Trailer Came Loose

[mikegt4]

A few years ago there was a fellow taking his Oliver 77 home from a tractor show near my house. Where the road goes down a steep hill (fortunetly straight) I heard a crash. When I got there the guy was standing in the road surveying the mess. The tractor had rolled forward off the trailer, hit the pickup and broke the hitch (bumper) off. The Oliver was stratling the trailer tongue which was about 50 ft. behind the truck. He had driven the tractor onto the trailer, left it in gear and engaged the brake pedal locks. He then ran one 1 1/2" nylon tie down strap from one side of the trailer, over the tractor's hood to the other side of the trailer. He couldn't figure out how this could have had happened !!!

 

[Bird]

He couldn't figure out how this could have had happened !!!

Just no clues, huh?

 

[bones1]

What a dingleberry

 

[sandman2234]

If you want to add the other steps, I also listen to the double bump from the plate hitting the front edge and then leveling out under the trailer. That keeps the back of the cab from getting bent.
I didn't figure most people wanted to be bored with all the steps of tractor trailer instructions. (TT101).I was also a spotter at the time this happened at a local paper mill.
David from jax

 

[LBrown59]

Bird:

It is sad that some are so inconsiderate of the safety of others. As I travel on the interstate I see more and more individuals pulling trailers that are an accident waiting to happen. I try and put as much distance as possible between their vehicle and mine. At a rest area I overheard a Highway Weights Officer receiving verbal abuse from an individual being cited for an unsafe trailer-tow-hook up. At a gas stop one time an individual pulled in driving a Ford F-150 towing a trailer so large and overloaded the rear bumper on the truck struck the pavement/ground at the slighest bump. Driving an automobile above the speed limit is one thing, being passed when doing this by an individual pulling a suicide truck trailer combo is another.

I was on my way into town bout an hour ago and passed a pick up coming out from town that was left of center in a sharp curve about 3/4 of a mile down the road from me.
It was a rickety looking older Ford pulling a Trailer with something like a JD 350 or 450 Dozer on it.

 

[LBrown59]

Do you think it is just inconsideration, or do some people just not get it? I've got a brother-in-law that hauls around junky old trailers behind junky old trucks. No chains, no lights, hitch about 1/2 works. I can't decide if it's laziness, stupidity or what. I'm leaning toward stupidity. If you say something about the condition of his equipment you get kind of a blank stare. Seems to be normal behavior for some other people I've seen towing unsafe and junky trailers, too.

Some people are just plain stupid.
Others are to ignorant to know they're stupid.
People just aren't like they were 30 40 50 Yrs ago.
There's been a big attitude change for the worse.
To many Nut Case out there.

 

[Iowachild]

My experience losing a trailer was back in 1977. Twenty-three years old, green as a stick and working out on my companie's crude oil pipeline. I was driving a Dodge crew cab pick-up pulling a single axle trailer with a Cushman Trackster on the trailer. The trailer and trackster were rented equipment and in rough shape. Fortunately I was on a back country road with no other traffic when I felt something weird and looked in the mirror to see the trailer w/trackster weaving around and too far behind to still be attached. About that time the trailer swerved hard to the left and ended up in the ditch with the tongue buried in the bank. After we got everything out of the ditch we discovered the coupler had come apart and the safety chains snapped like they were made of plastic. Thankfully no one was hurt!!

Now I keep a close eye on my own equipment and any other trailers I might haul, checking all hardware for condition and tightness.

 

[bx23barry]

<People just aren't like they were 30 40 50 Yrs ago.
There's been a big attitude change for the worse.
To many Nut Case out there.>

There were just as many nutcases just not as many folks around to find them out.

 

[Bird]

There were just as many nutcases just not as many folks around to find them out.

And we didn't have the kind of communications technology we now have so we didn't hear about everything that happened.

 

[Slamfire]

The first trailer I ever pulled, was a homemade job, haulin' a 14' Crysler trihull. When I bought it I noticed it had a cinder block restin' on the tounge. When I lifted it off the tounge started to raise up. I held it down by hand, and hooked it to the ball on my truck. On the way home an 18 wheeler came by doin' about 70 mph. Since I was goin' less than 55, the trailer went into a high speed wobble. The trailer was up on the left wheel, then the right. The tounge was a section of water pipe inserted into the next larger size pipe, and when I got home it was bent. I found a piece of seamless pipe of the same diameter and wore out a couple of drill bits, drillin' the two holes that held the carrier. Then, on the advice of a neighbor I sawed off the combination bow bumper/winch mount and we inched the boat forward until we had 150lbs of tounge weight, and rewelded the bow bumper. Things went a lot smoother after that! 8-}