Stupid trailering guy

[bmac]

Don,
Thanks for the description. I fully understand why photos cannot be added now. If you think about it the next time you trailer the tc18, I would still like to see some photographic documentation of the process.

As always, I appreciate your help.

Bruce

 

[MDNick]

Was out with a friend of mine on his boat last week. After our trip, we were pulling it back out. He mostly drove the boat all the way up on the trailer, I just had to winch it the last 6-8". His winch is a strap winch, seat belt material, only wider. I got it about where I thought it should be, but he said make sure it is snug. I give it one more click, and snap. The strap ripped all the way across. Looking at it, you can see it was weathered significantly. There is no way I should be able to rip a strap in two with a hand powered winch. Just ironic, $86,000 boat, and a $25 strap. We tied a knot in the strap, and he made it home fine. Just one more case of forgetting the small stuff. He was actually happy about it, better it happen with me, and not his girl friend, or when he was on the road.

Another case on a large bridge over the potomac, guy had his brand new boat on, took a sick day and was going fishing. Problem was a 1-7/8" ball on a 2" receiver, just enough slop that it came off. Must have thought the safety chains were optional. Boat took off and hit a semi coming the other way. Obliterated the boat. Now what do you tell your coworkers? And your boss?

 

[GaryM]

I'll admit that about 28 years ago I was stupid enough to flat tow a car with a towbar that required a 2" ball and I only had a 1 7/8". It was a friday evening and there was no place to get the right sized ball. Didn't think it would make that much difference. Made it all the way from St. Louis to the TriState West of Chicago before she let go. No injuries, but a totaled car that we were towing. I sure felt stupid, and for good reason.

Not one of my proudest moments.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

As long as we're doing "true confessions" /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif, I once had a 1-7/8 coupler come off a 1-7/8 ball. I had just had a pool installed and decided to save some money by re-sodding the small yard, myself. I had a strong trailer and a Jeep to tow it, so I went to the nusery and had them put a pallet of sod on the trailer. The trailer was almost too narrow, and the fork lift kid wasn't very good, and the pallet ended up on the very back, behind the single axle. Are you starting to see where this is going?

I decided that if I took it slow enough, I'd be OK - the weight on the back of the trailer wasn't lifting the back of the Jeep up all that high. Of course, what I learned was that with enough force, a coupler can flex. I learned the reason why they have 2" and 2-15/16 couplers for larger loads. I learned about tongue weight. I learned a lot about "I think I'll be OK."

Oh, yeah, what happened? I got lucky. The trailer came off just as I was slowly turning onto a side street; the tongue flew up and the chains broke (I learned about those, too); and the trailer kindly tried to climb a slight rise into someone's yard, but it didn't get very far. No damage. I was only about a block from home, so I spent the next couple of hours unloading the trailer a few squares of sod at a time onto the Jeep, driving home and unloading, and repeating the process until I had the trailer light enough to chain it down to the hitch for the last block. I did get a lot of strange looks from the passing cars and was so embarrassed I wished I could hide. My CFO clamped her lips shut and I couldn't tell if she was ticked or laughing. I was just glad that sod doesn't come in rolls in this area...

 

[dourobob]

True confessions??

Not really trailering but, I was taking an old 16 HP Wheel Horse tractor to my friend's place about 22 years ago now and thought heck, the tractor is safely inside the box on my old GM 3/4 ton, the tailgate is latched, the tractor is in gear and I'm only going about 5 miles - what could happen??

Well, the washboard gravel surface on one of the big hills was enough to shake the tractor out of gear, against the tailgate and, you guessed it, on to the road. What a sickening feeling to look in the rearview and see the tractor bouncing up the hill behind the truck. When I got stopped and went to look at the potential damage I quickly realized this was one of the cheapest lessons I could learn. The tractor had a broken tie rod, which I had welded for under $5. Other than my ego that was the only damage.

Now, even when folks laugh at me, I used straps, ratchets, ropes, and chain as deemed necessary just so there is no chance of a repeat.

With age comes wisdom - we can only hope. The extra few minutes to do it right doesn't cost, it pays.

Bob

 

[GaryM]

When I haul my JD4100 on my utility trailer, I use nylon ratcheting straps. They're rated for 4K or so working load.

I run one from a welded tie ring, around behind the grill guard that's part of the FEL and back to another tie ring.

On the back I run from a tie ring, then in front of and across the ROPS at the fender level, then back to another ring.

I like to think that a higher attach point helps hold the load down as well as secure fore and aft. And as I usually haul with the FEL and mower attached, hooking to the tow bar and axle is a little inconvienient.

I don't recall anyone ever mentioning using the ROPS as an attach point.