I have had better days

Well if anyone that has been reading my thread about picking up my new 78 Catalina Safari knows I left Southern MI for NC on Friday Plan was to pick up the Car Friday Evening get a room and head back Saturday.
Well plans changed when my wife called me around 8:00pm just as I was looking for a Room and said that the House next Door was on Fire!!!! I told her to grab the Dogs, a Coat and her purse and get out of our House!!!!!
I decided to drive back that night as my wife was just a little worked up. The fire started in their Garage, and their garage is very close to our house.
She called back a couple of hours later and said every one was OK the house next door is pretty much a total loss, and out house has some damage. This is what I came home to.




Our house just lost the Siding and insulation, on that side, a few windows are cracked, some trim around the window on the roof are also damaged.
Everything was going very well on the trip, until I missed a turn in Ohio, and decided to take a 2 lane highway north from I-70 to I-75. We were delayed almost an hour in a small town south of Finley Ohio by a Train just stopped across the road. Just after we got moving again it started to rain, it was 34F at the time and there were several Semi's behind us. They were not happy with the 35mph I was towing at so they all started passing me, as the last one of about 5 passed me, he started skidding on the Black Ice in front of us, he gathered it back up and kept going, but as soon as I let off the gas the trailer tried to pass my truck, and I just couldn't save it.
Hears the results.





It could have been worse, the trailer did stay on the truck, we disconnected it in the dark as we were 90 degrees to the road blocking the entire highway. It took about 2 Hours to get help. The Ohio State Police were very nice and could not have been more helpful. My Classic car insurance Haggerty was trying to help but could not find a local towing company that was willing or able to help. My Buddies AAA was no help at all.
We had to pull the trailer out from under the Catalina as the rear wheels were off the trailer, and 2 of the 4 straps broke. The right 1/4 is damaged and the spare tire well has been torn out from the bottom, and the original tail pipe is destroyed, minor damage is the ash tray cover fell off and the dash plastic wood is now cracked in 2 places. But other than that every thing is fine and still works. Car was driven back onto the trailer after it was pulled out of the ditch.
I have to say the Large sturdy Class III trailer hitch saved a lot of damage, the State trooper showed me were the trailer tires went over the section of the guard rail were it curves down and bolts flush with the ground, then there is a 4 foot area where the trailer wheels were off the ground, then it "skipped" 2 times before the wheels stayed on the ground.
The trailer hitch was on top of the rear cross bean of the trailer, the next cross beam was directly under the gas tank! but the hitch kept it about 4" away, so at 1st glance no suspension, or fuel tank damage.
I was very fortunate 2 times in less than 12 hours, both incidents could have been so much worse. Got back home around 2PM yesterday, and I slept from about 5:00pm to 11:00 am this morning.
Now the fun really begins, having to deal with Home Owners and Classic Car insurance Companies! Lucky I did put the Catalina on my Haggerty Policy before picking it up. I have gone on longer trips to pick up cars and not bothered to do that!!!!

 

Really sorry to hear all that. Really glad no one was hurt and glad that all the damage to house, car and trailer appear to be relatively minor. You and your family and your neighbors family will be in my prayers.

 

Glad to see that so one was hurt and the damage was as minimal as it is.
Could have been a lot worse.

You've got some serious Thanksgiving prayers this week!

 

So sorry about what happened. Apparently even though things appear bad you were very lucky. That's a nice looking station wagon. Hopefully you will soon have the house repaired and be able to work on the wagon.

 

very sorry to hear of all your troubles but noone is hurt so thats what count. just think of the stories you have to tell years from now

 

Thank everyone, I am fully aware of how Fortunate I am on both issues, Spoke to the Fireman that cam by this morning to do a final check for hot spots next door, he thinks they were about 2 minutes away from losing our house also. There was no wind that night and that helped also. So far the insurance Company has been OK, they are coming out to look at it Monday afternoon.
As for the Catalina, I am shocked there does not seem to be any damage to the right rocker panel area. My trailers fender had to be taken off as it is bent beyond saving. I forgot to add the pictures of the underside. its a bit worse than it 1st looks.


For some reason I took these pictures at the last fuel stop about 90 minutes before, I had checked the straps and as they were new they had stretched some so I was tightening them up. It does show the side that was damaged



And here is the badly color matched head liner

 

I've towed for many years. After nearly losing a car off my open hauler (in an ice storm!), I figured I was doing things wrong. Initially, I too had just four straps, configured as you had yours. After that little incident in the Winter of 2000, it was time to reconsider how I tied a car down. I use my Ramsey 5K# winch to pull the car up onto the trailer, if it's dead, and use that cable to help cinch the front down at the vehicle crossmember; along with two 10K# straps that tie to the lower A-arms. For the rear, I use a large logging chain that is looped around the axle at the diff, then hooked to the D-rings at the rear of the trailer. I also use two 10K# straps on the axle, with a pair of axle loop straps. So, when all is said and done, there are SIX tie-down points, versus the four from before. Once I did that, I never had a car or pickup come loose from my hauler. Something to consider for future hauls.

 

Wow! Sorry to hear Jeff, glad y'all are ok, from accident and from the neighbor's house fire.

Dennis

 

Bad and good all at the same time. Great that you realize it could have been much worse.

Scary feeling to lose control on ice - like the time I totaled the Focus wagon..... when the tires initially iced up, I was headed for the opposing traffic lanes. Luckily the traffic was a couple hundred yards away at the time and I applied enough steering input to get it headed over to the right shoulder, where we hit and rolled - once.

The ash tray door issue must be common on these cars. Mine was broken off, too, when I got it, but somehow the shop I took it into a few weeks ago reattached it somehow.

 

I've been in that situation myself where the fire is in the garage and side of the next door house so close to our house. Mom shouting for me to find the cats, get them into her car while she gets my sister and dad out of the house. This happened about 3 or 4 am on a summer day so no school for my sister and I, and my two older brothers were elsewhere that night. The luckiest thing about where we lived is that our house was on the alley, whereas the next door house was centered between the street and alley, with the garage on the opposite side of the lot. Also, our house had stucco siding. Still, that is too scary. That was the Summer of '77, so I was 12.

 

I'm making plans to make several 1000 mile trips back to Illinois. Got the trailer part taken care of for three cars. Still I don't want anyone hauling my cars on snow or ice. If and when we start moving I will not leave sunny Florida if there are any weather reports of slippery stuff.
I was born and raised in central Illinois and had lots of experience driving on all colors of ice in cars, trucks, and big rigs. I have jack knifed a semi tractor trailer and it ain't fun. Luck and the jake brake pulled me out of it.
But I forgot everything I knew and don't care to be retrained.
Drive carefully on ice and snow and be ready to pucker up and slide!

As for house fires, we've been lucky. Not even a neighbor has had a fire. At least here we are not close enough unless the woods burns which we do worry about during those dry seasons. Plus where we are moving only our house can burn because the neighbors are far enough away.
It's scary thinking of someone's home burning and living close. Aparently that fire started in the garage, maybe a hot water heater or garage heater.
Time will tell.

 

Aw man, I feel for you on both accidents and your neighbors..........

Try to have a good what is left of the weekend.

 

Wow, you have had a bad week! Sorry to hear about your misfortunes, but like you said, no one was hurt and it could have been much worse! Yeah, it looks like it would not have been much longer under the siding on your house would have been blazing! Also, thankfully it did not light the neighbors cars on fire - talk about an inferno!! Definitely something to be thankful for. Not sure if anyone asked, what about your neighbors? Are they ok too? Looks like they sure sustained some heavy damage, hopefully their home is repairable. I wonder what started the blaze?

Sorry to see that about the car too... but again no one hurt and hopefully you can get her fixed back up real soon and great you had the insurance put on there. I am assuming your truck wasn't damaged? Btw, I love those F150s... if I ever decide to spend some money, I would like to get me one, lol.

My uncle in NC has towed hundreds of cars (mostly classics) - I mean literally for thousands of miles. He has been all over the country. As far as I know, he has been really luck until last summer. He came over here to Tennessee to pick up a Suzuki Samurai. He picked it up and was going down the road... well about 4 miles later, he looked in the mirror and it was GONE!! He freaked out obviously. They back tracked and it had rolled off at the end of my uncles driveway and rolled across the road and down an embankment. It didn't even scratch it. I don't know what happened, I never asked, but something broke or he simply forgot to secure something which is not at all like him. He was just thankful it didn't come off of there on the highway and kill someone.

 

A tiny trailer story. Way back around 1965 or so I bought my first Model T Ford. It was a 1926 touring car mostly together but not running. The older man I bought it from had hauled many cars from all over much of the USA on his flatbead trailer similar to the one pictured.
I only lived around 20 miles from him. We traveled on basically flat paved county roads. After he backed down my cement driveway and we began manually pushing the Model T from the trailer the trailer front lifted up off the ball and into the air. He forgot to tighten and hook the trailer coupler.
Everything was fine until the Model T was partially off the trailer adding more weight to the rear. Imagine what could have happened. Often wondered why it didn't happen when loading it.
Always double check everything and don't talk any more than necessary while hooking up and loading.

 

Scary close call for sure with the fire. Sorry to hear about the damage but so glad you still have your home to come home too. Your neighbours are not so lucky.

Black ice, scary to navigate. Again so sorry to hear about the damage to your wagon, it looks really great, Those damages although minorish it must have been disappointing.