Anyone ever panic when...
You look in the rear view mirror and not see your trailer??

I tow everyday all day and unhook maybe once a week.... I hate it when I get a few miles down the road and casually check my mirrors and freak out when I don't see my trailer... Usually when I am changing lanes or making a turn.... Just a bad feeling....

It funny catching yourself turning extra wide as if you were towing also... and then justifying it by saying "if I don't I might forget when I am towing"... Or is that just me?

Oilguy

 

never freak out but def done my share of double takes

 

Yes been there done that a time a two, it feels like your heart drops to your toes when it happens to.

 

Oh ya, I have done it before.. Look, Look again, what tha...?? Oh ya dropped it off this morninig!!

 

Done that a time or two... How about swinging out wide when taking a left or right turn only to realize that there is no trailer there when you look out the mirror to make sure you cleared the car or curb.

 

Yes, but in my case I did loose the trailer.

 

I also hate the feeling you feel when you hook up early in the morning and get about 5 miles down the road and can't remember locking the coupler .... I don't care who you are... You gotta pull over to check it....

I did that once coming through the Utah/Colorado mountains with a trailer full of dogs... (labs) and pulled over for a break... Went to check the dogs and saw the coupler undone.... Bulldog hitches don't come undone so I had to of forgotten... >>> 10 competition field trail labs in the trailer at about $10-30K each is worth more than me.

Luckily I was the only one that saw that....

OG

 

I had a customer return a one-way rental truck w/ Tow dolly which they picked up in South Carolina or Georgia or somewhere down there. Somewhere in North Carolina the car came off the dolly and went down in the woods. The driver did not notice the car had come off and drove all the way to Virginia before realizing this!!!
Yet another reason that you shouldn't rent a big truck and trailer to just anybody......

 

On a related note, don't ever let the guy in Rio Linda who sold you the boat hook it up to your truck. A few miles up I-5 on the Causeway it bounced off the hitch and passed us on the left before merging right and coming to rest against the concrete retaining wall. Luckily noone injured and only a tiny scratch on the boat to remind us what not to do.

 

thats what they make safety chains for

 

How about looking in your rearview mirror and see your skidsteer loader rolling back off the trailer

I was going to the local (just 1 mile) gas station to fuel it up and I trusted the parking brake to work. Well I was VERY wrong !!! Luckily I live on a gravel country road and nobody was around. The machine (John Deere 7775) just rolled back, hopped off the trailer, landed perfectly straight and rolled back a little more downhill, then stopped on the flat. No damage to anything , and ESPECIALLY anybody. Since then I use 4 chains on each corner to move it, and I get fuel with canisters.

I've had my share of unlatched hitches etc. ALL my vehicles have extra heavy duty safety chains and I hook them up crossed.

 

I spent most of my career driving aerial ladder trucks. The last 15 years was in a tillered (driver in the back) one. We had a guy from out of station work as the tillerman and went for a little drive to make sure he felt good back there. Went around a left curve, looked in the mirror and NO TRAILER! Looked in the right mirror and he was clear over on the right side beyond where I was at. Gave me a real start but I knew he was just fooling around since he had experience. Had an inexperienced guy back there once that took out a mailbox and an airline on his end. That was after I explained to him all he had to do was hold the wheel still and I would get it there unless I told him otherwise in the headphones. Most guys loved tillering but I absolutely HATED it the couple times I got back there. They couldn't figure out why even after I told them there was no whoa power and no go power.

 

Last Spring I was getting ready to go fishing with my 7 year old. I was hitching the boat to the truck and watching him load crap in the truck at the same time.

I lowered the coupler onto the ball and closed the latch. Put the safety chains on and plugged in the lights.

Got to the lake,launched the boat,fished all day,retrieved the boat,and towed it back home. Total miles towed was about 15.

I was washing the boat and took a look at the trailer tongue and thought "that looks odd". I looked closer and the coupler never dropped down over the ball. It rode on top of the ball the entire way.

I was amazed the coupler never came off the ball,even after launching the boat.

 

My brother panic'd when he didn't see a trailer behind his dually. He hurried up & threw it in reverse & the trailer jack knifed & cost him a dually fender. What a idiot! He also trusted a edit employee to guide him back trying to turn around a dump truck trailer combo in a tight area near where his dually was parked. That one costed him a rear bumper.

 

I picked up a brand new cargo trailer from the dealer a few years ago for work. They hooked it up for me while I signed the paper work. When I got back to the shop the boss met me at the door. Turns out the dealer called cause they had just installed the pintle ring on the trailer that morning and couldn't remember if they tightened the bolts or not. Turns out they did but I guess they were craping themsleves till we called back and said I made it ok.