Ever see a utilitie trailer come un hooked from the hitch at 60mph?

[Perplexed]

I had the cotter pin come out on a trailer hitch once, and the trailer - fortunately, empty at the time - came loose but was kept off the ground by the short, crossed-over chains. The trailer rocked from side to side with some vigor, but I was able to pull off the side of the highway without incident. I walked back and found the trailer hitch pin, a bit scuffed up but still serviceable, but no cotter pin. I secured the hitch pin with a double loop of baling wire till I got to my destination a few miles away, then replaced it with a new cotter pin.

 

[farmerbyron]

New an older gentleman from Northern OK who was a custom wheat cutter. He would pull a combine header trailer with the header on it all the way to eastern Montana, the hitch on the trailer had no guts in it and no safety chains. When questioned, his reply was, " tongue weight will keep it on there, just have to go slow over the railroad tracks".

There's a way to lose a $70,000 header. Jeez.

 

[Old Fart]

When I was just a wee lad.....we were heading to Boy Scout summer camp. We had a home made trailer we used to haul all out camping gear in when on the road. The tongue snapped when crossing a railroad track. It did several flips and landed right side up. It threw our stuff all over 5 acres of roadside. Really didn't hurt the trailer much. Fortunately for us it was right in front of a welding shop. The owner welded it back up and we were on our way.

 

[DAMAGAN]

I was riding in the back seat of an up-armored hummer doing some driver training and we lost a $300,000 DRASH trailer becasue nobody stuck the pin through the pintle hook or hooked the safety chains on the truck. It bounced off and was like a 3,300 pound lead sled about 100 feet down a roadway through an intersection across a dirt access road and jumped a 6 foot culvert where the tongue stuck in the ground just before the big A/C unit on the front smacked a tree. Worst part was I was the highest ranking person in the vehicle so guess who's fault it was, best part was the guy setting in the front seat's reaction and the fact that nobody was around to get hurt and damage wasn't too bad mostly the aluminium jack pad. He replied to my "what's that noise?" with a look in the mirror then a calm and steady "Yep, we just lost the trailer.......Better turn around...." All I could do was laugh and hope that the pintle on the truck was ripped off so we werent the guys that didnt check the trailer before we left the motorpool.

 

[WFT]

I think I would be getting on my knees thanking the Big Guy upstairs. Glad no one was hurt.

 

[71buickfreak]

Didn't lose the trailer, but last year, I had a wheel come off of my trailer doing 80 down I35. Trailer was unloaded, so that was not much of an issue. the tire however pulled over into the left lane, I slowed down while it kept going. stayed upright for over a mile. then it slowly veered off to the left, crossed the median (between OKC and pauls valley, long straight flat section) and was about to enter oncoming traffic when it decided to veer back to our side. It made it all the way back to the inside shoulder and then fell over. Luckily it was 5 am on a saturday morning, no traffic. One other car on my side of the road. the tire cam off right in front of him, he back way the hell off and watched the show just like we did. Literally lasted about 5 minutes. Turns out the lugs were the thread-in kind (threaded into the hub) and they and worked loose. I had just bought the dang thing.

 

[xxxchaotikxxx]

I've modified a tailgate because I forgot to latch the tongue. Only happens once, and more have done it than you can imagine....

guilty of this except I swear to 8 lb. 6 ounce baby jesus that i DID latch the dang thing and before (thank god) i pulled onto the main road that sucker came undone and smashed into the tailgate. I had the right size ball and everything! wise chose to double check everything before you go down the road, might save lives.

 

[pinkhamr]

My son was in the truck of a friends father when the trailer came off the hitch this past weekend. He said the chains were hooked up and the trailer whipped back and forth and the dad slowed down and the trailer smashed into the truck several times and both were dented up. The trailer hitch and jack ended up under the bumper and the dad couldn't get the truck off of it.
He said he had borrowed the trailer and the owner of the trailer gave him the hitch and it had the wrong size ball on it!

Yep, I did that about 10 years ago but had two safety chains on .... just slowly slowed down and the (Empty 6'x10') trailer lightly bumped me. I was lucky. 1 7/8" Ball and trailer was set up with 2" hitch. My bad and I 'always' check now .....