Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad!

[wheeler]

Hey Folks
I had a real close call tonight! My trailer with my six on it came unhitched from the ball and at 50 miles an hour went crazy behind my truck. Luckily I had it strapped down real good, but it came close to hitting an oncoming truck and my life flashed before my eyes. I have no idea why it came undone, because I double checked the hitch and latch before I left. It was real close to rolling and taking me into the ditch. The safety chains did their job and kept the trailer and wheeler from careening into the oncoming truck. I will need to look at my hitch real closely tomorrow and try to find out what happened. I cannot thank God enough for watching over me during this time and also watching over the oncoming traffic.
Whew, it's take a breath time.

[Noel Woods]

I once saw a group of young punks disconnect a trailer from a guy's hitch at McDonald's, I chased them off and waited for the guy to come out and told him what I saw. Ever since then, I check the coupling at every stop.

[amphibious drew]

How many times have you used this trailer? Are you sure the ball on the truck and the hitch on the trailer are the same? A trailer can seemed latched, but come off if your ball is just 1 size smaller than your hitch.

[wheeler]

Bout a hondo times. 2 inch ball / 2 inch hitch. Can't quite figure it out. 1 7/8 is too small. Believe me I checked. Makes me wonder if insurance covers everything behind the truck - if it crashes.

[Twizted1]

Bout a hondo times. 2 inch ball / 2 inch hitch. Can't quite figure it out. 1 7/8 is too small. Believe me I checked. Makes me wonder if insurance covers everything behind the truck - if it crashes.

Most insurance doesn't cover the trailer. This happened to my step father once. He drove about 20 miles and then jus came off. What I have seen happen a few times is the latch pops up you hit a bump and it's off. I always use a bolt or a pin to make sure the latch can't pop open.

[ARGOJIM]

Most smaller (1-7/8 & 2 ) hitches have a bolt on the bottom that can be adjusted to take up some wear (depending on model). I have had a hitch lay on top of the ball giving the impression it's on but not, reaching under the hitch once the latch is closed you should be able to feel the locking mechanism around the ball.
On a separate note, I too have lost a trailer ,actually 2, one by the same issue but at low speed coming to a stop. The second however broke the pin and laid in the center of the roadway with the class 3 weight distributing hitch attached , luckily when pulling out of a parking lot with minimal traffic with no injuries. Just a red face.

[rodp]

Don't bother checking the trailer hitch, just change it !!! When I couple a trailer up I always wind the jockey wheel down a touch until it lifts the rear of the tow motor a little, it sort of load tests the coupling mechanism every time.

[wheeler]

I noticed this morning the right side tire is flat. It was a pretty violent shake and I figured that might happen. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't blow when it happened.

[North Country Tough]

Holy Sheep stuff Wheeler,my biggest phobia has happened to you,I haul everything from large boats to cars and everything in between,and I have nightmares about the situation you were in, and what the heck I would be faced with,that had to have left a chew hole in your gitch I check as you do and double triple check and still get the hebee geebs thinking about a disconnect,sometimes I stand there and look at that stupid small pin that holds the hitch in the receiver and think its only as big as my finger 10,000 LB hitch or not what if it was made in some third world country and not to spec and it just sheared.Gives me the chills thank God it turned out well order some new fruit of the looms.NCT

[wheeler]

Thanks North Country.
I had to walk around a little before I even got back in the truck. And believe you me, it gave my heart a good jump start. And I'm no spring chicken. It was quite the eventful day anyway. I got stuck on the other side of a beaver pond about 3.5 miles back in the woods, where nobody except a six can get to. I got over and into the beaver pond but I could not get out for the life of me. It was so deep on the other side of the pond that when I hit the beaver pond wall the back would sink down and the front would come up but it would not crawl up. Tracks would make a great addition to the wheeler but cannot afford them right now. So anyway, I ended up getting it just so I had the first set of tires on the beaver dam then had to get out and find a tree to winch too. Lucky for me that there was a tree (the only one) that was close enough for me to get to with the winch. It pulled me up just barely because the tree I was winching too, started pulling over (Soaking wet ground) whew was I lucky. Later that day, I was back on my property and was coming across a swamp (I take too many chances) Believe me it runs in the family, and I of course buried it in the water and muck right in the middle of the freakin swamp. I had rope, but not winch rope and I tried using that but it of course snapped. NOTE TO EVERYBODY - When winching put a rag, jacket anything fabric over the cable when your winching, so when it breaks it doesn't plant into your windshield and forehead, I did rag the wire and when it busted it stopped right where I had the jacket hanging over it. Anyway, I had to walk home and get enough cable (175 feet) to be able to reach the wheeler. I was able to get my truck close enough on high ground then winched to the truck, and got it out with no problem, but I was soaking wet.
I live in Northern Minnesota and there are no six wheeler riders close to me. It would of taken another six or eight wheeler to get that sucker out of the swamp and that's a maybe. It sucks not having other six wheeler riders around me to ride with. I had to laugh when my nephew came out with his 4 wheeler and thought he could pull me out. As I was snickering, I told him he was missing two wheels! He Left. heeheehe!!!

[Pmm]

If it were me, I would be installing a "bulldog" coupler on my trailer!!!! I cringe at the weak design of many others.

[North Country Tough]

If it were me, I would be installing a "bulldog" coupler on my trailer!!!! I cringe at the weak design of many others.

Good point PMM had them on bumper pull horse trailers definitely a superior coupler.NCT

[wheeler]

If it were me, I would be installing a "bulldog" coupler on my trailer!!!! I cringe at the weak design of many others.

Pmm is the bulldog coupler the one where it looks like a crab claw that clamps from the top and bottom?

[North Country Tough]

Pmm is the bulldog coupler the one where it looks like a crab claw that clamps from the top and bottom?

The Bulldogs that I have seen and used here in cold country Canada are of a side jaw design and they have a collar that as the side jaw wraps around the ball the collar slides over the jaw set and locks and then pin the collar,the other neat thing I found is if you were off by a little when backing in it would still go on center itself and lock.

[hydromike]

a side jaw design and they have a collar that as the side jaw wraps around the ball the collar slides over the jaw set and locks and then pin the collar...

Like so:




I think you're thinking of a pintle hitch, Wheeler...