[larsdennert]

I'll tell you this story of my friend Adam who's first trip with his TrailManor was quite eventful. We were part a 4Wheeling club and often went camping and rock crawling. His rig was a Toyota FJ40 on 35" tires with crawler cases and locking diffs. My tow rig was a 4Runner on 33"s with a 4" lift locking diffs and plenty of armour. It was that kind of club.

After our last trip to Moab, Adam had enough and wanted air conditioning. He bought a built FJ Cruiser and our story picks up on our first trip thereafter to the Calico area of California. For us a trip to Calico meant we could bring our Trail Manor, drive it some bad wash board roads to our camping spot and drop it when exploring. Nicer than a tent for sure. Adam was due in later and the club of about a dozen vehicles trickled in.

Late in the evening Adam wasn't there yet but we got a frantic call from him. "I'm stuck on the road and have trailer." How could he be stuck? Since when does he have a trailer? He just bought it... It's an ordinary dirt road. Adam has been on the worst trails in Moab and everything in between. We all mounted up and went off to look for Adam.

We finally found him. Not on the dirt road but on a 4 Wheeling trail called Phillips. Though not the worst of trails, it still requires a low range transfer case and airing down tires to traverse. Lots of large stair step ledges, narrow sections with shear drop-offs and a sprinkling of large boulders and sand. We finally found him half way up this trail hopelessly beached and trailer in tow. His new FJ had a fabulous Nav system that lead him to camp the short way but not the easy way. (I think this is the lesson) Late at night in the darkness, the desert looks the same but he knew I was at camp with my TM so it had to be passable. It wasn't.

We all stood there in disbelief. First that he had gotten so far. Second that we had no idea how to get him out. Knowing the trail, we were sure there was no way to continue on. There were spots so narrow and bad that the TM would never fit. Our only option was to turn around, but how? Not even a vehicle could turn around much less one towing. The dozen of us there resolved that we were going to turn the trailer around by itself. We removed and dismantled all the parts now hanging from the bottom of the trailer such as stabilizer jacks, spare tire and storage compartment. After about an hour of this we unhooked, heaved and hoed for a couple more hours lifting the tongue and dragging the stuck trailer 180 degrees by hand in a space not meant for a trailer much less turning one around. Thereafter I stumbled to the bottom of the trail exhausted and now 3am. From there I backed up my 4Runner all the way up the trail. We hooked up the stricken TM and I proceeded down the trail as gingerly as possible and back to camp the "easy" way.

We all fell to bed and slept soundly. In the frenzy of rescue, few pictures were taken but I will share the ones I have including inside shot of me towing it down the easy part of the trail. Adam's first trailer adventure was not his last. He had a few more. My good friend is gone now but not forgotten. That day he already suffered the early stages of ALS; taken away from us in his 40s. His TM lives on. My niece bought it from him when he was wheelchair bound. He had the best sense of humor. Even from a wheelchair he would joke with random kids in the grocery store "The parachute didn't open!"