IHC/IHC Digest Archive

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Trailer tongue weight scale



At 9:19 AM -0700 7/2/03, John Hofstetter wrote:
Interesting to speculate what might have
happened if the trailer had been on and the equalizer hitch had been
doing its job. Could I have stayed on the road with 5 wheels?
John Hofstetter
John,
Not quite the same, but one of my assistant coaches once did have his hide saved by the hitch. He didn't latch or failed to routinely check the coupler, and when he hit a big whoopdedoo over a bridge the 8000#, 40' with 10' overhang at each end trailer popped off the 2 5/16" ball at 70 mph. On its way down back onto the ball, it mashed the coupler so bad that it didn't reseat. The only thing holding the trailer onto the ball was the tension from the load bars. It held that way for another 400 or so miles, in fact, he was unaware of the problem until he got home and couldn't back the trailer into its holding area.
There were many reasons why that was his last season working for me, but #1 was the failure to adequately secure the load, and almost more galling was #2, he didn't check the coupling once on the 700 mile trip, even after the jolt at the bridge. He's lucky it held, or someone would have been seriously hurt and we'd have lost over $300,000 in equipment at the beginning of our competitive season.
When I drive, I check every strap, connection, hub and tire at every stop, even if it's a quick drain and fill.
Glad that Rambler didn't total you!
Joel
PS I, too, use the tongue jack to do the work when loading up the bars, and, more importantly, when unloading them. One of those would take a hell of a bite out of your shin.

--
Joel Furtek
<http://homepage.mac.com/heelsroll>
The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.



Home | Archive | Main Index | Thread Index