Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Driving north on I65 south of Nashville this afternoon I came up behind an Excursion pulling a 26FT travel trailer. He was in the middle of three lanes with a big rig in the right hand lane. Going down hill the trailer starts to fish tail. The driver does not change speed. The fish tailing is so bad he pulls into the far left lane, takes about 1/2 mile to let the trailer get up on two wheels, and flip the entire rig into the median, sliding merrily on their sides. A wrecked travel trailer does not hold up very well. He did have equalizer bars. They broke, chains broke, finally came off the ball and folded up the tongue of the trailer. Idiot had two small kids in the back. Thank GOD no one was injured. Driver gets out LAUGHING like it happened every trip. Moral of the story, YOU CAN NOT HAVE TOO MUCH TRUCK.

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

amen!!!!!!!!

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Excursion is plenty of truck, this is operator error. Going downhill, doesn't slow down, could have gotten over to the side.

Wannabe

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

The only way I have been able to correct a bad fish tale is to put the petal to the floor and get it straight before slowly easing off.

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Yep. That's the only solution if the trailer is getting out of control, unless your trailer has EXTREMELY good brakes and you can activate them from the controller inside the vehicle without using the vehicles brakes.

Sam

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Had it happen to me along time ago with a cheesy old 4 place snowmobile trailer. I was at 90 (luckliy the truck had a 355 with dart heads, cam and headers) before I could get it straight again.

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Had a friend lose a camper over the side of a mountain when a semi blew by them on a downhill run. Those semi's can do tricks to a lightweight camper. Curious what is bigger than an Excursion in your mind?

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Any crew cab long bed dually, Chevy/GMC C4500/C5500, Ford F450/F550. These are a few that come to mind. It was obvious the driver had no idea how to "pull out" of a fishtail. Joe Murray

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Speaking of Excursions, the my sponsors (the drive folks) had a pretty wild story to tell while they were at the Miami Boat Show...

45 minutes after leaving their shop in northern Wisconsin to head to Miami, they're driving on snow covered roads pulling a 24' enclosed trailer with their Excursion. This thing is full of show stuff, 3 static motor/drive displays, cut-away drives, partitioning, etc.

They're in the right lane, doing around 55, and a tractor/trailer rig attempts to pass in the left lane at 65 or so. As the nose of the semi gets along side of the trailer, the wind from the semi blows the trailer sideways, causing the Excursion to slide the other direction and plant itself sideways across the trucks front bumper. It gets worse...

The semi, with the Excursion attached to the front end, drifts further to the left and proceeds into the median. As they bottomed out at the center of the median, the trailer tongue ripped lose from the trailer, and skidded off on it's own. It gets worse...

The semi, with the Excursion attached to the front of it, continues through the median, and across into on coming traffic. That's when a HURSE hit the Excursion broad-side, sandwiching the Excursion between the hurse and the semi. :eek: Luckily for the guy driving the hurse, there were no additional occupants in the back.

The Excursion had 4 people in it. The impact blew out all but 3 of it's windows. Other than bumps and bruises, they all walked away from it. The trailer, because it ripped loose before the main impact also faired pretty well. No major damage to show materials. With a new truck and new trailer, they were on their way again the next day. Incredible. These guys had plenty of stories to tell at the show, and pictures of it.

I'm a fan of wheelbase for towing, the more the merrier. Preferrably a crewcab dually, or longer. But I think in this case, all of the steel in the Excursion saved their Azzes. Pickups aren't required to pass the same crash tests as SUV's, and I think something like this would have had worse results in a p/u.

God was on everyone's side that day!

Cheers,
Brian

Re: Trailer towing accident in TN. today
 

Yeah don't forget Kenworth, Peterbuilt, International, Western Star, Volvo, Mack, Freightliner too. I own an International with a N14 Cummins but not real practical pulling a 33' boat.