Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Eric_Phillips]

Driving in to work this morning in the dark on a divided highway I noticed yellow flashing lights every once in a while up in the distance. Traffic kept flowing so didn't think too much about it, I figured what ever it was took an exit. Then I noticed a pickup going backwards down the road with no lights. Then noticed it was hooked to a tow truck. The pickup blocked all the flashing lights of the tow truck and you could not see it until you got close.

 

[orezok]

A number of years ago a friend of mine was following a semi on a San Diego freeway. The entire rear axle departed the semi. The axle and wheels bounced on the road in front of him and completely cleared his car and creamed the car behind him. He didn’t see the result of the hit as he was trying to avoid the swerving semi.

 

[Yogi05]

I follow an Ontario Provincial Police Carrier enforcement officer on twitter. He posts pictures of
what he sees on commercial vehicles he stops.
Frightening stuff on some of them.

 

[California]

No time for a photo, but today at the merge point of two freeways I saw a CHP officer, flashing lights on, parked behind and protecting a small junk trailer. As we got closer it was obvious the hub and wheel had come off the trailer leaving just the stub axle. Somebody forgot the cotter pin?

Seemed to me the only way to get the pickup and trailer to a safe place would be to just order the pickup to drag the trailer as-is to the shoulder beyond the merge, because getting a wrecker in there and hooked up with a dolly would disrupt traffic and likely cause crashes.

 

[Renze]

As we got closer it was obvious the hub and wheel had come off the trailer leaving just the stub axle. Somebody forgot the cotter pin?

Over here, its mostly grossly overloaded, poorly maintained single axle trailers without brakes, light nor tag that gets overloaded by folks that have absolutely no clue what dirt weighs, untill they bust a wheel bearing.
Then they turn out to weigh twice the 1500 pounds they are allowed on a trailer without tag nor brakes, so they end up in court because overloading twice is an economical offence...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Around here they don’t care about disrupt traffic. They will shut down a road and let you sit there for hours until they get a tow truck to clear the road.

 

[fidowanttobe]

Over here, its mostly grossly overloaded, poorly maintained single axle trailers without brakes, light nor tag that gets overloaded by folks that have absolutely no clue what dirt weighs, untill they bust a wheel bearing.

I travel sometimes on a highway that leads to the local coal mine and every year there are pick-up box trailers on the shoulder without an axle or wheel, heaped with coal.
I guess their idea of "I'll just drive slow", doesn't account for much when you grossly overload something.

 

[California]

Over here, its mostly grossly overloaded, poorly maintained single axle trailers without brakes, light nor tag that gets overloaded by folks that have absolutely no clue what dirt weighs, until they bust a wheel bearing.

That reminded me of a story I heard long ago. Mom (born 1910) said her father had a 1-wheel trailer that clipped directly to the rear bumper. A load of dirt was heavier than he expected, and they ended up upside down instead of making it around a slow curve. The extra weight that far back had swung the tail of the car out beyond where steering could keep the car on the road.


Kinda like how early VW claimed their cars were safer because if they ran off the road, it would be tail-end first. (That was really an advertising claim, back around the time that seat belts were introduced).

 

[ning]

Kinda like how early VW claimed their cars were safer because if they ran off the road, it would be tail-end first. (That was really an advertising claim, back around the time that seat belts were introduced).

I could see that, hit the tree with the rear bumper and have slightly more car to crumple and your forehead doesn't hit the steering wheel or the windshield, you just get pressed hard into the seat back
though your head may rapidly depart your torso in a rearward direction

 

[Jstpssng]

it was obvious the hub and wheel had come off the trailer leaving just the stub axle. Somebody forgot the cotter pin?

More likely they didn't notice (or care) when the wheel bearing started overheating, and eventually lost everything.