Re: Towing 17 ft w/ a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Last time on my soapbox and I'm gone from this thread since we're WAY off topic. <br /><br />Believe me, I'm not speculating. I am an insurance claim adjuster. And my comments have absolutely nothing to do with first party/one car accident claims (for example your bouncing tire claim...bouncing tires don't hire lawyers, people do). My comments were referring to third party claims and civil suits. I have sat in more than one courtroom where people have been found legally liable in an accident because of things like failure to secure a load properly, failure to maintain their vehicle in safe operating condition, and TWICE I have personally seen people found at least partially liable in an accident because of overloading their vehicle beyond its capacity. <br /><br />Here's one example that I remember clearly from about 10 years ago: In this case the overload increased the severity of an accident, theoretically making a bad injury worse. Even though the accident was not even the fault of the person who had overloaded the vehicle, they were found 50% at fault for the injury becuase their overloaded vehicle could have stopped/slowed down to a greater degree than it did had the vehicle not been loaded beyond its capacity. So even though the other driver in the car had illegally pulled right out in front of an overloaded truck that was running 60 mph, experts proved the car got T-boned at 35 mph instead of 15 mph, which would have been the speed of the overloaded truck had it been loaded within its rated limits. The difference between getting T-boned at 35 vs 15 was proven by doctors to be the difference between paralysis and a broken arm. So the overloaded truck was found 50% responsible for putting someone in a wheelchair forever and had to pay to put that persons family through college, etc. The lawyers for the paralyzed person in the car brought in experts from Chevrolet to make statements regarding carrying capacity of the Chevy truck, etc to help prove their case. In this case there was no trailer, it was a 1/2 ton pickup with a full load of sand in its 8 foot bed. I believe the weight of the sand was about 3x the rated payload of the truck. If this were you in that courtrom, the lawyers against you will likely bring in experts from Honda to discuss the towing capacity of an Accord.<br /><br />I'll carry this a little farther (and absolutely this short paragraph this is PURE speculation)...a sharp judge/jury might just find and pull your threads/comments from this very I-boats forum to prove that you were well aware of your vehicle being overloaded, yet you didn't heed the advice of other people here who warned you in advance that your setup might be unsafe.<br /><br />You need to recognize that where written laws leave holes in the law, a civil judge/jury will fill in the blanks with their interpretation of "reasonable and prudent person" arguments. In your case an attorney would argue that no "reasonable and prudent person" would think that a vehicle that Honda places a 1,000 lb tow rating on could safely handle a 3,000 lb boat. Mark my words, you will get quickly chewed up and spit out in court if your overloaded Accord ever gets mentioned, even possibly in an accident that is not your fault. <br /><br />I, too, am talking about United States civil lawsuits. Canada may be different but I believe our courts are very similar....and the odds of such a thing happening to you I'm sure are very very small. Regardless I would never consider risking the financial welfare of my family in this manner. <br /><br />On a somewhat related note, I see absolutely no point in your towing setup. Why the heck don't you just buy a proper tow vehicle?
