Ever loose it at 60?

[Boozer]

The boat trailer that is.
Its April fools and I guess I'm the fool.
Had the boat in the shop for some warranty work and went to pick it up this morning. Driving home from the dealership soin about 60 and hit a small bump in the highway. Bump was just big enough to know the trailer off the hitch and sent the boat into other lanes of traffic and send my truck out of control. Hit a divider wall with my tuck and the boat did some pretty good damge to the rear end. All in all I'd say about 2-3k in damage to the truck. Fender on the trailer is busted along with the wench stand, chains are ground down to practically nothing and the passenger side rim is bent.
Shut down 2 lines of traffic for about 15 minutes on our biggest highway here.
The culprit? I allowed one of the service guys to hook my boat up to the truck. When he did he didnt latch it down. Went back to the dealer where they were more then happy to offer me a new prop for $50 since they seen mine wasnt on the boat and offered to straight the boat out because the bunck was turned completely sideways making the boat sit on the trailer wrong. Fortunately the service manager felt like shit for what happened and agreed to have the wench stand fixed and he said hed expense it out the service department. He also told me the GM is a dick that doesnt want to take responsibilty for anything that ever happens regardless of whos fault it is and told me to get an attorney.
The GM's excuse was that it was my responsibilty as the owner to go back and check that the trailer was latched on. If that is the case why dont they just make customers hook up their own boats in the first place?
Dont really know what to do at this point but my boats back at the dealer waiting for a new wench stand and i am furious.

[Boozer]

Oh.. For those of you who have messaged me and left me voicemails about the cell phone deal I'll be calling you tomorrow and talking to you about it. Was going to do it today but this ordeal prohibited me from doing anything. Sorry about the delay but I will contact you tomorrow.

[Mandelon]

Always double check....and then check again.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck there. Glad you didn't get hurt.
But loooking on the bright side, at least it was only a Bayliner....:D :D

[Boozer]

Originally posted by Mandelon
Always double check....and then check again.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck there. Glad you didn't get hurt.
But loooking on the bright side, at least it was only a Bayliner....:D :D
The Bayliner is fine, trailers jacked up but my DODGE is thrashed.

[RiverToysJas]

That really sucks! It's my fear!!!
When I picked up my boat from service last time, the guy hooked it up for me, and said I was good to go. I said thanks, then went and double checked everything. He was a bit offended, but I told him it wasn't personal. I was leaving from there on a 255mile river trip though.
Sorry again,
RTJas

[Debbolas]

Oh my god! how awfull....
I don't know if we mentioned this before or not, but we lost our 19ft SeaRay on our first trip out to Lake Powell. The dodgew/camper hitch dragged on our hilly driveway so we got another hitch from Uhaul (with a plastic nut)((BAD IDEA))
We are driving through Vegas at night, kids asleep in the camper, I'm sitting with a beer in the back...Scream is driving....suddenly we hit a couple dips in the freeway (construction, metal plates) The trailer lifts off the hitch, plastic nut breaks, and starts dragging on the freeway, sending white hot sparks up onto our NEW BOAT!
I am standing in the camper SCREAMMING for Scream to stop and I think he is ignoring me......He slowly slows down and lets the trailer bump the camper twice, finally we stop......(he is still mad that I was screaming at him, I didn't know he had to slowly stop the truck or the trailer would just come right into the camper)
White hot metal, the ball just falls off. Everyone stops.....
After awhile we get some cops to help us lift the trailer up onto the extra hitch we always carry. And we are ready to leave the homeless men in the ditch by the freeway. One of the hardest things I have ever done in my life was to climb back in that camper. Did not want to!
Never use a plastic nut.

[DEEZ NUTTS]

Had my 31' Formula come loose from the hitch at the end of my street just a few weeks ago. Luckily going slow and no damage to truck or trailer. I triple double check everything now. Even had to stop twice on the interstate on the way to the lake to ease my mind. New procedure includes floor jack under the tongue and taking the truck up with it a little way just to be shure.

[Tinkerer]

Two years ago--
My trailer doesn't have any v block mounted to the wench.
It just has straps to stop it from going too far forward.
Well I pulled it too far forward on the trailer to hook up the front strap so I backed it down the ramp to get it to move back on the trailer.
Well it didn't want to move so I jerked it a little and heard a strange noise.
Went back to look at it and found that the hitch had broken and was hanging down at a steep angle and was barely hanging on.
I put the jack down within 2 inches of the ground and SLOWLY pulled the rig up the ramp.
I managed to get it onto level ground before it broke.
Now I plan on buying a new hitch every few years.
It is 45 miles back home and I pull the boat at 70.
It never would have made it homo.

[HCS]

Boozer, sorry about your ordeal. That really sucks. I caught you
today right after it happened and really felt bad for you.:(
I guess you need to turn it into insurance and possibly take your
case to small claims court.
I know I would have been totally pissed as I'm sure you were.
Good luck in getting things fixed up.
Never trust anyone I guess.
Tom

[TRG]

i did'nt loose it at 60, but a year or so ago, i lost cyclones boat at greenriver road and the 91 eastbound, i was about 40 and she popped off the ball and luckily i caught it in the lic. plate,...not as easy as it may have sounded,....i used up about 4 lanes before i came to a stop! when i got back in my truck after a little adjustment to the tongue,...i was on kfrg as well as one of the TV stations!(a buddy called to let me know) talk about luck! and had minimal repaires, but that was before i re-geled his boat so i was'nt too worried,...but you should have heard the conversation between us!:p

[Boozer]

Well it's nice to know im not the only one with such horrible luck. On the plus side it was a valuable lesson although expensive very valuable. I'm just thankful that noone was injured. There was tons of traffic on the highway so it could have been a lot worse. Thankfuly my truck took the beating and not a car loaded with a family in it.
I'm also thankful it was only a 19' bayliner behind me and not the Ultra 247 I plan to buy in the next year. ;)

[TRG]

no shit!!!!

[Kachina26]

OK so it wasn't a boat, but when I was working for Tuff Shed out in PHX, I was doing a Shed relocation. It was a 10' X 14' wood shed, I had my buddy hook up the trailer. Anyway we got all the way through Phx to Scottsdale without incident. My buddy kept trying to get me to fire up a J the whole time...........er uh I mean once we got off the freeway we hit a huge bump, I saw the shed fall off of the trailer in the rear view mirror. Oh crap I thought. How am I gonna get this thing back on the trailer? So I start to slow down before it falls all the way off. Turns out it didn't fall off of the trailer at all because just then I saw the shed and trailer PASS ME on my right, so now I have to speed up to catch this thing going by at 40mph or better when it veers right. Now it is heading straight for an apartment complex! Oh God, I think. It's gonna crash straight through someones apt!Well, it hit the curb with the tire which smacked the nose of the trailer to the ground. The trailer is now in front of me and I can do nothing but watch this unfold. After smacking the curb the trailer still with huge shed atop it now heads left towards a house on the other side of the street. This is not a small street either, it is 3 lanes each direction with a center turn lane. Anyway, the trailer goes across all lanes and smacks the other curb and you guessed it starts going back across lanes. Thankfully it is now losing momentum, I thought it would never stop, and comes to rest in the center turn lane. Lined up perfectly as though it had been parked there. Well, we pulled in front of it and jacked up the front of the trailer put it on the ball and looked around to see where exactly we were. Turns out we were right at the street we needed to turn on. Thankfully the nervous customer who wouldn't even let me pull this thing through his gate for fear of damaging it was nowhere to be seen. Some old lady saw all of this and told me that I had better thank God that no one was killed. I already had.

[Just Tool'n]

I allways hook it up myself. This way I know that it is done right.
Never ever let anyone do the hook-up work on your pride & joy.
Why should they care, they are green with envy!
To them it just a truck & a trailer.

[CBLavey]

Years ago I watched a boat at Castaic unhitch from a truck as the boat started down the incline of the launch ramp. It was a Saturday afternoon and the boat launched all the way down the ramp without hitting anyone or anything. That same year,I had an aluminum boat and trailer pop off the hitch - luckily I wasn't going very fast so there really wasn't any damage.
Now I make a point of not installing the receiver into my hitch until I'm ready to tow. Then I lock the receiver into place hitch up the boat and then lock hitch to the ball. After I do all this I'll go back and double check everything before I drive off. You can never
be too safe. I would not trust anyone else to hitch up my boat any more than I would trust someone to buckle my kids into their car seats.:cool: :cool: :cool:

[Scream]

Originally posted by Kachina26
OK so it wasn't a boat, but when I was working for Tuff Shed out in PHX, I was doing a Shed relocation. It was a 10' X 14' wood shed, I had my buddy hook up the trailer. Anyway we got all the way through Phx to Scottsdale without incident. My buddy kept trying to get me to fire up a J the whole time...........er uh I mean once we got off the freeway we hit a huge bump, I saw the shed fall off of the trailer in the rear view mirror. Oh crap I thought. How am I gonna get this thing back on the trailer? So I start to slow down before it falls all the way off. Turns out it didn't fall off of the trailer at all because just then I saw the shed and trailer PASS ME on my right, so now I have to speed up to catch this thing going by at 40mph or better when it veers right. Now it is heading straight for an apartment complex! Oh God, I think. It's gonna crash straight through someones apt!Well, it hit the curb with the tire which smacked the nose of the trailer to the ground. The trailer is now in front of me and I can do nothing but watch this unfold. After smacking the curb the trailer still with huge shed atop it now heads left towards a house on the other side of the street. This is not a small street either, it is 3 lanes each direction with a center turn lane. Anyway, the trailer goes across all lanes and smacks the other curb and you guessed it starts going back across lanes. Thankfully it is now losing momentum, I thought it would never stop, and comes to rest in the center turn lane. Lined up perfectly as though it had been parked there. Well, we pulled in front of it and jacked up the front of the trailer put it on the ball and looked around to see where exactly we were. Turns out we were right at the street we needed to turn on. Thankfully the nervous customer who wouldn't even let me pull this thing through his gate for fear of damaging it was nowhere to be seen. Some old lady saw all of this and told me that I had better thank God that no one was killed. I already had.
That sounds like that move, It's a mad mad mad mad world.

[rrrr]

Sometime around '75 or '76 we were driving down to Elephant Butte from Albuquerque, gonna spend the weekend goofing off. My buddy was towing his 18' Regatta jet driving behind us, and the trailer decided to part ways with the truck. This guy wasn't a detail sort of person, so the fact that his trailer had no safety chain had never bothered him.
The boat came to rest upside down in the median. After surveying the scene, it was decided the only logical thing to do was jack up the boat enough to get the 10 or 12 cases of beer we had stored in the nose. :D
We stopped and called a tow truck, and drove on to the lake. They hauled it back to Albuquerque and his insurance paid to have it repaired. From that day forward, I have never towed a boat without double checking the hookup. If I park my boat overnight I look it over the next morning. Stuff breaks or loosens up, on long tows I look at the hitch carefully at gas stops. Ya never know.

[HavasuDreamin']

Around '92 I was towing the Daytona out to the river for spring break and this happened to me. About 7:00AM in the left lane on I-40 doing about 65mph, just coming into Needles and I look in the rear view mirror and see the boat swaying back and forth pretty violently.
I slow everything down very gently in the left lane of traffic. Sure enough, the nut had worked itself loose from the ball and the ball popped out of the ball mount. Safety chains broke, etc. Fortunately, the rub rail on the front left pickle lined up with the rubber going around the bumper on the suburban. No damage to speak of. Went into Needles, bought a new 2" ball, tightend it down, and continued on. I was very lucky.
Now I have the nut tacked to the trailer ball on the underside to ensure no more malfunctions. :cool:

[bilgewiper]

Once was trying to make a left onto a busy highway with my family car. While waiting for traffic to clear here comes a truck towing a 23-25' sailboat at about 50mph. It hits a slight bump in the road and trailer disconnects (No safety chains) Now trailer tongue is bouncing and skidding right towords my drivers door. I slammed the old Pontiac into reverse at full throttle without even careing who was behind me (luckily no one). Turns out the idiots had just bought the boat and were using 1 7/8" ball on 2" trailer. Boat stopped in a grove of trees.....No damage.

[Dave C]

BOOZER.
Bad news for them is that if you can prove they hooked it up, then they are liable. They are full of it.
Talk to an attorney if you end up being out money after your insurance claim.
You can always sue in small claims and get up to $5,000.
Good luck.
FYI: 6 years ago my hitch ball broke. Lukily the trailer/boat hit the rear mounted spare tire and the chains held. Just eased it off the freeway. Thank God for the slow lane and those old Chevy Blazers with the rear mounted spare tires!:D
Now I change to big ol safety chains, if not already equipped.;)

[OkieDave]

About four years ago I was working on my 19'Cheyenne in the garage. It was brighter lighting in the carport so I dropped the hitch onto the ball and pulled it out into the carport to continue working on it. That evening, I was gonna go to town and gas it up to go to the lake. Forgot that the hitch wasn't latched. Cruise control set on 65, a slight bump, tapped the brake to release the cruise when I felt a tug, and noticed a boat just like mine passing me on the left. It went down an embankment and up the other side and ended up hanging in a tree. Insurance co. paid me $12,500 and let me keep the whole mess. Built a new hull and re-rigged.

[fourspeednup]

Not me(yet) but this happened at Naci last summer......
I was bringing my friends truck back to the house(rich fockers rented for the summer). Anyway the line at the ramp was a little long so he launched and I disconnect the trailer and go to fetch the cooler which we'd forgotten at the house and he'd meet me at the dock out front. I'm cruising downhill on a narrow 2 lane road at about 35 minding my own business and I see a new air nautique pass me on the left:eek: :eek: You should have seen the look on my face!
I look in the rear view just in time to see a late model chevy truck on my ass, so I pull over and he hauls ass around me. The trailer is tracking down the road straight as an arrow but there's a 90* bend in the road ahead and a house at the corner! The dude gets in front of the trailer and slams on the brakes. The trailer smashed into the rear of the truck but he saved it from going into somebody's dining room. Now that has to suck, crashing your truck into your boat on purpose!:cry: :cry:

[Kim Hanson]

RD, can you make that picture any bigger? I like big scroll bars:rolleyes: ...........( . )( . ).......

[Tom Brown]

Dave, seriously, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen. It's funny as hell but in a super cool way. It's blingtastic! :D :D :D

[Tom Brown]

Dave,
Are those the same rims that SD013 uses on his trailer? I asume SD's trailer is red with polished fenders?
:D

[Ziggy]

Never has happened to me but know of a few peeps it has.
Seen the result at the double tracks along Rice road too. Someone obviously hauling ass accross the tracks with the trailer lost it heading west, the trailer went off the right side, tongue dug into the soft dirt and stopped the trailer but not the boat. The boat was about 100 yards farther ahead in the dirt. So if you're behind me on Rice expect to slow down to around 35 at any of the track crossings. ;)
.
I always check and recheck my hookup and rear straps on the boat. I especially do a walkaround after having stopped for a meal or whatever, never know if some dork wants to create some havock by loosening any tiedown or latch.....although both my reciever and hitch have locks.

[GlastronGuy]

That sucks but I agree with the dealership. It was your responsibility to check. I never leave it to someoene else to lock the ball or flip off a
breaker. I've had trailers come off and I have been shocked.
Hell, if I even walk away from my truck/trailer, I walk around and look to see that someone wasn't messing around with the hitch while I was gone.
Still sucks though.

[Kachina26]

Dang and I thought my sig was too big!

[AzDon]

RD-
I thought you had a thing for triple axle trailers(?) Also no provisions for the propshaft and rudder(?)

[TheEduKATor]

My bro and I saw this new product at the SEMA show in Vegas. It's called the trailer guardian and it is supposed to keep the trailer from accidentally detaching from the ball, here's a pic of it and a link to their website. There are a few styles to choose from, a single arm and a dual arm. The website has a quick time movie of it in action. Looks like it might work. I don't know if it is availabe to the public yet because the site doesn't have a price list. Whatever the price, I think it could be a good investment. I haven't lost the boat yet. Hell I can't even get the ball to release when I want it to.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/550Dual.jpg
http://trailerguardian.com/SeeIt.html

[GlastronGuy]

Originally posted by Kachina26
Dang and I thought my sig was too big!
It just about right.