Thought I was going to die over a free load of wood

[coostv]

Title is catchy, I think I will keep it.

I went to fetch a load of free wood from a former co-worker. So I did as I always do, went and borrowed the in laws tandem axle 16' trailer. Once the trailer was hitched to the Tahoe (4wd 2 door BTW) I was off. This was an easy score, trees were cut by the power company and the home owner cut it to length for me! It was mostly pine, but the OWB don't care, I usually stack this stuff separate and use it on warmer days or for quick recovery.

Anyway, back to the title of the post. I am tooling home at a leisurely pace of about 45 mph about a mile from home one of the rear trailer tires blows and somehow slices the tire in front of it. Blamo, the trailer starts fish tailing, the Tahoe is getting dragged with it, I am counter steering, braking, gassing (more like I floored it, actually helped straighten it out), all the while trying my darndest to keep watch for an oncoming car. At one point I could see the full side of the trailer in my side mirror! I managed to get it straightened out and stopped off to the side of the road. Holy cow, I checked my shorts and amazingly they were clean. Long story short, I then went home for a couple replacement wheels and tires along with the floor jack and got myself going in short order.

I didn't think of it until yesterday to look for my skid marks. At one point the entire trailer was off of the road in a somewhat steep ditch and then it switched sides of the road and there are two marks coming back onto the road on the other side.

For the entire ride, all I could think is this thing is gonna flip I just know it. All I could hear the entire time was the howl of tires. I am simply amazed that it all stayed shiny side up and I did not loose one stick of wood.

Why did the tire go down? Not exactly sure, good air pressure, good looking tire from the outside. It was so tore up that it was hard to tell, but it looked like a belt let go and it somehow managed to cut the inside side wall of the tire in front of it.

 

[redprospector]

I've had similar happen before. If the tires weren't 8 or 10 ply trailer tires they're probably pretty light for a good load. I do know that if a tire has been run low on air before, it can break it down and make it more likely to blow with a good load. If they aren't heavy tires, when one blows the full load of that side is transfered to the other tire instantly, and it will usually blow too.

It's a scary ride when it happens. Glad you came out ok.

Andy

 

[04superduty]

wow, you got very lucky there. good thing you were able to hit the trailer brakes to straighten in out.

 

[MJR]

I had the coupler break on my 20’ tandem axel enclosed drive on drive off trailer last winter on a wood run. The trailer was empty. It came off the truck, safety cables broke, and the tongue went under the Suburban and hit the bumper hard enough to lift the truck off the ground. I saw the trailer flying through the air side ways going for the ditch and a big white puff of snow. To my surprise the four feet of snow absorbed the impact and the trailer was OK. I went home got the high lift jack and chain, pulled it out and limped it home. The axels where fine.

Lessons learned:
2” ball couplers on work trailers are worthless.
Safety chains are far better than cables
That battery for the break away surge bakes is important to keep charged.
A bumper dent on the v-nose three feet off the ground looks very cool.

I fully understand the helpless feeling watching the trailer going sideways behind the truck. It sucks.

I am glad to hear no one got hurt. Good driving.

 

[7sleeper]

great to hear that no one got hurt!
As far as I understand it is usually recomended to slow down as quick as possible to stop a slingering trailer.

7

 

[coostv]

wow, you got very lucky there. good thing you were able to hit the trailer brakes to straighten in out.

No trailer brakes on this one. Would have been nice, I had my travel trailer get a little loose once and all I had to do was hit the trailer brake lever to straighten it out...

I had the coupler break on my 20’ tandem axel enclosed drive on drive off trailer last winter on a wood run. The trailer was empty. It came off the truck, safety cables broke, and the tongue went under the Suburban and hit the bumper hard enough to lift the truck off the ground. I saw the trailer flying through the air side ways going for the ditch and a big white puff of snow. To my surprise the four feet of snow absorbed the impact and the trailer was OK. I went home got the high lift jack and chain, pulled it out and limped it home. The axels where fine.

Lessons learned:
2” ball couplers on work trailers are worthless.
Safety chains are far better than cables
That battery for the break away surge bakes is important to keep charged.
A bumper dent on the v-nose three feet off the ground looks very cool.

I fully understand the helpless feeling watching the trailer going sideways behind the truck. It sucks.

I am glad to hear no one got hurt. Good driving.

Man, that is nuts. I always wondered what it would be like to loose one at speed. When I have had trailer brakes in the past the battery was charged by a wire in the 7 way connector.

great to hear that no one got hurt!
As far as I understand it is usually recomended to slow down as quick as possible to stop a slingering trailer.

7

I was trying, I scrubbed off as much speed as possible and when that wasn't doing it I punched the gas and then hit the brakes. I don't know if that is necessarily recommended, but it helped tremendously by snapping the trailer back into shape.

Only other time I had anything this nerve racking was when I was towing my travel trailer in the snow on a hunting trip and had the trailer brakes up too high. Luckily I was going very slow and was able to quickly get it back in short order.

 

[redprospector]

I had the coupler break on my 20’ tandem axel enclosed drive on drive off trailer last winter on a wood run. The trailer was empty. It came off the truck, safety cables broke, and the tongue went under the Suburban and hit the bumper hard enough to lift the truck off the ground. I saw the trailer flying through the air side ways going for the ditch and a big white puff of snow. To my surprise the four feet of snow absorbed the impact and the trailer was OK. I went home got the high lift jack and chain, pulled it out and limped it home. The axels where fine.

Lessons learned:
2” ball couplers on work trailers are worthless.
Safety chains are far better than cables
That battery for the break away surge bakes is important to keep charged.
A bumper dent on the v-nose three feet off the ground looks very cool.

I fully understand the helpless feeling watching the trailer going sideways behind the truck. It sucks.

I am glad to hear no one got hurt. Good driving.

There's nothing wrong with a 2" ball on most trailers, as long as a person dosen't get cheap & buy a cast ball. Trailer ball's are weight rated, use a good one. I won't use anything but a ball that's been turned from solid steel whether it's 1 7/8", 2", or 2 5/16".
A cheap coupler is as bad as a cheap ball, and a lot of trailer mfg's get cheap on the couplers.

Andy

 

[redprospector]

I was trying, I scrubbed off as much speed as possible and when that wasn't doing it I punched the gas and then hit the brakes. I don't know if that is necessarily recommended, but it helped tremendously by snapping the trailer back into shape.

Only other time I had anything this nerve racking was when I was towing my travel trailer in the snow on a hunting trip and had the trailer brakes up too high. Luckily I was going very slow and was able to quickly get it back in short order.

I've got a lot of miles under my belt pulling trailers, and in my opinion you did good.
You have to get the trailer under control before you start slowing down much, or you'll wind up in a real wreck.

Andy

 

[KMB]

coostv, glad you came through okay.

I've had similar happen before. If the tires weren't 8 or 10 ply trailer tires they're probably pretty light for a good load. I do know that if a tire has been run low on air before, it can break it down and make it more likely to blow with a good load. If they aren't heavy tires, when one blows the full load of that side is transfered to the other tire instantly, and it will usually blow too.

It's a scary ride when it happens. Glad you came out ok.

Andy

A couple of years ago, I had a tire blow on a tandem axle trailer loaded with almost a cord of Oak. I was going through town pretty slow, and I went a good little way before I heard the rim running on the pavement. Thank goodness the tires were the proper rated trailer tires (I think 8 ply, a borrowed trailer), and the other tire held the load. I'm glad redprospector made mention of the importance of the right type of trailer tires (and proper inflation). I had not thought about one tire supporting the load on a blowout on a tandem axle trailer. Good stuff!

Someone rep that man for me...I'm outta bullets.

Kevin

 

[trialanderror]

2” ball couplers on work trailers are worthless.
s

i've had ball hitch give out. First time was the last time.

Everything i build now is strictly 1" pin with a cotter, or pintle. And i've converted all my heavy trailers to pintle. 'Nuff said. There's reasons they don't use ball hitch styles with pup trailers. Obviously the DOT thinks it's ok because your not pulling over 30000#. I don't care, an empty car dolly is just as dangerous as a semi.

 

[Straightgrain]

Good driving; ayone can drive a geo metro without any problems (except being blown off the road by an SUV).
Your experience paid off. Like an old Nam vet told me..back in 79; he said "G, if you aint gettn black eyes, stop fighting high school kids". He also said "G, if you aint gettn stuck, you aint four wheeln".
Glad guys like you are on the road.

 

[dancan]

Had a tire go on the highway with my small utility and my chipper the same month with no issues , my father had a tire go on his tandem a few years ago with his new explorer , ended up with a new F150 .

 

[savageactor7]

Very good recovery coostv.

 

[redprospector]

Back in the early 80's I loaned a trailer to a farmer friend of mine. He had a flat, and ran it a little way's before he stopped and "fixed" it. He had a propane rig on his pickup, so that's what he aired it up with (75 psi pure propane). Now since he "fixed" the tire, he neglected to tell me about it. I was pulling a pretty good load through a city in Texas that I won't name (they may still be looking for me ), when that tire blew out. I looked in the mirror just in time to see a HUGE wall of fire, and car's skidding off the road. Being young, and dumb I just grabbed another gear and kept going for a while before taking another road to put the spare on.
That night it was on the news. :hmm3grin2orange:

Don't air your tires up with propane.

Andy

 

[rtrsam]

Back in the early 80's I loaned a trailer to a farmer friend of mine. He had a flat, and ran it a little way's before he stopped and "fixed" it. He had a propane rig on his pickup, so that's what he aired it up with (75 psi pure propane). Now since he "fixed" the tire, he neglected to tell me about it. I was pulling a pretty good load through a city in Texas that I won't name (they may still be looking for me ), when that tire blew out. I looked in the mirror just in time to see a HUGE wall of fire, and car's skidding off the road. Being young, and dumb I just grabbed another gear and kept going for a while before taking another road to put the spare on.
That night it was on the news. :hmm3grin2orange:

Don't air your tires up with propane.

Andy

That gave me a good laugh, especially the part about where you just grabbed another gear and kept going for a while.

A couple years back I was transporting a small dozer on a sort of homemade trailer up and down California, pulling it with a small dump truck. Trailer tires were the "California" style, the same types you see on modular homes being tranpsorted on the highway. Bitter experience told me to keep them aired up and carry multiple spares. I rigged a tire inflator off a glad hand coupler from the truck to keep the tires to 100 psi and was carrying five spares. Never had a flat in several thousand miles going up and down I-5 in the heat, good mojo I guess.

 

[Henry G.]

Good save, trailer brakes to the rescue. A lot of the trailer tires in this country are POS China made garbage. There is a brand(sorry forgot the name) that has a near 80% failure rate here on the leftist coast on RVs and toy haulers. Maybe thats what you had. Heres a link as an example:

http://www.rvtravel.com/blog/rvsinthenews/2007/06/danger-warning-on-cheap-chinese-tires.html
Google "chinese trailer tires" and Carlisle tires come up very often as a culprit. Also FYI for ALL tires....EVERY tire in the USA has a date code of manufacture imprinted on one side, it is a four digit code like "1106". That would translate to 11th week of 2006. 4302 would be 43rd week of 2002. MANY times there are sales of old stocks of tires that didnt sell, beware of this. Even most tire manufacturers admit 5 years is at most the limit to buy "new tires". Many times however tires sold at places like Sears and muffler shops are even older! Look at tires when buying them, you might be surprised at how "old" your new tires are...and check your current tires to see how old they really are. Anything over 7 years old I wouldn't allow on any vehicle my wife or family drive in.

 

[Burntime]

Henry, I like the bumper sticker!

 

[KMB]

Good save, trailer brakes to the rescue. A lot of the trailer tires in this country are POS China made garbage. There is a brand(sorry forgot the name) that has a near 80% failure rate here on the leftist coast on RVs and toy haulers. Maybe thats what you had. Heres a link as an example:

http://www.rvtravel.com/blog/rvsinthenews/2007/06/danger-warning-on-cheap-chinese-tires.html
Google "chinese trailer tires" and Carlisle tires come up very often as a culprit. Also FYI for ALL tires....EVERY tire in the USA has a date code of manufacture imprinted on one side, it is a four digit code like "1106". That would translate to 11th week of 2006. 4302 would be 43rd week of 2002. MANY times there are sales of old stocks of tires that didnt sell, beware of this. Even most tire manufacturers admit 5 years is at most the limit to buy "new tires". Many times however tires sold at places like Sears and muffler shops are even older! Look at tires when buying them, you might be surprised at how "old" your new tires are...and check your current tires to see how old they really are. Anything over 7 years old I wouldn't allow on any vehicle my wife or family drive in.

Is this what you're referring to?

Kevin

 

[coostv]

http://www.rvtravel.com/blog/rvsinthenews/2007/06/danger-warning-on-cheap-chinese-tires.html
Google "chinese trailer tires" and Carlisle tires come up very often as a culprit. Also FYI for ALL tires....EVERY tire in the USA has a date code of manufacture imprinted on one side, it is a four digit code like "1106". That would translate to 11th week of 2006. 4302 would be 43rd week of 2002. MANY times there are sales of old stocks of tires that didnt sell, beware of this. Even most tire manufacturers admit 5 years is at most the limit to buy "new tires". Many times however tires sold at places like Sears and muffler shops are even older! Look at tires when buying them, you might be surprised at how "old" your new tires are...and check your current tires to see how old they really are. Anything over 7 years old I wouldn't allow on any vehicle my wife or family drive in.

I sold tires for a spell in a couple of different shops. Even at Wards where we were fairly high volume, some of the new tires were several years old. We recorded all of the DOT numbers for warranty and other reasons. I was amazed at some of the ages of the *new* tires.

It is becoming increasingly harder to find American made trailer tires. You have to watch closely as even some of the American brands are importing tires under their names. They supposedly watch the quality closer than that of others, but we all know how that goes.

Chris

 

[coostv]

Back in the early 80's I loaned a trailer to a farmer friend of mine. He had a flat, and ran it a little way's before he stopped and "fixed" it. He had a propane rig on his pickup, so that's what he aired it up with (75 psi pure propane). Now since he "fixed" the tire, he neglected to tell me about it. I was pulling a pretty good load through a city in Texas that I won't name (they may still be looking for me ), when that tire blew out. I looked in the mirror just in time to see a HUGE wall of fire, and car's skidding off the road. Being young, and dumb I just grabbed another gear and kept going for a while before taking another road to put the spare on.
That night it was on the news. :hmm3grin2orange:

Don't air your tires up with propane.

Andy

It is not often I laugh out load at an internet post, that one did it. LOL good post and I will bear that warning in mind. No propane, but acetylene should be fine right? LOL

Chris