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.