It's About Time

I thought spring weather would never arrive. I will be starting a landowner on his planting project tomorrow. Lightweight tree planters like this one come from the manufacturer with a bumper hitch for moving on the road. I used the supplied hitches for moving planters until I received practical education. These implements have no springs on the axle, which is fine when they are working in the field, but on the highway the tires are doing a dance as you roll along. So long as the bumps in the road are fairly equal the planter rolls along OK. One day I was moving a planter in an absolute downpour, on a blacktop road full of chuckholes. I was going no more than twenty miles per hour because of the poor visibility, when I hit a deep chuckhole. I looked in the mirror and watched the planter do a rollover after it hit the same hole. It ripped right off the hitch ball. The safety chains kept it attached to the truck, and I was able to re-hitch the wreckage and clear the road.

Ever since that little lesson, I have used a trailer. You have a wider footprint on the road, you have lights on the back of the load for moving in the dark, and you have those all important springs. It is easy to load with a come-along as pictured above, or with an electric winch which I have in the back of the truck.