Getting the car into the garage

 

Here's where she landed.

Once I had the car at the apartment complex, all I had to do was get it off the trailer and into the garage.  Simple task, right?

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I had prepared for this moment by purchasing a 2-ton cable puller. I figured that would be enough for a 3500 pound vehicle.  I knew the car had flat tires; I had gotten that information from the seller before I left for Tennessee, but this car refused to roll at all.




Here's where she spent the night (same place).

 

After several futile attempts to pull the car off the trailer with the cable puller, I decided to use a heavy-duty chain and pull it off the trailer using our Ford Sport Trac.  Even in 4-wheel drive, it took everything that truck had to pull the car off the trailer.  The process of the car coming off the trailer produced noises that had the same effect as fingernails on a chalkboard, but it did finally come off.  However, given my space limitations in the apartment complex, and the angle that I had to pull, the car came to rest on the pavement on the wrong side of the red stripe which marked the fire lane.  It was getting dark, and the reality was setting in that the car was going to stay in that spot overnight.

I quickly got online and found some wheel dollies that I could place under each wheel and roll the car around. However, it was Sunday evening and most stores were closed.  At this point I knew I would be taking a personal day from work on Monday.  I had to get that car out of the fire lane before the city fined me, nevermind what the apartment management would say.

With the wheel dollies

Monday morning I was at the store when they opened. I grabbed two pair of wheel dollies and rushed back to the apartment.  After assembling the four wheel dollies and placing one under each wheel, I was ready to push the car into the garage.  Uh-uh. That car had other ideas. 

Now, it wasn't much of an incline into the garage, but it was most definitely there.  Funny, I had never noticed it before.  The only way this car was getting into the garage was by cranking the cable puller one...inch...at...a...time.



Finally in the garage

 The one inch concrete lip that was at the entrance of the garage gave me a whole new challenge with the casters on each of the four dollies, but by around 2:00pm the car was finally in the garage! 

Through all of this, one thought kept going through my mind.  It wasn't the possibility of being fined by the city.  It wasn't what the neighbors or the apt. management might do.  The one thought that kept returning to me throughout the day was this:   I'm just glad Julie wasn't there to watch me.