Poll - How Safe is Trailering?

[Matt in SV]

Please fill out the attached poll and indicate which experiences you've had while towing or camping. Check any and all that apply and feel free to post a note with details!

The poll is not "anonymous" so we can have a meaningful dialog!

Feel free to elaborate on any details in a post below!

Regards,

Matt

[Vickie B.]

Also had the ever popular "door fly open" in motion!!

[james kent]

Unhitched unintentionally. My own fault. Had the wrong ball hitch bar on the tow so the trailer popped off at the first stop at the corner. Ran home and got the OTHER hitch bar. Felt stupid changing it with the neighbours giving advice.
Hey Vickie!
Also had the ever popular "door fly open" in motion.

[David & Leslie]

We have had several "guardian angel" experiences for which we are tremendously grateful! Our entries in the poll include:

Wheel bearing on our Scamp 13 exploded while we were southbound (that's the cliff side, folks!) on Hwy 1 in Oregon ...

A young doe sprinting out of the bushes right in front of us as we neared Watkins Glen, NY. Thankfully, she was so close and it happened so fast there was no time for the driver (moi) to do anything stooooopid like a kneejerk hit on the brakes.

Listening to our newly-acquired GPS voice, we ended up at a 'T' where a paved farm road met a muddy levy road ... down which we anticipated a Passport America CG. One of us said "don't think this is a good idea" but t'other one said "we can do it". Thank goodness for CSAA and sympathetic tow drivers! L 'n D

[Emily R.]

We've been really lucky too...Only alien abduction!
But seriously the worst we have had to deal with was leaky windows and bad suspension on our tow vechicle....Keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way!

[Sharon G]

We've gotten mired twice and had one guardian angel experience (that we know of).

We took a wrong turn onto a Mississippi back road and got stuck in red clay trying to turn around. We did manage to get ourselves out of that one.

But once, on a return trip from Florida when it had been raining heavily, we got our truck and trailer hopelessly stuck in deep clay -- in our yard -- while trying to back into our spot. We had to call Good Sam's to pull us out (sideways) and get us onto firmer ground.

The guardian angel episode.... we stopped at a truck stop in northwest Mississippi once to get coffee. I noticed the trailer hitch didn't look right. It turns out we had been driving for hours with the hitch sitting on top of the ball -- not locked down on it. Nothing but high tongue weight had kept the rig together.

It scared us into double checking everything --twice --before we pull out since then.

[Borden]

Stuck in snow once and had one with the unlock ball. Tongue weight to the rescue. Always do a once around these days.

[CindyL]

I was driving when the hub gave way. Kevin spotted that the wheel was not facing forward after lunch. Given the rarity of Uhauls, some guardian angel was looking out for us. The Motel 6 let us leave the trailer in their lot overnight while we backtracked 90 miles to a camper repair where we faced a delay while they replaced the axel with a Dexter. However they recommended a machine shop who in turn sent us to a Uhaul dealer who was one of those repair types. Unfortunately, he was out at the time, with the thought that he was partying at the local wild west festival. Happily, we found a hotel room and while unloading our supplies, he called back, let us in, and said, "Well Uhaul makes us order all our parts now. However, I have a few old ones here, but Uhaul makes 3 different kinds, so I am not sure if I have what you need." Here is where our guardian angel comes in. He had not one hub but two that fit. We bought both. As it turns out, we could have made it back to our trailer that night instead of staying in the flea trap hotel room that was the only one we could find, because of the wild west festival. The next morning, we went back to the trailer; Kevin had it fixed in 45 minutes; and we were on our way.

[Jim Hovind]

I use to build and race SCCA road racing cars. We blew the clutch out of a 85F350 on the way to Road America, Blew the 460 motor up in the Moterhome on the way to Blackhawk farms, Blew 360 motor up in the pickup camper on the way To BIR. All pulling racecar trailers. First time wife drove race rig she pulled off I 90 to change drivers and forgot about the extra weight and cross the 4 lane highway ahead with out hitting a single car.
After towing large race car trailers towing the Casita is a picnic.

[Bobbie Mayer]

I had the door fly open on the Campster, the other two were on my boat trailer- blowout and wheel falling off (someone was apparently interrupted in the process of stealing my new tires and had already loosened all the bolts- always walk around your trailer and check on everything before starting!)

[Flygal]

Had a blowout while on a fairly "skinny" road.....I sat there for a moment giving myself the pep talk , had a panic stricken kid next to me certain we were going to perish and that this was a bad idea, all while traffic whooshed by....

Then along came a very nice man and changed my tire for me *thank you kind gentleman* he said If I was looking for company he would be willing o change his plans.hahahaha can't fault the guy for trying since he changed my tire. Now I always carry a block of wood in my trailer in case I need to jack the trailer higher to get good clearance for the tire.

[Ed Harris]

Last year I had a blowout on the way back from the Fish Fry.
Had to change tire on shoulder of road with 80 mph honking traffic screaming by. Love that brotherly spirit.

On my way back from Florida on I75 coming thru Atlanta I had one of my Trill 1300 wheels pass me on the road.
I am convinced that had I not been driving such a heavy vehicle (Land Cruiser FJ80) I would be another statistic right now.
Road Ranger showed up,we got the trailer to a service place and I was back on the road the next morning.
It turns out that using Steel Lug Nuts on the Aluminum Rims I had was a No-No somehow?

I would rather be lucky than good it turns out.

Also was broken into and robbed,seems insignificant now while thinking of the other happenings.

Ed

[mcbrew]

Whether it is a car or a trailer, I will never change a tire on the side of a highway. I had a flat in a car on a highway, and I drive another mile or so to an exit. The tire was shredded, but the car had a full-size spare.

Someone I went to school with was paralyzed on the highway when he stopped to change a tire for someone he didn't even know. A car plowed right into him as he was getting the spare out of her trunk.

Another time, I had a blowout while driving my class-A RV. I drive another 1/4 mile or so and was able to pull way off the roadway and wait for a tow. I didn't wait in the RV, since the tow took two days to arrive.

[Taylor Kissinger]

I had a rear wheel on the tow vehicle come off while underway. Closest thing I know of to Bull dogging a steer. My Father in Law claimed to have been abducted and transported by Aliens. But he had a habit of opening a bottle of whiskey and throwing the cap away. Not sure if that was a contributing factor. years ago heading back from a week of Deer hunting the narrow road was blocked by a very large Bull Cow. I thought best to not get out and ask him to move, so I slowly moved up and pushed on him with bumper of my old pickup. The Bull spooked and took off and so did I.
Happy Trails

[Per Walthinsen]

Quite incident-free over 10 years, except for a time when a "bunch" of buffalo decided to rush across the road in front of us, in back of us, and all around us in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Scary for the uninitiated, but one of them looked at me and winked as if saying "We do this all the time. Never you mind, we're just having fun."

[Toni M T]

We were driving along along the edge of Glacier National Park on a one laned, very narrow, winding road with a drop off on one edge and a cliff face on the other (with no shoulder or extra room along the side of the road) when my 5 year old piped up that she had to go to the restroom. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere and miles from any towns or rest stops, but luckily we we towing our Bigfoot 17 with it's little bathroom, so when we FINALLY found a side road we pulled into it so she could use the one in the trailer. Less than 50 yards down that road as we were driving more slowly than usual as we looked for a place to pull over on the dirt road, we blew a tire (this would have been a dangerous disaster on the main road!). We found a safe place to pull over but had some problems with the jack on the dirt road (couldn't get any leverage), but some guys who happened do be driving by stopped and brought out a nice little hydrolic jack and helped change the tire (the only car that came by the 45 minutes we were there) . We then found out that the spare tire was low on air, so I got out the little air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter and tried to fill it up, but soon realized that it wasn't strong enough to fill up an actual trailer tire (I had only used it for bicycle and stroller tires previously). There was only one house within 20 miles of that spot, and luckily we were 15 feet from their driveway and they were sitting outside on their deck when we walked to it. The man of the house brought down a really nice air compressor and filled the spare tire in seconds and we were on our way. We replaced all of the tires 4 days later when we finally got back to "civilization" in Kalispell, MT.

I feel like we had a guardian angel looking out for us as well, since the tire blew while we were driving much more slowly in a place where we wouldn't pitch over a cliff or get hit by oncoming cars rounding the blind corner. I'm also thankful for the human "guardian angels" that helped us out! (I have a little hydrolic jack and a much better spare tire and air compressor now!!)

[Sharon G]

Toni, your story gave me goose bumps. Wow!

[peterh]

A couple things . . . first, we had an alternator give out on our TV, which wouldn't have been an issue except our truck's prior owner had painted over the "check engine" light.

The same truck's transmission was in the process of dying a slow death on our way back from Utah last year. The check engine light (which I fixed after the alternator death) came on somewhere after we crossed the Oregon border, and we managed to limp our way home. Discovered our "tow equipped" Ford Ranger did not come with a transmission cooler.

And we've had the door fly open. But I save the best for last . . .

When I went to pick our trailer up and was not accustomed to towing, I plugged the 7-pin into the socket upside down. The prior owner didn't catch that, only that the right-and-left turn signals were coming on backward, and we figured it was a problem with my TV's newly installed wiring harness. Then it got dark, and I turned on the lights.

As it turns out, when you plug the 7-pin pigtail in upside down, the right turn-signal goes to left, the left turn-signal goes to right, and the running lights go to the electric brakes. Good thing I turned the lights on at a stop light, because once those headlights were on the wheels locked solid, and the trailer wouldn't budge.

[Alf S.]

Hi: All...There was no category for fear of the unknown!!! First time backing into a campsite between two trees I Yie Yie jack knifed the trailer and pulled the breakaway switch apart. There's no way that rig would move and I thought I'd backed into one of the trees. I jumped out only to find the wire and switch plug laying in the truck box. WHEW!!! I now cut myself a little more slack.
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Marsha D]

We had a blowout with one of our Scamp tires after having gone down a very rutted, very narrow road following instructions from our GPS. It was our own fault for not checking the spare, so we had to leave the Scamp on the side of the road, drive home to pick up some tools and try to find a replacement tire on a Sunday afternoon. Very valuable lesson learned.