Major Disaster & Burn Ending Event Narrowly Averted......

[Meat Hunter]

Early Saturday afternoon, I was taking my car/trailer over to my trailer man (Brian) to have him do a final check to see if the brake console was properly adjusted for the now loaded trailer.

As I was driving down the interstate at 60 mph I went over a multiple camel hump in the pavement and the trailer tongue lifted off the ball on the car and fell to the pavement. I managed to pull over without killing myself and destroying the trailer. The tongue came to rest on the crossed safety chains and the dragging and road friction had worn completely through one chain and only a paper thin strip remained on the other chain.

What really saved the trailer from flying away to total destruction was the little friction sway control device which was connected to both the car and the trailer that I added as an afterthought to help control minor trailer sway. It kept the trailer connected to the car. Without it, the tongue of the trailer would have surely caught on the pavement and I have no idea where or in what configuration the trailer would have landed. No matter what, it would not have been a pretty site and someone else would have had to fill in as the Captain of the Know-It-All at the airport this year. Although this is not what the friction anti-sway device is designed to do, however (in this case) an unintended mechanical part saved the day.

Damage? Minor. With that multiple stage after market tongue jack that I found at Tractor Supply, I was able to lift the tongue off the ground in stages, get the trailer re-attached to the car and headed on to see Brian. The anti-sway device did lift and distort the metal base that my propane tanks sit on, but that is a minor fix. The only real damage done (if you can call it damage) was to the chains. Brian welded on a new and much stronger set of chains.

What caused the trailer to lift off the ball? The fix was very simple, Brian just tightened the nut under the trailer tongue 1/2 turn so that the trailer safety lock now grips the ball tighter and there is no slack.

What have we learned from all this? Whenever one tows a trailer that one has not towed before or one in a different weight/balance configuration, always check to make sure that the safety lock on the trailer tongue fits the ball tight. If the locking mechanism is loose or sloppy, look underneath the tongue and with a socket wrench tighten the safety lock nut until it fits snug around the ball on the trailer hitch.

Here I towed that new trailer 1,500 miles from Minnesota and have done multiple highway road test with no problem; all it took was one road test with the trailer in a different loaded weight/balance configuration and one anomaly in the pavement.......

Brian assured me that now that the safety lock on the tongue is properly adjusted, I will be good to go for this trip. But, then he added (almost as an after thought) that there are better trailer tongue attachments available and when I get back I might think about bringing the trailer over, have him to cut off the tongue assembly and weld on a new one.......... ? I am departing on Tuesday, he is totally booked Monday, he did not have the part in stock and would have to order it. Or, I would have had him install the new tongue assembly today.

So much for the blood-draining and white-knuckled excitement of the day.

Murphy was an optimist.............

[Savannah]

Thank you, Meat Hunter! I have linked this story in the Trailer Newbies thread. If you save even one inexperienced person some misery, you will have done a great service.

I'm glad the problem was easily solved.

[Captain Goddammit]

This is why I ALWAYS do two things:
Use a weight distributing hitch. Not the little sway control thing. A real weight distributing hitch, with the big spring bars.
Not only is it the ONLY right way to tow a trailer with any weight to it, but it completely prevents the disaster you just described. The hitch CANNOT come off, even if you don't latch it. You should go get one. I like the Equal-I-Zer.

The other thing I do is throw away the bullshit wimpy safety chains trailers come with. They either wear away like yours did or break when something happens. Replace them with REAL chain.

This concludes this message from an ex tow truck driver and current heavy equipment guy.

[tamarakay]

I feel you dude. We left a trailer in Santa Rosa In pieces. Try not to think about all the possibilities of what could have happened and carry on.

[Token]

+1 on the equalizer hitch.

Word tho, it is a heavy heavy hitch and no big deal for a 3/4 or 1 ton, but adds a lot of overhang weight to smaller tow vehicles.

[mooserider]

This is why I ALWAYS do two things:
Use a weight distributing hitch. Not the little sway control thing. A real weight distributing hitch, with the big spring bars.
Not only is it the ONLY right way to tow a trailer with any weight to it, but it completely prevents the disaster you just described. The hitch CANNOT come off, even if you don't latch it. You should go get one. I like the Equal-I-Zer.

That's for sure. Several years ago on a vacation, we had a break-down of our tow vehicle (no issues with the travel trailer, just the truck). So we got two tow trucks (one for our towing vehicle and one for the trailer), and headed into town. It seems the moron towing the trailer decided to just use his hydraulic lift arm (which had some hitch balls on it) instead of using our weight-equalizing hitch (with the fitted matching hitch ball) to lift the trailer tongue up and tow it (didn't bother to hook up the brake safety cable or use a pintle to hold the hitch on the ball). I got to ride with this idiot, and, looking out the back window of his truck, I could see the trailer bobbing up and down, until one time it bobbed up on an upgrade and the ball wasn't under the tongue when it came back down. I watched with horror as the trailer continued on its own to the side of the road (thankfully not crossing the road), scraped along about a dozen posts holding up a steel cable safety fence, and came to a halt with the front right corner of the trailer ripped wide open. Turns out the hitch ball the tow truck operator picked wasn't even close to the same size as ours and the tongue latch had no grip at all. Also, once the police got there, said moron turned out to be operating a tow truck with a suspended driver's license (why is this not surprising)? Boy, was I glad to get out of that tow truck!

[Canoe]

...The tongue came to rest on the crossed safety chains and the dragging and road friction had worn completely through one chain and only a paper thin strip remained on the other chain...

And correctly sized chains...

[Ratty]

Capt g. It's stories like this that make me afraid to tow even a tiny trailer. I've never towed anything in my life.

[Meat Hunter]

Ratty, et.al.

For sure, towing is to be taken very seriously and it is not for the timid or faint at heart.

Be prepared for the worst -- because it most probably will happen (sometime along the way), at the most unexpected & most untimely moment and in the most isolated location.

I have been towing trailers going on now for over 60 years and how I have lived to tell the story is a complete mystery to me.

Towing is akin to flying oneself. If you are in a hurry or traveling on a tight budget, fly commercial.