Re: High winds pull new boat off trailer on highway
I've seen two cases where a trailer came off the ball and the ball was the correct size.
One was a 24' Mastercraft on a matching painted trailer, the guy cut a corner going into a shopping center and dropped the trailer into a ditch, the trailer tried to roll over and the ball snapped off at the neck, after nearly removing the rear bumper it was attached too.
I was right behind the guy when it happened. Although he was nuts for towing that on a bumper hitch, the ball is what gave way.
The second one was about 3 weeks ago, a guy was towing a 16' fiberglass runabout he had just bought online and got caught in the snow we had that week. He was traveling along a major road, came through an intersection where the lane ended and merged to the left. He somehow got the trailer to fishtail and come around on the slick road and when it did it rolled over onto the grassy shoulder. The trailer went up on its side, broke free of the ball, and continued in reverse into some light brush. The trailer stopped when it hit the brush, the boat continued another 60' or so into the brush and finally against a few small trees. The curb dislodged the trailer axle from the springs, it spread spring leaves all over the highway, both tires blew out, and when I walked over to see what happened it was obvious that the trailer coupler had failed, the little tongue that latches to the ball had bent, distorted and let go of the ball. The ball looked brand new and was a name brand. The trailer was about 5 years old and didn't look to have been in bad condition.
The coupler was bent to the right a bit, and stretched forward as well. Both the trailer coupler and ball were clearly marked 2".
It happened within sight of my house, the trailer and boat came to rest in sight of here.
That little tongue or block on most couplers is just stamped steel, with enough force, it can easily bend or give way.
Now, on a straight tow, I'd say it would be unlikely but if that boat on the news rolled first, chances are its possible that either the ball, coupler, or hitch failed. I've also seen a few hitches rip loose both due to improper installation and rust. I replaced the factory hitch on my 2000 Suburban after only four years after I noticed the main tube of the hitch cracking around the weld. I had hitched up my dump trailer and loaded the torsion bars and noticed the ball mount got much closer to the bumper than usual.
It was either just too light or it may have had rusted from the inside out, my guess was that the steel was just too light.
Now, on the other hand, from personal experience, years ago when in my teens, I do know that a towed boat trailer can stop a truck dead in its tracks when it hangs up on a tree stump at about 40 mph, and the ball and hitch never budged. We were horsing around with an old farm truck that had a boat trailer covered with plywood and got to racing through the woods with it, the truck cleared the stump, the trailer didn't, the second cross member back didn't survive too well but the truck and hitch did just fine. It hit so hard that the one door flew open and the steering wheel folded over on both sides. It wasn't even a very big trailer, maybe 15' long or so from an old jon boat, yet it stopped the ton and a half dual wheel farm truck dead in its tracks. The stump was hidden in a muddy puddle of water and when it hit there were two quick impacts, first was the hitch hitting the stump but it cut a groove through the top of it, then the trailer rode up and over it catching firmly enough to take hold. (It weird how you remember things like that).
The ball and hitch were fine, the trailer coupler was fine from what we could tell back then, we never told anyone, we just parked it and never said a word. That was 30+ years ago.
It may well be that things were just built better back then too but that truck had to weigh 7000lbs or so and I know I had it floored in second gear in order to get through a patch of upcoming sugar sand right around the next bend. (We went back a few weeks later and ripped that stump out with a tractor and back hoe with the thought that the next time it could be one of our own vehicles that hit it).
