Please makesure the hitch is on the ball.

[two_bit_score]

I'm not sure what scares me most; the article or some of the stories posted on here.

Man, some of y'all are sure lucky!


Just think about all the stories posted just here about close calls and near misses and then think about how many more could be but aren't. Then think about that everytime you meet or pull up behind a trailer on the highway.

 

[The Haymaker]

Have you guys thought about some kind of check list before you climb in the cab ?

As a truck driver, I have a mental checklist and a routine I use EVERY time I start out in the morning, which would be a full vehicle walk around and inspection. It includes visually checking the hookup after doing a tug test. This habit has definitely been ingrained and carried over to the smaller stuff too.

 

[Kernopelli]

I have drilled this in my sons heads and still recheck the connection, pin and safety chains every time they hook up the trailers. About 20 yrs ago, my father was up visiting and we were standing at the end of my driveway saying goodbye and a Ranger bass boat on a trailer came sailing across the end of the drive apron and missed my dad by about 5'. It glanced off one of my neighbors trees ( destroying the side of the bow) and stopped when the tongue hit the block foundation under his living room window. The guy driving was towing his buddy's boat and wasn't used to pulling anything. The hitch lifted off the ball, no pin and he didn't hook up the chains.

I also had a long time customer that was hit by a large enclosed trailer that came unhitched and crossed the median, hitting him nearly dead on at 55mph....it came very close to killing him and his wife. The end result was that the guy pulling the trailer and the ones hit both ended up losing their businesses. The liability bankrupted the first and injuries left the victims unable to work again.

At a retirement seminar last year, the insurance advisor there said that in Illinois the average settlement for a death caused by negligent drivers now averages $750,000. I don't know if that's accurate or not but I did purchase a 2 million umbrella policy that covers liability on the home, rental property and vehicles soon after that.

 

[The Haymaker]

Bad thing about safety chains is the eject button doesn't work anymore.

 

[deepNdirt]

Bad thing about safety chains is the eject button doesn't work anymore.

That was hilarious, until I thought about being in that drivers seat

 

[shane]

I took my little 8' enclosed tool trailer to a welding shop to have a spare tire mount welded to the tongue. When I picked it up that afternoon, the guys at the shop hooked it up to my truck while I was writing a check. Mistake. I thought it sounded a little more bouncy when I was coming up my 300' gravel driveway. When I got out of the truck and inspected I about fainted. The guys at the shop had set it down on top of the ball and latched it. I had just came off a stretch of 4 lane, 65 mph highway. Ever since that day I have been very picky about letting someone hitch a trailer to anything I'm driving. I check, double check, then triple check. Thinking of the "what if's" can drive you crazy.