Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Grumpycat]

Cause i like to tow tongue heavy. With adjustable headlights, cops dont realise that i tow 7k when oncoming.

Well, that is what I said, Americans will put everything on the tongue they can. No matter it will tow much easier with a modest load on the tongue, they will never know for never trying.

Sure, install HD shocks and springs on the rear of a Subaru just to occasionally tow 2000 pounds! When properly balancing the trailer gets the job done without shocks, springs, or bandaids such as "weight" distributing hitches (which do not distribute any weight, only loads).

A load distributing hitch is useful with 8000 pound trailers on SuperDutys. But is a bandaid for many other situations.

When driving 500 mile days with my toy hauler I practiced moving the motorcycles inside for best tow. All the way to the front was not the best. I used bumper drop to guess at how much load was on the tongue, I know how much I weigh, how much the truck sagged under my weight, and then me and a friend, and guessed it would be approximately linear for greater loads.

 

[Grumpycat]

I’ve never had any problems with the weight distribution on my tilt deck. Of course I can’t park my skid steer on the tail but there’s plenty of deck space to avoid that issue. Resting my trencher boom or tractor bushhog on the tail is no big deal.

And I see you haven't tried to park your load on the trailer as far forward as possible. By eye, it looks like you have a good balance of modestly favoring load to the front with sufficient to the rear.

 

[Grumpycat]

Ive seen the local farm machinery manufacturer slide from their No.1 position in silage trailers. They used to build a very robust silage trailer in the 80s and 90s by using the next size up in C channel that their competitor used. But they stuck with the mindset of using big beams. An apprentice was once told to stop beveling square tubing for weld penetration, farmers want to see heavy welds in sight, and when its full penetration, farmers dont see that...

In the short term, bigger is better, but when products and manufacturers get time tested, proper engineering wins over sheer dimensions.

Made me wince. I cut my teeth at a drafting table working for Chicago Bridge & Iron. Every weld got bevels. CBI standards only permitted the most rudimentary weld symbols, all welds got a cross section drawing explicitly showing the bevels, depth, flat in the center, and a sacrificial pass in the center before the final pass outside and inside. Then again a 1" plate was thin for what we were doing.

About this time a platform collapsed in a hotel, in Missouri I believe. Revelers were dancing on a platform about the 3rd story that had another platform hanging from it on the 1st or 2nd above street level.

There were many construction goofs vs the architect's drawings. Square "tube" was made by welding two channels together. Simple surface weld, no beveling, certainly not full penetration. This failed, but might not have. The problem was something like a 40' rod was to be used, with a threaded section in the middle, the nut on these threads to hold the middle platform. A rod like that is crazy to procure, maybe get one threaded full length but 40'?

So without engineering approval the contractor purchased (2) 21' rods (for each of about 6 locations), threaded each end. Then put 2 holes through the now-square channel, right through the seams. One hole held the support rod from above, the other hole held the platform below. Now the square beam and it's lousy welds was carrying the load of 2 platforms. Nut pulled through, platform collapsed, killing many.

Had the contractor used a turnbuckle to extend the rod rather than use 2 holes in the beam he might have gotten away with it. The seams in the beam from making square out of two channels was also fishy.

 

[BigBlue1]

Well, that is what I said, Americans will put everything on the tongue they can. No matter it will tow much easier with a modest load on the tongue, they will never know for never trying.

That's a very odd generalization. While I'm sure there are some folks who think that way, that vast majority of people I know who tow are well aware of 10-15% tongue weight rule and at least attempt to honor it. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone whose mindset was "as much tongue weight as I can get".

 

[lilranch2001]

I think there is a pretty good percentage of people who tow with absolutely no clue……

 

[Grumpycat]

That's a very odd generalization. While I'm sure there are some folks who think that way, that vast majority of people I know who tow are well aware of 10-15% tongue weight rule and at least attempt to honor it. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone whose mindset was "as much tongue weight as I can get".

Well, we have seen such posts here.

 

[Renze]

Made me wince. I cut my teeth at a drafting table working for Chicago Bridge & Iron. Every weld got bevels. CBI standards only permitted the most rudimentary weld symbols, all welds got a cross section drawing explicitly showing the bevels, depth, flat in the center, and a sacrificial pass in the center before the final pass outside and inside. Then again a 1" plate was thin for what we were doing.

I design (among others) excavator chassis for high reach demolition rigs. Thickest flange i used so far was 4"
For booms we like full bevel on longitudinal welds too, just to avoid the fatigue crack initiation point in the root of a simple corner weld.

About this time a platform collapsed in a hotel, in Missouri I believe. Revelers were dancing on a platform about the 3rd story that had another platform hanging from it on the 1st or 2nd above street level.

I know the case, it often appears on Discovery Channel s "Engineering disasters" "seconds from disaster" or anything such.

 

[Renze]

Sure, install HD shocks and springs on the rear of a Subaru just to occasionally tow 2000 pounds! When properly balancing the trailer gets the job done without shocks, springs, or bandaids such as "weight" distributing hitches (which do not distribute any weight, only loads).

My trailer weighs 2000 pounds empty...

 

[BigBlue1]

I think there is a pretty good percentage of people who tow with absolutely no clue……

Totally true, but the lack of clue doesn't mean they migrate towards "all the tongue weight I can get". My statement is about the lack of experience I've seen justifying that generalization.

 

[BigBlue1]

Well, we have seen such posts here.

And this is a tiny microcosm of America. Have you encountered a lot of people in real life that "love them a lot of tongue weight"?

 

[i7win7]

Lets drive down the road with a long piece of lumber sticking out of the van. Sideways.💥🚐😳

What could possibly go wrong? I mean after all they had a plastic bag hanging off one end for safety right? You can watch these videos but put a plastic bag over your head for safety first: Subscribe to my channel here: https://www.bitchute.com/…

www.bitchute.com

 

[ning]

And this is a tiny microcosm of America. Have you encountered a lot of people in real life that "love them a lot of tongue weight"?

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/average_familiarity.png

 

[BigBlue1]

Overestimating the intelligence of the public is not at all the same as saying that "in general Americans like to use excessive tongue weight on their trailers". A lot of people aren't great at trailering but I still know nobody who thinks "tons of tongue weight is best".

Is it really hard to grasp the concept without steering off into the ditch? Wait, don't answer that... this is tractorbynet so obviously it is.

 

[Grumpycat]

I design (among others) excavator chassis for high reach demolition rigs. Thickest flange i used so far was 4"
For booms we like full bevel on longitudinal welds too, just to avoid the fatigue crack initiation point in the root of a simple corner weld.

A flange in nuclear/oil work is a pipe fitting. Largest that comes to mind was 36". What makes it memorable was that I had to come up with a pivoting arm to hold the blind flange used to seal this service manhole. Opened out the side of a vessel. They wanted a permanent mini-crane. Forget now how much the blind flange weighed, at least 1000 pounds.

I used to be a student of the Taylor Forge catalog.

 

[KennyG]

Since there has been some discussion of tongue weight, I wonder if anyone has used the cell phone app with the OBD plug in that provides tongue weight as well as a number of other things. I would like to have a method to check the weight but I don't tow much and the cost of the hitch gauges is a bit high.

 

[WinterDeere]

A flange in nuclear/oil work is a pipe fitting. Largest that comes to mind was 36".

I use flanged copper sewer and drain pipe as coaxial cabling, in high power RF amplifiers and transmitters. People look at the stuff, and think it's a water main or sewer pipe, especially when you get to the sizes 6" and larger.

 

[WinterDeere]

Since there has been some discussion of tongue weight, I wonder if anyone has used the cell phone app with the OBD plug in that provides tongue weight as well as a number of other things. I would like to have a method to check the weight but I don't tow much and the cost of the hitch gauges is a bit high.

That is so friggin' cool, at least for factory-sprung vehicles. For anyone who doesn't know what the hell we're talking about:

Haul Gauge: Know what you tow.

Haul Gauge is a simple module that plugs into your vehicle's OBDII port and through an app on your smart phone, tells you your vehicle's tongue weight, pin weight, payload, and total vehicle and trailer weight combined.* *2008 or newer. Weigh functions excluded on Toyota vehicles.

www.haulgauge.com

 

[lilranch2001]

A flange in nuclear/oil work is a pipe fitting. Largest that comes to mind was 36". What makes it memorable was that I had to come up with a pivoting arm to hold the blind flange used to seal this service manhole. Opened out the side of a vessel. They wanted a permanent mini-crane. Forget now how much the blind flange weighed, at least 1000 pounds.

I used to be a student of the Taylor Forge catalog.

I’m not sure I understand the point of this post?!?!?

 

[Grumpycat]

I’m not sure I understand the point of this post?!?!?

The message I was replying to commented his largest flange was 4".

Then I related an experience building a small crane for "hauling" a 36" blind flange. This is the towing/hauling thread isn't it?

 

[Grumpycat]

I use flanged copper sewer and drain pipe as coaxial cabling, in high power RF amplifiers and transmitters. People look at the stuff, and think it's a water main or sewer pipe, especially when you get to the sizes 6" and larger.

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