Reply With QuoteMike - how do you put your safety chain/s on? I always cross them over the top of the tongue so they have little room to move if something breaks. Also keep the trailer lock on when hitched too
Well I hope I am not the only one this has happened to.
Driving down to Tallebudgera this mnorning for a dose of tubing,. Get 4 km's from home, and hear this bang thump thump thump........look in the rear vision mirror and it hits me and the wife............................ sh** the boat has jumped off the towbar.
After a minute of almost evacuating the bowels with th fear I was about to lose my boat, I managed to slow down and get to the side of the road.
After putting the trailer back on the towbar, and quadruple checking everything, I tried to see what caused it. Only think of one thing, I hadn't put the safety latch over properly ( see pic ) You know, the one that stops the handle going up, clicks over a tab with a hole in it for a padlcok.
Just goes to show, no matter how much you check things,. something can go wrong or you can still forget to check soemthing.
Fortunatley no damage to ute trailer or boat, bar a bit of a grazes safety chain.
I was only doing maybe 20km/hour. so imagine if i was doing 100 down the M1? Frightening thought. Check check and check again people, anythijng can happen.
Mike
Last edited by Marlin_Mike; 22-03-2008 at 07:07 PM.
Mike - how do you put your safety chain/s on? I always cross them over the top of the tongue so they have little room to move if something breaks. Also keep the trailer lock on when hitched too
Greg,
In hindsight the safety chaIN is probably a few links to long. I will cut it down a bit, and start leaving the trailer lock on. also in hindsight the safety chain should not be long enough to allow the drawbar of the trailer to hit the ground should it happen again.
Some work to do Monday
Mike
Mike
Mike,
Happened to me the other day on the ramp. Figure this out, i'd driven 8-10k's picked up a mate then a couple more k's to the ramp. Launched the boat, fished for a few hours and came back. I've gone to retrieve the boat and just after it's on the rear skids the trailer's popped of the ball and bang onto the ramp, thank god for the safety chain.
Now my question was how the hell did i get all the way to the ramp, launch the boat etc and it didn't come off then (travelled over 2 sets of train tracks on the way). After the trailer fell off i checked the latch and yes it was up and not locked down properly. Our thoughts were that maybe someone tried to knock off our trailer at the ramp and couldn't cause of the padlock on the safety chain, then decided to be smart and left the trailer resting on the ball.
Point is don't only check the latch when you leave home, have a squizzy before you retrieve too. Alternatively lock the latch down too.
Matt
You got lucky! at least like you say it was slow, BTW check your comprehensive insurance interestingly when I was ringing around one of my pointed question with a senario was how much am I insured for if my trailer comes of the car spits the boat then travels on to wipe out a bugatti, answer was they would replace the trailer but the damage it caused was my problem!!!
cheers fnq
nearly had a similar fate this week. The mrs hitched the boat on thursday to take it to the trimmer, and it stayed attatched to the car since, when I was disconnecting it yesterday I noticed the latch was jammed openMave launched and retrieved since then with no hint of a problem. I guess it has a few hundred kilos of towball weight
Mike - dont shorten it by cutting - you never know what vehicle may tow it in the future. Just use some rated shackles and cross it over the top.Originally Posted by Marlin_Mike
good tip Greg cheers mate
Mike
That happened to me a month ago but luckily trailer left towbar when I pushed boat into water! Safety chain stopped it. Glad it didn't come off on the road!
What I do now when trailer is unattached, I keep padlock locked in latch hole so I have to unlock it when I attach trailer to towbar.
A safety procedure I go through to attach boat.
Jeff.
I used to do the same Jeff, but that procedure got pushed aside when I got the wheel clamp
Same thing happened at Awoonga ..... Fortunately it came off after launching the boat..... no damage or issues.
The cause was having my crew hitching up the trailer the night before...... after borrowing the car !
Nagg
Mike
I did the same thing but it jumped off as I drove out the drive ! Felt stupid.
Were you the bloke with the Gemini inflatible or the Quintrex today at tally doing some tubing. i pulled in with a spotty in a salad tub(polycraft) to clean ?
Giffo
5.1mt sally craft centre comsole
Mike
I was at Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Cub Manly a couple of weeks ago, about to land when saw movement out of corner of my eye. It was a boat and trailer going down ramp, no car. Only thing showing was trailer hitch when it stopped. When the trailer was pulled out, the jockey wheel was down (that stopped any damage) and clip (not tested shackle) had broken. This was an 18 ft boat on tandem trailer. I could see room for improvement. Cheers Pete
Hey Pete was there when it happened, lucky nothing was in its way could have done a whole lot of damage.
Cheers Perry
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