I wanted to share a story with you about an accident I had several months ago in the hope that it might help prevent someone else from running into a similar situation. We were extremely fortunate in the fact that someone could have easily been killed or seriously injured. As it turned out we were only banged up a little bit and no one else was involved.
Last winter we were driving through the mountains of southern Oregon on our way to California for a couple of weeks. It was about 4pm, wet and cold, with visibility around 0.5 miles or so, and a wet roadway. Traffic was light to moderate in a rural area about 30 miles from any major town on a major 4 lane divided freeway. Ahead of us was a semi that was pretty heavily loaded since it kept speeding up on the down hill and slowing down on the up hill. Seeing how we still had a ways to go that day, we wanted to get around this semi so we could maintain a better speed. During the attempt to pass, the trailer started swaying heavily. What happened next is hard to describe, since it seem to happen so fast. Next thing I knew was we were upside down in the opposite direction of traffic, with the trailer 100’ ahead of us on its side. After we were pulled form the vehicle and were able to get a look around, it appeared the swaying trailer had broken loose the back end of the truck, causing it to roll twice over the center grass divider. Fortunately we hadn’t hit anyone and we both had our seatbelts on at the time.
Several factors seem to be involved, but we’ll probably never know what effect they had on the accident. Equipment: The tow vehicle was a 1998 ford E350 cargo van with the v10/trailer towing package, anti-lock brakes on the back and a prodigy brake controller mounted about knee level under the steering wheel. The trailer was a 1996 komfort 27’ super slide rated running about 8500-9000lbs. Tires were less than a year old, and it was fitted with 800lb load leveler bars and a friction sway control which as far as I can tell were installed and adjusted properly. The roadway was wet and just above freezing, so there could have been some ice involved, but it’s hard to tell. Speed may have had a contributing factor since we were trying to pass a big truck without causing too much of a delay. I didn’t know the exact number because I was paying attention to the truck at the time. The turbulence coming off the truck may have been a factor as well. One thing I had noticed earlier was that the trailer did appear to be a bit wobbly when driving too fast. I had tightened up both the sway bar and the load levelers hoping that would fix the problem. I had just had the tow vehicle serviced a couple of days before that, and they had replaced the upper and lower ball joints on the front end and done a front end re-alignment. They didn’t say anything about the tires (since they were a Goodyear service center that’s usually the first thing they check). The state trooper did note after the accident that the rear tires were miss matched, possibly from the spare which we had to use on a previous trip, but didn’t notice that there was a problem.
After looking back on the whole thing, several thought come to mind. Motley Crue on the radio probably isn’t a good idea when in less than ideal conditions. Loud fast paced music tends to make you drive faster and not really notice, which is not a good thing with 50’ 15000 lb vehicle on wet mountain roads. Semi’s are really annoying, they create wind and spray, drive erratically and take up lots of room on the road. Stay away from them if possible. I know that hitting the trailer brakes only will help control sway, but when you have a wildly swaying vehicle, the last thing you want to do is take one hand off the steering wheel and reach down to try and find the brake controller lever. Too bad they don’t make a controller that fits on your steering wheel or is foot activated. The friction sway controller didn’t seem to help much, although who knows what would have happened if it hadn’t been on there. Maybe I needed more than one, or a different type. Since it didn’t make it into the pile of junk that was thrown into the trailer to clear the road, who knows. Good insurance sure makes things a lot easier to handle. I had geico for the truck and progressive for the trailer. Both companies did an outstanding job and helped make things a lot easier. Geico paid for our rental car for the rest of the vacation, paid for a truck to haul all our junk from the truck and trailer back home after they were both declared totaled. Progressive paid for extra hotels, and personal property damaged. Both paid out for the vehicle loss per their contracts in a timely manner, especially since it happened 2 days before Christmas in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t get home until the second weekend of January. AAA paid for both for the trailer and vehicle tow to the nearest impound yard and recommended a place to stay. I’d love to be able to find a drivers training course that deals with towing heavy trailers, but they don’t seem to exist in the northwest area, only passenger cars and semi training.
On the whole it was pretty scary experience. Fortunately there were some good people to help us along the way, and we were able to complete our vacation, staying in hotels instead of our rv. We have since replace our rig with a 2001 ford 1 ton xlt passenger van, and a 1999 Komfort that looks almost exactly like the one we lost, but with fiberglass sides instead of aluminum. For now our adventures are somewhat restricted, with us being a bit gun shy. We haven’t taken the new rig out yet, but are planning for next weekend take it to a concert about 3 hours away.
Comments are welcome. Hope this helps keep someone else safe.
2001 Ford E350 XLT Van
1999 28' Komfort superslide
prodigy brake controler
EU2000
wired for directv, wi-fi and sirius
Sometimes when faced with an annoying vehicle an am unable to get around, I stop take a break, stretch a bit and hope they get far enough ahead of me that I never see them again. I also take a moment to consider that I'm taking a break from stress and the hustle and bustle. If I'm getting all tense and bent out of shape while diving on vacation, I'm doing something wrong and need to adjust my attitude.
What happened is 'that bad day' out there that all things are
designed/engineered for.
I think you are extremely lucky that no one was on the other lanes.
Your comments mentioned 'fast' several times, that you already had
noticed an increased instability going faster and how your setup and
the semi's were swaying from the conditions (speed, road conditions,
wind, etc). If over a bridge/overpass/etc, note that they freeze sooner
than pavement over mother earth, as the air flow below the pavement
freezes it while mother earth insulates for a while.
Any full sized van is inherently tippy as it is and with towing,
sway added to it's handling characteristics.
Mis-matched tires on the same axle his *HIGHLY NOT* recommended and
mainly for that 'bad day' conditions like braking in low traction
conditions. The differential braking from side to side exacerbates
any sway tendencies. Uneven pressure from side to side also affects
this situation.
There is nothing to be done about other rigs out there and with the
increasing popularity of RV'ing, even more in addition to the semi's.
Marry that with many of them not equipped nor setup properly with
newbies who don't know what to do. So staying away from them really
is a nice 'try', but not practical.
I don't like friction control. Okay to supplement a good and proplerly
setup WD Hitch. I think your WD bars could higher rated and wonder
if there was enough tension (links) on them (enough weight distributed
to the front axle of the TV). A 9K lb trailer should have a tongue
weight in the 900-1200lb range, so your bars were undersized.
Make sure your new setup is weighed axle by axle both empty and fully
loaded ready to go. Then you will 'know' where you are in reference
to the ratings and sizing of your control components.
Thanks for posting this.
Ramblin_Mo....too many think it is a 'race' with bragging rights to it
Just look at all of the posts bragging on how fast they can go.
-Ben Picture of my rig
1996 GMC SLT Suburban 3/4 ton K3500/7.4L/4:1/+150Kmiles orig owner...
1980 Chevy Silverado C10/long bed/"BUILT" 5.7L/3:73/1 ton helper springs/+329Kmiles, bought it from dad...
1998 Mazda B2500 (1/2 ton) pickup, 2nd owner...
Praise Dyno Brake equiped and all have "nose bleed" braking!
Previous trucks/offroaders: 40's Jeep restored in mid 60's / 69 DuneBuggy (approx +1K lb: VW pan/200hpCorvair: eng, cam, dual carb'w velocity stacks'n 18" runners, 4spd transaxle) made myself from ground up / 1970 Toyota FJ40 / 1973 K5 Blazer (2dr Tahoe, 1 ton axles front/rear, +255K miles when sold it)...
Sold the boat (looking for another): Trophy with twin 150's...
51 cylinders in household, what's yours?...
Ramblin_Mo wrote: Sometimes when faced with an annoying vehicle an am unable to get around, I stop take a break, stretch a bit and hope they get far enough ahead of me that I never see them again. I also take a moment to consider that I'm taking a break from stress and the hustle and bustle. If I'm getting all tense and bent out of shape while diving on vacation, I'm doing something wrong and need to adjust my attitude.
Slow and steady wins the race many times.
Same here!
_________________________________________________________
2008 F-250 CrewCab 5.4L,
2004 21' Forest River Surveyor
Passing a large rig, on wet and possibly freezing roads, in a rig that tends to become unstable at higher passing speeds, is a bad recipe. Thanks for sharing so that we may become more aware of our own situations. Accidents can happen to anyone.
2. You were right at the limit for a single "friction sway" system
3. With a friction sway system all that I'm aware of say to loose up the system in wet, snowy or icy conditions and once you do that you have to reduce speed because of #1 and #2 above.
Very seldom do I need to pass a big rig since I tow right at 60mph and like others have mentioned I will slow down to like 55 for 10 or 15min to get some space between me and the big rig vs. trying to scream by him at 65 or 70.
I towed a 26' TT weighing 6800 lbs with a 1978 E-250 all over the U.S. for close to 100K miles with a single friction sway system and never had an issue, but I stayed away from towing in snowy/icy conditions and if raining I would back off the friction sway several turns and would slow down to between 45 and 55 mph with around 50 being my limit in really wet conditions.
Larry
2001 standard box 7.3L E-350 PSD Van with 4.10 rear and 2007 Holiday Rambler Aluma-Lite 8306S Been RV'ing since 1974. TRAILER MODS
thanks for sharing.. I hate to get in the left lane. Seems like when you do go to pass someone thats when they speed up.. you can end up going too fast real quick...
While I wish you no ill, and am glad you are okay, I fail to see the point in sharing your experience "in the hope that it might help prevent someone else from running into a similar situation."
You don't know what caused the accident. You don't know if it was something you did wrong, or something that failed. It could've just been a random happenstance that no amount of expensive trailering equipment and due diligence could have prevented.
Heavier tow vehicle... lighter trailer... Hensley hitch... The same thing could've happened just as easily.
mkirsch wrote: While I wish you no ill, and am glad you are okay, I fail to see the point in sharing your experience "in the hope that it might help prevent someone else from running into a similar situation."
You don't know what caused the accident. You don't know if it was something you did wrong, or something that failed. It could've just been a random happenstance that no amount of expensive trailering equipment and due diligence could have prevented.
Heavier tow vehicle... lighter trailer... Hensley hitch... The same thing could've happened just as easily.
There is great post and part of the balance or sanity check needed for any forum.
Other wise there is a PollyAnnish attitude about it all.
All too many think it is all about going fast and faster with little
regard, or ignore the fact that accidents do happen and not only to the
other guy either.
No two accidents will ever have the same, but maybe similar causes.
Wrong place at the wrong time, sure. Going too fast, sure. Not having
their components sized correctly, sure. Not having their systems
adjusted correctly, sure. Not having the right components, sure. Any,
all or none of these things.
Personally and by training setup all of my things for the worst day
out there. Yes, carry tons of stuff and many think over board, but
guess who they come to for help when they find that they are not
prepared for whatever. Agree that this line of thought can be pushed
to the point of ridiculous too and refer back to 'balance' in things.
Most things automotive is left to big brother and the assumption that
the equipment has been reviewed and approved by the authorities. Why
there are safety belts, ABS, air bags, etc...but...on towing, there
is a disconnect. The TV and TT are from different OEMs and even if the
same OEM, it would be from different design teams.
This is why there are 'ratings', which is a attempt to marry/match the
two halves and make a whole that is safe (withing the specifications).
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