I drove all the way to Mondovi, Wisconsin, last week to pick up a new used stock trailer. I was going to go to Fort Scott, Kansas, but that trailer sold just before we called to let them know we were for sure coming, so we had to go back to the Internet and find a different one.
We wound up with a better trailer than the first one, anyway, and for about the same price. The only problem was that it was quite a bit further away.
But for a good deal on a trailer, I figured it was worth the long drive. So Wednesday morning, I jumped in the truck and headed east. I took it easy on the way out, stopping to take pictures of cool stuff like a tree full of bald eagles, old rusty cars in fields, and of course, a bunch of windmills. But the next day, I had to get to the trailer lot about the time they opened, jump through the trailer buying hoops, and get it hooked up and back on the road, headed west. As I left the lot, everything seemed fine. I had lights and brakes, and that trailer pulled nice and smooth.
I drove all day with no trouble, but about the time it started getting dark, I looked in my mirror. No marker lights. This could be a problem.
Sure enough, I had no taillights. I had all my other lights, and I had brakes, but this was a problem. As I sat in a truck stop parking lot, wondering what the heck to do, a guy pulled up and asked if I needed help. I said I didn’t have any of the tools I’d need to check the lights, but he said he had them. Turns out this guy used to work for Featherlite trailers. And what did he do there? He wired the trailers. Dang. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
He got me back on the road, but I’ll still need to do some work to my new used trailer to get the lights working right. Grrr. Trailers are great when they’re working well, but they can be the bane of your existence when they’re not.
