”
Just kidding Mercedes, cant wait for Part 3!!
There should be a wrong answers only contest for lessons learned from this. My suggestions:
Always bring a brighter flashlight on road trips for median searches.
If only you had walked down the median to attract another trooper, then get the trooper to help you move the trailer 30 feet.
“Mercedes Power” plus sufficient time would make everything work perfectly.
LOL!
The hilarious thing about that last one is that the state troopers already had me in their system as “woman found walking the median of I-70.”
Imagine if I did it a third time and my story was amended to include a second truck and some shenanigans.
Known to police! XD
Seriously, glad to know that you’re ok.
As someone who worked a Uhaul lot in the winter one year and spend a lot of time rocking box trucks back and forth to get unstuck in the flat parking lot:
Those trucks do pretty well in slipper conditions when they are loaded up. They don’t want to go anywhere with the back empty.
So what you’re saying is that I should have just put the Honda Life inside of the truck!
Wait…in hindsight, that could have worked. I would have just needed to make sure I didn’t turn the steering wheel while loading. 😉
Alas, the 10ft trucks don’t have the built-in ramp (which the Life is probably narrow enough to drive up) so it would have been a whole nother debacle (and I assume a few more conversations with confused highway patrol officers).
I was on the edge of my seat wondering if the next paragraph explained how you just loaded the Life into the Uhaul since they didn’t have any car haulers for you. You’re not supposed to do that, by the way. Though if I recall, it’s because officially the policy is that you aren’t supposed to have any gasoline powered anything inside the trucks…. sooooo if you opt to do that next time don’t post any photographic evidence.
Claim that you drained the gas tank. Or, state that the Life was placed there via forklift. How will anyone know?
I’m not a lawyer, I’m just sayin they wouldn’t be happy about it.
There are more than a few people that have loaded up their keis into the back of box trucks. I guess it works as long as you have access to an appropriately sized loading dock at both ends of the trip and a certain level of recklessness.
U-Haul box trucks are generally significantly lower than most any doc board. I worked with an engineer who was moving a very significant distance. He loaded his 1st gen Honda civic into the box of a Penske truck and put boards over the hood so he could pile furniture on top. I think he used the loading dock at work to extract the car.
Found that out with an E250 once. Drove onto a deep gravel area to instal a heavy telecom cabinet and turned perpendicular to the road tso we could unload it easier not realizing how deep that gravel was. Went to leave after, but all it would do is dig. Luckily, it was on the same lot where a development was going in and a guy with a telehandler saw our predicament and lifted us out. He wouldn’t take any money for it, he said the laugh was enough. As a side note, telehandlers are cool as hell.