Some of you guys go to a lot of effort! This guy Chris is the closest but why the blocks? I always use two short 2" pieces of pipe ONLY. Jack up the front of the car, back the trailer under til it touches, roll the pipes down the trailer til they touch the frame, then winch or come along. Quick, easy, simple One jack, two pipes
My friends and I have dug many old VW's out of the ground and that's how we do it. My 2 cents: If the car has sunk into the ground, drive "shanks" (2x4's / 2x6's cut into a long wedge shape) under the frame with a sledge to raise the car enough to get a jack and / or blocks underneath. Guy that worked for a house mover showed us that trick.
two cases of cheap beer and four to six undo***ented aliens. once the body is loaded, give them one case of beer and take off for home with the other one.
check my avatar for the easy way to load. unloading at home is defintely tougher without the mechanical ***istance. Just a thought- has anyone tried a couple of pallet jacks (on a lighter vehicle)?? With dirt you would still need to lay down some plywood.
I am not usually one to take the easy way out but does anyone know if towing companies will come haul vehicles without wheels. I ***ume that they have capabilities to use dollies or something to roll the vehicle on their tilt bed trucks. Anyone have any experience with this?
My experience has always been a towing co. coming for a nonrolling car, is a rollback and a winch to just drag it up onto the deck. Getting it back off can be the hard part....as they tilt the deck up, and give a jerk forward and watch the car slide off into the ground.
Give ya a little secrete. Do you have AAA? Go to where the car is. Call them, tell them that your car is stuck in the mud and you need a rollback to get out of the mud but you don't need a tow. They will send a rollback. Have him pick it up leaving as much of the car hanging off the roll back as possible. back the trailer up under roll back, have him set the car on the deck of trailer. Chain it in place, have him drive away slowly. using comealong pull the car the rest of the way onto trailer. Make sure to give him a tip for his troubles. I have done this on 3 or 4 occasions in the past 5 years. Can't even begin to tell you how many times I called AAA to tow one of my cars or buddies cars to the body shop for paint or to the alignment shop.
If it's on gravel you could probably use a couple of those big tire, flatbed, 4 wheel wagons like this. However, if you can back the trailer up to the front or back of the car you have it made anyway. As others have suggested, a sheet of 3/4" plywood and a come along should pull it right up the ramps and onto the trailer. Also like others, I have used round fence posts as rollers when needed. The posts are good for moving stuff across the ground too, especially if you have a lawn tractor handy. The 2" pipe is great for rolling heave stuff on flat surfaces or once you have it in the trailer. Good luck. Oh, I agree with jrblack30, AAA is great for getting cars moved around to where you need but, I don't know if I'd trust the roll back driver to pick up a car sitting on it's frame without damaging it.
Forgive the "late model" talk, but I used to buy a lot of 60's and 70's Mopar parts cars, and some were just unibodies that had been completely parted out and had ZERO suspension front or rear. I agree with the previous poster that suggested lifting whatever end that you want to load first as high as possible (be CAREFUL though, and use tires on rims as jackstands, and DON'T use cinder blocks, they crumble into powder REALLY easily) Get the trailer under that end as far as you can. Let the car down onto the trailer (with blocks of 2x4 under the frame) onto the part of the trailer where the tires would normally roll. I was desperate once when picking up a car with 4 flat tires AND frozen drum brakes and used the gallon bottle of antifreeze that I carried around under the hood of the truck to lubricate the tires and the ramps of the trailer to winch her up, and it worked great! (And I was using an "arm powered" come along!) It was almost as easy as if it DID roll! Once the antifreeze dries up, the car stays put (strapped down really well, of course!).
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