[AT] OT Darwin

[Len Rugen]

All of our farm chains were pretty old, so no ratings were known, if they 
were even rated when they were new.  Somebody asked me if I could trust 
them, I said I guess so, if they have been abused this long and they are 
still in one piece.  We replaced hooks at times, but they were always 
damaged in recovery or something, like miss hooking a muddy chain on the tip 
of a hook.  Dad was sure good at getting stuck and not quitting soon enough.

I had a friend who was driving a GMC Safari size van when he met a track 
loader that wasn't tied down at all.  It came thru the front of the van and 
nearly killed him and hurt the rest of the family to various degrees.  He 
will never be able to return to what he did before, so I'm sure someone paid 
well if they had it.  Accidents happen, but I sure don't want to cause one 
because I took the easy way.

Amen on balancing the load / tounge weight.  I went to retrieve a break down 
once, it was a empty dump truck and a road roller that had transport wheels. 
You hooked the roller to the pintle, then the wheels pivoted, lifting both 
rollers and making the whole thing a single axle trailer.  I was supposed to 
drive the truck back and did, but what a ride!  I sure could have used a 
couple of tons of rock in that truck.

I retrieved a box van once with an unknown load.  I later discovered it was 
4 carts of "portable stage" that were loose, on wheels in the back.  It was 
like hauling a bowling ball in a large cardboard box, everything moved at 
every turn, stop and start. 

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