What have you had fall off of your trailer/truck that wasn't supposed to?

A friend of mine bought a race car and a trailer to haul it. The ramps were double thickness 2x12 with cleats and threaded rod in one end to connect to the trailer. The ramps were turned around and slid into the back of the trailer with the threaded rod sitting in the holes.

He didn't have a hitch on his pickup to pull it so he asked me to pull it to his in-laws house which was about 20 miles away. When we got there, he went to pull the ramps out and they were gone. He said, "I wonder where they fell out".
I said I didn't want to know. We had driven 15 miles on Interstate 90 in the dark.

 

on vacation a few years ago and some yahoo in a trans am in front of me forgot to latch down his T-top, at about 70 MPH I saw the passenger side start to flutter and then go airborn about 10 feet above the car and headed right for my passenger side windshield, I dodged it and saw it shatter on the pavement behind my car. If it had hit us it probably would have killed my wife who was in the passenger seat.

 

I lost a 322 Buick and Ford side shifter tranny in the middle of the nite.Didnt realize it was gone untill a hundred miles later getting gas.Someone probably couldn`t believe his luck.

 

Two of my buddies after I hit the brakes too hard. I think they've forgiven me but I still hear about it once in a while.

 

My Dad had an excavating company. One of his employees didn't chain the dozer to the trailer. Dozer rolled right off the trailer on the main road through town. Luckily no one got hurt and there was no damage.

 

Here's a list of some really strange lost cargo.

http://www.oddee.com/item_98080.aspx

 

I had several 2x10x14 ft pieces of lumber on the roof rack of my work van. I forgot to tie them down. Shortly after leaving HomeDepot, I was approching a red light when a BMW cut in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and two of the lengths of lumber slid off the rack and went through the rear window of the BMW...served him right !

 

I lost a wheel and tire from my tandem axle trailer going to a race. I didn't discover it until I got to the track. It towed very well on three and I never did find it.

 

I know a guy that was towing an old single place snowmobile trailer in a heavy snow storm .
When he got home all he had left was about 2 feet of the tounge.

Brian

 

Back in the 70's I towed my stock car with a tow bar. On the same corner turning right that stock car put me in the ditch twice. Even rolled the my tow car over once. one time a pin snapped the other time came unhooked some how. Started up the stock car & pulled my tow car out of the ditch both times.

 

Had a wheel fall off the trailer...does that count?

I bought a junk snowmobile trailer and rebuilt it as a utility trailer. Apparently I forgot to snug up the lugnuts on the LH side, and they loosened up. Towed 2.5 hours up to camp, stayed a few days, towed most of the way back, then about 5 miles from home, I hear a thump and see a bunch of sparks in the rearview. 2 of the lugnuts were gone, the other three were still there...but the holes in the rim had enlarged so much from wobbling around on the studs that it came off past the lugnuts. I left the trailer (fully packed of course) and drove home and got some big body washers so I could tighten the lugnuts down. Of course it wasn't centered very well, so I couldn't tow it over 5mph or so. An hour later, I limped it into the driveway...

Brand new wheel with worn rim vs yet another brand new wheel:

 

Had to be about 12 yrs. ago a buddy who raced NMCA with his Mustang asked if I'd be willing to pull his car in my 24' enclosed trailer with my F350. He came over while I was at work and hooked up the trailer and got everything ready so we could leave when I got out. We live north of Detroit, MI and went to Reading, PA which is about a 10 hr. drive. I went to drop the trailer as it was a 2 day event I unhooked the trailer then proceded to unhook the receiver, there was NO pin in the receiver! How in the hell everything stayed together is beyond me. I'm just figuring it was the weight of the loaded trailer approx. 7000# that saved the day.

 

Not my loss, but one night after working 2nd shift, I had to drive around a small block Chevy in the middle of an intersection a few blocks from my house. The next day , it was rolled up on the curb.

Blue

 

Tongue weight can definitely do that for ya. In '98 my wife and I drove my '56 F100( see avatar) from San Diego to Bradenton, Florida towing a U Haul trailer. After offloading the trailer at our new apartment I pulled out to return it and got about 100 yards when the trailer came off the bumper. Thank goodness the chains were on there! Got it pulled over and found the ball still in the trailer hitch, but no nut on the ball. It came off somewhere between San Diego and Florida. I about shit, thinking of all the times we were running over 60 mph. The strange thing is, about two years previously I'd made a similar trip from Virginia to San Diego with no hitch problem. Guess it pays to check stuff. lol

 

Was moving once and had put an old wooden desk with a flip top lid kind of like a school desk in back of my truck. The wifey told me to make sure to tie it in good. So being a smart ass I wound and wound an entire bundle of sash cord around and around the desk. Notice I did not say "over" the desk. I drove thru town and then got out on the hwy and up to speed. She was right behind me in her car. Well thats when I noticed that I had not placed on inch of rope over the desk for the lid blew up and off ripping the hinges from the lid. Then all of our important papers hit the hwy, she ran over them and the wind was blowin enough to have us running all over trying to catch em. Oh I forgot to mention ... that was the first wife

 

left front tire from an '84 ford f-250 pickup. When I went to recover the wheel, the dog dish hubcap was still on the rim, and all 8 lug nuts were in the hubcap.

 

I lost my virginity on my car trailer in the back parking lot at the drag races one night. Does that count?

 

To think all these years I wasn't aware that anything was suppose to fall off a trailer. Guess I've just been lucky.

 

tried that once, but I red lighted-----

 

In 1968 we were leaving the March Meet in Bakersfield. Rance Mc Danials, the Hoge Bros. Tim wingerd and I had all competed in the Jr. fuel show. Hoge was leading as we turned right to get in to 99 when Hoge's Digger unloaded itself from the trailer and went past Hoge's truck. Larry was surprised, Rance just missed running over the Digger, and I could not believe that there was no damage to anything.

 

a '55 Merc.........I was just going around the corner. That was the last time I got lazy with the straps!

 

Being church mouse poor when I was in school, I had no way to haul anything, so when I was given a '28 Whippett (late 50's) I "invented" a hitch so I could tow it with the '54 Packard I was then driving. I was on the expressway going through Akron (before it was part of the Interstate system) when I looked out the drivers window and there was the Whippett going by me in the passing lane. I stepped on the gas and got in front of it and let it run into the Packard (it was a piece of crap too) and slowed down slowly and got the damn thing onto the left berm (and scraped the guard rails). Everything I owned in the world was trashed up then including the Packard. The cop that came on the scene wouldn't let me rope it up again so I had to go to a friend's farm and borrow his Pap's truck and trailer. The old fart couldn't quit laughing.

 

I don't know, did anything fall off?

 

Lets see:

Mid 80s, my brother has a 77 Monza, headed for college. Someone had given him a nearly new loveseat, which he tied to the *roof* with 1/8" twine. I saw him two weeks later, the loveseat looks like it came in 3rd in a 3-way ax fight. He said he missed a stop, jabbed the brakes, and the loveseat slid off the front of the car and did so many end over end rolls that he lost count. But he was broke and still needed it, so he reloaded it and went on to college.

A few months ago, my buddy and I are hauling a big-dollar race car to louisville KY. About 60 miles out, 70mph, with a semi next to us, the hood on his dodge dually smacks into the windshield, and I saw pieces of grille clear the towed car with room to spare. We bend the hood back down, but no way it will latch, its 4" away from where it should be. I ran back, grabbed a tie-down off the rear of the car, and tied the back of the truck hood to the front bumper. We caught up with the semi right in louisville, he looks at the strap, laughs, and gives us the thumbs up.

Somewhere in SW Ohio is the spare tire from my 97 blazer. Its one held on by the metal cable, or at least used to be. I was having to put spider gears back in december, I noticed I had plenty of room to work. I can't remember seeing a tire on the road during my daily commute, I had no idea where it went. Shitty design.

 

Holy Crap! Thats awesome. Which of these is not like the others?

 

Well, back in 1999 we rolled our entire rig on I-74 headed for Tri-State Dragway in Ohio. Going too fast down hill, past a semi and it took off swaying back and forth. We sped up, slowed down but nothing helped. Ended up sliding sideways with the tow vehicle on the pavement and the trailer in the grass median. When it all finally slowed down the tires dug in and we rolled over. Lots of BAD noises coming from everywhere but the worst noise was the sound of the ratchet straps breaking and the Fairlane in my avatar crashing through the trailer roof! Watching the recovery guys drag it upside down out of the trailer sucked a little bit. I had a six point bar in it and that saved the car. Put a donor roof on it, one new fender and a hood plus new paint and good as new. Since then we ALWAYS have all the sway controls and use a TRAILER TOAD when towing with a motor home. Been told that the best thing to do when a trailer takes off on you is to grab the electric brake controller to straighten things out. Hope this helps somebody else sometime.

 

It has always been my experience that they only sway like that when they are tail heavy. Once you get to much weight behind the rear axle your doomed. It sucks when a trailer does that. It happened to me only once, and I learned my lesson on how to properly balance a trailer load.

 

How about this one where nothing fell off, but should have?

I bought a trailer stupid cheap at an auction, an old boat trailer converted to utility - the wood floor rotted out, so I bought a pickup bedliner they auctioned off for a few minutes later (that cost a whole dollar) and lo and behold it slid right in there, so I had a trailer for all of about $25, including a ball and mount the right size for it.

So I registered it, aired up the tires, and took it out 75 miles up to the farm where the cars are stashed and left it. Even bought an el-cheapo new light set for it at Harbor Frieight.

Fast forward a few months, I need to move some body panels and things, so I go to pick up the tongue on the trailer to tow it down by the stuff I need to move... and suddenly I'm holding a tongue that's sticking straight up in the air. It had rotted out on the bottom - now it didn't do that just in the time it sat up there. I'm lucky it didn't come off on the Thruway and pass me to land in the median, ditch, or get run over by a semi...

And now I know why I got it so cheap.

 

Me,twice in 5min.Lucky to be here I landed on my head. Or maybe thats why I`m still here.

 

Well I hate to scare the shit out of people but when a hyster forklift leaves the trailer yea haw ! I went to pick it up reverse was out of the fork lift we put it on the trailer and my helper chained down one through the rear axle and one on the mast opps he did not relize the mast was not all the way down it also leaked half way home loop 323 5:00 rush hour tyler texas here it comes foward then to the rear I applied the brakes and got coming back on and when i came to a stop it unloaded automatic on the ground I slowly looked back no body hit it I told my helper get the truck off the road I started the fork lift drove it around the median and into the nearby steet and the reverse has worked ever since . yes I soiled myself !!