The longest yards or Backing Miss Boler.

Arriving at home, the last step in my trip was to park the new baby in the garage. Our road can be a little busy at the best of times but it was a Friday afternoon and in general the traffic was light. However, I had forgotten about the telephone pole on one side of the drive and the street sign on the other flank. Carefully waiting until the street was clear, I pulled across the road in an attempt to line up the Boler for a straight run back. No luck and of course the road suddenly filled with angry traffic so back around the block for another go.  After another couple of attempts were thwarted by traffic I thought "Screw it" and parked the trailer on the road by the drive, planning on further attempts later, perhaps at night when there was no traffic. I still had plates to get so I cranked down the front support, unhitched the trailer and moved the car.

Now a brainwave or an attack of the stupids took place and I lifted the tongue of the trailer. Yes - I lifted the front of the trailer by hand. Did it hurt? Yes - but it didn't kill me and I was able to get the Boler into the drive. After tea and muscle recuperation time. I tackled the next step - getting the Boler into the garage to be able work on it and so we could park the car in the drive.

My garage door is 83" high and the Boler is - you guessed it 85" high over the roof vents. There are those who say studying history is a waste of time. I disagree. Tucked away in the back of my brain was a historical factoid that aircraft manufacturers in WWII England were faced with the same problem when moving bomber airframes from one factory to another for completion. The road between the factories had a bridge just too low for the frames to pass under. The solution - let the air out of the tires of the trailer. So - all that air I had just put in manually came out with a whoosh and in the Boler slid. I will have to make up some shop wheels on old rims for future use.

The last step was to get the official plates. All I wish to say on this is that

1. the VIN for the Boler apparently belonged to a home-built trailer registered to a dead man.
2. some ministry of transport employees are very, very helpful indeed.