I quick funny story, nobody was hurt (not so funny at the time) Several years ago I owned a new Areostar. I was towing a utility trailer with a new washer and new stove on the back. After hiting a dip in the road I lost the stove right out of the trailer. I jumped on the brakes and the tung put a hole right through my fiberglass back door. The police came along and seen the wrecked stove and damaged van and kept right on going after giving me a look of disgust. Lesson learned: properly tie the load down and make sure the clasp on the hitch is secured and locked in place.

 

My GF worked for classic stereo. Some impatient customers didnt want to wait for the big screen tv to be delievered so they picked it up them selves. It wasnt that long of a drive home so they didnt tie it down, and learned a very expensive lesson.

 

BINGO! I didn't want to wait three days or pay the $50.00 to have the new appliances delivered. So I ended up buying a second $720.00 stove and $300.00 repair to the van. I wan't too bright back then.... I am more than happy to pay now, or if and only if they don't deliver I then do it right. Experience seldomly comes cheep.

 

My first one was scary. It could have been bad but I got lucky. I didn't know any better so I had a Ford Bronco II towing a 6'x12' enclosed trailer with no trailer brakes. I was going though an intersection, when I realized the car in front of me had stopped in the middle of the road to make a left turn. I jumped on the brakes, truck came right around sideways, trailer kept on pushing. When I finally stopped, I stuck my head out the window, looked straight down and the side of my truck was no more than 6" from the rear bumper of the car. I ended up with a nasty verticle crease down the side of my truck.

This is why I appreciate the people who come on this forum to ask if they can/should tow a given trailer with a give vehicle. At least they are smart enough to ask.

Lesson learned: Don't tow more trailer than your TV can handle.

 

I learned NOT to load my dad's 14' deck f;atbed backwards hauling a big old Buick Lesabre home from an an auction once. There wasn't any way to get to it to laod forward, so we winched it on backawards. Things were going ok, got out on the highway on a steep grade hill, and it started to pick up speed. Well, this trailer's been run pretty hard and overloaded more than once, and my dad isn't real good about maintenance, so the trailer brakes aren't working. I 'm getting going about 60 mph when the trailer starts dancing around. It got so violent that it was sliding sideways! I fought to hold the truck straight, kept stabbing the brakes like I was on ice, but harder, and got it under control. It was 45 mph the rest of the way home. I think I reshaped the steering wheel on that one. Luckily noone was around me while I was wrestling with the rig.

 

one day I was going down a local four lane when I saw 2 trucks next to each other with their beds twisted strangely. As I got closer it was apparent the the truck on the left had been pulling the truck on the right in a bed to bed set up (the towed truck was facing backwards). I am not sure exactly happened but the end result was the towed truck was beside the pulling truck and they were still connected. both beds and bumpers were twisted beyond repair

 

Come on, surely more of you guys have stories. I promise, I won't hold anything against you!

Horsepuller, how about that story you talked about?

 

A couple of years ago I was in a hurry to to get the last 2 round bales off a feild before a big storm hit.

I was too far from home to make the trip in time with the loader tractor and already loaded 10 ton hay trailer, so I decided to jump in my Ranger and run home and get this homemade solid front swivel trailer that we had for picking up odd bales.

I did not have a hitch pin in the truck but I did have this grade 8 bolt and nut and figured that would be good enough.

So I'm going down the back roads with this empty trailer at about 45 mph, when all of a sudden I notice that this trailer is not jolting the truck like a normal farm trailer does.... ...

Just as I look in the rear view mirror, I see that the trailer has come un-done, and the hitch digs into the ground and then the rest of the trailer pole vaults the hitch arm ...and then comes to a stop in a ditch. No damage was done, so I got out my tow rope and righted the trailer, hooked it back up, and away we went!

 

A few years back (15) it was the first time I double hitched behind a 5ver. I made it to the lake and was ready to leave, after hitching up the boat I thought it would be a good idea to check the hitch bolts on the 5ver. So I did and they were tight but I got a cheater just to make sure. Then I didn't like the way the safety chains were so I wrapped them around the bumper and was on my way. 60 miles from home I came to a stop sign and felt a little bump when I stoped. I pulled away form the intersection and when up a hill after going over the top and starting down I looked in my rear view and the boat was in the other lane so I steped on the gas and it when back behind the trailer. I let off again and it tried to pass again, I looked at my wife and told her the boat was trying to pass us as I steped on the gas again. She asked how come I was speeding up I told her it must still be on the safety chains and I wanted to keep it behind us and away from the camper. The next hill I slowed down and stoped looked at the boat and the hitch was still in the coupler. one bolt was still there and it was snapped off clean, safety chains still around the bumper, good thing or the boat would have been gone. 2 hours later after finding some bolts continued on home. After installing some real good bolts I took it to a freinds body shop and welded it just to make sure and repainted the bumper. The only real damage was a dent about the size of a quarter dead center in the camper,I was lucky it hit a stud.

What I learned is if a bolt is tight leave it that way don't tighten to the point it will break ,safety chains do work and if you feel something behind is different stop and take a good look. By the way I changed the way the safety chains were hooked also, I now us a reciever hitch install by the factory on my new 5ver.

 

Thank goodness for safety chains!

 

I guess I'm fortunate. The worst that has happened to me was jacknifing/sliding out of control twice when towing the Bronco on a tow bar behind the Dually some years ago.

I usually trailer it, but that time I decided that a tow bar would be a handy thing to have, so I bought one and put it to use. I found out that the Bronco, being old and not real tight in the frontend, plus it being such a short wheelbase, makes for squirelly towing with a tow bar. I had no braking system for it either, so the Dually was doing all the stopping and the Bronco just wanted to keep going.

I was surprised at how easily it could yank the back end of my Dually around, even with a load of equipment in the bed. I hadn't had a trailer act so tail-happy like that, so when it happened the first time on dry pavement at relatively slow speed, it caught me off gaurd. Someone had changed lanes in front of me abruptly, then braked. I had to stomp on the brakes and the Bronco starts pushing the backend of the truck sideways and I end up taking up 3 lanes of traffic.

The second time it happened was during a rain. I was looking out for it this time, going real slow while making a left turn and thought all was well, then I notice the truck starting to go sideways, look in my mirror and there goes the Bronco again, this time sliding sideways accross the intersection and pulling the truck around with it.

Both times no accident happened and no damage to either vehicle except a slightly bent bumper and me a little shaken up and embarassed. Fortunately, both times the other drivers were all alert and able to get out of the way.

After those 2 incidents, I decided it was a Bad Idea to use the towbar with that vehicle anymore. I do keep it handy in case of emergency, as it's still better than towing on a chain, which I've had to do many times and prefer not to. For planned towing, I use the trailer. It's much safer .