Under Tow

Another Step Forward

When you have a formula type racer you have a built in second problem.

If you are going to race it you have to get it to the track. You can’t drive it there because the DOT gets funny about cars with no turn signals or horns, or lights or all those other things that NAPA and Atutozone are in business to sell us. I think it is an economics thing.

That means you have to have a trailer to haul it on. For me, that is where the next part of the economics debacle comes in.

In the after-Katrina environment of southern Louisiana, the secrets of ancient alchemy have been rediscovered and through this process every small landscape trailer in the state has been turned into pure gold.

It starts with the guy who has a pick up truck and a trailer who uses it to haul all the storm debris from his house and yard to the dump. The next thing you know, his next door neighbor gets him to perform a similar service. After that, his next door neighbor's cousin’s sister wants it done and the waiting list grows. It’s not long before the man’s teen age kid (if he has any moxie at all) figures out that this beats the hell out of mowing lawns cause you can charge a ton because of the law of supply and demand. So he borrows Dad’s truck (or uses his own) and the trailer and is in business for the summer. By the end of the summer he has four of his own trucks and all of his friends are working for him and the cost of trailers has tripled.

Needless to say it is not the best of all times to be buying a trailer down here.

I had even drawn up a sketch of what I wanted and had the welding shop, which does my serious welding, price it out for me. It turned out to be nearly what I paid for the racecar. That dog won’t hunt.

I finally found a company in Quakertown, Pa., which sells trailer kits. It is just the right size, comes complete with all the parts (even a few I don’t need for my purposes) and is supplied with a certificate of origin which the DOT needs to prove it’s real. They won’t license it unless you can prove it’s real.

So it’s ordered and should be here next Wednesday. At half of what it would be cost to buy a used one locally. I guess they don’t have hurricanes in Pennsylvania.