leo603•1d ago

The 45 minutes I spent chasing one bolt on a car hauler in Amarillo

Last month I picked up a 2006 Mustang in Amarillo and loaded it onto my two-car hauler for a run down to Dallas. Straps were tight, ramps were up, everything looked fine until I hit the on ramp and heard this clank from the trailer deck. Pulled over at a Love's about 3 miles in and found one of the deck bolts had backed out, the one bolt that holds the rear ramp hinge section. No big deal, right? I figured 20 minutes, snug it down, back on the road. It took me 45 minutes because the nut had fallen into the frame channel and I had to fish it out with a bent coat hanger while trucks blew past me at 70. Then the bolt itself was too short once I added a washer, so I had to dig through my truck box for a longer one, and of course the only match was buried under a winter jacket and two empty coffee cups. By the time I got it back in and torqued down, I had burned almost an hour and the guy waiting on the Dallas end was texting me every 10 minutes asking where I was. Wound up delivering at 9:30 that night instead of 7, but hey, at least the ramp didn't drop on I-35. Anybody else had a tiny hardware gremlin eat half your day on a run?