# Secure those trailers.



## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

There is a divided highway between me and town, with a 4 strand cable divider / barrier in the median strip.

on my way back home this morning there was a pick-up box trailer with a shell on it, coming straight at me un hooked from it's tow vehicle.

It's tongue went through the barrier between the top strand and the second strand, and stretched darn near to me as I passed. 

Then it bounced back into it's lane and stopped. And I noticed in my mirror, that it's tow vehicle, was frantically backing the wrong way to get back to it's trailer. 

I had to check my pants when I got home. :vs_laugh:

Properly tightening that coupling, and securing those safety chains would have kept the trailer at least behind it's tow vehicle.


ED


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## Rough Rooster (Feb 7, 2015)

ED,
You are having too much FUN! :vs_laugh::vs_laugh:

RR :smile::smile:


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

> and securing those safety chains would have kept the trailer at least behind it's tow vehicle



Several yrs ago I went to move my tandem trailer 30'-40' near my barn. I didn't bother to hook up the chains. I didn't realize the coupler was on it's last legs. Long story short, the trailer jumped off the ball, rolled 20' and got stopped by my son's junk Bronco. Good thing my son didn't care about the Bronco's body parts.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I have a backup camera (after market) mounted under my tag area pointed to the trailer hitch ball area. It helps me to back up and stop exactly where the ball and hitch meet, BUT it also helps me to double check to see that the bail is set, the pin is in the bail, the lights are connected and the chains are secured. I'd hate to be the guy you described.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I was going to make a comment about how this might result in you soiling your shorts but you beat me to it.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Years back I had a tool trailer custom made to haul my tools. It had 5 doors and a lumber rack. Loved that trailer. I hadn't had the trailer long when I was driving along and came to a red light, all of a suddenly the coupling on the tongue broke off as I was slowing down. I did have the chains hooked so the trailer did't leave the back of my Bronco. Skeered the fool out of me.

One more about a trailer, lol My buddy had one of the 16 foot single axle campers. He wanted me to take the AC out of the rear window (******* ya know). The trailer was parked on top of a pretty good hill out in the country.

I went inside and went to the back to get the AC out and felt the trailer shaking. I had just gotten the AC out and had set it down. As I looked through the hole the AC had come from, I saw I was headed down hill, and fast, straight for a huge oak tree. All I could think of is, "man this is going to hurt". lol 

I got about 15 feet from the tree and one wheel hit something and turned the trailer. It stopped when it contacted a blackberry thicket. Man was I ever glad, the trailer wasn't half way down the hill yet. No tellin where I would have wound up if those bushes hadn't been there. lol

I made a deal to make it easy to hook to a trailer. I hate getting out and in out and in to see where I am hooking up. I made a mirror that set on an angle that I just set on my tailgate of my truck. The mirror was aimed at the trailer ball. I could line up and see when the tongue came over the ball. If I had to move over or what ever I could see it and not have to get out of the truck. Hey, it worked for me. lol Now I need to make one that will work on the Pathfinder, it doesn't have a tailgate. lol


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

> felt the trailer shaking. ..........., I saw I was headed down hill, and fast, straight for a huge oak tree. All I could think of is, "man this is going to hurt".



20 yrs or so I was painting a house on a hill. While painting a window I noticed a dump truck and trailer getting a track loader loaded. The weight of the loader took the weight off of the dump truck and off down the hill they went - straight towards my work van. I just knew that was the end of my van when something caught and the truck/trailer made a hard right and took out a mailbox and a dogwood tree.


The homeowner was P'od and demanded to know what the heavy equipment operator normally did when that happened. I don't remember what he said but I'd have been tempted to say _'go home and change my shorts'_


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

When I was a kid, someone's trailer got loose across the highway from my house, went into the borrow ditch, and hit a power pole. Of course, it was one with a transformer, and of course, it fell right in the middle of the road. It made quite a mess. The pavement even had to be patched where the oil ran out. Not sure it the oil was that corrosive or just made pavement too soft.


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## Oso954 (Jun 23, 2012)

@BigJim
Take a look at this trailer guide kit. Several companies make them. Most are 41-43 inches when fully extended (like a car antena) Harbor freights is 43" and I think the best price.

If you install as shown, you just back up until the 2 balls touch. If you over back, one of the magnets breaks loose and slides rather than bending things.
I saw one guy that painted one ball. Said that for him, having the contrast and always having the same color on the trailer helped him tell which was trailer and which was tow vehicle. (He may have needed new glasses)

https://www.harborfreight.com/magnetic-trailer-alignment-kit-69778.html


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

I don't tow much anymore. Used to tow boats and snowmachines on the job and, later, horses, but I was always pretty paranoid and stop about three times just to check the connections. Interesting about the back-up camera. My current truck has a 'look-down' setting but I'm not sure if I can select it when the truck is not in reverse. Going to have to read the manual.


I'm a motorcyclist and am paranoid about the stuff that falls off trailers. Contractor's floats are some of the worst because of dirt and stones, but tourists and homeowners are no heck better. Got behind a septic truck in Upstate NY with the lids open. Every time he hit a bump little geysers would erupt. 



Not trailer related, but this guy was caught going down a major freeway near Toronto a couple of years back. Somebody posted a pic a few days earlier with a steel I-beam sticking out of both back doors. Cops caught him a couple of days later with another load.


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## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

lenaitch said:


> Got behind a septic truck in Upstate NY with the lids open. Every time he hit a bump little geysers would erupt.


We do that to Canadians just for fun.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Oso954 said:


> @BigJim
> Take a look at this trailer guide kit. Several companies make them. Most are 41-43 inches when fully extended (like a car antena) Harbor freights is 43" and I think the best price.
> 
> If you install as shown, you just back up until the 2 balls touch. If you over back, one of the magnets breaks loose and slides rather than bending things.
> ...


Thanks Oso, that looks like it would work pretty good, good price also.


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Old Thomas said:


> We do that to Canadians just for fun.


*Satisfaction guaranteed or double your crap back* was on the side of a pump truck when i was a kid. :biggrin2:


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I was following an outdoor contractor truck in my car back in the day when a pitchfork came flying out. It was a low speed road so plenty of time to react... and anyway it landed on the shoulder. That could be really ugly on a motorcycle if it came down in the road.

But you don't only need to worry about this when riding... A a co-worker was driving on the Capital Beltway when a wheel came off a vehicle going the opposite direction, hopped the median barrier and stuck his car. Broke his arm bad but otherwise lucky to not get in a crash worthy of that old TV show Chips with cars flying over each other and exploding.




lenaitch said:


> I'm a motorcyclist and am paranoid about the stuff that falls off trailers. Contractor's floats are some of the worst because of dirt and stones, but tourists and homeowners are no heck better. Got behind a septic truck in Upstate NY with the lids open. Every time he hit a bump little geysers would erupt.


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