You ever seen this guy

[turnkey4099]

Along about midnight one night I hear one H of a racket coming up the highway past my place. Got a flash of 18 wheeler lights going by. Only 4 miles to town so called the Sheriff's Offic and had a deputy stop him. He just barely got him stopped just before hitting the RR tracks in the middle of town. It was a gasoline tanker and his jacks had dropped. How he couldn't hear that in the cab I'll never understand.

Harry K

 

[texasjohn]

Well, let me tell you about my trip from H to the cattle auction.

I checked the trailer and pickup tires and two spares, one for trailer, one for pickup. All tires were reasonable and rims are interchangeable between pickup and trailer.

I loaded my 24' dual axle gooseneck trailer to the gills with cattle, probably 12 cows at 1200 lbs each. About 8 AM start time. One mile from the house I did my usual stop and check before getting on a high speed road. One flat on trailer, tire is destroyed, reason unknown.

If you haven't tried to change a flat with loaded moving stock, you haven't lived. Took about 1 hour to get tire changed.

Off again to auction about 45 miles away. Thirty miles later another flat at 50 MPH, which put too much weight on other tire on that side andresulted in destroying two tires on same side of trailer. With Only one spare left, this won't work considering the load on the trailer.

A good samaritan rancher returning from the auction came by with smaller trailer. We off loaded half of my stock into his trailer and took off for the auction. He told me that he understood the problem, having already had a flat on his trailer this morning before he loaded out . Five miles down the road HE had a flat on the front of his pickup. He had already used his spare, thus he ran on the rim pulling the trailer 10 miles into town where we found a place selling used tires. But, they didn't mount tires... so, he pulled out tire mounting tools from his pickup and changed his own tire. I was stunned, his rim was NOT damaged. We delivered that load of stock to the auction, returned to my pickup/trailer, loaded the remainder into his trailer and successfully delivered them to the auction.

It is now 1PM in Texas, in Ausugt, 104 degrees, bright sun, no clouds, I'm not kidding. I got back to my trailer thanked the samaratin and sent him on his way, then sought to install my remaining spare tire on the trailer. Lug nuts were completely frozen from insensitive use of impact wrench. I struggled for over an hour on the slanted road side to get the tire changed and finally succceeded... I never blacked out from heat stroke, but would get so dizzy that I had to stop every couple of minutes and rest for about 5. Finally I got the spare installed, pulled the trailer with one remaining flat flopping all around and shedding rubber all over the 10 miles of road into town where I was barely able to locate spare used tires at a place that would mount them.

I consider myself a careful person who prepares for the unexpected, but this proved to me that you can never be completely prepared.

I didn't knowingly drag sparks down the road, but did sling rubber when it was absolutely necessary. I got home completely exhausted but I did have three newer tires on rims ready for the next adventure!

 

[oliver28472]

Years ago living in another town east of here I was on the way home from the office. Saw one of the local auctioneer's dually pickups on the side of the road in front of my neighbor's house. Hooked to it was a gooseneck flatbed with dovetail loaded with a ton Chevy flatbed loaded with junk farm equipment. The Chevy on the trailer had flats on the right side. The trailer it was sitting on lost both singles on the right side due to loose lugs and just eased over as far as possible to the side of the road. The driver called the auctioneer (boss man). Boss man drove up and was sitting in a state patrol car with lights flashing behind the trailer and they got rear ended by some fool in a Dakota. I asked boss man later if he was wearing a seat belt when they got hit. He failed to see the humor.

 

[LeadPoison]

I was driving North on 61 through southern Mississippi when I saw a truck and trailer smoking on the south bound side. Trailer was filled with a mattress set and partical board furniture. Turns out the driver flicked his cigarette butt out the window and ignited the mattress. Within seconds we had quite the show. It got so hot so quick he ddn't even have time to unhitch the trailer. Karma is a *****.

 

[RobertN]

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.

Sadly, that was my Dad. Not that instance, but same thing(albeit with all four tires on the trailer, new in fact).

My Dad wanted to use my tractor. He lives about 20 miles away. I did not have a trailer at the time; he arranged to borrow a trailer. He was to tow it up here behind his Dakota, and then we would switch the trailer over to my 3/4 ton. then I would tow the tractor to his place.

Oh my!

He gets here. He had heard a thump on the way through our private roads. Well, we have a couple speed bumps... The trailer had bounced off the ball, and landed on the bumper. Turns out, he put the 2-5/16 trailer hitch on a 2" ball mounted to his back bumper(no reciever hitch). The trailer had no brakes, and the trailer lights wiring was a rats nest. It had only one safety chain.

Needless to say, I:
1 - Don't let my Dad tow any more
2 - Bought my own trailer, with correct size ball and trailer brakes
3 - Tow my own stuff, myself
4 - Do a walk around every time I tow; check lights, tires, tire pressure, electric brake check.
5 - I am also very particular to hook up my own trailers and double check wiring, safety chains, hitch lock etc. I have had need to rent equipment and trailers; the yard guys think I'm rude sometimes when I double check everything they just hooked up to my truck.

What bothers me, is my Dad used to tow farm equipment, races cars, cattle, grain etc growing up on the ranch. He know's how to secure a load very well. Apparently does not know how to size a trailer ball though...

I tow our Scout Troop trailer frequently; 14' enclosed dual axle with electric brakes. Other adults will try to help me hook up, but I curteously say no; I hook up and double check everything myself.

 

[EddieWalker]

My Dad is the same way. He's 70 years old now and his mistakes and oversights are starting to become fairly common. I'm afraid to drive with him and we have to invent excuses to avoid goint out to eat with them when the visit because his driving is so bad. No accidents yet, but between his speeding up and braking, combined with my Mom yelling at him, it's no fun for anybody.

He focusses on just one thing and I think he has tunnel vision. He was towing the trailer from California to here in East Texas and had tires falling off the trailer. He has so much power in the RV that he didn't know it had happened, but he never looked at both mirrors to check either. One time it looked like there was going to be a fire. Smoke everywhere, I'm honking the horn at him and flashing the lights. He never noticed anything. I had to pull in front of him and stop him. He wouldn't admit it, but I think he forgot he was towing the trailer and focused on the road ahead.

Eddie

 

[KubotaSteve]

When my dad bought his car trailer, my uncle told him he needed to replace the safety chains with a lighter grade chain. He said if something breaks, you don't want that trailer to wreck you so the chains will snap and your truck will be free. Of course dad just looked at him like he was crazy and said I'd rather keep the trailer behind me than let it break away and kill someone else.

 

[DUMBDOG]

My cousin had a flat on his trailer, no spare, left the trailer at the side of the road. When he came back with a spare, the trailer was gone.

 

[varmint]

I have two stories, from the 70's and both in the midwest. A friend had just purchased a new Datsun 510, modified for "sports sedan racing" from the get-go... I can't recall the Datsun affilate that did the work, but it was white with a wide blue racing strip, header, side draft carbs, some suspension mods, but all perfectly legal for road use. I guess it was an early rice rocket, but very light and agile, compared to the muscle cars that available at the time. We were headed down I-65 in Indiana, minding our business, when some yokels in a newish tricked-out Chrysler muscle car came roaring up alongside, gave us the finger, and blasted on down the road under max hemi power. When they were maybe 200 yards away, there was a solid whump, black smoke and a major oil slick and metal debris... they coasted to a stop on the side of the road, engine blown. We waved. The other, much more expensive incident was on I-78 in southern Michigan... Someone was pulling a big excavator on a lowboy down the interstate. The truck was on the far side of a four lane underpass, the excavator was stuck under the bridge on the incoming side, sitting on the highway, and the bridge itself was moved a bit off it's pylons. Luckily, the highway was still open.

 

[LBrown59]

I have two stories, from the 70's and both in the midwest. A friend had just purchased a new Datsun 510, modified for "sports sedan racing" from the get-go... I can't recall the Datsun affilate that did the work, but it was white with a wide blue racing strip, header, side draft carbs, some suspension mods, but all perfectly legal for road use. I guess it was an early rice rocket, but very light and agile, compared to the muscle cars that available at the time. We were headed down I-65 in Indiana, minding our business, when some yokels in a newish tricked-out Chrysler muscle car came roaring up alongside, gave us the finger, and blasted on down the road under max hemi power. When they were maybe 200 yards away, there was a solid whump, black smoke and a major oil slick and metal debris... they coasted to a stop on the side of the road, engine blown. We waved. The other, much more expensive incident was on I-78 in southern Michigan... Someone was pulling a big excavator on a lowboy down the interstate. The truck was on the far side of a four lane underpass, the excavator was stuck under the bridge on the incoming side, sitting on the highway, and the bridge itself was moved a bit off it's pylons. Luckily, the highway was still open.

I had a 1970 510 .It was several years old at the time.