Our cracked egg

[outwiththedogs]

This is a cautionary tale about sway. It is a long post so bear with me or just skip the story. We had a 2020 19’, picked up in February in Sumas, camped our way home to Colorado and prepared for a whole summer of camping trips. Then Covid arrived and our plans fell like dominos. Nonetheless we managed to cobble together several local-ish trips to state parks, which was wonderful. Altogether we had spent 20 nights camping and really loved the trailer. As a reference, we previously owned an Escape 17B which we took to Newfoundland and back, and prior to that we had a Scamp 16.

A few weeks ago we were coming home from Western Nebraska, traveling on a highway just west of Sterling, CO (far northeast part of the state). On a dry road with gusty but not heavy winds and almost no traffic we had a sudden and violent sway event that spun the trailer across the road and flipped the car completely. The trailer ended up on the passenger side with broken axles, the car landed on its tires. We opened the door and walked away with our 2 dogs who were harnessed in the back seat. We were incredibly lucky in countless ways, including that we all were uninjured and that no one else was injured. We even landed off the shoulder of the road, not impeding traffic.

So what happened? We don’t know. I was driving and our speed was maybe 55mph. We had the fastway weight distribution hitch and trunnion sway control bars, the tanks were empty and this time we did not have bikes on the back. We tend to travel lightly and the trailer did not have a microwave or AC. In the rear hatch we had an outdoor rug, hiking poles, the electric cord and the dogs beds. The front storage had our chocks, water hose, levelers and plastic blocks. The front under bench storage had dog food, shoes, and a few other lightweight items. Our car was a 2018 Highlander XLE with new tires. We had checked everything before leaving that morning, tire pressure, hitch/coupler attachment etc. Though we don’t have decades of towing experience neither are we total newbies. The week before we had driven on the freeway in the same configuration but with 2 road bikes on the back and did not have a whisper of a problem. We have towed on far worse roads in far worse conditions of wind, rain, traffic and so forth and have never felt a wiggle.

The sway was so violent and so fast that I did not have time to reach for the manual trailer brake. Both of us had practiced finding it while driving in case we needed to use it. It was over before either of us could blink. We have thought and reviewed countless times and keep coming up with a big ‘we don’t know and probably never will.’ Both car and trailer were totaled, the coupler came off the ball, the chains were twisted around from the flip but held. One trunnion bar stayed attached, the other went through the storage box.

We wish we had a clear causation pathway or even a maybe. The Farmers Insurance agent in Sterling said that that road is known for shallow ruts from heavy truck traffic and that if you get one wheel out of one it can flip the car. However, we had not noticed ruts, so can’t really say that was the issue.

We have always been seat belt wearers, the types that buckle up before opening the garage door. We also have a hammock and harness system for the dogs (60# goldendoodles). The hammock part attaches to the four headrests and prevents falling on the floor in case of a sudden stop and the harnesses attach into the seat belt slots. If you travel with dogs we strongly encourage this. Not only are the dogs perfectly fine but they did not become 60# projectiles in the event.

The good news, besides being alive to tell the tale, is that we were well insured for both car and trailer. People were incredibly nice, the tow truck drivers had us put the dogs in one of their air-conditioned trucks on a 100 degree afternoon. The next day I emailed Escape to tell them of our sad loss and let them know we wanted to order another trailer. I immediately got a call from Linda saying that someone who had ordered a 19 that was ready to go into production had just then cancelled and did I think we could get our build sheet in within the week. We did and will get our new 19 in October.

Our sway and flip is the third one that I know of with an E 19. The other two had fairly obvious extenuating circumstances with load, wind, passing semis etc. This one is a puzzler, enough so that I have hesitated to write it up. It may be worth knowing about, even though we have done more second guessing than can be imagined and still come up with nothing. We are getting back on that horse(power) and riding again. There is much camping to be done.