Trailer ball size is sorta important...

[roadhog0]

Well, I finally got the drive to get my cut up 320i scrap car out of my yard today. So I woke up early to try and load the car into the truck. First problem. It was like 20 degress last night in seattle, that means the Diesel tractor now wont start.... So this is where the fun begins!

My dad sends me over to get my friends flat bed trailer. I go get it and hook it all up and lock it to the truck. He then forgets to give me the key... So I get it to my house about 4 miles away no problem and back it into the yard and me and my dad slide the car shell up onto the trailer, strap it down and I hop in, start the truck and we head out. So we get to 405 in Renton which is about 6 miles from my house without any problems. I noticed that the trailer felt like it was sorta "loose" and clunking a bit and I ask my dad if that is right. He says thats normal and that it since it's older it's probably got a little slop in it.

So I hop on the highway trusting him in what he said (by now I should have learned that trusting him on "mechanical" decisions isnt the best...) So I get about 3 miles or or so down the highway and come around a curve and all of a sudden i sorta hear a light "phink," I look back and see the trailer moving a big excessively. First thing that goes through my mind is OH SHIT! Im going down the highway pulling a trailer only by its safety chains at 60MPH! (Later I found out one chain came off the truck...) So I slowly apply the brakes (trailer has brakes too). During this process the trailer starts to violently swing back and forth from half of the left lane to half of the right lane yanking on the truck. Luckily my family has a large truck so it dint really feel it that much and it stayed going straight. So from there I keep slowing down and pull to the right and get off the road.

Me and my dad pick the tongue up and put it back on the truck and literally rope the trailer to the truck while its on the hitch. We then limp it to seattle and get the car off then limp it back home...

So lesson of the day, ALWAYS check your ball size and hook on your safety chains! We had a 2 1/4 ball on a trailer that wanted a 2 5/8! So it just hopped right off. The only thing damaged by this whole even was a dent about the size of my fist was put into the bumper of our truck. So to say the least it was a hell of a day :/ You may all now return to your regularly scheduled 2002 content viewing, I just felt like I should tell you about my crazy day...

[02tom]

Stories like these scare me a little. There's been a couple of fatalities locally in the news recently because of trailers. Luckily no one was hurt or killed in your case, especially when it was you behind the wheel!

I've been re-evaluating my trailer set-up after reading more serious stories with worse outcomes than yours here:

http://www.dangeroustrailers.org

(the website isn't designed that well, but you get the idea)

I'm also looking into buying one of these:

http://www.safetysentryinc.com

One additional precaution is pretty cheap insurance.

[roadhog0]

Im just glad it didnt have a break away system on it.... That would have made an interesting day worse. I really do like that Safety device though! Thats a great idea! Its almost like the military and dump truck hitches.