Flares, a Failure, and a Flatbed - The Trucker's Nightmare

And when it happens, it generally happens quickly.

A second of gruesome miscellaneous noise led to the sound of tires rubbing on something other than ground, followed by rushing air indicating a blown airline or airbag, and finished off by a loose, squirrelly, drift-like crash landing to the side of the road, where the truck apparently belonged. Ahhh, the site and smell of custom truck carnage! I hope seeing this happen made a good dinner time story for some conservative family, or that some parent could use me as a model as to why their child would never be allowed to partake in such a hobby.

Anyway, I turned the flashers on and turned the radio off; now was not the time for Avenged Sevenfold. I cautiously got out since I was “blocking the lane” as a cop perceptively told me a few minutes later. Tires weren’t blown; no exterior damage. So I looked underneath and found the problem immediately. At that point, I knew exactly what had happened and certain words crossed my mind, such as *** not again, hmmm it’s the other side, this is bad, this is not fixable, how the **** am I going to move this ******* thing. These frustrations manifested through banging on the bumper with my fist.

Now here’s a scene for ya – a lady in a brand new dress and brand new white heels banging the bumper of a laid-out mini truck precariously tucked between flares, her sole two companions being a cop car and a flatbed on a dark street on a Wednesday night.

Now you try to drag a laid-out mini truck onto a flatbed. I don’t know how that would work because that’s not how the story goes. I got out my duct tape and line cutters, fixed one blown airline and taped up the other just enough to air the beast up and get it on the flatbed. And just as a side note, the picture of the airbag was NOT the problem.

You know, at some point, getting a contorted mini truck safely onto a flatbed becomes almost as gratifying as making it home safely. Am I discouraged? A little bit, only because I love driving the truck. However, a truck down and out is a truck that can be improved. Am I defeated? Not one bit!