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Big Towing Boo Boo
I figured I might as well fess up right now, because at the end of
the day today, I ended up in the same campground as the guy from TN
with the new to him Liberty! Yep, you guessed it, Jon himself. I
would have given anything to end up somewhere else, but nothing I
could do, there he was.I sold my Avalanche and bought a Dodge Dakota to tow. Installed
the lights, base plates and M & G braking and all was good to go.
Hooked up this morning, checked everything and away we went to Myrtle
Beach. One hour into the trip the Pressure Pro goes off telling me I
have high pressure on the left front Dodge tire. So I stopped and
checked it out, everything looked good. Reset the Pressure Pro
monitor and turned off the high pressure alert thinking something was
out of whack, the pressure was 45 and normal being 36 I thought no
big deal, it’s over 80 degree’s and pressure increases with heat.250 miles later I pull into the campground and noticed in the
mirror the Dodge tires didn’t seem to be tracking with the turn.
Well, they won’t turn when the steering is still locked! My fault,
the Dodge ignition has to be in a different position than the
Avalanche and I now will have the pleasure of buying two new tires in
the morning, mine seem to be bald!!!!!!What makes this even worse, here’s Jon with his camera and you
know where the pictures are headed. So, since he goes to bed at 8:30,
listening to the best of the Lawrence Welk, I had the chance to come
clean before he gets back on the site.You’re too late big boy, I beat you to it……..
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16 Replies
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Tom… you know Jon will be way harsh on you for your boo boo… but if it makes you feel any better at all we have done almost the same thing… some time back we towed a Jeep Grand Cherokee about 175 miles with the steering locked… cost us one new tire… the roads were wet and I guess it slid most of the way… LOL
He’ll NEVER let you live this down so get ready…. y’all have fun in Myrtle Beach… wish we could have been there.
Cheers to you all,
Diane
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OK newbies………here is a lesson.
Pilots who fly retractable gear planes are described as “those who have” and “those who will”. We who tow can be described the same way, and poor old Tom is not alone. Yours truly found out an H2 Hummer (all 6700 pounds of it) can be dragged with the brakes locked, resulting in tires perfectly flat on the bottom.
I guess this message isn’t just for newbies, but for all of us.
We all undoubtedly use a mental or printed checklist when hooking up the toad. The problem is if we get distracted, do something out of sequence, or make a mistake the results end up being tires flat on the bottom like mine, or scuffed to the cords like Tom’s, or worse. As soon as I knew about his mishap I knew exactly how he was about to beat himself up, and I also knew that while it is easy and fun to break his chops about this, I also knew that experience is no guarantee it will not happen to me, or Tom or any one of us unless we check, double check, and then check again to make sure our steering wheel is turning, our wheels are rolling and everything is good.
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Diane,
As you can see, Jon boy went easy on me and turned it into a
lesson on not being distracted when hooking up the toad. Many times I
have ignored people around me talking while I’m hooking up probably
thinking I was rude, but like Jon, the pilot in me shut everything
out while doing the pre-flight/pre-tow. In this situation, I ignored
the warning signs of the Pressure Pro thinking the tire temps were
normal.So, lesson learned, note to self… Pay attention to what doesn’t
seem normal.Also, most cars/trucks probably have a different procedure for
towing and attention to the owners manual is critical. One key
position off caused me all this aggravation. -
I think that everyone who has owned a coach for a number of years has done something that they would rather
their buddies not know about!
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Yep, it’s real easy to do. Distraction seems to be amajor player, although a different vehicle requiring a different routine will certainly throgh a wrench into the works.
I managed to tow our Jeep Liberty about six feet with the parking brake on. Luckily, Janice always watches the first few feet of travel after a light check and caught it as I dragged the rear tires accross gravel. No damage, but it was an excellent reminder.
Don’t feel too bad Tom…. could have been much worse…. and much more expensive to correct!
See ya in Myrtle Beach!
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FWIW….with our small storage business in KC we have narrowed the rental to diesel pushers . I can only hope when a new renter takes one of the stalls he is careful with our bldg.
With the bldg tour I have seen lots of people come and go in 10 + years. My last bit of conversation is eye ball to eye
ball. I ask for a favor and a promise. Please…. please before moving your coach in or out …..do me one little thing. Walk around your coach ! Just do a 360 ….. OK, Promise, OK and a hand shake.
With no if and’s or— but’s… every accident and there have been 3 major could of been prevented if they would of walked around the coach before punching “D” or “R”.
By far the the worst one was a Holiday Rambler with the rear bedroom slid extended and the owner drove from outside to inside. There are no safety switches or alarms on HR’s. Major bldg damage of course major, major rear bed-room slide damage. Posts are in front of the doors and when luck disappears your slid clears the top of the post by no more then 1 inch.
I have posted this slide accident before but with all due respect ……it’s worth repeating.
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I had an “OOPS” with my new to me Jeep GC and confessed to Jon almost immediately because I knew it would make me feel better and also cause me a minor amount of embarrasement, and that being a bitter but lasting reminder. That said, in my nearly 40 yrs of Railroad Operations, sleep and distraction from ones required and knowledgeable duties were and still is the major cause of “Incidents”. We could not test/educate enough but we certainly tried. Maybe the best process is a very small card of some sort , such as Pilots use to do a Departure/Arrival check. Not so much as to be cumbersome, just the hightlights. Each person has their limits on what they will skip, so Human Error will always be a factor. Just my $3 worth.
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Wow! That video hurts!
DKO
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Tom: Don’t let Jon bug you too much…just ask him about the emergency brake on his pickup last year at Prevost TN when he was leaving…
In all fairness, I was talking to him while he was getting ready to depart and likely messed up his concentration. No tires needed to be bought as they only dragged for about 30 feet or so until I got him stopped.
The lack of a steering wheel lock is one of the great things about the Tahoe for towing, that along with the neutral position of the transfer case. I am sure I will do something similar in the future, but there is less to screw up with my combination so it may take longer…
So, how are things in MB??
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I even posted this nightmare in the wrong place, so I moved it.
Good time at Myrtle Beach Mark, lots of sunshine, warm temps and coaches. Royale has about 38 here and I believe there are 6 of us visitors. I really liked the information about Jon and his emergency brake, that one has not surfaced before, so good job.
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I had forgotten that little mishap because there was no harm. However there could have been had Mark not stopped me. But it is an example of how easily a distraction breaks the normal sequence of events when hooking a toad.
BTW, this not only relates to hooking up toads because as Al points out a driver of the motorhome like ours can do the same caliber of no-no’s and we have seen picnic tables run over, electric pedestals pulled down and awnings knocked off.
Mark, don’t give Truk information like that. he just feeds on stuff like that. He’s already breaking my chops because we didn’t bring a toad and he’s my ride.
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Distractions are a recipe for disaster when I am hooking up the toad or trailer. I have to do everything the same way every time or I am prone to make a mistake.
There is one thing I do that helps me catch something I may have overlooked. After everything is hooked up and ready to roll I have my wife pull the bus forward about 6-8 feet while I am outside making sure all wheels are rolling and the steering is free. I have caught several mistakes by doing that.
DKO
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Mark, don’t give Truk information like that. he just feeds on stuff like that. He’s already breaking my chops because we didn’t bring a toad and he’s my ride.
Ok, I won’t do that again! I am sure it was my fault anyway because I broke your concentration..
Must be nice to have a driver at your command while you are there..
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Mark,
Where would you like me to send the check for that valuable information you provided?
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