....the above picture was taken about 5 miles from lake Guerrero in Mexico where the motorhome again decided to quit running for about 30 minutes...back in mid 80's my fishing buddy and i decided to take our sons both age 16 along with us on a fishing trip to Guerrerro.....

we came up with what seemed like a great plan.... borrow another buddy's motorhome and a double bass boat trailer from yet another buddy...seemed like a great and economical idea at the time....the fishing and time spent with our sons on this trip was great....everything else went to hell in a handbasket....

we leave Columbus,Georgia planning to meet my brother and several of his friends next day in Houston,Texas....about 4 hours from home going down I-65,the motorhome sputters couple times and just quits running...we coast to side of road...check everything we know to check...30 minutes later it cranks back up and away we go...3-4 hours later,it does same thing...we check everything again,30-45 minutes later,it cranks up and off we go...it did this all the way to Houston where we are joined by my brother and several amateur mechanics, none of whom can figure out why this thing is doing this....we leave Houston with the agreement that if it does it again, for them to just go on and we will get there when we can...it did,they did and we got there several hours behind them.....

at end of the week,we leave Mexico and for some odd reason the motorhome ran fine until we got to outskirts of Houston...then boom....the engine blew....boys had to get back to school and we had to get back to work so we borrowed my brothers van,put our stuff in it and hooked boat trailer to it and made it back to Columbus,Ga...had motorhome towed to repair shop and the engine replaced..

Go back couple weeks later to return my brothers van and bring motorhome back...this time we had the motorhome's owner with us....we load up,head back to Georgia and 3 hours down the road,it quits again...and it did it all way back to Columbus with owner swearing he was gonna find out what was causing it if he had to have a mechanic take it apart piece by piece...and he almost had to before they found the culprit.....a faulty muffler with an inside baffle that would heat up and collapse causing the engine to overheat...and....a faulty engine overheating light...(this was one of those models that didn't have a temp gauge) the engine never showed any signs of being hot like radiator boiling or steaming.....

I don't remember what that trip finally cost us but it was one helluva lot more than it would have been just to take two cars....

p.s. back in the 70's there used to be quite a few of the double bass boat trailers around...I don't know if everybody had same problems as we did or that motor home was too small to handle the weight or what but it was nightmare to drive with that trailer behind it....every time a truck would pass you or a puff of wind would start it fish tailing and you had to fight to keep it under control....and it got worse once we got inside Mexico...the highways back then were terrible,potholes you had to dodge,road wasn't level and some areas had no shoulder at at all with a 1-3 ft drop off edge of asphalt...


this trailer belonged to Tom and Don Mann.(Mann's bait company Eufaula,Al.)....my buddy knew Don and knew that the trailer had been sitting out behind their plant unused for several years...he talked to Don and he said they didn't use it anymore and we were welcome to use it but it needed some repairs...when we went to pick it up,Don was there and we visted a little while with him...he said they quit using it for several reasons.....he said primarily they had problems with tow vehicles....back then not many people drove pickups and you didn't have engine options in pick ups for towing that you do now nor cars either...this also was a period where Detroit was downsizing engines ..Don said the best tow vehicle they had ever used was a Ford thunderbird with a 460 engine...he said last car,a Buick with biggest engine they could get, really struggled in mountains..he also said when practicing,they couldn't put in at different ramps it was a hassle to both meet back at ramp at same time(this was before cellphones) and it was a hassle with both of them fishing same tourny and in different flights....
we spent a lot of time fixing wires,sanding and painting the trailer plus new tires..we took it back after our trip and it sat in their lot for several years unused....
Don wasn't as well known as Tom but he was a really nice guy and some people said he was as good a fisherman as Tom but just never won a big tourny...tragically,Don commited suicide year or so after we talked to him...people who knew him well said he was type of person to either be real happy or really depressed....

Good story. Tom Mann was a great guy. I remember Don but never met him. Nelda Mann, Tom's daughter was a couple of years older than me. Went over to Fish World with my 3 year old nephew once and Tom gave him a guided tour of the aquarium and gave him about 5 pounds of worms. Long time ago.

Great story. That sounds similar to some of my early RV travels LOL. If you enjoy the journey get an RV if you just want to get to a destination get on a plane.

how do you launch the top boat?

launch bottom boat first then pull up the ramp and lower the top boat down then.back into the water and launch the boat......it had an electric motor that didn't work for us but the hand crank wasn't hard to raise the boat up or down....

I really enjoyed this story!

What kind of boats were those. Sharp looking little rigs.

top boat was an Allisoncraft and bottom boat was astroglass.....

That’s one helluva trip there

I remember those trailers. Pretty neat but could be a pain.