I agree with you on the expedition comment - most of those were caused by
panic attacks, or insurance collection attempts. Trailer's can be a
different story, and it all depends on the situation, and load / weight of
the trailer and tow vehicle. I've had numerous blow-outs on both 2 and 4
wheel trailers and almost all of them are not eventful, besides being a big
pain in the @&$$. Other times it seems there is a combination of problems
that can cause really wild rides. Once I was pulling a load of sheet metal
for a new barn, big tandem trailer, but no brakes and big suburban, so
everything was set - loaded up the trailer, and I'm, guessing that the
trailer and load was probably equal if not a little greater than the
suburban, but it pulled and felt OK. Did some test turns and brakes with no
problems. On the way home, there is a large hill with fairly rough pavement
and after topping out and heading down the other side the trailer begins to
sway violently, I'm already going about 50 when it starts, and since it is
downhill braking only makes it worse, The trailer actually starts sliding
the back end of the suburban around. We ended up in the median with some
very nice new body damage to my father-in-laws suburban and a dire need for
a change of shorts. Best I could tell is that the sheet metal had shifted
back on the hill going up, and so we lost any tongue weight, and at some
point a tire blew at the top of the hill or on the way down which made the
swaying more uncontrollable. The good thing is there was no other traffic
on the road, because I had no control of the load, and could only try and
ride it out. Needless to say if there had been E brakes on the trailer it
would not have been an issue.
As long as nothing goes wrong, you can do anything!
-----Original Message-----
From: shop-talk-bounces+rs1121=earthlink.net@autox.team.net
[mailto:shop-talk-bounces+rs1121=earthlink.net@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of
Randall
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 5:54 AM
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] trailer advice needed
Quoth Mullen, Tim
> Nothing like
> experiencing a blow out of a tire on a loaded single axle
> trailer at 65 MPH on the freeway in heavy traffic
Just curious, Tim, what happened ? I've had blowouts several times now on
single-axle trailers with very little drama. Happened to Dad once when I
was a teenager and I had to tell him about the tire smoke chasing us down
the highway. Last time it happened to me, the biggest drama was whether my
out-weighed tow vehicle had enough traction to pull the trailer through the
gravel median to a safe place to change it.
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