Adventures in Trailer towing. My own dumb fault

[tractorface]

So I’m comin home from the store with way too much Drywall on my dinky POS trailer. 38 sheets of 4x12x1/2 along with some lumbar and a truck full of insulation. I had just stopped worrying about the semi-dry rotted trailer tires blowing out when I look in my mirror and see one of the tires trying to overtake me as I get ready to head up the next to last big hill, two miles from the house. Quickly I realize it is my tire trying to make the pass and I let off the throttle and coast to a stop. Hmmm, Just lost my tire and the spare lasted 60 yards as a ski when the left side of the trailer hit the asphalt. Two miles from home without my cell phone ( I was only gonna be gone for an hour)……………………. I did what any self respecting bombed CTD owner would do……I drug the trailer the rest of the way home……really fast cause I did not want anyone to see the ditch I was makin. :-laf



So I get to my driveway and of course I ain’t gonna back this thing into my driveway (its only a year old!) So I get the Bright Idea to go back and look for my tire. Short time later I arrive home with my damaged tire in the back of the wifes car, install and back into the garage where I can slowly unload the drywall for the basement.

The worst part is, I am always worried about stuff like this happening so I had just changed the really dry rotted tire out for the spare just before I left. See the tire is hard to tighten without a load on the trailer cause it just spins. My own dumb fault.



Tip to pass on. Mount your spare in such a way that it does not become a ski when you lose a tire. All this after blowing a fuse on my FASS leaving Home Depot (bad connection)

 

[Blu-meanie]

Sounds like a perfectly normal day to me.

 

[DavidC]

Can't wait for the next trip :-laf .

Hope the drywall goes better. If you like I can send any relevant information for a beneficiary.



Dave

 

[tractorface]

I am smart enough to hire a professional to Hang and finish the drywall :-laf :-laf Shoulda got a trucker to haul it I guess.



I may rent the rig out on weekends to road crews doing trenching. Way faster than most I have seen :-laf

Yes I do feel bad about the road

 

[rashwor]

Seeing your own tire passing you...

First of tractorface... ROFLMAO!!! Big time! :-laf I am sorry for your eventful day, but it gave me a good laugh. Thanks man!



You reminded me of an experience I had several years back. I was going to take a load of calves to the auction for my father. A family friend was going to tow a second load for us using their trailer.



All went well. We got both trailers loaded and got on the road. About 6 miles after leaving my father's place with a load, the friend is following begins to flash his lights which I notice in my side mirrors, so I pull over. Seems that earlier that afternoon, my father had changed out one of the tires on the trailer for fear it might have a flat (I am not knocking my father... I have done much more stupid things than he has). He failed to securely tighten the lug nuts. I never saw it leave the trailer, but the friend did. It sailed across the road, out through the ditch, and took out a small tree on a fence row before coming to rest. There was a man mowing in the pasture and if it had not been for the small tree, the wheel might have done more than cause him to **** his pants. The friend stopped and picked it up and then proceeded to catch up with me.



We took the spare off my trailer and put it on the ground (lug holes "wollared" (redneck term meaning "to enlarge")) to bad in the wheel that came off to use) and stole enough lugnuts randomly from the remaining wheels to make it work and finish the task.



It is kind of funny until you realize that someone could have lost their life.

 

[tractorface]

I agree

I can laugh only my because my stupid stunt did not harm anyone. There was a car coming the other way and I used my best hand gestures to "steer" the tire out of his path before disaster struck. Not sure a dinky 13" tire and wheel would have done anything but cause my insurance to go up, but glad it followed my command and veered off anyway. Ahh, which reminds me.

Many years ago my wife was following me up the road on my way to drop my old Ford off at the inspection station. A Farm tagged truck in front of me dropped its spare and I ran it over doing considerable damage to the underside of my beautiful 79' Ford. It bounced out and struck the wife's car on the Hood and Roof causing even more damage to her Toyota. I managed to stop the Farm Boy and noticed the wife's car way back not moving. I sprinted to her rescue only to find her Rasslin the huge tire into the Front seat of her Toyota. When I asked what in the hell she was doing she smiled and said "I was pickin up your tire for ya honey" I knew early on she was the one for me. We still laugh about that! :-laf She saw it shoot out from under my truck and figured it was mine. Cannot imagine what the insurance agent thought

It's good to laugh :-laf

 

[LesStallings]

I've been amazed that almost everytime I check the torque on my trailer tires, atleast one lug nut takes another part turn.



Yea, I've got six trailer wheels, but you would think that after a while they would seat in and not take anymore torque.



Part of my towing tool box is now a cheap torque wrench and a 13/16" deep socket.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

I've had days like that!



thanks for the laugh!!!!

 

[TAllen]

As long as we're telling truckin stories. Years ago I was driveing my dumptrailer southbound on an interstate in New York, grossing around 120,000lbs(I had an overweight permit). I was probably going 60 on a 3 lane highway. As I remember it was mid morning, when I looked in my left mirror I saw a tire in the center lane following me. My left side tires looked fine. When I looked in my right mirror I knew I had a problem with the back axle on the trailer. I slowed down and the tire passed me with a guy in a VW right behind it, trying to run it down I think. The tire went from the right lane where I was to the center lane to the left lane, down a 20ft bank, through the median(about 100ft) and south on the northbound side. The tire missed about 4 or 5 cars, crossed all three lanes and rolled along the guardrail on the other side to a stop. There was an exit about 1/4 mile ahead, so I eased off the exit. My friend came by a few minutes later and he helped me put my spare on and away I went. About 2 hours later on the way back I stopped and got my tire. I still can't believe that it never hit anything.



Tim

 

[BDMiller]

A couple years back I had to tow an old VW to the junk yard. Well a few miles into the trip I felt a bump & looked back to see three tires bouncing around the road, rolling off on their own, & generally escaping. Never found one of them. Well I lost all the lug nuts so I just dragged it the rest of the way. I was on a rural road so there wasn't too much traffic but whenever I would see another vehical I would pull over & pretend it just happened. I would do my best surprised/p***ed off face. Once the car passed I would return to dragging. It made a lot of noise & the junk yard guys heard me coming so they were ready when I arrived. It left a tiny little groove in the road...

 

[2broke2smoke]

Sounds like a perfectly normal day to me.

amen brother

 

[EB]

This is another one from someone who should know better. Got a call from my dispatcher last Sunday night to go to Houston and pick up a trailer from a company and take it to an oil rig. First of all, I don't like pulling other peoples equiptment, it was late at night and it was raining. I got there and backed under it got hooked up, light and brakes were OK, but the pin didn't go all the way through and latch. The guy that let me in the yard tells me that he pulls it like that all the time, no problems. I said OK, that was my second mistake. The trailer was about a 25 ft G/N with tandem axles with a control house on the back and nothing in the front, can anyone see what is about to happen? Got on the Houston Beltway and was tooling along about 60 mph, went over what I call a woop-t-do, look back and see the belly of the trailer just as it snaps those useless safety chains. What happened next was a lot of luck and some experience. When it came unhooked, I let off and it slid into me and I was able to stay in contact with it and guide it off and onto the shoulder and against the barrier. I made some calls and by the time the hand from the tool yard got there I had it hooked up, come to find out that they usually have 4 or 5000 lbs on the front of the trailer when they pull it. Other than tearing up the light hookup nothing was any the worse for wear, the tool hand had to follow me to the rig with his flashers on. Like I said, we were lucky, all this took place between midnight and 6AM, no police, no other traffic involved, just a lot longer night that it should have been. Oh, the pin was bent and wouldn't go all the way through. A sledge hammer and a 1 1/2" bolt fixed that problem, it latches now, needless to say, I should have known better and fixed that before I left the yard.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

I did what any self respecting bombed CTD owner would do……I drug the trailer the rest of the way home

Heck yeah ! Spoken Like a man with a mission Did that with a U-Mahl trailer a few years ago only the brakes had locked up and I whaled away at the piston and she would not let go ... . so I made her GO... . back to the lot the hard way LOL!

 

[tractorface]

Good to see I have company :-laf

Many years ago when younger two of us were running and empty concrete cart back to the rental place in a company truck and it did not like going over 30 or so. Well you guessed it at 50 or so it turned on its side and rode the rest of the way like that. Boy was the boss mad when he got the bill :-laf

 

[dclassens]

I feel the pain. I had to drive a fairly large front end loader(Hough) from job site to shop. While I was wheeling along on the side of the road, I started to see large nuts, lots of them bouncing next to me. Luckily the large tire didn't come off and I used the bucket to pick the front end up. Reinstalled the nuts and fixed the problem. I had no real problems but the "What Ifs" were flying through my head for weeks.

 

[tractorface]

Another story

A friend used to tell a story about towing a Firebird up 95 and around the beltway with an AMC spirit. His brother drove the spirit and my Friend sat in the firebird and attempted to steer. Used a strap between the two. The firebird had some serious damage to the front end and did not ride straight. With the damage and the heavy car behind the lighter one it was a real trick. Apparently the only reason they even made it was the fact that it was raining and the firebird skidded along on the wet roads. Everytime they went through an underpass they needed diaper changes from the Bird trying to yank the spirit around. They even got stopped by a cop who let them go after they got some lights going on the Bird. Being an Electrician my buddy was able to tie the firebirds lights into the Spirit long enough to get home.



Please don't judge me by the Friends I keep :-laf :-laf