When I bought my first ATV in 1993, I purchased a 5×12 single-axle trailer with 12-inch side rails. I learned not to ride alone and I didn’t do that the hard way. It had enough room for my two ’93 King Quad 300s.

The first two

I was on the way home from Jackson Hole pulling the trailer with my two King Quads. Going south through Huntsville, a curve turns west toward Ogden. Coming up to that curve, I noticed a massive boat on my left – it was huge. Turning back to the road, I realized that the truck in front of me had stopped on the road.

“No,” I yelled and cranked the wheel to the right. I rode down into a ravine and up onto a driveway, skidding to a stop. When I got out to survey the damage, there wasn’t any. One ATV was sitting on the trailer, and the other was behind the trailer ready to load, but the tie-downs for both machines were broken.

Photo supplied

The truck driver was running toward me to see if I was OK. “All I could see,” he said, “was ATVs flying.” The ATVs had been launched when the tie-downs broke. I don’t know how high they flew, but they landed with the rubber side down with no damage. I reloaded the ATVs and carefully drove home.

The second two

I am not a mechanical engineer, but my neighbor is. I convinced him to help me with a “brilliant” plan to fit the 5-foot-wide trailer to haul three ATVs. By securing three sets of 2x10ss crosswise in the bed, I could load three ATVs sideways. Driving up the ramp and over one side rail, I could rest the front wheels against the opposite side rail. The back wheels rested on top of the other rail. Recipe for disaster, right?

Once the machines were loaded and tied down, things went well – for a while. Then after a fun ride out of Mayfield on the Arapeen Trail System, I loaded up for the trip home. In my semimechanical mind, I figured that with the weight of gravity on the front ends of the ATVs, I only needed to tie down the back ends. Wait, it gets better.

On the way out of Mayfield, I encountered an S curve. At 30 mph, a rhythm was created – swing to the left, swing to the right and then one more swing coming out of the curve. I happened to glance in my side mirror and to my horror, I was dragging my two King Quads on the ground. The only damage was a bent shift lever – a cheap fix.

Number five

When I replaced one of the King Quads, I noticed that the new machine was a little larger, meaning that two ATVs didn’t fit so well on the trailer. Trying to make it fit led to losing number five. On a short haul through my subdivision, a glance at my side mirror revealed something amiss. Stopping to check, I found that the front wheels of the back machine were on the trailer, but the back wheels were not. It was time to get a new trailer.

Number six

Two trailers later, I was unloading machines after a trip. The ramp measured 6 feet wide and stowed under the bed. It had to be moved to either side to safely back off the trailer. I forgot to slide the ramp over before unloading the last machine. I backed off without a ramp and lived to tell the story.

Number seven

My grandson offered his trailer for a trip to Vernal because it was lighter and I was only taking my RZR. The drop-down ramp had to be removed so it would fit, which was the first sign of trouble. That meant I had to find raised places to aid loading because I didn’t have a ramp. His tie-downs secured the front wheels. I forgot to shift to “PARK” and the straps in front weren’t properly secured. I pulled away and left the RZR on the street. Nothing was damaged, except my pride.

When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down and don’t learn the hard way.

Contact Lynn R. Blamires at quadmanone@gmail.com.