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Ever have that “What the hell was that” moment?
I did! Coming south out of Mitchell SD I felt a jerk in the bus, first thought was that the tranny was acting up. Nope, looked at my rear view camera, my Ram 2500 toad is weaving around only on the safety cables . The pin in the receiver had disappeared.
We were incredibly lucky, slowed slowly so the pickup wouldn’t bang the back of the bus and got it on the shoulder. Did sideswipe a mail box with the pickup, but that was the only damage. Like I said incredibly lucky!
Couple more vodkas and my nerves will be fine.
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14 Replies
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Dan and Judy,
Glad that you both are OK. We have never had that happen and hope it never does.
What a shock to see that in your camera/mirrors.
Mark
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Dan,
Glad you were OK and limited damage. Back about 5 years ago Newmar had a bad batch of Hitches I forget the brand and several towds came completely off the RV as the safety chains were attached to the hitch.. In one case the story was the towd passed the RV on the shoulder or median.
Last Summer, talking to an RV resort owner off the Alaskian Highway.. some guy lost his jeep and couldnt find it. Road crew stumbled upon it 2 months later and he picked it up on his way out. -
Couple of years ago had the pin leave us. Luckily no damage but some road rash on the end of the tow bar. My fix was to use a grade 8 bolt with a self locking nut in place of a pin. Then removed the bolt for inspection yearly.
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We had the lock on the tow bar arm fail many years ago. Like Dan I felt a little tug in the rear of the coach and saw the toad moving behind the bus. With each move we could feel a little tug as the arm extended or as the arm collapsed to the shortest length.
Di ended up driving the toad behind the bus until we got home. If I had been alone I don’t know what I would have done because the tow bar arm latch pin had failed.
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Many years ago pulled off at rest area for aa couple of hours sleep i n the middle of the night. It was raining hard so when ready to leave at 2 AM did not go out of the bus for inspection. Got on the road and felt periodic tug from rear. Turned on camera and saw the jeep only connected by safety chains. Managed to pull off the road with out incident. Found someone had removed jeep from hitch (probably to steal) but had not had time to remove safety chains prior to my starting the bus. Deb had to drive the jeep to nearest large truck stop. For some reason in those days carried extra tow bar since the one had a lot of damage from dragging on the road even for just 2 miles until I had found a safe spot to pull over. Thinking about that time, it was prabably good I did not go out and do normal safety check, might have met people I did not really want to meet at the jeep!
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We’ve never had the problem Kim describes, but I have always made a habit or checking the hitch, tow bar and toad before pulling away from and overnight stop. My concern is not necessarily someone wanting to steal the tow bar (padlocked), but someone jealous who will pull a pin or do some other prank.
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dan, not sure if this would have solved the issue but we use a locking pin. One with a key! The issue with us is ” where the hell did i put that key?”
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We have to replace the tow bar, it folded under the pickup bumper. This was actually a good thing, it acted like a brake for the pickup and kept it from banging the bus. We were fortunate to be in a 45mph zone on a 4 lane divided hwy.
I had checked the hitch a couple of hours earlier, everything seemed fine. I believe the next one will be secured with something better than a steel hair pin.
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Years ago, with a trailer being towed by a van I was headed to Arizona and left Wisconsin midday and traveled at night through a terrible rain storm through Ill. When we stopped for the night happy to have landed for the night. Next morning left but the trailer did not feel just right so I stopped in the parking lot of the motel and discovered that the nut of the ball was missing so the weight of the trailer was the only thing keeping the trailer on the hitch. A cold dark feeling began in the pit of my stomach wondering if I lost the nut along the way of if someone as a bad joke removed the nut while we were sleeping. Since then I always check the ball nut before leaving in the morning to make sure it is secure. Not quite like loosing a car but still a sick feeling when discovered.
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This might be a good time tp tell everyone about the locks I use on my tow bar and truck.
They are locks from Bolt Lock Co. and you buy the locks according to the brand of vehicle you have, GM, Ford Dodge, etc.
You take your ignition key and the new lock and insert key and turn one full turn and the locks are programed for you towed vehicle.
They make all kinds, pad locks, reciever pin locks etc.
Love em
By the way I don’t have any connection with this company just love their products. Don’t wind up with a bunch of keys to locks.
BOLT 5/8″ RECEIVER LOCK SPECIFICATIONS
BOLT 5/8 RECEIVER LOCK FEATURES: - Opens With Your Vehicle Ignition Key
- Stainless Steel 5/8 in. Diameter Shaft
- Fits Class 3, 4 And 5 Hitches (2- 2.5“ hitch)
- Weather proof
- Auto Return Spring Locks Automatically When Key Is Removed
- Double Ball Bearing Locking Mechanism
- Plate Tumbler Sidebar To Prevent Picking and Bumping
- Stainless Steel Lock Shutter To Keep Out Dirt And Moisture
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
BOLT 5/8 RECEIVER LOCK PART NUMBERS: FOR CLASS I OR II HITCHES PLEASE CLICK HERE.
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Scary thought. Many moons ago, Went with a Friend of mine fishing, He pulling his shiny 20 foot Ranger Bass boat, about 2.30 in the morning, raining like a dickens south of Del Rio Tx., pulled over to get rid of some beer. Yeah, drinking and driving was a right of passage back in Texas 1983, Looked back at said boat and it was gone. Just pretty trailer sitting there in the rain. He didn’t have the strap locked. Backtracked and found it about 15 miles north on side of rode were it slid to a stop. Next morning at daylight, Rancher helped pull it back on with his tractor. He wouldn’t take no money but did ask and get about 4 cases of Budweiser. Old Rancher is still laughing if He’s alive. Things happen. (This is not an Oilfield Tale)
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“If I had been alone I don’t know what I would have done because the tow bar arm latch pin had failed.”
I am sure that Jon “MacGyver” Wehrenberg would have fixed it in less than 5 minutes with a pair of bread ties and the internals of an extra relay to the radiator fan that just happened to appear on the side of the road where he pulled over! 😉
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Around 1960 my Dad was pulling a “motor toboggan” (forerunner of what is today known as a snowmobile) from Shawano (WI) to Florence county (WI) near the Michigan border. It was snowing pretty hard when they left Shawano at 4am. Still snowing hard when they stopped in Antigo (WI) for gas (wanna know why my Dad didn’t fill up in Shawano before starting the trip? “the needle wasn’t on E yet”). Got out of the 1957 Dodge station wagon and there was no trailer and motor toboggan. Fortunately a milk truck driver stopped for gas too and heard my Dad and his four friends talking about their misfortune. The milk truck driver said there was the dangest looking thing on a trailer about five miles back, sure it enough it was their trailer and the motor toboggan. Don’t recall why the trailer came loose.
When I was in the airplane business in the early 1970’s the boss had a 28 foot travel trailer frame decked so he could haul light aircraft on it. We were headed from Houghton (MI) in the U.P. to Shawano the just a brand new riding lawn mower chain bindered to the front of this long trailer being pulled by his half ton GMC P/U. While driving through desolate northern Wisconsin the boss suddenly shouted “J**** C**** the trailer loose.” He tried braking the truck in hopes of the tongue going under the truck, but it bounce to the side. I watched the trailer pass us first on the shoulder, then proceed into the ditch before finally coming to a stop in the woods. The chains broke immediately. Nut on ball had come off. Just before he noticed the trailer being loose we’d passed over a creek with a narrow concrete bridge with high sides. Had the trailer come loose 15 seconds earlier we probably would have totaled the new riding mower. We took the ball down the road about five miles to a country tavern. Got the owner up outta bed. He took the ball and disappeared into the residence attached to the bar and came back with a nut and lock washer that fit! Luckily we had two pipe wrenches in the back of the P/U.
I have friends in the car and small trailer sales and service business (they sell Bravo enclosed trailers and a couple of makes of open car and vocational trailers). They also have 32 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, have won two ARCA stock car championships and “owned” the ARCA stock car races on the dirt at DuQuoin and Springfield (IL). They told me that late one night after winning an ARCA race they left the race track and didn’t get more than 1,000 feet out of the race track when the trailer came loose, broke the chains, and the trailer with race car and tires headed across the road in front of oncoming traffic and came to rest in someone’s front yard. The pin had been pulled, apparently by a disgruntled competitor.
One day I had to take my then 24′ enclosed trailer to the above friends shop for some work. I parked in front of the office and was looking at my Suburban and trailer and then remarked to one of the owners that in spite of having 1,000 pounds of tongue weight on the ball I should really close the trailer hitch onto the ball. He dryly remarked that “most of their customers run with the hitch locked down, but not all of them apparently”.
I think I’m probaby going to switch to all locking pins going forward for the coach, Suburban, and HHR (bike rack).
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Losing a trailer is not exclusive to the RV crowd.
Two of us Prevost owners were on I-30 in the Little Rock area. I was in the lead and directly ahead of me was an emptry car carrier. It was a type that had a long tractor set up to carry part of the load, and a trailer that used a fifth wheel hitch, but located very low at the rear of the tractor. The trailer was a little shorter than most trailers due to the fact that of the 7 or 8 cars the entire rig would carry, the tractor carried around three with the balance on the trailer.
We had just entered a long bridge with no shoulders and concrete walls on both sides. All of a suddent there was a lot of what I thought was smoke and the trailer slowed rapidly. Fortunately the fast lane was clear so I jumped over to that lane and started going by the trailer. Until I was alongside the trailer however I did not know it was just the trailer I was passing. It had separated from the tractor.
Everybody was lucky that day. Very lucky. I had room to react and jump into the fast lane. When the trailer dropped, it was not smoke, but dust from the concrete road and side barrier it was grinding as it came to a fast stop. The trailer stayed to the right, and it stayed straight. If it had turned left it would have crossed both lanes of traffic and wedged between the two concrete barriers of the bridge. We would have been the first vehicle to hit the trailer.
When it separated from the tractor its brakes locked, and combined with the fact the front dropped to the ground and the trailer went to the right and was grinding on the barrier it was stopping faster than can be imagined, and if we had been closer, and the lane blocked along side of us we would have been in serious trouble. I’ll never forget that incident which happened at least 20 years ago, but to this day I am always monitoring the lanes around me, always planning how I am going to get into another lane or on the shoulder if something happens in front of me again like that.
The Prevost following me kept a safe distance fortunately and as soon as I changed lanes he did to for reasons he did not know. Good thing he did because like me seeing a trailer at almost a dead stop in front of him was a real surprise.
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