Trailer Wreck

[Pete Dumbleton]

Wreck Photos

Long RV.NET thread

Seriously good bike rack!!

[Linda R002]

Glad it wasn't someone from here, sorry for the poor people it was. The TV seems small for that big of a trailer. Glad I wasn't stuck in the traffic back up from the wreck.

[Pete Dumbleton]

Lots of speculation on that one. Although the weights seem to be right for the Tahoe, I see a looong trailer and a short TV wheelbase, which can be a problem waiting to happen if the balance and WDH setup wasn't right. Sure sounded like sway to me.

[Patrick M.]

Although its hard to see, I don't see either the remains of WDH components or a sway bar, although some people at RV.net say them see them.

[Normand Choiniere]

This looks like a hitch failure. I had one last spring in Houston going to Mexico. I just had a U-Haul brand new hitch installed by U-Haul at Baton Rouge. I wanted to be sure that every thing would be perfect for that long trip. My original hitch was really rusted. The new hitch broke just in the middle where everything is welded. It is quite evident that this "mechanical failure" is related to a weakness of the new hitch!!

I happened an early Easter morning on I 10 just in the middle of Houston (5 lanes). I was driving at normal traffic speed and suddenly BANG. I saw then, in the central mirror, my small trailer (Trilium 13 feet) loose on the highway going in all directions. Everyone saw it and the traffic jammed instantly on the 5 lanes!!!!!!!

I was pretty lucky. The trailer didn't rolled over and gently stopped on the Jersey separation. Unbelievable taking into consideration the circumstances. There were only minimum damages but it could have been a real disaster and peoples killed.

You can see a few pictures on my blog (written in French) just right here.

By the way my insurance company paid for everything but U-Haul refuses any kind of responsibility except the part replacement and even then because I took their extended guarantee the day they installed the hitch . Believe it or not and keep this in mind when you buy or get a new hitch installed by U-Haul...

[Chester Taje]

Although its hard to see, I don't see either the remains of WDH components or a sway bar, although some people at RV.net say them see them.

You can just see the head of WDH, under turned over unit.

[Pete Dumbleton]

My guess is sway, with the crash causing the hitch failure, simply because that seems to be the most common happening, but it's only a guess.

However, GM had a run of their factory hitch receivers failing and tearing apart, so it may have also been the other way around. Here are photos of several failures.