Flat-tow 54 Chevy pick-up truck
When I was in my junior year of high school, my father and I put in lots of hours rebuilding an old 1954 Chevrolet pick-up truck. We had gotten it painted just before we made a move from Washington state to Mississippi. Because the pick-up was so low-geared, we decided to flat-tow it behind a new Dodge RAM Charger. I think the lesson learned in this case was to have electronic brakes wired-up to the vehicle being towed. We seemed OK until a front tire blew on the Chevy. These two vehicles were very similar in weight, so the Dodge didn't have the ability to stop quickly. Since the tire was on the front of the Chevy, the steering automatically turned on it, pushing the back of the Dodge and forcing us into the median of the freeway. My father was able to keep the two vehicles aligned until we reached the top of the median where the Dodge lost traction and we ended up jack-knifed. Both vehicles were damaged. That was a very hard pill to swallow after putting in all that work on that pick-up.Boat trailer with extra load in the boat
When we moved back to Washington from Mississippi, we had a boat to tow behind the rental truck. We added some weight by putting some things in the boat. Seems that the trailer was not designed for more weight than the boat alone because one of the two welded parts completely broke. Luckily, I was driving behind with a car and was able to get my father to pull over before the other side broke too.Tall vending machines in back of a small pickup
I had this little yellow Isuzu P'up. There were these vending machines that needed to be hauled from Vancouver, WA to Seattle. I didn't think it would be a problem at all. Vending machines aren't very heavy. What I failed to consider is that the vending machines were very tall and stood well above the cab of the pickup. When I reached 60mph, I felt the steering wheel go loose. I believe the air resistance caused the front of the pickup to lift off the ground. I simply had to keep the speed lower and made it to the destination safely. Sure happy I didn't have to deal with any wind!Single axle car trailer with heavy nosed vehicle
I purchased a 1985 Toyota 4x4 pickup that had a V-8 and automatic transmission. It's a fairly short vehicle, so I thought a single-axle was plenty large to haul it home with behind my F-150 (a half-ton pickup). It was large enough to place the Toyota on the trailer, but, after I hit 45 mph, the trailer started wagging. What I didn't consider was the nose weight caused by the Toyota being a 4x4 with a heavy engine and transmission. This caused the F-150's front end to be too light. I did not understand that you're supposed to keep the tongue weight of a bumper-pull trailer below 1500 lbs. I made it to my destination safely, just very slowly.Tow Dolly with pin for allowing turns
I was hauling an Acura behind a large motor-home with a tow dolly. This was one of the kinds that have a pin that keeps the part the car sits on from rotating when there is not a car. I forgot to remove the pin from the dolly, didn't leave the key in the car turned so the steering could move freely on the car, didn't leave the front-wheel drive car in gear so it wouldn't freely roll off the dolly and didn't have a strap attached to a hook on the car. I started up a slight incline in a park and suddenly felt this sudden jerk. The wheels had worked their way out from under the tire straps and rolled backward into a tree.Tow Dolly with vehicle towed backwards when steering wheel does not lock
You would think by now that I would have learned all the lessons of towing and hauling, but I still had one to learn. Remember that 1985 Toyota 4x4? I decided to tow it backward on a tow dolly. Probably would have been fine, but the steering wheel on that Toyota would not lock (even without the keys in the ignition). I was all good going up the mountain, but when I started going down a fairly steep hill and let off the gas, that Toyota took that tow dolly and pushed it all the way around to the side of my F-150 so the Toyota's bumper could kiss the side of the F-150! It wasn't enough to cause an accident as the F-150 kept it's place on the road, but I certainly stopped hauling that Toyota pickup that way!Large RV making a sharp turn
This time I knew the right thing to do, but the driver wasn't listening when I warned him! I was in this large motor-home when the driver decided he need to turn around. He backed up the motor-home next to an off-road vehicle with very large tires. I could see in his rear-view mirror that the back bumper was only a few inches away from one of those tires and I knew he was going to make a very sharp turn. I yelled "watch your rear swing!" Ya, he didn't know what I was talking about and there went the rear bumper! Luckily, we had a bunch of body shop guys included in our party and they got that bumper back on in better shape than it was prior to the incident. You see, many don't realize that the longer the length of the vehicle behind the rear wheel, the more you have "wag." This means you don't want to get very close to anything; particularly when you're going to make a sharp turn. If you are going to do so, you may want to move very slowly and look in your rear-view mirror as you're doing so. You may notice the back of the vehicle get closer to what you were sitting next to than the front was.Thus, lessons learned:
- Best to use a tandem-axle trailer with brakes when hauling vehicles.
- If the nose of the trailer is going to be heavy, use a torsion bar setup that distributes the weight evenly across the tow vehicle.
- Redundancy! Have a backup plan in case one strap or chain fails.
- Consider aerodynamics.
- Be aware of the movement of the entire vehicle, not just the front.
I/we got very lucky as no one ever got hurt; but it could have been disastrous! So, please learn from my lessons and be safe!
