Last night towimg the race car home from the Day of the Drags I was headed west on E. Wm Cannon, east of I-35 and hit some very large undulations in the road when I heard a bang, the truck jerked and I saw sparks in the rear view mirror. The redhead looks at me and asks "what was that?", as I was slowing down and moving to the side of the road I said "the trailer came disconnected". Fortunately, I have good safety chains, we were headed up hill, the trailer didnt dig into the pavement and I didnt panic and slam on the brakes. I was able to come to a stop with the trailer hitting the truck only once, the only damage that was done was the plastic cover on my winch has a chunk knocked out of it from it hitting the trailer ball. The traffic behind me apparently saw what was going on and gave me room to get to the side of the road safely. A couple of guys appeared out of the house we stopped in front of and helped me get the trailer wheels chocked, the tounge jacked up and the truck hooked back to the trailer, within 5 minutes we were on our way back home, and another 10 minutes we were parked in front of the house unloading the car. Something I want to stress here, my trailer has a bulldog hitch on it and the hitch closure DID NOT open. The hitch simply rotated off the ball. I have been towing trailers for over 30 years with well over a million miles of towing experience. I have been in and around occupations that use alot of bumper pull trailers most of my working life. In all that time and I have NEVER seen this happen. If you have safety chains on your trailer USE them. If you do not have safety chains, INSTALL THEM and USE them. I have never been a big fan of breakway brake actuators, I may rethink that now. My trailer was built before they were required and as such does not have one. I will probably install one before the next trip. I will probably replace the hitch before the next trip as well, at the very least I will give the hitch a thorough inspection before the next trip. I will be replacing the chains as well since they have taken a pretty good beating. To answer some of the obvious questions ahead of time. Both the hitch and the ball are 2 inch units. The ball is new enough that none of the chrome is worn off. The closure on the hitch does not have any play in it and does not have any obvious wear to it. All in all, I am counting myself lucky that all of the safety features performed as designed.
One of the scariest things I've ever seen was my brother's V-8 Vega passing my other brother's pickup. The Vega was on a trailer and had been behind the pickup until the ball broke during an unfortunately quick stop. That was nearly 30 years ago and I have become an absolute believer in both safety chains and break-away brakes. The Vega and trailer landed a hundred yards down the road with no significant damage and no one was hurt. I sure would not bet on that happy an outcome next time.
That was my biggest concern, getting everything stopped before the chains ground and broke. I was on a long enough of a hill that there is no telling where the trailer and car would have ended up.
Austin roads suck! Glad you folks and the car got away unscathed. My next car trailer will be a gooseneck, or if it's a bumper pull it'll be a pintle hitch. Not only safer...but my friend's won't be able to borrow it!
Man that made my Willy scrawl up inside me just reading about it... I could just see that trailer rig creaming some Innocent people. You must be living right.Thank God. AND I always use my chains........
Yup, make sure they're GOOD safety chains as well. Mine broke and my utility trailer passed me when it got loose. Don't use a cheap shackle, it will just get yanked open. Shawn
Are you positive that the "Bulldog" coupler is 2inch??----& are you positive that the ball is 2 inch & NOT 1 7/8 ??---As a retired trailer mfg. with 25 yrs expierence in the field, MOST horse people swear by the "Bull dog" unit because of the sliding collar safety feature. Reading about your adventure, glad no one was injured or hurt.--------------------Don
I also cross the safety chains to support the tongue better if it comes off.Make sure they are not way to long either.
My 16' flat trailer and my boat trailer both have 1/4 link chains with slip hooks with the spring loaded clips so they can't bounce off. I'm building a 5' x 9' right now that will have the same on it. When I see those S hook type safteys on some trialers, I cringe. So far,I haven't had one come off.
yes I am SURE that the hitch is 2", I have owned this trailer for over 20 years and I put this particular bulldog hitch on the trailer about 10 years ago when we changed trucks and needed a different offset so we wouldnt have to run a huge rise on the receiver ball mount. Also I checked the ball after we got everything unloaded and indeed it is a 2" ball.
I have been using 3/8" chain with horseshoe shaped lifting clevis to attach to the truck. It is a little more of a pain to connect and disconnect but they dont come off unless you take them off.
I agree with the "cross the chains" comment! I also read that in a magazine that if the trailer disconnects, it will pull and brake straighter with crossed chains. ALSO I have always wondered why when something comes off a trailer (or the trailer itself) that wheel, car or trailer PASSES the tow vehicle!!??!!
i always crossed the chains too. They should have enough slack to allow the trailer to pivot at the hitch ball without going taut. But not too much slack so they catch the tongue on the way down, at least in theory. I know, the trailer passing the tow rig is a weird thing. When I was a kid, I was going to launch a boat with my neighbor. We were on a smooth road doing maybe 30 and all of a sudden the boat and trailer passed us on the left! Then it crossed in front of us and came to rest at the curb. Of course he had no safety chains, which I had asked him about before we left. He said we were only going a couple of miles and didn't need them. My dad was a big trailer towing guy and showed us how to do it right. Bob
I lost a trailer years ago but I had good safety chains [3/8 inch] and they were cross chained and I lived to tell about but I change my setup and put a pintel hitch on have never had a problem again. I did not have enough weight on the front of the trailer and it pulled the hitch off the ball....Was this what happened to you?????
Also just a note..make sure your chains are not so long that if your trailer becomes disconected, that the tongue of the trailer doesnt touch the ground. Using the cross chain method. A pole vaulting trailer at 65 MPH is very ugly. And also check the load rating of the chains..both of them should be able to support the tongue load of the trailer loaded, or they just become useless, and there just for looks. I also dont like those types of hitch connectors..I wonder why it was able to rotate off the ball?..not a good deal at all.
Glad nothing was badly damaged and you are ok. I swear by a Bulldog hitch! I've never heard of one coming lose - but, there is a first for everything. I learned the hard way about crossing the safety chains. Matter of fact, I think you can be ticketed in Texas for not having crossed safety chains.
because it is no longer under the load ..so it is free to run ..no friction or tow vehicle to hold it back..my theroy anyways
'cause the natural reaction of most all people is to jam on the brakes of the tow vehicle when they feel something jerk, bump, or go "bang". Tow vehicle slows rapidly, towed vehicle does not.
Thats SCARY man...We pull alot of trailers/cars, buying, or selling, and trying to race... I always cross my chains, and am actually going to now upgrade the shackles on them, as well. My hitch has a 1" drop, which is actually not really necessary on my combo, as the truck sits pretty low, but, itangles the trailer, when loaded, a slight bit toward the truck, and I always put as much of the load on the tounge as I can. It handles a whole lot better that way too. It never even occured to me that new, AND proper equipment could come apart like you describe. That sucks, and is an eye-opener to me, for sure! Glad it was not a disaster.
Dang, Wesley, glad that ya'll are okay. Just what you needed after skating on the track all day. One adventure after another!
no, I have plenty of tongue weight, I went over a series of undulations on the road and the last one launched the truck and trailer like I had gone over a ramp at high speed. The hell of it is, the speed limit on that part of the road is 40mph and I was only doing about 35. Ask anyone that is familiar with Wm Cannon east of I-35 and they will verify that it is pretty rough. I havent been there in a while, it is alot worse than I remember it. I should call the city and complain, maybe I can get the city to foot the bill for my new hitch and safety chains, yeah right, who am I trying to fool!
I don't know how you drive but when I have something go all to hell (like my trailer coming loose) I try to slow down and take care of the situation. Trailer comes off, tongue drops and I think 'Oh good, I'll slow the truck down and stuff the trailer tongue under the bumper, that'll stop it". No such luck, it bounced off the still moving truck, headed for the other lane and passed me. Shawn
Fortunately I didnt have that problem, the safety chains held the trailer behind the truck and I was able to move from the center lane over to the right side curb and get it stopped safely. Trailer only hit the truck once and that was when the winch hit the trailer ball. If the chains had not done their job I would probably still be chasing the car and trailer down the hill.
For those who do not know ... this is a BULLDOG hitch. I had to look it up ... as I have seen them but did not know that was the name for them. I have one on my Pace enclosed trailer.
still the answer of how it came off has not been told.. sure it isnt for a 2 5/16" ball?..i know you said you have been using this trailer for a while..but i cant figure out for the life of me if all things are matched and used correctly this should not have happened. i would be figuring out why this came off, so it never happens again. please understand..im not laying blame or ratteling your cage.or flaming you...but the core issue hasent been delt with here.. how the hell did it come off? I can hook my car hauler to my trucks hitch, and jack the rear tires of my haul vehicle off the ground with the trailer jack..
the bump in the road was violent enough that it rotated off the ball. The slip collar is pretty stiff now. I assume that when the ball popped out of the hitch that it egg shaped the collar as the clamshell tried to open. It was dark the last time I looked at the hitch so I havent really had a good look at it. The next time I look at the trailer will be when I replace the hitch. I am not even going to take a chance with the old hitch. I will stress again, when I got everything to a stop and looked at the tongue of the trailer the clamshell on the bulldog was closed, the slip collar was forward and over the clamshell and the safety pin was still in place behind the slip collar. In other words the hitch did NOT come open. And yes the hitch and the ball are BOTH 2 inch units and no, neither the ball or the hitch were worn out or damaged before they parted company. The biggest point I have been trying to get across is that no matter how secure things look SHIT HAPPENS. Have you back up systems and plans in place. Go back and reread my original post, this is not my first rodeo.
Wesley, Glad that the outcome was as good as it was....whew! I'm gonna look at the chains on my trailer!!! Skot
The Jalopy Journal
