You ever seen this guy

[KICK]

got a dually and a large tandem utility covered trailer, on the expressway, he's going about 50 miles per hour on three wheels, with a shower of sparks coming off of what is left of a rim.

I seen him last night, apparently he had no intention of pulling over, there was no way he couldn't have known he was having a meltdown , because the thermal event was on the drivers side and it was dark.

Darwin Award?

 

[Jimbrown]

Nope but saw one of my less than smart neighbors towing a large goose neck stock trailer with 4 or 5 cows in it pull it with two flats untill it was running on the brake drums. Haven't seen the trailer since.

 

[stones]

Never seen that guy but last summer there was one "brain" who pulled a tandem trailer down the highway with just a rim and set fires for about 20 miles down Hwy 16 here. I really wanted to hand him one of those signs...but was too tired after putting out the brush fire along my fence line.. This guy actually told the Fire Chief that he thought it would be ok to pull it as long as he was not on the pavement!!!

 

[RobS]

I was close to being that guy many years ago...

We had rented a tandem axle travel trailer for a vacation. It was our test of the RV lifestyle. On our way home from TN to IN we pulled into a fast food for a quick break. As we drove through the parking lot someone pulled up next to us waving frantically. Said we lost a wheel which I shrugged off but went ahead and stopped. Sure enough! RR wheel was gone! It wasn't far, I ran back and got it along with some other loose parts. The tire wasn't flat but the bearing was cooked. Making the turn into the parking lot is what finally separated it I guess.

This was a Sunday so nothing useful is open. Tried to call the rental place but nothing there either. Finally got one of them at home and we agreed to abandon the camper. We were only about 100 miles from home anyway so we cleaned out the camper, locked it up and went home. I had told the camper guy I'd stop by the next day and drop off the keys.

Now the real fun begins! I show up the next day and there's the camper!!! Turns out he (real brainiac) went down that night based on my description and found the thing. He was actually pissed that I had put a tongue lock on it as he then had to buy a 2" ball to fit up into the locked 2 5/16 hitch. Yes, he drug it back to his place on three wheels and only had to stop a "few" times to hitch back up as the thing bounced off the ball. You could see the scrape marks on the bottom of the tongue jack.

We wrapped up our paperwork and I got out of there fast. We did end up getting our own camper after that and I've repacked the wheel bearings religiously since.

 

[Kendall69]

A guy just like him was going down the road with a trailer and a car on it, when the left rear tire and wheel came off.

The whole thing bounced like a basketball three times right in front of me headed for my windshield, then veered off inches past my drivers window.

Pucker factor around 12

 

[MossRoad]

... I show up the next day and there's the camper!!! Turns out he (real brainiac) went down that night based on my description and found the thing. He was actually pissed that I had put a tongue lock on it as he then had to buy a 2" ball to fit up into the locked 2 5/16 hitch. Yes, he drug it back to his place on three wheels and only had to stop a "few" times to hitch back up as the thing bounced off the ball. You could see the scrape marks on the bottom of the tongue jack.

We wrapped up our paperwork and I got out of there fast. We did end up getting our own camper after that and I've repacked the wheel bearings religiously since.

YIKES!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

My Dad bought a trailer with mobile home axles on it. We loaded it up with all my brothers tools and other stuff to the point of rediculous. He was pulling it with his RV, which has a big 8.3 turbo Cummins diesel, so power is almost unlimited.

I was following for what should have been a boring drive from California to Texas. In Southern California, just before Majove, a tire went flying off the side of the trailer and into the desert.

We found a place to park, pulled the axle and spent two days finding a replacement the right width, buying new tires and wheels. Then it was half a day to put it back on again.

The next axle lost a tire in Arizona right in front of Walmart. Good place to park, but they don't have any axles, so it was the hunt for another axle again.

If we had been less than a hundred miles from here, I seriously think we would have drug it. I'm not saying it's the smart thing, but until you've swaped axles on a trailer in the desert, laying in the dirt and unbolting rusted U-Bolts with a 3/8's ratchet, you wouln't understand.

Eddie

 

[gemini5362]

I have almost been this guy. This story is a repost from another thread. I bought a used dump trailer. The unit was a dump truck bed on a homemade trailer. It was a single axle with dual wheels. I drove about 100 miles of the 130 mile trip home when I heard a loud crash. I looked up in my mirror and saw the axle go flying up in the air several feet and the trailer dragging on the pavement. I pulled off the road on to the shoulder and retrieved the axle. I dropped the trailer off and went to get a friend of mine to help. We had to jack the trailer back up and put the axle under it ( Eddie with all the fun we had doing that I can really understand how much fun you had changing those axles.) We chained the axle in place and then drove 15 or 20 miles an hour 20 miles to my friends house. Before we put the axle back on we looked to see what had happened. The guy that made the trailer did a very bad job of welding the axles to the bed of the trailer. I was very luck in that although I was on a major higheay when it happened there was no traffic behind me or coming at me when it happened so no one was hurt or even significantly scared.

 

[Kubotasrking]

Last weekend, my wife and I were driving down to Portland, OR to meet her parents for a visit. We were approaching what the locals call the I-5 bridge. This is an old bridge that crosses the Columbia River from Washington into Oregon. A 4 lane bridge that is the source for many angry commuters during the week...

We were wondering why traffic was so slow as we approached, because we rarely go near any city during busy times. Some folks who apparently were sharing a brain were pulling a 30' aluminum ramp (for semi-trailer access presumably) that was attached to a two-wheel-dolly-of-sorts. The wheels were at best 10'' hard rubber wheels. The ramp was chained to the bumper of the van pulling it, and they were using the back/bumper of the van for brakes (depending on which end of the ramp was elevated...it was pivoting on the dolly). Needless to say, they were having issues...they successfully drug the ramp into a shopping center parking lot and abandoned it. It was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen!

 

[radioflyertoo]

This happened a few years ago. I was traveling down I95 in Ct. on fine summer day, windows open, enjoying the breeze when I hear a car coming up on my left making a LOUD ticking noise. The car passes and when it's about 50-100 ft in front I hear a bang see the car shudder and all sorts of fluid and metal parts spew out from underneath. I swerved out of the way and pulled over to help. The engine had "exploded". The driver told me that the oil light had come on few miles earlier and thought that he could make the next rest stop - 25 miles away.