Towing nightmare!

[jmoore15]

Had to share a friends towing nightmare that just purchased beautiful new X30. He was towing it to his lake house and was about 10 miles from the house when the boat came disconnected from the truck. While trying to slow down the boat slammed multiple times in to the rear and both sides of the truck, tore up the pavement, snapped the winch line, and came within about 30 yards of going off a low bridge! Problem: dealership hooked a 2" trailer to an 1 7/8" ball!! The dealership did fix the boat and cover the deductible on the truck. Morale to the story: ALWAYS hook up your on trailers😜

[Ewok]

Crazy, how did the dealer do that?!? Is it your buddies first boat? How did he not know he had a 1 7/8 ball on? Did the dealer install the hitch too?

[jmoore15]

Ewok, crazy I agree. Had I not seen the pics I wouldn't have believed. Not his first boat but is not used to towing (keeps his boat on lift). Even so he was a little embarrassed so I didn't push him too much. Now the dealer on the other hand, I can't oveook since they do this everyday.

[Ewok]

So the dealer physically hooked it up to the truck but the customer supplied the truck, hitch and ball? Did he have a much smaller boat before? I believe you but it still sounds crazy, wow.

[jmoore15]

Yep, dealer hooked it to his truck with his ball on it. Not sure what trailer he had before but had an 07 LSV.

[Stingreye]

If the ball was heavily used and making scuffed uo, I am not sure I could visually catch that 1/8" of an inch difference. I have always wondered if the safety chains would be enough to prevent damage..... Guess not


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[EricU]

Two weeks ago I had my buddy pull our RZ4 up to our local lake with his Ford 6.7 that pulls a lot harder than my old 7.3L. No problem as he has done it many times before.

The road to the lake is very windy and has a lot of ups and downs, with a few sections of several hundred foot drop.

Spent all day on the lake and when done I dropped him off at the dock and pulled back out to clear the dock for others. We waited and waited and waited and when he finally showed up, I asked him if he had gotten lost. He was pale as a ghost. The trailer had come off as he had forgot to put the 2 5/16 ball on, the 2 5/16" trailer had been dropped on a 2" ball!!!!

I always check the pin lock, the tail lights etc, guess now I got one more thing to check!!

I'm painting all our 2 5/16" balls orange from now on.

[Z1Fan]

Holy crap, thats nuts, but the safety cable should have yanked back pretty hard, i can't believe he had a 1&7/8 ball, cause normally those are only rated to 3500#;s and thats clearly marked on the ball head, i have a two inch ball, and mine would never let the ball go..had to pull out the whole darn thing...best part is your buddy and family are all safe, the boat can be replaced, they can't

[Timmy!]

Glad nobody got hurt! Sounds like both parties are at fault. The owner should have asked what the requirements were for the new trailer and if the dealer was physically hooking it up, maybe he should have checked it? Pretty solid of the dealer to take care of everything.

[toogrady15]

[QUOTE=Stingreye;732663]If the ball was heavily used and making scuffed uo, I am not sure I could visually catch that 1/8" of an inch difference. I have always wondered if the safety chains would be enough to prevent damage..... Guess not



Sounds crazy, but safety chains are really there to protect others around the now disconnected trailer and not let it go freely veering off. They will allow the trailer or boat to beat up the pull vehicle, no way around that, but also keep it close to the vehicle. The part that sounded like it failed or didn't engage is the cable activating the brakes on it. The cable attached that activates it should be slightly shorter than the safety cables. Once it gets that initial tug it activates your trailers brakes and allows you to moderately slow down. My old bosses kid had this happen with his horse trailer, and when the cables are attached and that brake activates it really was a non event slowing that load to a stop. It was getting it raised back up that was the issue. Good lesson passed.

[jmoore15]

Yeah, from the pics it looked like the brake cable was too long so the brakes never engaged.

[Z1Fan]

Not only length is important , that brake cable must be hooked on to the towing vehicle and NOT to the safety chain which I have seen soooooo many times , guys don't fool around with that cable , it's sooo important , when I was driving around Orlando once , I saw so many boat trailers with no safety chains and straps , all I can say holy crap , that puts every person on that highway in peril !!

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