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

Best man at our wedding was helping us move. Last load he took our storage shed in his 56 Ford truck bed. We were really wondering what happened to him. He pulled up with a bunch of twisted metal that vagely resembled our shed. Seems it flew out on the freeway. I told him I would have kept going and left it. Amazingly we were able to reassemble the shed and it worked ok. I did leave it the next time I moved though.

Irwindale Raceway 1972 made a pass and got sideways and kissed the rail. The crew freaked out and took off for the big end in the push truck. Forgot to close the tailgate. Tool box flew out and rearranged my tools. Not a good day. Tweaked the car, bent the box and messed up my tool box system.

Side note. That top box got a major redo in 1973 at work. I came to work and everyone was following me to the office pied piper style. I'm trying to figure out what's up. Had my pants on yet things didn't seem right. Walked around the corner of the office to head for the locker room and there is my top and bottom box. Only now they are about 15" tall combined. Seems a school bus feel off the rack and landed on the boxes. Took me half the day to cut my tools out the the mess. Only good thing that came out of it was the compnay had to buy me new boxes. Still have the top box complete with pit passes from all the So Cal tracks on the inside of the lid.
Dan

 

These stories are why people shouldn't tailgate. haha

 

Ex wife fell out the bed of my 53 f100..I sure am glad the bitch is gone...

 

Turnips..............!!

 

Returning from Super Chevy in Seattle, I had my disassembled 35 Coupe on the trailer, it was around mid night as I approached the Oregon State line when I heard a strange sound. without stopping I tried to guess what would make that noise. About a month later I realized it was the radiator that I had slid underneath the body.

 

when i was building my garage i was hauling like 40+ sheets of t1-11 siding and alot of 2x6 and 2x10's. i was driving an old international with a 9' step bed. while pulling out from a stoplight the load shifted and broke the chain holders right of the bed! it was just teetering but didn't fall all the way out,but if i would have went forward any more it would have fell off in the middle of the street!(i was sitting uphill luckily there was an abandoned gas station to my left and i back into the lot and used one of the steel pipe barriers that protect the pumps and back against it to push the load back on!! last summer i was haulin a 52 chevy styleline home and i had it on the trailer backwards so i could unload it in the garage forward. got home,no windshields,wtf!!

 

Lost a dana 60 center section, luckily the lady behind me missed it.

 

Years ago I was bringing home a 1940 1 1/2 ton flatbed dump on a rented car trailer and as soon as I got on I-10 the trailer began to fishtail due to not enough hitch weight. Long story short, I did a 180 on the freeway just outside of Los Angeles, drove the wrong way off the freeway, replaced the blown trailer tire, and drove 60 miles home on surface streets at 35 MPH. Definately and E ticket ride.

 

Funny, my brother and I were just talking about the time he lost a 9" center section off the back of his flatbed pickup. Took out the suspension and oil pan of the lady's car who was behind him. He still says to this day, "the dumb bitch could have swerved." I remind him the dumb ass in the truck could have secured the load. His insurance company reminded him of his foolishness for years.

 

Couple of months ago I traded a 1941 Seagrave firetruck body for an Seagrave v12 Flathead engine. Part of the deal was that I would deliver the body to Houston where I would pick up the engine.

Mind you this is a FULL firetruck body, cab, dog house, fenders, bumpers, bed.. everything. The firetruck when together was over 20ft long and weight in excess of 12,000 lbs.

I loaded all the pieces onto my 16ft trailer at the shop, it was about 10ft high and loaded every inch of the trailer. Tied it down with ratchet straps, only had 6 of them and that wasn't enough, so I decided to drive the trailer home on the backroads, only about 2 miles on city streets and get some more straps that night before driving to Houston from Dallas the next day. About a mile from the shop I drop a front fender, about the size of a full size truck cab off the back while at a stop sign.. right in front of the police cruiser following me.

I cop turns on his lights to stop traffic, I pull over, the cop helps me to load the fender back on top of the trailer, the two of us could barely lift it.. I thank him and take off for the house.. Got lucky on that one. Only damaged was a cracked headlight lens.

 

I have two stories,

I was 16 and had a small like ten foot twin axle trailer filled with like three cords of wood pass me while I was going 60 down the highway. No other traffic but the trailer was tracking straight down the road with the tongue about a foot off the ground. It travelled a quarter of a mile or more with us next to it trying to figure out what to do. when the road turned it did not and turned into a major explosion of wood and metal. It took us six hours and three trips to get the trailer back home and all three cords picked up and delivered. I always check the connection if someone else hooks me up. Always.

On a somber note I had a friend who was riding a harley traveling about 55 and a 3.5 pound mini sledge fell of the back of a work truck and took his left leg off just below the knee. The other driver never knew and did not stop. They were not able to re-attach the bottom of his leg due to the massive amount of damage. His bike was also totalled. Had it hit him any higher no doubt he would be dead.

this thread might be light hearted but this can be really dangerous.

 

Thanks for the link.. I just spent 2 hours on that damn site!

Notable things I remember coming out of a trailer was a TC from a 700R4. It was loose in the back of the trailer, I figured I was only going down the road... Oops.

I too fear that I will lose my load when hauling and I am always checking it. I try and strap everything down.

An ex coworker was bringing a copy machine to a new facility when he want around a rotary (roundabout if you are not from mass) and it flipped out of the back of the truck and exploded... they pushed it to the side and kept going. Oops.

 

Very windy day in Allentown Pa. just a few years ago. Minding my own business cruising at about 70 down 476, seems the wind had loosened the front of the trailer roof (53 ft.dry van) and when I went under the overpass , I heard a hell of a noise and once I got stopped had 1/2 the trailer roof hanging over the driver side. Some comments left by other big truck drivers going by me I wouldn't even put up here...

 

Happens almost every year on Storrow Drive in Boston when kids go back to school....

 

I bought a 13foot camper trailer. As I was hauling it home on the freeway about 11PM the body blew off. It simply lifted off and went away. I was watching it in the mirror roll down the median till it just disinigrated. I was yellin and freaking out, but my brother was laughing hystericaly and told me I'd better get off the freeway and side street it home. The wife was pissed I'd bought th camper but was looking forward to using it. She was really pissed when she saw my new motorcycle trailer.

 

I haven't lost anything, but I worked at a gas station while going to school and witnessed a good one. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, the post-Church, pre-beach rush was over and my buddy Tim and I were half asleep, waiting for the next customer to wander in. All of a sudden, I hear "scrape...........scrape.......scrape...scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaape" outside in the street. I turn and look out the window in time to see a small speedboat and trailer passing a wagon full of a very puzzled looking family. The boat/trailer combo crosses the oncoming lane (luckily, no traffic), hops the curb at the corner of the station's driveway and plows through the station owner's carefully manicured evergreen shrubs and the chain link fence behind them. We run out as the wagon comes to a stop , the cloud of dust kicked up by the impact still hanging in the air. The driver of the wagon says, "I don't know how it came loose! I had the safety chains on and everything!" We looked at the back of the car and, sure enough, there were the safety chains.... along with the tongue of the trailer! It seems that steel boat trailers don't take kindly to repeated dunkings into salt water without rinsing, cleaning or maintenance! The trailer snapped right where it "Y'd" out under the bow of the boat, the weight of the motor tipped it all to the back and away it went. The guy tells me he has another trailer and wants to go get it. We call the cops first and they get all the information from the guy, including insurance and send him on his way to get the trailer, leaving me with a copy of all the information for the station's owner. About 20 minutes after they both leave, who comes rolling in but the owner, screaming like hell about the boat and trailer and what a mess it made.... and he's screaming at the two of us like WE did it!!!! Dumb ass probably expected us to throw ourselves in front of it so his shrubs and fence wouldn't get damaged!

 

A few years ago while towing sprint car couple hundred miles to race in upper part of lower peninsula Michigan one of the guys I raced with went buy us honking horn and waving wondered what the heck. Few miles later pull into rest stop and they are there he says why didn't you stop we wanted to tell you you lost a wheel and tire. I turned around and looked and sure enough one of my six wheels is gone. It pulled ok so we drove on down the road. Got home next morning and I pull into an open area across road cause when I get home late I don't like to disturb neighbors so I just pull in and shut it off. Next morning wife looks out window and says where is the wheel? I say I lost one on drivers side on road last night. She replies drivers side it's on passengers side. sure enough I look and another one is gone towed just as well with 4 or 5.

 

going to the Pleasanton swap 20 years ago with a load of junk and a fiberglass 69 GTO hood on top of it all. had that sucker tied down pretty good or so I thought... I actually ran the rope through the open scoops in the hood. I ended up with some extra rope and put another one through the hole where the hood tach went.

right before the Bernal exit where the fairgrounds is the hood starts flapping in the wind, cracks where the ropes are going through the scoops and flys off just as 2 guys in a roadster are passing me. Luckily the hood stayed with the truck held on by the rope I put through the tach hole and did not go sailing through the air and cut the heads off those two guys. destroyed my hood, but at least I didn't kill anybody.

 

Not a trailer but a stake body ford, we just finished cleaning out an old office building so the truck was filled with garbage bags. I just finished saying to my buddy "on the worst looking, most unstable loads, people be right on your ass" when sure as hell a bag flies off and lands square on this woman's hood. She doesn't stop, but just flew past us, with the bag still plastered all over the windshield of her Mercedes.

 

the visor fell off my 29 dodge 5 window somewhere between reno and central oregon. lame, good luck finding another....

 

i lost a 40ft boom lift and trailer going through cajon pass,just about shit all over myself!! idiot i was working with put the cotter pin over the hitch pin instead of through the hole....

 

Lost the tattered original roof material of the last Tudor I bought. Somewhere between Oregon City and Springfield.

 

a complete V8 engine bounces like a football when dropped on concrete at 70mph

 

Man this is some funny shit,keep them coming.

 

Me. Out of a van. Not much fun.

 

Guys this is some funny shit well here goes mine .. it wasnt on a trailer but we were still hauling something.. My pops and a guy would go around and buy cars from different auctions all over. Well one day I wanted to go with them so we loaded up the toe bar in the trunk and away we went ...
We bought this 70s pontaic bonny. My ole man had me hook up the toe bar to our toe rig she was a 74 impala we got both cars hooked up and off we went down the highway.
We were 4-5 hrs from home we are running 55-60mph then all of a sudden my dad looks over and says hey that car looks just like the one we just bought so I sat up in the seat a little and took a look and said hell dad that does look just like the one we just bought.
Then I said I dont see anyone driving it we both looked at each other and said OH shit Thats our car !!!!!
That car was hauling A$$ past us and all of a sudden it made a hard right and it took across the grass and was headed into the North bound lane my dad slammed on the brakes and we were shitting our pants.
That car was rolling on and well it crossed both lanes and ended up in the ditch it was a total loss and thank God on one was coming the other way!! I can still see the look on his face when we looked at each other that night... It was so funny God Bless you pops see you in heaven soon!!!!

 

3 sheets of plywood in a shortbed p/u with a slippery bedliner after pulling away from a light at a busy, big city intersection. Sucked.

Also lost a scrap hood off the body shop company scrap truck on the way to the scrap yard. I was 17, making minimum wage, driving a rickety old neglected '67 Chev 3/4 ton. I had no idea the hood came off until a cop showed up while I was waiting to get the scrap money to take back to the big wig. A woman ran over the hood and flattened one tire along with some other minor damage. I was charged with an unsafe load, the shop fixed the woman's car and I paid the fine. Lesson learned.
On a side note, the veteran's in the shop were all pissed at the boss for ordering a novice to take a rickety old truck that shouldn't have even been on the road and not even providing tie downs or a tarp - they had a point! I guess I was supposed to provide my own - like I had money for that while making $4.50 an hour.

Other than that, I've had a couple of tail wagging moments with tail heavy car trailers. The last one was from dragging a long F350 Dually tow truck on a short car trailer. In my defense, I couldn't pull it any further forward on the trailer and couldn't back it on either because the extra wide rear wheel wouldn't have cleared the trailer fenders. I simply found the speed that calmed the ciaos and hit the four way flashers - @ 30 mph or less, it was a long frustrating ride home.

 

Several years ago, my buddy owned a radiator shop. With the help of his friends, he accepted an industrial job requiring a weekend turnaround. We broke our asses rebuilding, repairing and recoring the beast, loaded it on a small tandem flatdeck, and proceeded to deliver in the 11th hour.

We made the delivery, but I don't know how. On the return trip, I notice the trailer riding happily BESIDE us. Speechless, I slap the driver and point out the window. The look on his face should be on a poster.

The trailer ran harmlessly off the road and scrubbed to a stop in the ditch. Turns out the receiver and ball mount were an odd combination. The pin was behind the slip-in tube, not through it, a simple mistake made by an overtired worker.

If you see one of these strapped to a trailer on a Sunday night, beware...

 

with all the nutty scrapper and cardboard recycling guys around here I'm suprised the freeways are not littered with junk that flew out. I never get behind those guys.

 

I learned my lesson to never trust anyone else to hook up a trailer I'm pulling. Quite a few years ago I borrowed my neighbor's trailer. I backed my truck up to it while his teenage son guided me back. He cranked the tongue jack up and connected everything, or I thought. I almost get to my destination about 30 miles away and hear a thump and realize the trailer came loose. I slow my truck down and let the trailer bump my back bumper until I get the trailer to come to a stop. I'm in the left hand lane and everyone is honking their horns as I'm reattaching the trailer. I never let anyone hook up a trailer for me after that.

I was driving to the hardware store and noticed a bunch of crap laying on the side of the road, up a head about two blocks I see that big garbage truck, the kind that picks up dumpsters, with big pieces of paper floating out of it. It going rather slow so I catch up to it. Just as I got about 2-3 car lengths behind it a huge piece of brown paper floats out of it and lands on my windshield completely covering it. I stop and pull the paper off and chase down the truck. He pulls into the parking lot of his next pick up and get out of my truck and tell him he's spewing crap all over, he just Scruggs and drives away.