TOPIC: trailer coupler lock,almost lost the boat.

i was reading a post by TNriver in nbr about his trailer going through his window.
well today i found out the lucky way ,how close i came to losing the trailer and boat at silver lake,its something i didnt check and took for granted.
ed had put a new coupler that i gave him on the little dude trailer,we towed it around at silver lake and back to the motel.
when we got home we took the trailer and boat off of the lowboy and used the same hitch in the reciever i welded to my mini hoe bucket,then today as i was putting it in the garage it popped off of the hitch ball,luckily i had the jack down.
i thought i had the wrong ball on the hitch.but it was really that neither of us had adjusted the new coupler ,heck the thought had never entered my mind.
boy im glad we took it to NY.on the lowboy it could have been a disaster,thank goodness we had chains on if it would have come off,but its still dangerous.
so i will check it every time i hitch up a trailer ,take care everyone im also lucky it didnt come off here while i was under it. im sorry for the double pics.

Just a few weeks ago, a 20 year old girl from our area was killed when a trailer came loose from a vehicle going the opposite direction on the interstate. The trailer came loose, crossed the median and rammed into her car. These kind of accidents should not happen. People need to remember that trailering equipment needs to be checked regularly to insure safe towing.

i bet that trailer didn't have safety chains...and if it did they were probably howdy dooty.

I was following a truck towing a tandem axle trailer going up I-25 on the north side of Denver. The truck took the I-76 off ramp. The trailer continued north on I-25. Went straight for a while - then went to the far left - glanced off the barrier - came across all 4 or 5 lanes and came to a stop on the right shoulder. It was a miracle that nobody was hit or hurt.

Can you imagine what the guy in the truck was going through? He couldn't turn around...he had to go two or three miles just to come back around - all that while not knowing if anybody got killed.

I'd bet real money he never let that happen again...and that he had to have his upholstery cleaned.

Peter
I always check my chains
in Denver

For the record I did have chains on, they just didn't save the truck. That trailer has a really short tongue. No worries though I have another trailer on the way for free, and insurance is fixing the truck

retired guy ,your right,thats why i posted about it,in the hopes someone reads these and checks everything on the trailer.
i always check everything,i even stop a few times to make sure its all the way it should be.ed and i figured each other did it,so we assumed it was fine,heck we really straped and chained the boat and trailer to the lowboy,and we checked it often,its good we did the starbord side tire on the boat trailer almost went flat,which losened the chains,we retightened them ,its about 6 hours each way to silver lake.
some think im overly safe,but i forgot just one little thing,i will not just ASSUME anything ,you know what that means ,lol

Here is a link to a story of a troubled trailer [not mine]. Seems though only a few years old, the trailer rusted completely thru at the tongue. So, along with checking the mechanicals, POKE AROUND FOR SOFT SPOTS IN THE STEEL FRAME.

forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=367302&highlight=rusted+trailer+tongue

Years ago, I had two trailers that had rusted out frame sections that broke in two . The extent of the rust inside the frames was not obvious because one was made of round steel tubing, and the other of square steel tubing, both of them closed section designs. Since then, I've only bought trailers with open U channel frames, which are much easier to monitor for rust, clean and paint, and don't hold water.