Having Difficulty Getting Goods to Your Site??

[MountainDon]

The next time you're complaining about how small your truck or trailer is or other difficulties you face in transporting goods to your building site, remember these.  Thanks to John [redoverfarm].

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[Willy]

I have been there and done that! I built a A-Frame Cabin in California at Panarama Heights 6000 ft level in the Late 70s once. I used a 1967 VW Baja to carry every thing up to it from Bakersfeild on the roof rack I built for it. I tested the rack by smashing the bug to the ground then bolted it on. This took away any movement when loaded. I carried the septic tank up and that was a fun ride in the corners leaning!! I carried all the 20 ft long boards and headers using a lot of rope to hold it on. I had to tie the ends to the bumpers to keep it from rocking. The best load was 20 sheets of plywood, 18 2X6 - 20 ft boards a solid core door and all the peir blocks inside. That load opened and closed the door gaps on the bumps! A CHP Cop coverd his eyes when I drove by him. I think he was afraid to pull me over and ask me to get out. I toned down the loads after that because I thought the roof would go flat and it was hard to stop. Glad I had a built 71 Super Beetle Engine putting out 75 HP and the torsin bars turned up and cables holding them level again for pre load reasons. Road rough when empty but great with a load. Here ia picture of the Tank I picked up in Victorville. Glad I have a 1 ton Dulley to do things now!!!  Mark H.

[Sassy]

Hey, that's 

[glenn kangiser]

That is pretty wild Mark.  Good job on the rack.

[Willy]

That is pretty wild Mark.  Good job on the rack.

I made it out of 2"X3/16" thick channel steel and bolted it thru the roof with 3/8" bolts and 2" strap on the inside. it was as wide as the VW but only 2 ft deep and had 4 ft boards bolted to it.  I had 2- 100 ft ropes to ancor loads with you probley could have lifted the bug off the ground with the loads. Mark

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

These are hilarious.  I have a couple I should look up and post here from my trip to India.  One was of a rickshaw caravan... it was one rickshaw driver pulling his own load plus about four or five small trailers piled high with what looked like burlap bags of potatoes or rice.  You could barely see the skinny little man pulling all this load.  The other one was a family of four riding on a moped.  In Korea, I always got a kick out of how many people or how much stuff that people could pile onto a small motorcycle.  All the food delivery guys use motorcycles in Korea, and they use real metal, glass, or other reuseable dishes, so after they leave them at your house, they come back a little later for the dirty dishes to take back.

[benevolance]

i would have to pass on the rope bridge...I am not a huge fan of heights

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I know what you mean... saw the guy with the baby and my stomach started whirling just looking at it. 

[Sassy]

You would think that some people would get together & put a few more boards on the bridge 

[benevolance]

yeah and the guy with muddy rubber boots walking a piece of rope...

No freaking way man.... no freaking way

[glenn kangiser]

It looks good.  Those are big cables.

[benevolance]

not big enough

[MountainDon]

Mind over matter.    That'll be almost as good as walking on a board. 

[benevolance]

i would rather hike down the canyon swim across and hike back up the other side

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

   You sound like my husband...  he likes two story houses and wants to build one, but he got weak-kneed trying to install a window in our upstairs bathroom last year.  I can't imagine him doing a roof!

[Willy]

  You sound like my husband...  he likes two story houses and wants to build one, but he got weak-kneed trying to install a window in our upstairs bathroom last year.  I can't imagine him doing a roof!

After I fell off a roof 7 years ago I also know now I am not bullet proof. I do not feel as confertable high off the ground on a roof or climbing a 40 ft pole with climbing spikes. I tend to remember the severe pain I felt breaking my foot in three places and waiting 2 days to go to the VA Hospital 250 miles away due to no medical insurance!! Mark

[Redoverfarm]

Since you brought it up mark about heigths.  I have noticed as I get older that I am not as confortable as I used to be.  I do it because it has to be done.  If I didn't have to I wouldn't.  I never used to be this way and I don't understand what has happened. Maybe it has to do with "what could happen".  I have to really think it  out when I am working by myself in the remote area as no one would come looking for me til dark.  Maybe it just age.  I can remember growing up that I could climb anything and stay all day.  Now I don't like to climb anything or stay very long. Once I get up there and get accustomed to the platform for a while I am all right as long as I can make it stable.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

For me there is a big difference between man-made heights and natural ones.  I have pictures of myself with my toes hanging over the edge of the canyon lands, and sitting on ledges in the Grand Canyon or climbing up rock walls or trees, and I never felt afraid of those heights (with the possible exception of the time I dove off a 30+ foot cliff not to be outdone by my 15-year-old students, and then my knees were shaking.)  However, I can still remember the first time I was in a tall building... I was 5 and my uncle took us to the top of a big building in downtown Houston.  I could feel the building swaying in the wind and was completely freaked out by it... was really glad when we got back off the elevator on the bottom floor.  I used to be OK on ladders (now I wonder if they really tested the load limits on them! ) and I feel a little woozy if I think about it too much.  But then, I guess that's one of those things that must happen with growing up and realizing you're not invincible?  Don't know.  Never was weak-stomached or easily grossed-out, either, but have taken, of late, to passing out every time my daughter has a nosebleed, which has to be the dumbest learned reaction ever.   Have tried to prevent it from happening, but have absolutely no control over it, which is really aggravating. 

[glenn kangiser]

I don't have a problem with heights.  I built an 82 foot tall building and was sliding across the roof beams with parts in one hand and the welding lead in the other.  No Brain- no pain, eh?  That was the same job I tipped an 80 foot manlift over on.  Luckily I was only at 68 feet and trapped in a 20 foot wide circular area so only hit the other side.  Didn't bother me, but scared the guys on the ground and the company foreman I was working under yelled at me a bit.

[Willy]

I don't have a problem with heights.  I built an 82 foot tall building and was sliding across the roof beams with parts in one hand and the welding lead in the other.  No Brain- no pain, eh?  That was the same job I tipped an 80 foot manlift over on.  Luckily I was only at 68 feet and trapped in a 20 foot wide circular area so only hit the other side.  Didn't bother me, but scared the guys on the ground and the company foreman I was working under yelled at me a bit.

One time I climbed a 185 ft tall smoke stack ladder on the side of it just to prove I could work on it when the crane came in a few days. That was a work out just to get to the top! Even harder to get down as my hands were cramping holding on to the rungs. No saftey cage or belt hooked onto the ratchet in the middle. I had to spend 12 hours up there mounting aircraft warning light in a 3x3x3 steel box hanging off the speed ball. I also allmost tiped over a small man lift 40 ft off the ground running into a dip moving it around. I had to pull it straite holding onto a conduit attached to a beam. Lots of these things happen over the years but when I hit the ground and broke my foot it realy hurt and things changed after that. I think it was breaking my foot not the fall. For 6 months I could not walk on it and had a lot of time laying around thinking about what happen. Mark

[Willy]

Since you brought it up mark about heigths.  I have noticed as I get older that I am not as confortable as I used to be.  I do it because it has to be done.  If I didn't have to I wouldn't.  I never used to be this way and I don't understand what has happened. Maybe it has to do with "what could happen".  I have to really think it  out when I am working by myself in the remote area as no one would come looking for me til dark.  Maybe it just age.  I can remember growing up that I could climb anything and stay all day.  Now I don't like to climb anything or stay very long. Once I get up there and get accustomed to the platform for a while I am all right as long as I can make it stable.

I think your right cause I now fear heights to the point I am un/confertable and also only do it because it has to be done. I start talking to myself on telephone poles and I used to climb them with out my belt all the way to the top before I put it around the pole. If I am on a solid plateform I am OK but just hooked in with 1/2" of pointed steel I think about what could happen if a Gaft slips out. Ladders are not a problem it is just places you are sorta on the edge working. Age may be it cause we know we don't heal the same anymore and need to be healthy to keep working. I can't drive fast like I used to when I raced off road when younger. I also worry some when working alone doing things that are dangerous. Darn it sucks when you get this way and I am only 56 years old to! When I was young I had no fear just like you. I don't even like working with live electricity anymore having been shocked so many times in the past including blind and not able to hear for allmost a hour when I slipped in a 400 amp panel once tripping the main breaker. I tend to think of how many things I got away with in the past and how much longer I will be able to in the future so I try to limint taking chances anymore. Mark

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

When we replaced the window last Mother's Day, DH had me sit there and hold his belt loops so he wouldn't fall out the window.  I could feel him shaking through the belt loops and he kept getting mad at me for laughing at him.  But he was so funny.  There was no conceivable way he could fall out the window; the worst that could happen is losing the window.  I laughed until I hurt.  I finally had to do the part where I was leaning out the window to finish the outdoor facings... he was having a panic attack nearly just watching me.

[glenn kangiser]

That's funny in a unfunny sort of way.  Poor guy.