Thank God for safety chains.

[supersparky]

We spent the night at a friend's place near Port Campbell in Vic. Loaded up this morning, did all the usual checks including jumping up and down on the ramp end of the trailer and then headed off to the next stop on our adventure. We were about 3km past Timboon on some of the crappiest road down this way when, boom.
Looked in the mirror and could see the poor little Jimny and the Tilta trailer trying to turn itself upside down. Luckily for everyone we managed to pull up safely, with the trailer being dragged along by its safety chain.
The bloke behind me said that at one point the trailer wheel was a metre or so off the ground. He also said it wasn't uncommon for trailers to depart the towing vehicle on that bit of road. Getting it all back together was kinda simple. We just skull dragged the whole thing around the corner and up the hill a bit the stood on the trailer ramp end and popped it back on.
The only major damage looks like the front bumper cover on the Jimny and some paint on the bar on the back of the Winny. And of course some underwear.
If that little bit of chain had let go, the whole thing would have finished up 50 metres or so down a big gully.

[bob r]

What happened Dave did the coupling part company with the ball?

Bob

[Greynomad]

Had similar fun trailering Jim the Junior Jeep back from Melbourne to Rutherglen coupla years ago...
Thought I’d done a full check and headed up the Hume.
Just past Kalkallo we hit a bump and — CRASH accompanied by loud scraping noises.
Upon investigation we found the coupling had not been locked down, and bounced off the towball.
Safety chains saved us from catastrophe. Had to use the car jack to raise the drawbar.
I made sure the coupling was locked down before resuming travel...

[supersparky]

What happened Dave did the coupling part company with the ball?

Bob

Yes Bob, that's exactly what happened. It's kind of impossible to load the car on if it isn't connected properly, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to how it got off. The road was badly rutted though and I suspect several e re body roll and a bit of wear on the ball may be to blame. The coupling is less than a year old. No idea how old the ball is.

[jon_d]

Maybe fit a 75mm ball and coupling.

[T1 Terry]

Might be time to mention our adventure on the way home.
Some where between Bendigo and St Arnaud, I became concerned that the Hino wouldn't pull as well as it had been and put it down to partially blocked fuel filters and a plan to camp up near Horsham that seemed to be the next major town over night to get new filters in the morning.
I noticed the cars following weren't staying very close and was surprised that none attempted to over take. One did make the brave move on a particularly slow hill climb, but almost off the road in the dirt and travelling at quite a pace, but no others attempted the move so I just put it down to the strange behaviour of Mexicans ......
The car behind did put the high beam on a few times, but still way back and I wasn't sure what the go was and being such a long combination and not being able to see the side of the road clearly, I wasn't keen on pulling over to let them all pass.

Just entering St Arnaud there is a rail crossing, slowed for that and all hell broke loose behind, stopped, then thought I should get off the road and it was clear that not all was well behind me. Expecting to see the car climbed over the front of the trailer or worse still, half hanging off, I was surprised to find the bolt holding the goose neck into the Hayman Reese towbar sheared off and allowed the goose neck to come out.
At about the same time the car following sort of stopped, then took off .....
The heal of the goose neck was ground down to about 45*, the grab handle on the trailer hitch was well ground down, the edge of the folded up jockey wheel was carved off at 45* and the safety chains had ground away half the link on the trailer end each side so it was just a hook affair holding the Gypsy trailer to the Hino.
Disconnected the hitch from the ball, slide the goose neck back in and fitted a screw driver in the hole secured with a few yards of electrical tape.
About this time a car pulled up and it was the young fella who had been following, he;d dropped his pregnant wife at home and come back to help. Said we had been spraying sparks from the point he came up behind us, mentione suburbs that I didn't hear very well but it seems as though it wasn't that far out of Bendigo. He said he had used the high beam to try to warn me but wasn't game to get close ... seems the quick flashes of the high beam as a warning isn't taught these days.
I removed the D shacked from the tow bar end and the chain just lifted off the remaining bits of the chain link, that took the colour out of the young fellas face when he realised that was all that was connecting the trailer to the Hino.
Used the D shackle to attach both chains to the right hand piece on the trailer and the other D shackle to the left hand attaching point of the tow bar, the young fella helped lift the trailer onto the towball and all was sort of sorted. A big thank you to the young fella for coming back to help and we were on our way to a rest area in St Arnaud for the night.
Next morning, a bloke pulls up in a little 4 x 4 to ask us about batteries and solar so he could free camp like we were and I explained about our excitement the night before, he said he was sure he had a good link pin back in his shed and headed off, returned within a few minutes and he had a slightly worn but much better link pin than the screw driver, helped guide me back until we could fit the new pin and all was well with the world again .... no more events occured for the rest of the trip home thankfully

So yet another thing to check on he safety list, what condition is the goose neck retaining pin and do the safety chains anchor to the towbar and not the goose neck.

T1 Terry

[BruceS]

haha... time you chaps turned on your rear cameras !!!
In the Bedford bus/motorhome we had I used to get Wendy to wander up the back & look out the rear window to make sure everything was OK .... until I eventually installed a camera. (not reversing but on ALL the time!!)

[2foot6]

but no others attempted the move so I just put it down to the strange behaviour of Mexicans . .....

It's not us mexicans Terry, it's all the others that come into our state...



Glad to see all worked out and no one injured, seems going to Taggerty may have jinxed some.......

[jon_d]

Terry,

I think you forgot to mention why I stopped you as you were leaving Taggerty...... could have been worse.

[T1 Terry]

haha... time you chaps turned on your rear cameras !!!
In the Bedford bus/motorhome we had I used to get Wendy to wander up the back & look out the rear window to make sure everything was OK .... until I eventually installed a camera. (not reversing but on ALL the time!!)

That is in the update plan Bruce. The original camera was next to useless, very low definition and blinded by any light that hit it. So a new 2 camera or even 4 camera and large screen split into 4 so I can see the blind spots up each side, over the car/trailer and the close up to see the hitch or ball when reversing onto a trailer.

Yes Jon, quite right. Jon pulled me up on the way out the gate to tell me I hadn't connected the safety chains when we did all the car loading and adjusting on The Saturday. I would have noticed as soon as the Hino picked up her skirts and started to run that something was wrong and checked the mirror to see the car and trailer headed off in a different direction

T1 Terry