Towing Disaster Stories

[jkalchik]

3 years ago, this coming summer, I was towing a brand new pop-up camper (ink was barely dry on the check!) across southern MI on I-69 at around 70mph. Middle of a bright sunny Sunday afternoon in May.



A doe came running up out of the ditch, right along my Jeep Cherokee (lifted 6" w/ 31" MT/Rs. ) 2 lane freeway, someone is right along side me, and right behind the trailer so I can't change lanes and I can't hit the brakes hard either.



Popped her with the right front corner of the trailer at speed. Killed her instantly. My g/f could have leaned out of the passenger window and brained the darned thing.



The whole right front corner of the camper was wiped out. Even got a nick in the roof cap from her hooves. The insurance company almost totalled out a 2 week old camper. And it still took freakin' 14 weeks to get it fixed. Roof, right side panel, front fascia, right front bed support, all the trim and cabinetry in the right front corner.

 

[SleeStack]

Had a close call yesterday hauling some steel from Dallas to Albuquerque. We had my 18 foot 2axle pull behind utility trailer with about 3000 lbs of steel tubing (fabrication stuff for my 4x4's) hooked up to my 3500 SRW shorty. When we first had the steel loaded (24 ft lengths of pipe) it had about 6 ft overhanging the end of the trailer. It was kinda dark in the "inside" steel yard so I didn't notice that there wasn't alot of tongue weight on the truck. We pulled out on the interstate to head back and had severe trailer wag at about 45 mph. Promptly went back to the yard and reloaded the trailer by sliding all the steel up through the front flush with the lift jack This gave me about 500 lbs or so of tongue weight and settled things down dramatically. It had some sway at 70 mph on the downhills but was pretty stable. Disaster avoided thankfully.

 

[bmoeller]

Last year, I saw a guy that was pulling doubles. The back trailer let go and went into the ditch. Must not have had the pintle pinned, or something. The pintle looked to still be on the front trailer.

 

[jnelson]

The worst towing disaster I have ever seen is still happening. Its called Swift Transportation.

 

[Sled Puller]

I HATE those Swift trucks!!

 

[Tcolesanti]

Why was the Swift driver lost in the hardware store for two hours???











He was looking for his CB handle!!!! :-laf :-laf :-laf :-laf :-laf

 

[bmoeller]

:-laf :-laf

 

[jnelson]

Trucker 1 - "Watch out south bound, theres a big chunk of metal laying in the hammer lane"



Trucker 2 - "What's the yard stick on that chunck of metal?"



Trucker 1 - "Never mind - its just a Swift truck"

 

[BStoecker]

I heard one the other day on the CB that about put me in the ditch.



What does a Swift truck cab and a pair of women's panties have in common? They both are made to hold a pu**y.



I about wrecked I was laughing so hard.

 

[Peter Campbell]

Slow

Wagon

In

Front

Towing

 

[cwcox]

SWIFT, and my own special moments in tow!

First off, the name SWIFT officially stands for "Sure Wish I'd Finished Training".

I have done a lot of towing. I'm 42, and have been actively behind the wheel and towing since I was 10. This usually means that I am on my game and operate in a safe manner. Usually!

Once while preparing to load my wifes inoperative "new" car onto my flatbed for another return trip to the dealer, I was very excited to ease up onto the ramps and then watch as the tongue did it's own version of a NASA launch. Nicely gouging a perfect "V" up through my tailgate. Did I stop there, inspect the situation, and move the truck forward? No, I just backed up and watched the tongue perform a delicate slice and dice on the return trip to my now in need of replacement bumper. Hmmmm. Not my best day. Supposed to actually "latch" that thing. eh? Of course, it only got sweeter as I realized after hooking everything back together, that regardless of how I shimmed, and adjusted ramps, and so on, her car was too low to the ground to actually fit on my trailer. "Hello, AAA? Do you offer a discount for dummies?"

Then there was the time I was delivering a large cabin cruiser for a dealer friend of mine. From here in Pittsburgh to Charlotte NC. Big boat, about 36/38 feet, twin big blocks, and huge tri axle trailer which had just been refinished by his shop. Should have been my first clue. I picked the rig up after hours cause his crew was behind schedule. Should have been my second clue. I latched up, checked the lights, verified that the cruiser was securely loaded to the trailer (I'm not STUPID you know), and headed for my house about five miles away. I figured I'd get a few hours of shut eye and leave out in the wee hours of the morning. Well, I made it to the twisty two lane I live on, and during a hard up hill pull (REAL HEAVY BOAT) I had my Cummins rockin! These things are so sweet to tow with! I'm diggin' on the sound when a small SUV comes by the other way, and as he passes by my rear fender, I watch as one of the trailer wheel assemblies flys off, bounces, and goes straight over his hood, and just misses his windshield on it's way down a huge freakin' embankment. Now that SUV never stopped, and I'll just assume they went straight to the car wash to hose off the driver's seat. Me, well I went for a hike in the dark, in the woods without a light (which was at home in the travel tool kit I would have loaded up in another five minutes!) until I found the wheel and tire. I spent the rest of the evening "remanufacturing the spindle and several lug studs. Oh sure, the bearing nut was loose, but so were most of the lug nuts! Off came every wheel, and every item was checked and repaired. Good thing I keep a well equipped shop. Needless to say, my friend and I had a nice discussion when I got home!

Be smart, be safe. Check it twice before you hit the road!

 

[abdiver]

guardian angel must have been with me that day.

When I was around 25, I borrowed a friends homemade flatbed trailer it was 16' long made from an old mobile home frame no brakes on it a real farm rig. I placed a really long fuel tank on it tank was around 25' long, had around 6' overhanging the rear. Well, I started home about 80 miles it towed fine on hwy 97 two lane road (at that time anyway) till I started down a long straight down hill grade not very steep but once rig got above 50 mph, trailer stated to sway back and forth. I slowly applied truck brakes, and tried to keep it all straight, well it really started to jack knife with that, so I quit applying the brakes. Tried to correct with steering wheel it only got worse, I could see an approaching vehicle coming up the hill towards me, at this time I was taking up both lanes of the road, Man I was steering to correct it and would lightly apply brakes when I was kinda straightened out. I would be slowing down but again the trailer would start pushing me all over the place. I am seeing fences on both sides of the road as I was going sideways down the road first sideways with front end pointed to the East then to the West, all over the place every time that damn trailer was pushing me all over the place. With an on coming car only thing I could do was hit the gas to straightened me out, but it increased my speed as if I could get the speed below 40 rig it handled OK. Once car was past me I would quit accelerating and I would be in worse shape again that trailer would swaying and I would repeat the entire process. I tried to slow it down and again the trailer would start swaying back and forth I again would try to keep it on the road and slow it down and I would again be 180s all over the place but I would slowly be bringing it all so a slower speed, till another car would approach then I would hit the gas to straightened me out. This went on about 3 more times till finally I got everything back under control. First thing I did was get off that hwy as I figured by now someone had called the law. I took a left at the next hwy and then drove the back way thru the desert to home. No damage to rig or trailer next morning while having breakfast I looked at the rear of the tank and saw a white mark left by a post that must have been one the side of the road. The following week I went back to the area and looked for that post it was about 20' off the roadway down a hill. Man my guardian angel must have been with me that day.



Lesson learned, Pay attention while towing doesn’t hurt to do the same thing when your not towing.

 

[RCoers]

I had a 92 Dodge 4x4 and tore the frame from backing a car trailer up a hill. The hitch had a lot of drop and this put an excessive amount of stress on the frame. Noticed the trailer tongue was just off the ground and found out that the corners of the frame rails had been torn and bent down.

 

[Red360]

Ball Size

Two years ago I forgot to verify the ball size as I have one trailer with a 2" ball and the other has a 2 5/16" ball. My hitch had the 2" installed and I hooked up to my, "thank God it was empty", 20' enclosed trailer which requires the larger ball. I started going down the hill to the main road and I noticed the enclosed trailer was "floating" behind the truck. Luckily, I had the safety chains on!!!! Unfortunately, the jack was AFU from being dragged in the road and I had the use a floor jack to get the trailer reconnected.

 

[playland123]

tilt trailer

The worst I ever saw was two guys unloading a tractor from a tilt bed trailer

they forgot to release the bed, so when they moved the tractor towards

the back of the trailer it tipped down and lifted the back end of truck off

the ground. With the backend up in the air ,"no brakes" the truck, trailer

and tractor rolled down a small hill and into some trees. The guy on the tractor jumped and was hurt a little. The truck took the worst damage.

 

[HOBrian]

the jack was AFU.

??? Oh! I just got it All ... ... up