Scrambled Egg (Our 19)

[rbrandenstein]

We had a serious accident recently while towing our Escape 19. While we don't like to discuss this, we want our experience to hopefully help others from having the same fate.

While traveling on I-10 in Florida at about 70mph we were passing a semi doing 65 and our Escape 19 started oscillating badly causing us to lose control of our Traverse and trailer. We swerved in front of the truck, the trailer flipped on it side, and we hit and then slid along the guardrail. Fortunately, the truck driver was alert, noticed our crisis, and immediately started braking to avoid running over us. The car did not flip and the airbags did not deploy. Other than the emotional and mental shock, we were not injured.

After two years of trailering and about 15,000 miles on our 19, this was a new and terrifying experience. We had already towed from St. Louis to Gulf Shores, AL and were on our way to Clearwater, FL. and had not noticed any bad behavior. There were some wind gusts we could feel, but nothing too bad. The turbulence of the truck plus possible wind gusts must have caused the oscillation. We do not have a WDH hitch and I do not know our tongue weight. I presumed we were OK because all of our previous travel seemed fine. I can only imagine that our tongue weight was on the light side and unique conditions caused it. I also read that manually putting on the trailer brakes can help stop the sway, but it happened so fast and got out of control so quickly that did not even seem to be an option. I have also come to learn that some WDH hitches also help with anti-sway/oscillation.

Our trailer is being evaluated at the Camping World in Tallahassee to see if it can be repaired. Our car is reparable, but about every body panel is being replaced. We are happy we will get our car back and hope the trailer gets fixed.

We aren't sure how we will handle trailering if we get our trailer back. We do not want to give it up but we will be gun-shy of highway travel. These are the changes we plan to implement:

1. I plan measure tongue weight. One site suggested always emptying the fresh water tank since many trailers, like the 19, have it behind the axles. The weight of the water reduces tongue weight.
2. I am getting a WDH/anti-sway hitch. I like the Husky model, which some forum members recommended.
3. We will stay in the right lane and go less than the speed limit.
4. We won't be passing any trucks. (Although a truck passing us could cause a similar effect.)
5. We will practice reacting and hitting the trailer brakes quickly.

If anyone has constructive thoughts and recommendations, they would be appreciated.