This is the exact reason that I went to Imperial Trailers in Olney,
Illinois and bought a dual axle with brakes on all four wheels to do my
truck and car hauling.
Jim V.
'58 GMC Suburban Carrier Pickup - V8 Automatic
At 09:25 PM 5/3/99 Monday -0400, MarkNoakes@aol.com wrote:
>I was talking to someone from the list about hauling trucks on trailers and
>thought that this story from years ago might help calibrate you guys to be as
>careful as possilbe.
>
>Brian and my youngest brother Scott were moving a trailer load of junk for
>their employer, who I consider to be a real nut, as well as rather careless.
>Brian and Scott were young and wouldn't oppose their boss even though they
>knew they were overloaded. The trailer was loaded with a big old car stuffed
>with a bunch of other junk and being pulled behind a van that was also loaded
>down. They were driving through the hills in Alabama on their way from GA to
>MS. To make a long story shorter, on the way down the road the trailer axle
>broke, the wheel flew off, the stub dug in, and the van and loaded trailer
>got jerked off the road and did a barrel roll off of a cliff (if a 45 degree
>bank counts as a cliff). It was about 60-ft down to water, but after the
>first complete roll and about 30-ft down, they hung on the only tree on the
>whole bank just between the van and the loaded trailer (the car stayed on the
>trailer for the whole ride; it was strapped down tight); the trailer hitch
>snapped but the chains held and they came to a stop with minor injuries from
>junk flying around inside. It took them quite a while to climb out to the
>top. Brian got to a phone and called my parents and in a typical
>understatement said something about running off the road and having a little
>accident and would they please come get them. My mom literally got sick when
>she saw the "little accident" and what would have happened if the tree hadn't
>been there and if it hadn't caught on the trailer chains.
>
>Definitely don't overload your car trailer! Our old trucks are heavy and car
>trailers these days are pretty light duty; please be careful out there.
>
>Mark Noakes
>58/56 Suburban
>Knoxville, TN
>oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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