I answered an ad in a local free paper the other day, the ad said 15' aluminum boat, motor, trailer, runs, trailer needs work, $50.
The guy that answered said he wasn't far away and rather than have some stranger show up at his place, he'd bring it by for me to see.
The guy shows up about 20 minutes later, driving the rattiest looking old Ford truck you've ever seen with a pair of steer horns on bumper. The boat was decent, and to my surprise, he had a title for it, the trailer was another issue. Both tires were flat, both covered in sticky goo from what I suppose was several cans of fix a flat, the tongue was shoved over the drawbar, held in place with a bolt dropped through a drilled hole in the trailer tongue. The trailer was badly rusted, so much so that the tongue was breaking apart and most likely wasn't going any further.
The outboard was an old Chrysler 15hp that later seriously surprised me when it fired right up. The guy was dead set on $50, (I tried for $40 but that wasn't going to happen). After a good look at the trailer, I made the comment that I'd take the boat if he took the trailer away. He jumped at that idea and him, his wife?, and me carried the boat into my back yard. He signed the title and handed to me while his wife proceeded to fold the trailer up onto the wooden bed of the truck, still attached to the hitch. The truck had no tail lights, no tags, and was missing several windows. I didn't ask where he lived, I really didn't want to know, the info on the title said he's from about 70 miles from here.
All I kept thinking of was the Beverly hillbillies old truck and he dressed like them as well.
People around here think I'm a redneck, they should have seen this guy.
The part that got me the most was that there was no way for that trailer to move on the hitch, the thing was at least a foot over the drawbar. The trailer must have been sliding around on turns or bending an awful lot.
I was just glad not to have to cut it up to get rid of it. It was too rusty to bother trying to scrap.
The boat looked great after I pressure washed off all the pine needles and tree sap, and tossed the the ten year old bucket of dried up bait.
The guy that answered said he wasn't far away and rather than have some stranger show up at his place, he'd bring it by for me to see.
The guy shows up about 20 minutes later, driving the rattiest looking old Ford truck you've ever seen with a pair of steer horns on bumper. The boat was decent, and to my surprise, he had a title for it, the trailer was another issue. Both tires were flat, both covered in sticky goo from what I suppose was several cans of fix a flat, the tongue was shoved over the drawbar, held in place with a bolt dropped through a drilled hole in the trailer tongue. The trailer was badly rusted, so much so that the tongue was breaking apart and most likely wasn't going any further.
The outboard was an old Chrysler 15hp that later seriously surprised me when it fired right up. The guy was dead set on $50, (I tried for $40 but that wasn't going to happen). After a good look at the trailer, I made the comment that I'd take the boat if he took the trailer away. He jumped at that idea and him, his wife?, and me carried the boat into my back yard. He signed the title and handed to me while his wife proceeded to fold the trailer up onto the wooden bed of the truck, still attached to the hitch. The truck had no tail lights, no tags, and was missing several windows. I didn't ask where he lived, I really didn't want to know, the info on the title said he's from about 70 miles from here.
All I kept thinking of was the Beverly hillbillies old truck and he dressed like them as well.
People around here think I'm a redneck, they should have seen this guy.
The part that got me the most was that there was no way for that trailer to move on the hitch, the thing was at least a foot over the drawbar. The trailer must have been sliding around on turns or bending an awful lot.
I was just glad not to have to cut it up to get rid of it. It was too rusty to bother trying to scrap.
The boat looked great after I pressure washed off all the pine needles and tree sap, and tossed the the ten year old bucket of dried up bait.
