On my recent passage to Oakridge, in addition to stopping for the Peugeot 505, I decided to drive around town a bit for some drive-by shootings. Those will be up soon, but the oddest thing I found is this road train. At first I just saw this fine old Toyota FJ Land Cruiser, with a boat in tow. But as I drove a bit further, I was astonished to see that the LC was attached to the Bronco with a tow bar.
WTF?
This is not one of my optical illusion “Little Car Towing Big Trailer” joke posts. For real; all three of these were solidly hooked up together.
I don’t know how to explain this one, but folks do things a bit different in these little backwoods towns. I guess it would work, having the Bronco pull the other two; it might even be legal in Texas, but then what isn’t? Never mind…
That “Blazer” is a Ford Bronco.
Of course it is. And that was utterly obvious to me all along. But every once in a while, I transpose a different name to a car I am writing about. I’ve done this before. It’s a curious phenomena, as it invariably involves a car that there is no question about its identity, but I write in the wrong name.The fact that both start with a “B” may have had something to do with that.
I work very quickly, when I’m writing, as in rushing. And rushing has its downsides. I sometimes don’t take the time to really look at what I’m doing, especially on Outtakes.
I’m not trying to make a long-winded excuse here, it’s just an interesting phenomena to me, as it’s happened a few times before. I don’t think I’m losing my marbles, but who knows?
I’m going to try to give you an “out” here. Just yesterday I was riding home with my friend and carpool buddy, an ardent autophile, and we both looked and commented on a primer-painted early 00’s Accord with some weird camera/light thingies bolted to the decklid. We both commented on it simultaneously, one calling it a Camry, the other an Accord. We both knew without question what it was (despite the oft-repeated trope about their similarities). It may not be the common “B” model names that gets you sometimes, it might just be thoughts of 2 similar vehicles of the same type and vintage that have a certain mental interchangeability. It was an Accord in our case…and I’ll point out for the record that the younger of us by 15 years was the one who called it out incorrectly.
Some of the river folks that live in this part of the country would refer to that as a Bronco with “two pull-behinds”!
There are some local word usage around here that still throws me.
When we lived in Montana we’d see a bumper hitch camping trailer pulled by a pickup and then a boat hitched to the trailer forming quite the caravan. That’s legal up there but can you imagine that rig going down I-95 or I-5?
A crude form of theft deterrence??
+1. Assuming the hitch/tow bars are well secured.
Like Phil Henning, I’ve seen similar here.
A convoy like this likely isn’t too big of a deal on the right road – or until you discover the need to use reverse. Not just anybody could pull that off well.
Out of the three, I’d take the Land Cruiser. Could have a busted engine or some other malaise, but would be a worthy project car. Second place would be the Bronco. Need to save great examples of ICE vehicles before we all buzz around in our EVs.
Bing….bing …..bing !
PRNDL got it right.
That is a sweet looking LC, and not all ate up with rust either!
Maybe the owner asked a friend if he could park one vehicle in his driveway for a couple of months.
I’m not sure if that particular setup is road legal. I know that when I lived in Michigan, you could get a “Recreational Double” endorsement for your license, but I believe that was strictly for pulling a boat behind a fifth wheel camper… I think.
A Bronco may be a full-size I6 or V8-powered truck, but with a wheelbase as short as a compact car’s, how suitable is it as a tow vehicle?
Took the LC fishing, LC broke down, Bronco rescued, all went inside for a beer to decide what to do next.
My previous manager concocted a vacation rig of one Chevy 2500 pickup truck, one 40 foot/ 12 meter fifth wheel camper and one small fishing boat 12 feet/ 3.6 meters long. He proudly showed me pictures of his concoction as I stood by silently. He claimed the only time it got squirrelly was driving on I-90 in South Dakota due to crosswind. I questioned him about the boat and how he couldn’t even see it. This was years before rear cameras became common on trailers and he said the boat had a nice custom tarpaulin so nothing could ever fall out. That’s great I said and asked him how he would know if he had a tire blowout. He said most drivers are courteous and would just pull up next to him and signal to him something was wrong. Nuts! Nuts! Nuts!
I first saw one of those in the 70’s. Dropped my jaw open. While I haven’t looked into the exact detail of the law, as explained to me, it’s the equivalent of a set of truck doubles, ie two trailers behind a tractor. Legal in California, which doesn’t have the most lenient laws, but you need the same license as the guy hauling 2, 25 foot trailers totaling 80,000 pounds, including tractor. I’ve also heard not all cops are aware of the laws and you best have your paperwork in order no matter how legal you are.
Best worst example (sorry, can’t find the pics), a beefy F450 towing a good sized 5th wheel followed closely by his Jeep JK 4 DR on tow bar….
I’ve got a 3 axle 38 ft bumper pull trailer that with the Dodge 2500 megacab comes in at 63 ft 5 in. Am told 65 ft is max