Elliot's Trailer Wreck - A Tale Of Warning

[Elliot]

As for the weight, if the load had been perfectly distributed, it would have been legal, and also very close to manufacturers' specs for tires and axles. (Only discrepancy would be that the drive axle is rated for 19,000 instead of the legal 20,000.)

But to distribute the weight perfectly is not realistic, so I must allow some "room".

Last year I weighed about 6,000 pounds less, with plenty "room" on all axles, and modest tongue weight, so I can perfectly well get back to that.

And yes, with three camp members living only 20 miles from me, I can probably get one of them to pull a larger trailer.

[maladroit]

The best solution is to have a trailer that isn't so hard to get the right weight distribution. Load mostly balanced over the axles, tongue weight 10% of load weight. With a big-ass boat hanging off the back of that trailer, that's how it would have been. Boat trailers should stay boat trailers.

[Elliot]

Maladroit, I certainly agree with the concept. But I have a need for low deck height, so I can push vehicles onto the trailer by myself. This requires a short rear overhang, to avoid scraping on the ground. I bought this trailer for that reason. It is a compromise I choose to accept, and I can perfectly well work around it.
But yeah, most folks should heed the standard arrangement!

[unjonharley]

Elliot, My ears still ring from chewing you gave me in 2013.. I was ready to leave.. You walked the circle of safety around my rig.. The van draw bar was sagging from the load..

When I pulled onto the pavement I stop for a safety check.. I moved two tool/tack bags and a can of gas to the rear.. Coming down the mountain from the high desert I pulled onto a scale.. I was 75% over the trailers loaded limit.. Got it home ok.. with sweat..

For 2014 I reinforced the hitch and went light on the load.. I'm a fast learner..
Thank you..

[Captain Goddammit]

Elliot you need the same thing I need: a tilt-deck trailer!
But I don't need it often enough to justify.

Rats.

[ygmir]

Elliot you need the same thing I need: a tilt-deck trailer!
But I don't need it often enough to justify.

Rats.

I think I may build one this winter. I like them, and have all the stuff...........

[Ratty]

Thank God you made it home safe. It's been a hell of a year for you.

[Tiahaar]

Yikes and good catch Elliot! That trailer has seen a lot of use. Hey I even had it hitched up on my truck once, the year I moved it around the marina after a race in Ventura. Janky but gets the job done. A nice high sided construction flatbed with a pintle hitch would be the thing.

[gaminwench]

"we'll take two inches more than nine, and that's a sonsie pintle!"

Robert Burns, 18th century.

I don't think he was talkin' 'bout a trailer hitch.

[Tiahaar]

ahahahaa!! omg gaminwench OK this has to be posted now.

[media]

follow along:
Come rede me, dame, come tell me, dame,
My dame, come tell me truly,
What length o' graith, when weel ca'd hame,
Will ser'e a woman duly?
The carlin clew her wanton tail,
Her wanton tail sae ready;
I learn't a sang in Annandale,
Nine inch will please a lady.

But for a countrie cunt like mine,
In sooth we're nae sae gentle;
We'll tak' twa thumb-bread to the nine,
And that's a sonsie pintle.
O leeze me on my Charlie lad!
I'll ne'er forget my Charlie!
Twa roarin' handfu' and a daud,
He nidg't it in fu' rarely.

But weary fa' the laithern doup,
And may it ne'er ken thrivin';
It's no the length that gars me loup,
But it's the double drivin'.
Come nidge me Tarn, come nodge me Tam,
Come nidge me o'er the nyvle;
Come louse and lug your batterin' ram,
And thrash him at my gyvel.

[gaminwench]

I'll sing it for you, when next we meet

(you'll like my rendition, promise!

[AntiM]

No more rugs -- cloth instead.

Look into outdoor rugs made of recycled pop bottles. Incredibly light, tough, and easy to rinse off.

Some of ours came from Lowe's. Care instructions: rinse with hose and line dry.

[unjonharley]

No more rugs -- cloth instead.

Look into outdoor rugs made of recycled pop bottles. Incredibly light, tough, and easy to rinse off.

Wally World RV section has 9X12 plastic rug.. Folds to a neat package.. bout45 bucks.. Would work great in a laid-down carport or monkey hut..

[melodiousdirge]

THAT, is a lucky catch Elliott. Wow - a story to tell with pics to prove. I don't know if I've ever had a call that close, but in 2011 I did help out some college kids who had a small toyota truck pulling the smallest available u-haul (Max load 1200lbs I think), who had put a THREE HUNDRED GALLON water tank in the front of it. It had bent the bumper hitch on their truck down so far it had started to tear the brackets that hold the bumper onto the frame. Would have loved to see that explained to mom or dad or whoever owned the truck. The best part was they just switched the trailer onto a bigger vehicle in their caravan and kept going with the trailer holding somewhere around 4000lbs of crap.

Glad you're safe. Still can't believe those pics.

[Elliot]

Since this is a Burning Man forum….

“At Brownhill we always get dainty good cheer,
And plenty of bacon each day of the year;
We’ve all things that’s nice, and mostly in season,
But why always Bacon – come, give me a reason?”

-Robert Burns

He was talking about a man named Bacon, who had a habit of intruding on everybody’s conversations.

I struggle with many of Burns’ 18th century Scottish words and phrases, but the man had fabulous insight and sensitivity. My favorite remains “To a Mouse” (“Ode to a Field Mouse”). Everybody knows it from his famous quote… “The best laid plans of mice and men….” Yup, that was Robert Burns.


A tilt bed trailer is a valid idea, except that… we lay the tailgate of the bus down on the trailer and use the trailer as a ramp into the bus.
A hinged beaver-tail on the trailer, however, might work.
But it is all perfect the way it is, so long as I watch that sleep deprivation.

Here is a close-up of the break. I have circled the two scraps of weld that the trailer was hanging from.

[TT120]

WOW Elliot! That is crazy. Glad you stopped to check it when you did, that could have been a real mess.

[maladroit]

The grim reaper is hobbling around out there with blue balls.

[melodiousdirge]

The grim reaper is hobbling around out there with blue balls.

I love the quotes that come out of this forum

[Elliot]

Yeah, that "guy" must have though he had a sure thing. Then a convenient rest area cheated him out of it.

[Captain Goddammit]

I don't see why a tilt trailer would exclude using it the way you describe with your bus tailgate.
Especially if it's a "16/4", 16 feet of tilt deck and 4 feet of stationary flat deck forward. That's what I want.

We should all be stressing the other big lesson from this mishap, the need to yank off the wimpy so-called safety chains that most trailers come with and put on REAL chain, that would hold the trailer if the hitch failed. The sissy ass chains trailers come with will snap like an overloaded fuse. Especially if they've been weakened by dragging on the ground a time or three.
If you look at the hitch photo I posted you'll see real chain, which I have wrapped around a stout crossmember I added, rather than attaching with little likely-to-break bolts.
You want to make sure the trailer pulls you over the cliff with it.

Oh.. wait a minute...

Hmm.....

[melodiousdirge]

On the topic of chains, can someone educate me?

My trailer has very heavy chains, but I need to twist them a bit or wrap them up to prevent them dragging. Now, I know dragging chains and setting wildfires will get you in trouble, but I also know a twisted chain is weaker and maybe even illegal. I always assumed it was a no-no to loop them over the tongue or hitch, just because... well that seems bad, and there could be mechanical interference with the articulation of the hitch. Having said all that, I've very rarely seen a trailer where the chains weren't too long. What is the accepted/legal/proper way to deal with this? I guess ideally I'd cut the chain to fit my vehicle, but let's say for the sake of argument its a rented trailer. Is there some protocol for this?

[maladroit]

You want to make sure the trailer pulls you over the cliff with it.

Oh.. wait a minute...

Hmm.....

I see them as trying to keep the trailer true to the back of your tow vehicle as everything grinds to a halt. So maybe...20% of the load weight?

In a situation where 50% or more of the load weight is hanging on the chains, I kind of hope they do break.

Unless my car is what's hanging over the cliff, and trailer is trying to hold me up.

[Captain Goddammit]

I use any combination of duct tape, bungee cords and zip ties to keep mine off the ground.

[nilasnake]

the other good thing to come of it. was you got to meet the marvelous mr. fixit!! isn't he great? and HE got to meet you!!! a meeting of the minds.

[GreyCoyote]

Gently twisted safety chains are not markedly weaker than untwisted chains. If you get stupid with the twisting, then yeah... maybe you'll have a problem. But since you're not pulling 10g's of decelleration with a trailer, you shoukd be fine.

As Capt GD notes, bungie cord is your friend. Put a couple of twists in the chains and secure them off the ground with a bungie. Done.

On a different note, why are so many of these big trailers withhout brakes and an approved break-away device? During exodous for every 10 trailers that needed them, maybe 1 or 2 actually had a breakaway connection, and half of those didnt have the lanyard connected.

[Captain Goddammit]

I can tell ya why... these trailers sit around and the breakaway batteries are always dead! I'm guilty of no breakaway battery, but the way mine is chained on, the truck could hang from it like a fish. It ain't coming apart.

[GreyCoyote]

Ha! New product: A mini solar panel for maintaining breakaway batteries. Retail it for $20, tops. Seriously.

(Now if you'll pardon me, I'm going to become a millionaire and camp way out by K where the beautiful people are.)

[theCryptofishist]

I use any combination of duct tape, bungee cords and zip ties to keep mine off the ground.

Finally ran out of that reel of bailing wire, huh, Captain.