I spent a couple of hours in Pocatello, ID this morning trying to drive the front axle of the Chevy pickup truck onto my upper deck. I have a 26" drop so it wasn't easy. I was at a CAT dealer so they had all kind of dunnage but you need a LOT of dunnage to build a bridge to a 26" high upper deck. When the ramp was done it took me a couple of attempts to do it right: the truck drove on great when I switched on its 4x4 drive in the lowest possible gear. I love this Chevy! With a crew cab it is quite long: 20 ft from bumper to bumper and 16 ft from the front bumper to the rear axle.
Once that was done, I had to put all the dunnage back into the CAT's yard and started working on my Pickup #2. It was an old Ford F-650 service truck - one of those that do service calls and can fix all kind of mechanical problems. This one was 24 ft long from bumper to bumper but only 16 ft from the front bumper to the rear axle.
So, I moved the Chevy all the way to the front - till its lower frame almost touched the deck - and then used the CAT's ramps to load the Ford. The yard was all crowded with heavy equipment so I had to load the truck from the side of the ramp. Which didn't leave much room for maneuvering. The dock was too high too, so I had to use some heavy metal plates as ramps from the dock to the rear of my trailer.
When everything was done, I was so tired I couldn't throw the 10 ft long steel plate off my trailer: it just didn't want to go in the right direction. It weighed probably 150-200 lbs and was about an inch thick. I managed to get rid of it by moving the truck a couple of feet ahead and when the freaking plate was ready to fall and crack all my trailer lights
I stopped, ran back and threw it on the ground.
I put 4 chains on the Ford and 4 were on the Chevy and I had to be extremely careful not to damage the oil and brake lines on the rear axles of these vehicles with my chains. It happened to me once when I worked as tow truck driver, so I still remember the lesson: don't mess with brake lines that go around the rear axle
Anyway, all chains were finally in position after 4 hours at the CAT. I then had a quick brunch and headed east on 86 and then north on 15 towards Montana. My destination is a mine in Kapuskasing, ON some 1800 miles away.
The weather was sunny and above freezing so I decided to follow my TRUCKING (!) GPS advice and take 20 east and then 191 north into Montana. This mistake cost me 3 hours and lots of nerves as I cruised on snow and ice covered roads inside the Yellowstone National park at 30 (!) miles per hour. It took forever. I couldn't believe there was so much snow everywhere up in the hills. AND there was no salt on the road. I did see a few snowplows but the condition of the highway was awful.
Anyway, I left the CAT in Pocatello at 1 pm local time and I hit I-90 in Boseman only around 7. I only stopped once for 15 minutes to grab some coffee in West Yellowstone MT, at the junction of 20, 287 and 191. All the rest of the time I was busy watching for ice and snow on the road and trying to avoid getting in a ditch.
I shut down at a small truck stop in Levingston, MT. Life should be a bit easier tomorrow as I will be driving on interstates only