Trailer Mishaps

[fatz]

yup i learnt the hard way

the mighty r31 sillo towing a trailer with a s13 on it

strapped down buy some 3 cm straos

120kmh overtakig a road rain in the death works trailer

tank slapped for half a km

good times when the car r31 stoped

NEVER TOWED AGAIN TILL I BOUGHT A 4WD

[Kinks]

More like I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-mishap.

Brother in law buys a boat off ebay for $3000. Hasn't been touched in 3 years, everything is old but mostly serviceable.

Family holiday in Port Stephens, brother in law is bringing the boat. We're all new to boats so we get it off the trailer and started, motor off and then pull in for a coffee at the marina. Can't get it started again (hadn't put the choke on), flooded it, desperate call to the mechanic back in Sydney and eventually get going. Bit later, wonder why we're flat stick and when we were only at 1/2 throttle before, turns out a spark plug lead has disintegrated and fallen out. Jam that back in, a few mysterious warning buzzers later that go away when we stop the motor for a few minutes and start up again and we get the thing back on the trailer, and home etc.

Take it out another time in Sydney, get home flat tyre, noticed it as I was pulling in it was almost dead. Brother in law says he already had a flat once before the Port Stephens trip (and Port Stephens was done without a spare carried). I take a closer look at the tyres, wow the rubber is f**ked it's all hard and starting to crack. 3 new tyres + bearings thanks! The tyre was full of salt between it and the inner tube which would have destroyed the inner tubes as well.

To this day I don't know how they made it up to Port Stephens and back with no spare on ancient tyres that were intent on shredding themselves. They're in the good books with God, that's for sure!

[Beer Baron]

duncans got some rippers and fatz effort going to wakefield is pretty mega. even better when he smashed the poor silvia into the wall the next day...

I have grazed the odd post here and there and bent the odd number plate but nothing really catastrophic. I have had a close call using a mates hoist (duncans car sliding off the ramps in the rain reminded me of this one). using a mates hoist and didn't realise this particular hoist (normal 2 post) you had to unlock the near side post separately from the far side one (no idea why they have that). so I hit the down button to let it down and it only let one side down. lucky I stopped it quick as car was very nearly falling off (was about 7feet up). that would have been nasty.

Things always seem to happy at the end of a track day when you're tired and a bit buzzed out. i've done it reversing the old GTR into the tight garage at my parents old house. you had to enter on quite an angle and straight it up in the garage with bugger all room. I was tired and had the windows down as I was listening for any un-usual noises and I had smelt gearbox oil so I was sniffing and listening for anything out of the ordinary. started backing it in (car is super loud, no mufflers of any kind) and didn't notice I was dragging the passenger side door and quarter along the wooden post in the door opening. I felt a bit of resistance and thought it was just the LSD binding up (as it does) or a bit of gravel or a lip in the concrete. d'oh! was not too bad though, just a scratch really.

[GTR-N1]

Hehe... good stories...

Reversing:-

* Towing a 16ft Cobra/Mosquito catamaran was never a problem with so much distance between the ball and the trailer axles

* Those damn small 6x4 boxies come back to bite me anytime I don't pay attention - even for a second haha > near misses

[jiffo]

Funny thing Terry, our Dunnydoor has a ding on each side/rear exactly where the Hobie would poke its nose if turned too tightly.

We didn't do them, previous owner must have been a crook reverser.

[warps]

Must admit I have a few

When I was learning to drive, my brother and I took a trailer load of scrap metal to Simsmetal. On the way home, he got me to drive. We were driving down a dirt road and he told me to have some fun (the beauty of getting 19 year olds to teach 17 year olds to drive). I did a couple of fishtails, and then heard this funny skipping / grating sound behind. Looked in the mirror to see the trailer at 90 deg to the car, skipping sideways. We stopped and noticed that the spare tyre had hit the back of the car, bending the mount.

When we got home dad noticed the damage and asked what heppened. "er - we jack knifed the trailer while trying to reverse it. Sorry, dad".

Another time we hooked up a friend's trailer (with rally escort on the back) onto the back of my ute. Didn't lower the quick release coupling all the way down though (got distracted). Drove off down the road towards his place, and all was fine till I was slowing down for a set of lights. Going downhill, just as I was slowing to stop, we went over a bump and that let the hitch come off the towbar. hitch slammed into the back bumper, and hit the end of the exhaust as well, damaging the muffler. Only superficial damage to the plastic bumper, and I got a new straight through muffler out of it. Could have been a lot worse.

Just a few months ago, I was about to load the rally car onto the trailer. Hooked up the empty trailer and proceeded to drive it out of the garage onto the street. Just as I was entering the road I thought "shit, did I lock down the quick release handle? The bang in the back of the car gave me the answer. FARK!!! Again, I'd been distracted just as I was hooking up the trailer .The last thing I normally do is lower the handle and lock it in, but for some reason (short attention span) I neglected to do this. A few scratches on the back of the car (which I'd managed to keep pristine for the last 3.5 years)

Only little ones, but enough to piss you off. I saw a badly overloaded car trailer roll over in front of me in traffic a couple of years ago. A couple of guys in an old hilux ute were towing a Falcon wagon on an old rusty car trailer. Got the speed wobbles going down a small hill and ended up witht he trailer on top of the upside down falcon on top of a crushed bus stop. Lucky nobody was waiting for the bus at thet time.

[Marlin]

Gee I must be boring, only ever (touch wood) had one incident on a brand new trailer where two of the four coupling bolts snapped from overzealous rattle gun by the manufacturer.

Lucky it was noticed before it got ugly.

[fatz]

Just went for a drive and duck me I lost my number plate

38 spankers later and I have a new number plate

[jiffo]

Ages ago my boss asked me to help him borrow a pavement roller from his mate.

We hooked up the roller's tandem skel trailer onto his 280SEL and while he drove the roller, I tossed dirt onto the ramps to stop it skidding as smooth drums slip very easily.

Anyway he gave it some and up she went, right to the front...........

and then he pulled the vibrate lever instead of the throttle.

She climbed up over the spare and kept going along the drawbar into the boot.

Bits of trailer rattling off onto the ground, spare crushed, bent drawbar, front drum chewing up against the rear window by the time it all stopped.

Disaster.

[Duncan]

jiffo....of all the posts in here.....yours needs pics the most!

[jiffo]

Sorry Duncan, this was back in the 80's and the boss would have sacked me if I'd got out a camera.

That old Merc was in the panel shop so fast.

I gave him a lift in the Belmont and then we used her to tow the roller around.

161 power.

[GTR-N1]

Ages ago my boss asked me to help him borrow a pavement roller from his mate.

We hooked up the roller's tandem skel trailer onto his 280SEL and while he drove the roller, I tossed dirt onto the ramps to stop it skidding as smooth drums slip very easily.

Anyway he gave it some and up she went, right to the front...........

and then he pulled the vibrate lever instead of the throttle.

She climbed up over the spare and kept going along the drawbar into the boot.

Bits of trailer rattling off onto the ground, spare crushed, bent drawbar, front drum chewing up against the rear window by the time it all stopped.

Disaster.

Re-enactment will still win a prize on Aust Funniest Home Vids hehe...

[blackrex]

Got caught out once with the not locking the coupling into place, I now use a small padlock on the locking tab, and I leave the key, on the same key ring as the car keys, in it when hooking up the trailer. This means that I can't start the car without getting the keys out of the lock, and verifying that I have attached the trailer properly.

[Duncan]

good procedure blackrex....especially when you don't do something all the time it is good to have it foolproof

[NickR33]

about a year ago I was driving along the monash in the R with my wife and her sister in the car... I'm in the far right hand lane doing 100km/h when all of a sudden a wheel comes bouncing across the fwy, get's hit by a car in the middle lane, takes an abrupt turn and heads straight for my car... I have cars next to me, cars in front and behind so I have nowhere to go and about .5 sec to react so I just jumped off the gas and drove right into it (was afraid to jump on the anchors as I didn't want to cause a pileup)

it nailed me in the front left quarter, luckily it didn't bounce up through the windscreen as it could've killed us... I looked in the rearview to see cars locking up brakes and swerving all over the shop amazingly there were no accidents

so I make my way to the emergency lane and start walking back down the fwy to see a Falcon with smashed in front and a 4WD towing a trailer with, you guessed it, a missing wheel

I'm not going to suggest the trailer was overloaded but you have a look at the pic and tell me what you reckon

ps. he reckons he was in the very left lane, the wheel is on the left so how it ended up in the very right lane is a mystery!

[jiffo]

jiffo....of all the posts in here.....yours needs pics the most!

It only just struck me, but that's the first thing anyone thinks of these days, digital cameras and mobile phones all make it happen instantly.

This wasn't really all that long ago, maybe 25+ years but there weren't many mobile phones and cameras still used film.

Cost $$$ to get processed too.

Guess that's why my folks have about 5 black/white photos of me as a kid, I have a couple of hundred of my kids growing up and already they have a couple of terabytes of photos of their kids, who are still pre-school.

Next generation is going to need some mega-big storage.

[Beer Baron]

about a year ago I was driving along the monash in the R with my wife and her sister in the car... I'm in the far right hand lane doing 100km/h when all of a sudden a wheel comes bouncing across the fwy, get's hit by a car in the middle lane, takes an abrupt turn and heads straight for my car... I have cars next to me, cars in front and behind so I have nowhere to go and about .5 sec to react so I just jumped off the gas and drove right into it (was afraid to jump on the anchors as I didn't want to cause a pileup)

it nailed me in the front left quarter, luckily it didn't bounce up through the windscreen as it could've killed us... I looked in the rearview to see cars locking up brakes and swerving all over the shop amazingly there were no accidents

so I make my way to the emergency lane and start walking back down the fwy to see a Falcon with smashed in front and a 4WD towing a trailer with, you guessed it, a missing wheel

I'm not going to suggest the trailer was overloaded but you have a look at the pic and tell me what you reckon

ps. he reckons he was in the very left lane, the wheel is on the left so how it ended up in the very right lane is a mystery!

that sucks mate. what a clown. trailer looks old and poorly maintained and clearly both car and trailer are loaded to bursting point. hope he paid for all the damage he caused.

[NickR33]

yeah he was pretty keen to get it sorted as he knew we had taken pics etc and pretty obvious he was in the wrong... didn't stop him from telling me he was a truck driver and that he towed stuff all the time and nothing like this had ever happened blah blah... I told him he's a muppet and was lucky nobody was killed

it wasn't the nuts that had come loose not tightened etc, they had just sheared off completely

[gtr fan]

Ages ago my boss asked me to help him borrow a pavement roller from his mate.

We hooked up the roller's tandem skel trailer onto his 280SEL and while he drove the roller, I tossed dirt onto the ramps to stop it skidding as smooth drums slip very easily.

Anyway he gave it some and up she went, right to the front...........

and then he pulled the vibrate lever instead of the throttle.

She climbed up over the spare and kept going along the drawbar into the boot.

Bits of trailer rattling off onto the ground, spare crushed, bent drawbar, front drum chewing up against the rear window by the time it all stopped.

Disaster.

That story takes the cake for me and conjures up the best mental images. Definitely sounds like a Homer Simpson / Peter Griffin moment!

Edited March 22, 2011 by gtr fan

[Beer Baron]

yeah he was pretty keen to get it sorted as he knew we had taken pics etc and pretty obvious he was in the wrong... didn't stop him from telling me he was a truck driver and that he towed stuff all the time and nothing like this had ever happened blah blah... I told him he's a muppet and was lucky nobody was killed

it wasn't the nuts that had come loose not tightened etc, they had just sheared off completely

yeah it's not very common for nuts to fall off. much more common to get snapped studs due to over tightening by clowns.