Incredibly irresponsible

Last night the rain got over the alps and is doing it's best to turn our property in to a swamp. Have to be careful what I write in future. On Sunday I said we hadn't had a frost and no rain. Monday morning all commuters were busily scratching ice off their cars and now the rain! Forecast though is a return to "mild & dry" weather, lasting in to next week.

Yesterday I learnt that i could pick up free of charge, some concrete walling round "posts". Had got a photo of the 85 pieces and though nothing else in the photo to give any idea of their size, the description was 80 x 13 x 23.5 cm. Couldn't quite work out why 3 measurements and didn't read the text properly but thought it would be no problem to transport.

So set off to Illertissen about 55km from here with the horse trailer. Being a good sturdy Welsh Ifor Williams, it would be up to the job. Weighs 930kg empty can load 1400kg and the jeep can pull 3500kg.

Well when I got there and saw the load, I gulped a bit suggested I take them in two loads but the owner, a very hands on, down to earth guy reckoned it would be no problem and possibly just slightly overloaded. Law here is strict on trailer/car loads). I said to the couple that I would load it myself but he insisted on helping, getting a hand cart and ramps.

Thank goodness he did! Took us good 90 minutes in the constantly pouring rain. Chatting all the time as they had until this year had horses and rode the same western style / Quarter horses.

When finished, the tyres on one side looked a bit "under pressure" but proved to be OK after being checked with an air compressor. The Jeep seemed a bit low at the back so I moved some of the posts towards the back. Then after leaving a thank you jar of my honey drove around the corner and went for 3/4 hour walk with the dogs along the Iller river or rather an additional wide canal running parallel. Luckily rain stopped but with darkness coming and with damp clothing it wasn't fun.

Set off homeward, a bit trepidly especially as I noticed the jeep was a bit sluggish so used the backroads instead of the ideal motorway route. Luckily the trailer though 15 years old has just passed its MOT and the tester was very impressed nby the brakes. Jeep steering was Ok but didn't really feel great (relative for a US car with sloppy steering at the best of times).

Knew fuel consumption would be sub optimal. Angie's car uses about 5l/100km, the jeep 11 l/100km with horses can go up to 18 l/100km. For a laugh I checked the instant use when I had to go up a very light rise - 55 l/100km! Generally didn't get much above 60km/h.

Somehow & eventually got home. Reversing the trailer in to it's slot was a bit difficult, the brakes automatically coming on. Out of interest got out an old person scales. Weighed one of the posts = 45kg and on the internet found the weight of new ones = 49.6kg!

I am terrible at maths but using the mobile's calculator did the following using a tiny bit of rounding up (I hate fractions as much as algebra):

85 pieces x 50 kg = 4,250 kg
Trailer weight empty 930kg + posts 4,250 kg = 5,180 kg

Maximum allowed trailer weight loaded = 2,600 kg
Maximum allowed Jeep pulling weight = 3,500kg

I did not try to check the towbar loading weight. I couldn't detach the trailer, the jockey wheel quickly became impossible to turn!

Luckily I never learnt how to use the "%" button on a calculator so I can't work out if the overload was more than 10%, an overload allowance generally accepted if you don't have to go up hills.

Angie got home 10 minutes later and insisted I unloaded as much as possible as quickly as possible. 90 minutes later I had removed 50 of the posts (2,500kg). Simply lifting them from horizontal to vertical was a struggle, then wobbling them over the rubber trailer floor, on to the rubber ramp, then lift them 20cm down and again wobble them to a pile. Will probably Blip the pile tomorrow.

The sheath/pipe I have in place for the up & coming kidney stone operation made itself very noticeable later in the evening! These silicon pipes get quickly encrusted on the outside, a problem that has astounded the docs in the past. I did warn them again when in hospital that they shouldn't leave it in for more than 2 or 3 days but they insisted it stayed for 5 weeks! We will see what happens!

I was actually quite shocked at what I had done. It was irresponsible and downright dangerous. I really wasn't aware that it was so extreme until I got home. Naturally I should have done my maths. Later learnt why the owners so keen I took them away today - contractors come tomorrow to do their new garden and they had to get the blocked caravan out of the drive to allow the digger access. Perhaps that influenced their calming words!

Won't be repeating that again too soon!