Skot, that is all I really was trying to get across, check your stuff, even if it looks good. Even now you have to look at my hitch very closely to see that there is a problem, even after the beating it took. My chains were installed correctly and worked as designed. It is real easy to get complacent when everything has been working as it should. Sometimes equipment gets put into situations and positions that it was never designed to be in, then it fails. When it happens, it happens FAST. That is not when you want to find out that your safety gear is not up to snuff. Whether it be on your trailer, your race car, your daily driver or in your kitchen it is a good idea to check your safety items from time to time. Now that I have survived this wake up call I am going to check all of my stuff out and make sure it is the best it can be. I urge everyone else to do the same. I guess you can tell this episode got my attention. LOL
My dad and I were watching an old Dodge farm truck towing a round bale on a little hay buggy in front of us one evening... he hit a pot hole and the whole buggy and haybale went flying. Luckily nobody was in the on coming lane. When it came disconnected the bale got catapulted 10 feet up in the air (the hitch dug into the ground) and the buggy went twirling into someone's field. We helped the guy hook it back up... and the safety chain he had was just wrapped around the trailer chassis, not even hooked to his truck. I was helping a neighbor move horses from one of his fields to another about 10 miles away. We're doing 65mph when I felt the trailer disconnect... it was starting to slide over to the oncoming traffic side (had a grassy median between lanes thankfully) so he swerved over and pushed the trailer gently into the guard rail with his brand new F350. He got the trailer slowed down, we hooked back up and pulled down a side road to check everything out. The whole side of the truck look like it flipped on it's side and was dragged for a mile. It was NASTY looking. The horses inside the trailer were worth more than the truck though... He didn't have the collar closed on the hitch, and the chains weren't hooked up. This was a guy with a ton of experience, but he had a lot on his mind and was pushed for time. Lesson LEARNED.
I had my 16 foot ski boat pop off the hitch the first time I ever pulled it behind my car, Happened to be looking in the mirror when it happened and saw it lift then drop. The chains kept it in line with the car as I slowed down and pulled over. I was lucky since it happened just before the road started to curve around the lake.Only damage was to the little triangle piece of steel on the bottom of the tounge that skidded on the road. It wore it half away and flattened it out.
Chains are very important, I was pulling a 4000 lb press trailer that came with a factory equipped "spring loaded" hitch, which let the ball pop right out when i hit a bump. Only problem was that I was going downhill and had to let it run under the truck to stop it. Luckily the only damage was a trashed dif cover.Still not a pleasant ride.
As some of you might recall I just built a trailer for my digger. I have this funny thing about buying "chinese crap" - I want nothign to do with that shit. Anywho - I order a coupler from a reputable US manufacturer - when it arrives I look it over carefully and at the end of the small print it reads "China" ..... Son - of - a b&*&^ - I toss it aside - there's no way I'm welding that to my trailer. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking Bulldog or anyone else - all I'm saying is that in this day and age you gotta really look stuff over - even NEW stuff you might think is US made when in fact it is not. Unlike Wesley I have very few miles of experience towing a trailer - but what I do KNOW is that when your're going racing or whatever - you have ALOT on your mind - we tend to forget things or at least I do. After our FIRST day of racing the biggest thing I learned was to make 3 checklists - Trailer, Car, Tools. Think about it - how many trailers do you see with a folder over tongue jack???!!!??? Check list baby!!! Wesley your post is an excellent one - you dodged a bullet because you were properly prepared - we can all learn a lesson. Most guys look at safety chains as soem sorta of useless formality. I can't tell you how many times I've seen guys using those cheesy spring loaded chain connectors - shit I wouldn't trust those to pull an engine much less be a safety device pulling my pride and joy. On mine I use those threaded links - they take a moment longer to install but I have no worries once they're on there. Great post thanks for sharing - we all need a reminder from time to time. P.S. I almost for got to share my trailer disaster stories - none of which I was involved, but I did get to see. One time on the way to the swap meet a guy pulling a boat trailer was zipping along on the freeway not a care in the world - when we got close to him we noticed that the trailer had come loose from the ball and he was pulling on the safety chains - he had no idea of what was going on until we told him. ANother time we are heading home after a swapmeet when a guy pulling an enclosed trailer BLOWS past us - dude was really flying. Anyways about a 1/2 mile or so up the road we start to see all sorts of debris - clothes , parts, pieces of metal - looked like the freeway was now a junkyard - finally we got up to the culprit - a guys open trailer had flipped and was upside down stilll connected to his truck. It took us a moment to realize it was the SAME GUY who just moments before had an enclosed trailer!!! We didn't see the actual event - we musta missed it by seconds.
we tow alot, with heavy loads, lots of miles, the ball, and reciever wether bull dog or other can wear out just like any thing else, we had a problem with trailer sway last year and the ball mount (not sure about correct name ) was worn about 1/8 on the bottom this caused the ball mount to move inside the reciever. got a new ball mount and problem went away. so now every spring we check and test for wear. it was hard to belive until it happened to us
Trailer chains are a must.... The ticket is Austin is $390.00 don't ask how I know. I would replace the bulldog hitch with a new one, something is letting it move around. I have a buddy that bought a new 18' dovetail, 7K tandem axles ten years ago. One of the guys that works for him calls and says trailer came off the truck. My buddy cussed him called him a dumb ass the employee swears up and down that it was hooked up. A few months later the same trailer different truck different employee same thing happens. After looking and figuring, my buddy figures out the axels are too far forward on the trailer. Came from the factory that way, with a backhoe on it would rock off the hitch if you hit enough bumps. Johnboy
Dot law says you have to cross the chains, its supposed to make a craddle for the tongue to drop into. i was always taught to twist the chains a few times and cross them.
What's the twist supposed to do? I've always crossed mine (also keeps the inside chain from dragging in a turn) but never twisted them. I've never used a bulldog coupler before but always thought they were a great idea. Anyone out there love or hate the bulldog coupler? Last, what's so great about a pintle? I've never used one either and always thought they would rattle and bang around something awful. Shawn
Many years ago when I was a kid.My dad was pulling our 5x9 trailer down the freeway.Then all of a sudden I hear it come loose.This is in traffic on the freeway.It starts to ride up the tailgate and then back down a couple of times.Then the chains break loose and it passes us going from the slow lane 3 lanes across to the barrier and then back across in front of us to dig the tongue into the dirt and come to a stop.How that no one was killed was a miracle.We hooked it back up and proceded home.I took a look at the hitch on the trailer to find the nut in there that tensioned the the lip that engages the ball.It had backed off enough that if you hit a bump it would pop it off the ball.I took it apart that day.Drilled a small hole through the nut and the shaft and pinned it.That trailer never left a ball on the road again.But that is never a situation that I ever want to be in as long as I live.
Yep, I was instructed a long time ago to twist the chains to get them to the correct length and act as the cradle when you cross them.
Oh yeah, my first year out of high school I worked for the city park department. We drove old surplus jeeps with crappy trailer balls and even crappier trailers. One of my jobs was to hook up a trailer, go to the park and load two 55 gallon drums full of bullhead guts out of the fish cleaning stations and take them out in the country and bury them. I had the two barrels loaded and was heading out of town when the trailer came loose and went into a homeowners yard spilling guts everywhere. The stench was horrific. After some lawn repairs he had a well fertilized yard the balance of the summer.
My car hauler has a 2 5/16" ball. At that size, you have a lesser percentage of "slack" when everything is closed. If you are going to fix this, I would seriously consider going to the larger hitch size.
Make sure you also cross the safety chains. That way, if the hitch does come loose, it creates a "cradle" for the tongue of the trailer.
I didn't even realize not using the safety chains was an option. It never crossed my mind to not hook them up, even when I'm just pulling around the garage.
When I change the hitch this weekend I will be going to the 2 5/16 ball. It has a couple of advantages for me, first it is heavier duty, second everything we have at work is 2 5/16 so I wont have to change ball mounts on the shop truck when I tow with that. I will have to look at my old hitch closely, I changed it out about 10 years ago. I dont know if any of the bulldog stuff was from china then.
A few years ago in College Station, a guy was pulling a lowboy trailer, came loose, no chains, hit a lady jogging and killed her. He went to prison.
in fla and ala d.o.t will give you a ticket if your chains are not crossed to make a cradle for the tongue to fall in
Most of the ball's rating comes from it's mounting bolt diameter, not the actual ball diameter. No argument that the larger ball has a geometry advantage for staying locked on, but the vast majority of single car open car trailers are 2" ball. This thread is very interesting. Mine has a bulldog coupler and everyone I know told me they freeze and stick and are giant pieces of junk that should be replaced with the sheetmetal/lever lock couplers that look so much more flimsy. The opinions here seem to have more weight. Either way, this thread just spurred me to get under the coupler with a creeper today. Time for a proper inspection.
Actually Ken, getting the trailer stopped was the easy part, the chains worked as they were supposed to. The hairy part was getting everything hooked back up with the traffic going by. You would think that with 3 lanes to choose from, people would give a guy some room to work,,,, but NNNOOOOOOO!
posted this in response to a thread earlier this year.. I had a similar experience back in may.. same deal.. the trailer came off the ball. trailer chains were the only thing separating me from destruction.. and probably should have had the chains tighter.. as in wesley's experience.. the trailer coupler stayed closed.. perhaps I had too much weight in the rear of the trailer? This was certainly not induced by a bumpy road. as this happened to me on the smoothest stretch of road between the show and home.. like wesley.. I had previously trailered this exact trailer 10's of thousands of miles.. with the same hitch ball and coupler (which did not show wear)
Texas motor vehicle laws require safety chains on all trailers, including those towed behind motorcycles, AND require those chains to be crossed. Years ago, I participated in the investigation of a traffic crash where a guy in a pickup hit a dip, and his 16-foot trailer..with no safety chains of any form..disconnected, crossed into the oncoming lanes and inserted the trailer tongue neatly through the opening between driver door and front door jamb of a Chevy Cavalier. It also went completely through the belly of the woman driving the Cavalier, killing her instantly. The hitch ball and trailer coupler both were found to be unsafely worn. End result?? One life lost, several horribly changed. The pickup driver was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, then found liable in a wrongful death civil suit. A man lost his wife, and his kids grew up without a mother. Safety chains don't even cost $20. There is no excuse, period, for not having them on a trailer.
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