You ever seen this guy

[mjarrels]

I'm guilty... I have a old trailer built from a 1970 GMC pickup and a heavy duty frame (two ton truck). It has a 10 ply tire on one side and a 12 ply tire on the other side... without air, they stand tall. Towed a load to the dump a few years ago at about 30 mph... scared the he@@ out of me. Never again.
I can put "tons" of dirt in this thing without the tires going flat.

mark

 

[Renze]

About 3 months ago, when i was driving my 1995 Volvo 440 turbodiesel, (with 335.000 km) for the last week, it dropped the exhaust again. I got handy with this so i just parked up a kerb stone in town, giving enough clearance to crawl under it on my back and hook it back into the suspension rubbers, like i did at least 2 times a week in the last month i had this car. This time i noticed that the suspension rubber was runing on its last legs, it cracked badly.

When i continued, shortly after i re mounted it, the exhaust dropped to the road surface on the middle of a crowded interstate. Because i was determined to not spend a penny on this car anymore and buy something better within the week, i had absolutely no intentions of stopping and calling the breakdown service.

The exhaust pipe scraping over the asphalt caused lots of sparks, it wasnt just the metal that sparked, but more the carbon buildup in the Diesel exhaust pipe that heated up and came loose....

Many idiots slowed down next to me, honking the horn and blinking their lights, pointing their fingers under my car... Man, do these people really think that i didnt notice the scraping noise and the sparks behind me ??
anyways, i decided to be polite and wave at them, nodding my head "yes i know" and sticking thumbs up, that i understood that they saw something unusual but that i was aware of it and i didnt bother. On the face of some folks i could read that they were aggrevated that i didnt give the respond to them, hopping in their car like monkeys, as they expected me to.... Well.. i decided to stay polite and just smile at them thumbs up.... though innerly i was getting very, very aggrevated of all the attention i got from the other folks on the road.
Right now, i am still amused by what folks do to get your attention....

 

[mars1952]

I have three trailer stories.

1) I was towing my JD 4300 on my 7500 GVW car hauler with my Ford F350 Super Duty. I was pulling a long grade on a 5 lane road and I noticed that the cars that were passing me gave me a very wide berth. Most of them passed me in the turning lane. I thought "Whats their problem". I check the trailer in the mirrors and couldn't see anything so I craned my neck to see the trailer tires in the mirror. The right rear wheel on the trailer was tilted at about 30 degrees and looked like it might fall off at any second. I stopped, checked the wheel, and then drove home about 5 miles at 20 MPH. I later changed out both axles with 6000 lb axles, new 6 ply tires and brakes on all 4 wheels.

2) When I was about 20 I worked for Howard Johnson's Restaurants. My boss wanted me to move a 12 ft long illuminated sign to a different store. I only had a small Toyota with a tool box on the back so I had to rent a trailer from a local garage. When he hooked up the trailer I noticed that there were no safety chains. When I commented on this he said they weren't mandatory and I would be OK without them. I was young and dumb and he was old and experienced so I went on my way.
Half way between restaurants with the very expensive sign on the trailer. I noticed that a trailer with a sign that was very similar to mine was passing me on the left. The trailer continued on unguided and plowed into the median through about 12 inches of snow. When the trailer came to a stop the sign kept going hit the snow and kept going for a while.
I was frantically worried about my job since I had a new wife and baby at home. I drug the trailer out of the snow by hand and carried and loaded the sign on the trailer by myself. The sign was cracked by not as bad as you might think. Luckily my boss had a sense of humor.

3) I was driving down a long 7% grade here in NC and I was following a truck that was pulling a lightly loaded car hauler. The grade was several miles long and the truck that I was following had his brake lights on the whole way down the hill. The first thing I noticed was the burned smell. Then I noticed the billows of smoke coming from the trailers brakes. I was also towing a loaded trailer but I had down shifted out of overdrive and I hadn't had to use my brakes at all. I bet the guy wonders why his trailer brakes wear out so fast.

Good Luck, Marshall

 

[stayalert]

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.

I'm surprised he didn't put his family in the camper "now stay in the front like I told you" for ballast..