My favorite trailer stories are the ones that involve people towing
trailers that are WAY to BIG for the tow vehicle.
I ended up towing a 12,000# (rated load) triple-axle low-boy with a F*&d
Bronco that my boss owned. I did try to tell him that I thought it was too
much trailer, but he said "just take it slow". I luckily never ended up in
the ditch, but it was by pure luck that I didn't. The trailer was way too
heavy and way too long to be pulling with that Bronco. There was more than
one or two very tense moments on that trip.
I was headed up through Northern Arizona about three years ago where we
spent three hours in a traffic jam. A guy in a Geo Tracker (or whatever
they call the 4-door version) had been attempting to tow a 20+ foot long
camper trailer. The trailer easily outweighed the tow vehicle (probably by
at least a ton). To make a long story short, on the way down a mildly
steep canyon road, the trailer decided not to follow the tow vehicle and
proceeded to push the tow vehicle into the oncoming lane of traffic where
it met an oncoming semi-truck which drove it back into the trailer it was
towing and pushed the whole mess over a 90 foot embankment into the stream
below. Not much left. You could only tell it was a Tracker because the
trailer had partially disintegrated on the trip down the hill.
Kevin Lake
56 GMC Suburban/napco
----------
> From: MarkNoakes@aol.com
> To: oletrucks@autox.team.net
> Subject: [oletrucks] Trailer safety
> Date: Monday, May 03, 1999 6:25 PM
>
> 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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