Trailer safety

[TheKid]

Earlier this week a neighbor had his 14 ft cargo trailer come off the hitch of his Excursion and it ended up on the side of the road in some trees. He did have the safety chains and the break away cable hooked up. First mistake. He thinks he was in a hurry and may not have not have closed the latch on the trailer. Second mistake. He had added new hooks with latches to the safety chains because he was worried that the original S hooks might bounce loose. The new hooks were under rated and they straightened out when the trailer came off. Third mistake. The battery on the trailer wasn't charged so the brakes didn't kick in.

 

[Junkman]

4th mistake........ letting someone that careless to own a trailer..... that could have been some humans instead of some trees!!!!! When you hitch up a trailer, you have a responsibility to check everything twice. I always check the trailer after driving a 100 feet or so just to make sure that everything is secure. If he had checked the lights and directional signals, he probably would have found that he didn't have a good ground an might have found the reason. I also put a lock on the ball hitch so no one can tamper with it... Accidents happen in fractions of a second because people don't take the extra minute to check for mistakes.... Call me harsh, but life is short enough without someone carelessly making it shorter....

 

[RCannon]

I agree Junkman. Others are at stake when anyone pulls a trailer.
My BIGGEST pet peeve is the goof ball who has no working or
mis-wired lights. DUMB DUMB DUMB. No excuse! My favorite is when the brakes are hit and a turn signal starts blinking. grrrrr.... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[755inNY]

<font color="blue"> If he had checked the lights and directional signals, he probably would have found that he didn't have a good ground </font>

How could that be? A properly wired vehicle/trailer does not rely on the hitch ball for ground. The ground is achieved through the connector. It shouldn't make any difference whether the trailer tongue is even touching the ball. If the trailer connector is plugged into the vehicle, all lights and brakes should work.

Jeff

 

[Inspector507]

755inNY,
Some people don't use the 4th wire in the connector and rely on the hitch&ball to make the ground. Thats a big mistake waiting to happen.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I also put a lock on the ball hitch so no one can tamper with it )</font>

I to use a lock on the hitch. Not so much for the theft factor, but rather it's use force's me to be sure that the ball has locked in place properly and that the latch is actually latched.

 

[Junkman]

No argument there, but considering the circumstances, I doubt the the trailer was properly wired also.... Got to remember, 40 years ago all trailers were wired this way and I am old enough to remember it clearly.... While a ground back to the car is always desirable, many still don't have one...

 

[TheKid]

The trailer was wired correctly for a 7 pin connector for his brake controller, but that's beside the point. Wiring had nothing to do with the trailer comming loose. He was either in a hurry or got distracted and didn't close the latch.

 

[Junkman]

I was thinking of the 4 pin connector.... another senior moment.....

 

[heith]

The safety chains must be able to hold at the trailers max load rate and then some.The higher the load the higher the price of the chain.Not a good time to be cheap with the wallet and buy almost enough to do the job.