Does it come with the 5th wheel mount for the truck bed?
Remember how I said it did not? {*starts nervous laughter, builds to hysterics*}
Okay.
The seller kindly offered to tow it 40 miles to where I live. He just didn't get off work until two hours after me. I think, "Great! I'll use that time to hit the DMV for plates." Hah! I'm sure I'm the last one
here to find out, but the majority of us in line had no idea we were supposed to have made an
appointment ahead of time.
Okay, I think,
well I'll spend a bit longer at the DMV. No biggie.
Finally get to the front of the line, obtain a number, number gets called...and DMV lady informs me that the wrong part of the title got signed. *sigh* But hey, DMV lady says I can get the seller to hand write a bill of sale, send me a picture, and we can move forward. Except getting ahold of the seller took too long and I had to leave. Now, DMV lady says the window for accepting the photo-bill-of-sale has closed and I must have the appropriate signatures. Fine.
Drive to rendezvous spot to meet the driver towing the rig. Text him to let him know I'm there. He had trouble with the truck he was using, and is switching to a different truck, so he hasn't left Salt Lake. Mean time, I finally realize that, although I have technically reserved a storage spot with U-Haul, I have yet to obtain means of access or codes or anything from the actual affiliate. And it's 5:00. I call the storage unit and the manager does pick up; I plead for him to still let me drive the 15 minutes from where I am to where he is and still set up the spot; he kindly gives me a cell number to call when I arrive and off I go. Not an ideal spot, and not level, but I can put the camper there, now. Bleed some cabbage for a deposit.
Rush back to the rendezvous spot. No seller. Trouble with the second truck. He thinks I may need to get it professionally towed. I decide I will drive 40 miles to Salt Lake to figure something out, like maybe I can rent something from U-Haul that can tow a gooseneck, because I don't have the hitch on my RBV. U-Haul is a bust (they wanted me to use a flatbed...). I arrive where the second truck broke down, and it's running, and the seller thinks it can make it to where the trailer's headed after all. Great! I fork over some gas money and we hop on the freeway. Somewhere between 6 and 9 miles down the Interstate, the truck pulling the trailer spews its full supply of transmission fluid all over the pavement (we did manage to get everybody to the side of the road).
It's probably 8:00 by now, and the tow vehicle is officially dead. Seller calls home for his regular truck to come tow the dead truck back, and I start calling professional tow companies...none of whom want to pull a gooseneck style fifth wheel. However! Yay! Found a guy! He'll charge me five bills because he has to get the special truck, but I still have hope I might get home with light left in the sky. We start disconnecting trailer from dead-truck. But! Tow driver arrives. He looks at the hitch. He pulls me aside and says, "I ain't pulling that." Evidently, all fifth wheel hitches are and always have been the same, and this one is not, and he'll try and find someone willing to give it a try.
Meanwhile! (Yes, it
KEEPS GOING!!) Drivers passing by have been buzzing in the ears of the Utah Highway Patrol about all these vehicles on the side of the road, and Incident Management has arrived to see what's what. By this time, I have lost track of how many people I have explained the situation to,
all of whom have been unable to grasp "I want the trailer, not the truck" in fewer than three tellings, in an environment louder than an AC/DC concert. Incident Management determines that we
really need to get these vehicles off the highway, but they're not willing to tow the trailer either. They will, however, tow the dead truck and let
it tow the trailer. Yay! Off the freeway, and now we're on the phone with yet another tow company, explaining at least three times what gives, when suddenly, tow guy says he too can tow the truck with the trailer (tomorrow).
And the seller says, "It's just going to be scrap. There's no point trying to resurrect it; it's not worth it." And somewhere in all this, since the rig is parked behind a Maverick store, I suggest I can go inside and talk to the store personnel about not panicking about the mysterious truck/trailer behind the store. We have largely decided, by now, to exchange dead truck for three bills (bleed more cabbage). And who is parked in front of the store? Why it's a tow truck. And just for the hell of it I mention our plight to the driver's partner. And this guy is willing to pull the whole rig right away (about 10:15).
From there things went acceptably well. I got home a little after midnight, and I have the truck with the hitch that matches the gooseneck on the trailer that no other hitch in the world apparently matches.
TL;DR: Today sucked. I bought a dead Chevy 1500. Getting my trailer delivered nearly doubled what I've paid for it (delivery cost just $100 less than purchasing it in the first place).
My next shift at work starts in five hours.