Reckless towing leads to accident

[Centex]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

.... As we know it’s better to be a little heavy on the tongue than light.

Amen

[NW Cat Owner]

Glad you didn't get caught up in that accident. Over the years I've seen many towing situations that I hoped wouldn't become an accident. Fortunately I've never seen that happen or come across it soon after. I do back way off when someone goes past me like that. Many times I wonder what the hell they were thinking once they got out on the road. And, it seems like the really big trucks and trailers are the ones going way faster than they should (according to my completely unscientific observations). Um, yeah, don't think so!

[Kingfish]

Sometimes I think there is a special deity that looks after these idiots. Unless of course they push their luck too far like this one.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

And, it seems like the really big trucks and trailers are the ones going way faster than they should (according to my completely unscientific observations). Um, yeah, don't think so!

A lot of the trucks in CA seem to do as I do, exceed 55mph by a small amount, usually going around 63mph or so and I often fall into convoy with them. Safety in numbers.

But, yes, there are some cowboys out there and considering the weight of them and the excessive speed, it's scary.

Ron

[Scambo1]

I love a good Florida man story

[flynfrfun]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

A lot of the trucks in CA seem to do as I do, exceed 55mph by a small amount, usually going around 63mph or so and I often fall into convoy with them. Safety in numbers.

But, yes, there are some cowboys out there and considering the weight of them and the excessive speed, it's scary.

Ron

Hi Ron...I wish I could encounter these trucks and trailers going 63mph on I-5 in CA. I drive down to southern CA every February with my 17B and I think I'm the only one doing anything close to 60mph. It's especially crazy between Stockton and the Grapevine. One nice thing about it is I don't have to worry about passing anyone except on the Grapevine where I can go uphill faster than the trucks.

[jeffhaltiner]

Well, I'm not sure if my story fits in this thread, but i also had a very dangerous towing situation occur this fall that caught me unaware. We are new to trailering, and tow an E19 (2021) behind a new, 2021 Kia Telluride (equipped with the factory tow package). While returning to California from a 3000 mile first big trip, we noticed quite a bit of trailer "bouncing around" on I-5. At the time, i attributed this to the poor condition of the pavement in the right-hand (slow) freeway lane. However, after arriving at home, i discovered that all 4 of the bolts holding the tow hitch to the vehicle frame had worked loose and dropped out! Fortunately, the tow frame remains attached to the vehicle, and only had several inches of play. Regardless, it scared the bejesus out of me! (KIa replaced the bolts etc for free/with apologies). But i've now added checking the tightness of the tow hitch bolts to my pre-trip and mid-trip checklist. (I had never heard of anyone having this occur to anyone else, so perhaps it's a one-off?)

[Johnspierce]

Going back and forth camping up and down I-70 in Colorado I unfortunately have seen many trailers on their side because people don't know how to either get the hitch height correct and/or get weight distribution correct.

The most egregious errors seem to be people with "lifted" 4x4's towing a trailer where the front is higher than the back. That's a recipe for fishtail nightmare. And yeah, I see them towing in Utah at 80 mph with this setup!

[dlakeman]

One thing I didn't see in all the above posts is proper tire pressure. Park an RV for some reasonable time and have an outside temperature change will result in improper tire pressure.

I sold my 21C for a larger TT, however I still subscribe to the Escape Forum. I recently went on a camping trip to AZ. After I left home, I went directly to a CAT Scale and weighed my truck and trailer. I was shocked to find out that my truck was loaded to 100 pounds less than the max gross weight (10K pounds). I tow with a RAM 2500. The good news was my trailer was loaded way under its max gross weight, and each axle was loaded to 400 pounds less than the max axle weight. I have an E2 WDH that I've adjusted a few times to make sure the trailer and truck are "level loaded" when towing. I had one incident with 26' TT towed by my F150 where a gust of wind in a canyon hit the truck and trailer sideways. I immediately experienced fishtailing for the first time. Scared me to death. The truck immediately corrected the fishtailing before I could react. I always drive 65MPH or less because I know the speed rating on my TT tires!

[kiekhaefer]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

- There were two covered objects carried on the rear bumper of this trailer. One was labeled "Firman" so I guess that was a generator. I will also guess that this was a load distribution problem in addition to driving too fast.


- I was alerted to the wreck by bright white flashing lights. These turned out to be on one of those road service vehicles. He must have been in traffic behind the trailer because he was there immediately. Cops had not yet arrived but as I continued on I saw them on the way from the approaching direction, with sirens going.

- I'm not sure if another vehicle was involved. I was also towing so I focused on getting my Escape safely past the wreck. I had just enough room to do so. I didn't glance over to see if there were other vehicles on the opposite side of the trailer.

- A woman can be seen in the dashcam photo standing near the passenger side of the tow vehicle. I don't know if she was the driver; I didn't see anyone else outside of their vehicle.

Lucky you were close behind. Once cops got there it would have likely been a multi hour closure.

[John in Santa Cruz]

crossing the southern tier from Texas through Arizona onm I10 and I40, I saw lots and lots of big rigs and RVs going 75-80.

[Johnspierce]

Just one additional observation: It looks like the tow vehicle is a Chevy Suburban, which has a GVWR of 7700 lbs. That trailer is at least 24' long and more likely 28' and would surely be in excess of what they should be towing with that vehicle.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Do Suburbans still come in a 2500 3/4 ton version? that would have a GVWR closer to 9000 lbs.

[DGLP]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

crossing the southern tier from Texas through Arizona onm I10 and I40, I saw lots and lots of big rigs and RVs going 75-80.

John, jackknifed big rigs and passenger vehicles (not towing anything) are seen in the ditch or piled up on the road all too frequently in the Midwest this time of year. Anytime we have adverse road conditions during the winter, we'll hear reports of hundreds of spinouts across MN. I saw four single vehicle accidents within 5 minutes of each other last week on my highway morning commute. The roads were not impassable but conditions were poor.

What's most scary to me are vehicles tailgating with snow and ice on the roads.
It's not difficult to slow down a bit and give some space between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you. Riding the bumper isn't going to get anyone anywhere faster.

[Johnspierce]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

Do Suburbans still come in a 2500 3/4 ton version? that would have a GVWR closer to 9000 lbs.

I don't think the 3/4 ton Suburban exists anymore. I looked on the Chevy configurator for Suburban and didn't see the option.

[lostskier]

Why does that not surprise me?

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by kiekhaefer

Lucky you were close behind. Once cops got there it would have likely been a multi hour closure.

Good point. I returned home from Orlando today. I intended to go I-4 east to I-95, then west on I-10 at Jacksonville, to avoid the tolls on the Florida Turnpike going to I-75. But I-95 northbound had all lanes closed due to an accident this morning. I got early warning on this, so I went west from Daytona Beach to Ocala then took US 27 to east of Tallahassee, then I-10 home. It was smooth sailing.

FYI: I-10 across north Florida isn't usually a busy road until you get to Jacksonville. But as Florida gains population our interstates are becoming like those in other busy places. For instance, I-75 is a mess to be avoided. Today I enjoyed driving through the Ocala National Forest and Florida's "Big Bend". It's what they call "Old Florida". I'll do it again.

[Rossue]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

crossing the southern tier from Texas through Arizona onm I10 and I40, I saw lots and lots of big rigs and RVs going 75-80.

Driving I-40 between Flagstaff and Barstow can be scary going westbound as it is downhill for a very long way. I've never seen so much wasted guardrail and semi trucks on their sides as when I drove through in March 2021.

[SageRpod]

I-40 from Barstow to Albuquerque can be hairy with all of the big rig traffic. We're always glad to get off that stretch whenever we have to travel that way.

My wife and I just watched Long, Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez (1953 and long before the Interstate system). Comedic adventures of a couple pulling a ~12,000lb 36' Redmond New Moon trailer with a 125HP Mercury across the country. Must admit I had never seen a wheeled hitch before. Every RVer's nightmare is captured in that movie.

[Iowa Dave]

The 1953 mercury they started out with had 125 horsepower. When they got in the mountains it would not do the job so they switched cars to the more powerful 1953 Lincoln which had 205 horsepower. You can tell by the grill on the Lincoln. In 1954 the new Y block came out and the Mercury’s then had 161 Hp. This switch and other movie trivia was pointed out to me some years ago by a former Escape owner who has forgotten more about cars than I ever knew.

Those early 50s Lincolns were quite the car in their day. They were the winning stock class entry in the Mexican Road Race in 1952, 53 and 54.

I remember seeing a few of those hitches with the helper wheel in the early 60s when we worked in a Standard Oil station on Highway 30 in Cedar Rapids Iowa. My youngest brother had a 1950 Mercury, “the lead sled”.
Iowa Dave