The first order of business in
recovering the Lada was to arrange a tow-dolly from U-Haul. This proved to be a
bit of a challenge, because using their online booking system had no listing
for a Lada, of any sort. Being an American based business this comes as no real
surprise, so I tried the telephone booking, keeping a backup plan in mind.
That too was an interesting
exchange:
I placed my reservation with
U-haul's US based booking center and was kindly asked, "Now sir, what
exactly is a Lada Miva?" After some explanation, we settled on booking it
in as a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick... LOL. I think he was mildly suspicious once I
said built by Russians before the wall fell...
After that we were all set for
our pickup, bright and early on Saturday morning.
November 10th arrived,
clear, sunny and cold, but the roads were an absolute mess, densely packed ice
had rendered the streets a skating rink, indeed a fine time to pull a trailer!
Most importantly, it would make a fine adventure!
The pickup at the 50th
Street, Edmonton U-Haul spot went without issue, and we were soon underway in
the 2003 SVT Lightning to recover our prized “1993 Suzuki Sidekick” ahem, Lada Niva Cossack. We made
our way to Leduc without issue, making out much better than the plethora of
ditched vehicles passed on the trip.
The Lada was nestled between an 8
foot high fence and a garage that faced out to the single lane alleyway. Shawn
and I figured the best bet would be to try and gently drive the Niva out of
that spot and onto the tow dolly, assuming we could make it run of course. We
set to work quickly, slaving the dead Lada battery to the Lightning’s potent
charging system while cranking up the 1.6L Fiat designed engine. After a few
attempts with no real success we decided to stop messing around and made a
quick trip to the nearby Canadian Tire for some parts and a fresh battery.
Better prepared, we returned with
a battery, new fuel filters, a can of ether, and 10 Liters of gasoline. The
engine really wanted to run with the new parts and a squirt or two of ether,
but we weren’t getting fuel flow up to the carburetor. Since we were on a
deadline to return the dolly, I simply backed the dolly in front of the Lada,
Shawn popped it into Low Range and used the absence of a neutral safety switch
to “drive” on to the dolly using the starter and new battery.
The little Niva was strapped down
and ready in minutes, and with the Center Differential in Neutral we were able
to tow without having the front wheels spin. A quick tug test and inspection at
the nearby CO-OP gas bar and we were underway back north.
While travelling up Highway 2 a
fellow in a Toyota 4x4 made a special point of lingering next to us as we
rolled along, and then pulled ahead to wave and give us a hearty “thumbs-up”.
It seems we weren’t the only Lada enthusiasts on the road that day.
Despite the awful roads and
delays due to wrecks, we safely delivered the Lada to Grand Touring Concepts
and returned the dolly to U-Haul without incident. Next up it was time to
assess what we had, and what needed to be repaired.
