Scary, life threatening, mistake

RSKY · Sep 6, 2022

Not me this time.

Drove about an hour from home with son-in-law to pick up a tiller and box blade he had purchased. Just like his tractor he bought them sight unseen over the Internet from a dealer in Tennessee. While he was inside settling the bill I helped the guy loading the equipment and strapped things down. Guy loading said he had a Ford F150 like mine. A few weeks before he had delivered a large tractor when the incident happened.

So he parked on a noticeable incline with the truck pointed uphill. Unchained the tractor and started backing off the trailer. He never said what size, type tractor it was, just that it was large and heavy and didn't have a cab. Just as the back tires were about to go on the ramp, right at the end of the trailer, the the weight difference was enough that the front of the trailer lifted up and the truck's rear tires came off the ground. I had never thought of this happening and apparently this guy hadn't either. Said he had been delivering equipment for many years. Luckily the front wheels were straight and the truck, trailer, tractor, and scared motionless man rolled straight down the hill and into a ditch at the turnoff from the busy main road. According to the man the whole rig rolled about fifty yards scraping gravel with the back of the trailer. A few yards to either side and it would have either gone into a deep gully or out the driveway into a busy road. Don't know how he finally got it off the trailer, Don't know why it didn't happen when loading the tractor. But the guy's voice quivered when he told the story.

Just something to think about.

RSKY

scootr · Sep 6, 2022

A few years ago the same thing happened to a neighbor who had rented a backhoe and trailer. He was parked headed downhill and the whole rig ended up in the creek at the bottom. I'm sure it would be hard to react properly, running the tractor back up the trailer at that moment.
This is why you see ramp jacks on big trailers.

Gem99ultra · Sep 6, 2022

scootr said:
A few years ago the same thing happened to a neighbor who had rented a backhoe and trailer. He was parked headed downhill and the whole rig ended up in the creek at the bottom. I'm sure it would be hard to react properly, running the tractor back up the trailer at that moment.
This is why you see ramp jacks on big trailers.

Similar thing has happened to me before also. Scary for sure as well as very dangerous. Here's what I did to resolve future situations like yours for $80 on Amazon:

RustyA · Sep 6, 2022

Jackstands on back of trailer, put truck in 4wd so front axle is in park also. Learned that lesson the hard way when I had a car hauler with ramps.

Bearsixty7 · Sep 6, 2022

Simply chock the trailer tires.

I chock the truck tires on steep boat ramps even though my boat isn't that heavy and not likely to lift the trailer tongue any but parking brakes can fail or things can just go wrong.

ptsg · Sep 6, 2022

So US trailer manufacturers still consider parking brakes on trailers to be overrated? I would've thought that by now that they would've taken care of that since this incidents are way more frequent than it should.

Bearsixty7 · Sep 6, 2022

ptsg said:
So US trailer manufacturers still consider parking brakes on trailers to be overrated? I would've thought that by now that they would've taken care of that since this incidents are way more frequent than it should.

I've used several different trailers over 40 years of driving and never had a similar incident, so yeah, they are over rated, you just need to consider the physics of what's going on. Trailer parking brakes would be more parts to fail or maintain plus would add to trailer cost.

Truck and trailer should have been on level ground, Truck could have been put in 4WD if it had it, Trailer tires could have been chocked, trailer could have had rear jackstands. Several ways to have prevented what happened.

Even if the trailer could have had parking brakes, the operator could just as easily have failed to engage it. It just comes down to situational awareness.

s219 · Sep 6, 2022

Heard about this here on TBN several times over the years. Happens to a lot of folks who don’t think about the physics and don’t consider what happens when the only axle with a parking brake and transmission lock gets lifted off the ground. Not too unlike the many tractor owners who learn the hard way what can happen when their rear wheels lose contact with the ground due to poor ballast.

I always put blocks under the back of my trailer and chock the tires on the trailer. Both will pretty much eliminate the problem. Got the idea for blocks here on TBN when I joined over 10 years ago. So the information is out there for people to learn.

hosspuller · Sep 6, 2022

A block or jack under the trailer end also protects the trailer suspension from overloading.

When loading my tractor, I had the GN trailer rear up, I forgot to lock the ball hitch. Luckily, the safety chains kept the trailer from my back glass.

Now there's a chunk of 4 by 6 with the trailer.

ponytug · Sep 6, 2022

I've seen a similar incident, and it certainly changed my behavior. Thanks for bringing it up here!

All the best,

Peter

TheMan419 · Sep 6, 2022

Always good to learn something new. We trailer horses and often when unloading at a show grounds are on not level surfaces. Trailer wheels will always be chocked when loading or unloading now...... and truck in 4WD. The horse does not weigh as much as that tractor I am sure, but no taking chances.

cqaigy2 · Sep 6, 2022

Apparently not a thing that seems like an obvious issue.

I've seen it happen twice, and neighbor told me about his experience. Parked on a fairly steep gravel road, while backing a Cat off the trailer and his pickup backend picked up, everything started moving downhill, jackknifed the truck and trailer. He ended up riding the whole works down the hill, until the road started to curve to the right and he went into ditch and scraped along the side up the hill, until he stopped. Lucky it didn't go the other direction as that side of the road is a 20 foot drop.

Thanks for bring it up RSKY.

ultrarunner · Sep 6, 2022

At first I didn’t really care for the tip up ramps on my PJ trailer but now appreciate them to no end because of the built in support that takes no effort other than tipping the ramps in place…

4570Man · Sep 6, 2022

That’s actually pretty common. Even with supports on the ramps it can still happen because a lot of times they’re too short to reach the ground. The safest thing is to park the truck at the bottom of the hill. If that’s absolutely not a viable solution the trailer wheels need to be scotched and put the truck in 4x4 if equipped. Having a second person hold the brakes would be preferable.

gstrom99 · Sep 6, 2022

I almost sent my trailer into the back of my truck, loading an Allis. I hadn't secured the hitch well and it flipped up from the extra weight. I don't like the "flip up" ramps, I was worried about them being the correct height, every time. My Sure-Trac has great ramps. I added weld on stabilizers, like these.

https://www.etrailer.com/Camper-Jacks/Fulton/FSJ1-SJ2.html

Hilbilly · Sep 6, 2022

Happened to me ONCE and lesson learned. I was loading the tractor onto the trailer and just as the front of the tractor was on the trailer, the whole outfit started rolling down hill, forward, took me a second to figure out what was going on and then I drove the tractor further onto the trailer, which brought the back of the truck back onto the ground and the parking brakes did their job. They say you learn from your mistakes and I can assure you that was a very memorable learning experience. One not to be forgotten.

ultrarunner · Sep 6, 2022

So far the PJ ramps have been spot on in varying conditions…

Almost foolproof because flipping sets the supports plus the ramps up provide one more fail safe.

Years ago a truck was pulling over with the vehicle on the tailer back against the upright ramps and the tie down strap dragging on the road… something didn’t go right.

scootr · Sep 6, 2022

Another solution may be the tilt trailer if you are shopping around. The guy I bought my tractor from had a nice setup.

JasperFrank · Sep 6, 2022

One of my stupider moments was when picking up a tractor, using a friend's rear wheel drive van and a rented trailer. The trailer was set up for the wheel width of a standard car so the tractor wheels were very close to the inner edges of the ramps. We chain tied the tractor to the trailer.
Something just didn't feel right about the road that we took to the seller's location. It was very rolley and some sections seemed very steep. It had just been re-graveled, and the rock was loose and several sections crossed land bridges across small valleys. The shoulder's dropped off steeply into the valleys. The seller said that the road was the only way in or out.
We were heading down hill just before the last very steep section, I told the friend that he better speed up or we'll never crest this hill. He didn't speed up and 3/4th of the way up the hill his van started to spin the tires. The van stopped and then started sliding backwards towards the shoulder. He set the parking brake, as we continued to slide and said we might have to jump out.
I could not accept losing my just bought tractor, paying for a wrecked trailer, and my friend loosing his van. I ran back to the trailer, unhitched the front and back chains, started the tractor and backed it off the still moving trailer. Soon as the rear tractor wheels got on the ground, everything stopped sliding. We were about ten feet from the shoulder and the drop off.
With out the weight of the tractor, my friend could drive up the hill. I followed him till there were no more hills and we re-loaded the tractor and got it to my place.
This could have gone so very badly.