Trailers Aren't Supposed to Do That

[catcul]

I had to replace the battery in my riding lawnmower, so I tried to remove it. I was not successful, since I'm not a mechanic. So, I decided to rent a trailer from the Orange hardware store. I borrowed my mom's truck and drove down to Big Orange. (It was actually my dad's truck before he passed away last year.)

As I was driving back from Big Orange towing the trailer, I hit a bump in the road, and the trailer came loose and started to sway back and forth wildly. I slowed the truck down to see what happened. All of a sudden, I hear a thud and see smoke coming out of the rear end. I got out of the truck and see that the trailer was jammed between the duel tires on the right side. Thankfully, I was able to pull into a driveway out of traffic.

I immediately called AAA, Big Orange, and my mom. Thankfully, it looks like Big Orange is trying to make it right quickly. Unfortunately, AAA had to tow the truck to the body shop since the truck looked unsafe to drive.

I will keep you updated as this unfolds.

[Aethian]

Did the tow hitch not get installed correctly?

[catcul]

It looked like it was properly hooked up. The trailer looked pretty old, though. Thankfully, one of the chains held the trailer to the truck, or it could have been worse.

[dendawg]

Sounds like possibly one or both of the wheel bearings failed.

[Pimento]

Came loose as in off the hitch or came loose as in pulled left to right?

[Chromatix]

It's evidently quite hard to tell what happened just from a description, so...

[catcul]

Here are some pictures of the aftermath.

[catcul]

The good news is that my mom's truck isn't as badly damaged as my avatar. The bad news is that it still needs body work, and the tires and muffler need to be replaced.

[Chromatix]

Okay, so the coupling came off the towball, the trailer therefore lost most directional input, leaving only the chain - hence the weaving. When you decelerated, the trailer kept going and jammed the coupling against your wheels and under your chassis.

Without the chain, the trailer would most likely have diverted to one or the other side of the road, or else spun and possibly flipped over. Regardless, the coupling shouldn't have come undone in the first place. Any idea what caused that?

[Pimento]

Usually comes from either not locking the little latch or not putting it on correctly. I'm assuming they hooked everything up?

[dalesys]

Usually comes from either not locking the little latch or not putting it on correctly. I'm assuming they hooked everything up?

Brake or bearing failure can put enough twist load on the hitch to pop it off the ball.

My parents had the brakes fail on a tandem wheeled X-Haul trailer in NE Indiana May '62 as we were moving back from Columbus... the trailer fishtailed, popped off the hitch, and the tongue came through the back window of the station wagon, showing my brothers in their crib (4 & 2) with glass.

It also fractured most of the larger furniture.

[RealUnimportant]

Despite the truck needing repairs, I'd say that was a good resolution to what could have been a catastrophic situation. You did the right things at the right times, and no-one got squished by a rogue trailer. Well done!

[sms001]

And that's why you hook those chains up even though it's a hassle. Glad you're ok.

[catcul]

Thank you RealUnimportant and sms101.

It seems that my praise for big orange was premature. The cost for fixing the truck was $2,900. It seemed that the employees wanted to make a quick resolution, but corporate seems to want to stonewall. Mom called her insurance agent, and the agent told her to file a claim through the insurance. She told my mom that the insurance company will go after big orange for us.

I think I'll do my future shopping at the blue house.

[wolfie]

One thing I'm suspicious of: was there a mismatch between ball and trailer? Class 1 (up to 2000 lb) balls are 1 7/8" in diameter, class 2 (up to 3500 lb) balls are 2" in diameter, and class 3/4 (up to 5000/10000 lb) balls are 2 5/16" in diameter. The size will normally be marked on the "flat spot" on the top of the ball.

There's not likely to be a mismatch between a 3/4 and another class (too big a size difference), but class 1 and 2 are fairly close in size. A class 1 coupler won't go onto a class 2 ball, but sometimes people have hooked a class 2 coupler to a class 1 ball (loose fit - VERY dangerous).

With this being a rental trailer, there's another possibility. Some rental trailers have a "universal" coupler that's supposed to fit (with adjustment) either class 1 or class 2 balls, but it doesn't do a really good job on either. Not surprising, since it's trying to match 2 sizes of spherical surface using a linear adjustment.

Pics took a while to load, but I can see on one of them that the trailer coupler is marked as being for a 2" ball. Also, there's a black cable that doesn't appear to be hooked up to anything coming out of the right side of the coupler above the tongue. To me, this looks like the breakaway cable for a trailer equipped with surge brakes - it gets attached to something solid on the tow vehicle, and a sharp pull (as in the coupler comes off the ball) will apply the trailer brakes. Can't see (because it's jammed between the tires) if the latch on the coupler is open or closed. There's a hole in the latch that you put a lock (or bolt-and-nut assembly) through to keep it closed - if this isn't done, there's the possibility of the latch jiggling open.

A rental place should assume that someone renting a trailer isn't familiar with towing one, and make sure everything is set up right. If the truck has a class 1 ball, they should NOT have rented you the trailer until you got a class 2 ball installed (not only is there a size mismatch, but there's a distinct possibility that the trailer's rated gross weight is over 2000 lb, which would be overloading a class 1 hitch - a hitch setup has the capacity of the weakest link, whether it's the vehicle's tow rating, the receiver's rating, or the ball's rating). Also, they should have explained all the hookups, ensured the latch was locked closed, and made sure the breakaway cable was set up properly (i.e. connected, with enough slack so that cornering wouldn't apply the brakes, but not so much that it would still be slack with the trailer hanging by the safety chains).

If any of the terms I've used don't "ring a bell", that would indicate that you're a novice at towing a trailer, in which case the rental outlet should have made DOUBLY SURE that they explained (and hooked up) everything properly. If they didn't do that, it's negligence on their part - something your insurance company would like to know about because it would help them in going after the "orange apron" people.