Paying attention to God..............

[Kevind62]

I know there are some that will say pure coincidence. Yesterday I was going up on the Alabama river to try a spot I've been wanting to for several years now. Finally made it a point and made plans. It's a 2:45 minute drive from my house. Got the boat loaded and truck fueled up the night before (OUCH!!!!!........sorry.....back to point.) Hooked up the truck and went to bed. Got up at 4:30 am. Quick shower to wake me up. Two cups of coffee while checking the river stage and market forecast for the day. Opened the gate, jumped in the truck and off I go. This is where it starts. Before even getting out to the backyard my right trailer light hung on the gate unbeknownst to me (mine are mounted on poles for numerous reasons and won't go in to detail on them. See photo below.). I was looking in the review and thought I could see it but must have saw something else reflecting in my mirror. I heard the pop when it came off the gate and saw it leaning way back and out a bit in the rearview mirror. Disgusted, I get out. It's bent pretty bad. It's an aluminum pole mount welded to the trailer frame. I try to carefully bend it back up somewhat and voila, it snaps off completely. My light wires are inside of the pole so now I have to cut the wires. Fortunately (or so I'm thinking at this time) there are holes drilled in the trailer where I had the lights mounted originally below the boat on the frame. I cut the wires, pull them out of the pole and remove the light from the pole. All the while I'm looking at the right side of the trailer (this is important to don't forget this part.) right where my right tire is. I grab a stool out of the garage, my electrical pliers, a couple of crimp connectors and a zip tie. I sit down (again, right side of trailer with my leg literally bumping the right tire) and proceed to wrap the excess wire around the frame starting from the back end of the leaf spring to the rear of the trailer at the light (don't want to cut the excess off and have another splice to make once I get it fixed correctly when I get back home). Mount the light, secure excess wire with zip tie, and check all of the functions. All good. Put all my tools up and off I go.....again........, 30 minutes behind schedule by now. I had fixed a cup of coffee to-go and am rolling down the road enjoying my coffee and talking to myself (in my mind........not out loud..........) and visualizing where I'm going to start and what rigs I'm going to try first. 10 miles from the house it dawns on me.........I forgot my fish finder. Now I'm really aggravated. At this point I'm ready to just cancel the trip since I have to go all the way back to the house to get it. Can't really fish the area I'm going to without one and I need the GPS since I'll be in unfamiliar waters with lots of forks and side creeks. Don't want to limit myself on just how far back I can go without trying to remember how to get back. And I need the sonar to locate structures to fish. Fortunately, I'm coming up on an exit I can get off on and head back to the house without having to actually backtrack on the interstate. Not only that, my loving, beautiful wife (who just worships the ground I walk on. Bless her heart.) is still at home and should be up getting ready for work by now. I give her a quick call to see if she can grab it and meet me halfway to save some time. As luck would have it, she's still asleep so I tell her I'll just come home and try to go another day, but being the devoted, dedicated, loving wife she is, she offers to get up and bring it to me. Man, I'm a lucky guy. Fish finder delivered. Off I go...........again. Now.........finally on the interstate...........again............and I notice my trailer seems to be swaying somewhat. I've never noticed it doing this before. It's a little breezy, so I brush it off. The sway is still in the back of my mind and I'm watching my boat in the review he whole trip making sure everything is ok. I can see my tires in the side view mirrors and all looks well. Get to the launch and get my boat in the water fine. Off to the fish. Fished for about 3 hours without a bite. Creek wasn't what I expected. Really steep bluff banks and water depth 5' from the bank is anywhere from 12' to 18' deep. Lots of structures but no fish on them or on my meter. Found some sloughs but even those were deep at the banks. Looks like a nice place to bass fish or catfish, but nowhere good for crappie to come in and spawn. Only folks I saw fishing were guys running limb lines for catfish and a few bass fisherman. Nobody crappie fishing, and probably for good reason. Anyway, I came, I saw, I'm done. Figured since I had a long haul home I'd just cut out early. Back to the launch, load the boat on the trailer and home I go.

(Now, remember the earlier incidents at home. Bent light pole. Right side of trailer. Bent light pole is now broken light pole. Right side of trailer. Looking down at right side of trailer whole time. Sitting down with right side of trailer pretty much in my lap next to tire and leaf spring. Remember boat swaying on the road (this happened both on the way up and back the whole time on the road)? I get home, back the boat up in the yard and park it in it's spot next to my shop. Disconnect it from the truck and start thinking of my plan to get the light pole fixed the next day. That's when I notice it. I notice the leaf spring slide on this side isn't flat against the trailer. It's pointing down. I'm thinking, "hmmmm, this doesn't look normal." I look at the spring and it's kind-a-sort-a bending in the wrong direction. It's a 3 leaf single bolt, sliding leaf spring. One problem.......there's only one leaf on the rear side of the center bolt that holds all the leafs together. Which would explain the constant swaying. I see grease spatter on the rim also, since the axle is now out of alignment and putting stress on this spindle getting it hot. Fortunately, I'm a firm believer in "you can never have too much grease". After taking the spring off to change it (replaced both by the way) I notice the remaining leaf is cracked. It's extremely fortunate that all of the roads I was traveling were in good condition. One good divot or pothole and I'd be in the market for a new boat.........or worse. If the spring would have broken going down interstate at 70 mph it would have gotten real ugly real fast.

The next time God is trying to tell me something, I'm going to make a point to listen, and not tell Him to "leave me alone, I'm going fishing." Lesson learned. Don't be so focused on your goal that you overlook the little, important things.

Leaf spring.



This is the light pole before it was broken. Notice the close proximity to the tire and leaf spring.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

He knows best in all situations. He was surely watching over you

[Kevind62]

Oh, and the springs are 22 years old. I'd say I got my money's worth out of them.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

I would say so!

[DockShootinJack]

I much like you continue to push on. Sometimes I do not see the signs given to me until the whole picture is painted. Hind sight being 20/20 and all

[Kevind62]

I much like you continue to push on. Sometimes I do not see the signs given to me until the whole picture is painted. Hind sight being 20/20 and all

Normally, after a second issue I would have just turned around and came home and stayed thinking something is not right and God is trying to tell me something. Done it numerous times before and actually realized it was for good reason. Had the wife not "volunteered" to meet me I would not have went and would have discovered why immediately, since as soon as I got home I would have started looking in to repairing the light mount to be ready for the next trip. At that point I would have had less tunnel vision and likely noticed the underlying issue as I did when I got home from my trip.

Heading to my friend's shop to have the light mount welded back on. Old weld cleaned off the plate and the pole is ground back down and cleaned up ready to be welded. New hole drilled for the wires, and chaser wire run through to pull the light wiring through after the weld. New springs installed and everything well greased. Tires look like I'll give them another month. Tread looks ok, but they're getting old. Utility trailer ply tires aren't like steel belted radials. They don't usually last until the start to go bald somewhat. I've had the cap blow off of one once. Still had some tread and I wasn't really going far. Heading down interstate and just happened to be looking in the side view mirror when I saw white smoke coming from my trailer on the driver's side. The I heard the pop when it blew. Fortunately it didn't hurt the rim. The cap blew off completely and I was riding on the sidewalls at 65 mph. The sidewalls flared outward protecting the rim. Made it to the shoulder and put the spare on. Went to the store and grabbed two new tires and had them mounted. Lots of times the plies will separate with age and wear and cause friction between the rubber layers. This is where the smoke was coming from. Melting rubber. These aren't quite to that point but they're close enough.

[DockShootinJack]

Good tires are a good thing to have. Been redoing the lights and wiring on my trailer. Led lights, soldered splices, covered with heat shrink and a abrasion resistant tubing over that. Hopefully very few problems with lights going forward

[osok]

He often speaks in mysterious ways that I sometime find hard to understand. Hard for me to slow down and listen.

[Kevind62]

Back in business.

[DockShootinJack]

Not much a good welder can't fix