Be careful out there...

[medicshawn]

Wow that doesn't look like much fun. Glad you could walk away. I'm sure it was rough to loose all your posessions. I guess that's what insurance is for.

 

[aczlan]

After five years of touring a Broadway musical. My tour ended in LA.

Out of curiosity, what was the show that you were with?

The fire started in the engine compartment. Being 30-40 miles into desert. Response time was slow. Waited 20 painful minutes watching the fire slowing reach the trailer.

That had to hurt. Nothing worse than the feeling of helplessness when something like that is happening.

Btw the seatbelt and construction the suburban allowed me to literally walk away.

Amazing what they will hold up to.

Here is the link to the swiss army trailer thread if anyone else is looking for it: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/174908-my-swiss-army-trailer-build.html


Aaron Z

 

[dstig1]

Wow. That's one seriously bad accident. Glad you are OK.

But you said you wanted to make sure nobody made the same mistakes. What mistakes? It sounds like just bad luck of the "stuff happens" variety.

 

[Marveltone]

Crosswinds can be scary business! I've pulled my 24' camper along a windy stretch of interstate that has rolled countless RVs and semis, and was pretty white-knuckled for much of it.

Glad you're safe.

Joe

 

[bw_wis]

In regards to the question of mistakes. You are right. Bad luck. My point is to the best of my knowledge I did every right. Questions are often posted here asking if rules can be bent. Some examples; "Do you think I can make this short trip without brakes?", "My trailer is rated for this, my axles that, can I overload the rating cause I'm not overloading my axles?" I could go on, but you get the point.

Bad luck and conditions out of your control can strike at anytime. Regardless of preparation. So why risk your life and others, not to mention property by bending rules.

Sorry all. I'm sure I sound preachy. Things like this tend to change ones way of thinking.

To answer the question about which tour. "The Phantom of the Opera"

Insurance will cover most of it.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes.

Brian

 

[mjncad]

You're dam lucky to walk away from that Brian, and I'm glad you did.

I've only driven that stretch of I-15 once, and it was in a rented E-350 box van with a car hauler trailer carrying a Jetta. We ran into the same type of nasty winds; but luckily nothing bad happened to us. We pulled into Richfield, Utah to wait it out and heard about a RV being blown over.

 

[aczlan]

To answer the question about which tour. "The Phantom of the Opera"

Cool. My brother saw it at one point a few years back and has loved it ever since.

Aaron Z

 

[texasjohn]

Glad you were not hurt...hope not too much $$ loss after insurance.
Thanks for making the point that you were following all the reasonable and usual rules and being prudent, and this STILL happened:drool:

Can't help but wonder if the story would have been the same if the trailer were a gooseneck and tow vehicle was a 1 ton pickup....any thoughts or comments?? There are numerous discussions on TBN from time to time relative to the safety margins of bumper pull vs gooseneck... of course,, there are numerous reasons for using either a gooseneck or bumper pull....I'm simply wondering about your opinion regarding problems with the crosswind and stability, would the same thing have happened, either rig???

 

[Diamondpilot]

When you said you had the proper hitch, what was that? From the best of my memory a 3/4 ton GM of that era has a hitch that is rated for 7,500# and 12,000# with WD hitch.

Did you have WD setup on the trailer and did you have a sway control bar?

Chris

 

[timswi]

When you said you had the proper hitch, what was that? From the best of my memory a 3/4 ton GM of that era has a hitch that is rated for 7,500# and 12,000# with WD hitch.

Did you have WD setup on the trailer and did you have a sway control bar?

Chris

Agree with the need for WD and sway control. However, I've had both on other trailers and wind and semi's can still blow you around. Not to dis the OP, but there are things that you have to do when the trailer starts swaying. They generally don't right themselves without some operator intervention ie. hitting the contoller to pull the rig straight. 65 MPH can also limit your options. I've run that fast, but only on calm days where there are no semi's around...Other that that, it's south of 55. I might be a little too much of a sissy in some peoples eyes, but I also never rolled a rig due to air pressure. I've seen plenty in the medians of interstates that had the same unfortunate luck of the OP. He is not alone.

Glad no one was hurt...In the end, that's the most important thing.