What do you think about my trailer incident?

[jkust]

Hi all, trailering on the way up to the cabin this week on the highway, the spare tire carrier mounted on the trailer failed and the weld broke. The spare tire with the broken carrier bolted inside it hit the pavement, went under the trailer tire and blew out the tire completely destroying the rim, then hit the rear of the trailer severely bending the thick metal and of course shattering the rear light assembly. As it hit the trailer, the transome strap snapped in half as well. I couldn't believe my eyes. I pulled over and went running back up the highway to see about retreiving the spare tire and gauge the amount of carnage as there were cars pulled over. A good samaritan that was behind me gathered everything from the highway and explained after the tire did its damage to our trailer it bounced 20 feet into the air and nearly caused a huge pileup on the busy highway but amazingly nobody was hurt and no damage was done to anybody else. I got the spare trailer from the samaritan but because the tire mount was inside it, the center of the rim where the six lugs go was all bent up. In order to get moving I had to use the spare and do my best to straighten the rim on the spot. The trailer now bounces pretty bad as I need to trailer home still. I purchased the spare tire holder new from a local marina manufactured locally about 4 seasons ago and it was installed correctly and tight and I ensure it stays that way. I also had a cable lock around the trailer through the spare tire which snapped in half as well.

My question to you is how do you think it best to handle this from a damages perspective? I recovered the spare tire holder portion that has the manufacturer name on it. It is clear by looking that the steel seems to have simply snapped and the weld broke causing the series of events. Do you think a call to the manufacturer is in order or a claim with my insurance company that will include a deductible out of pocket? The six lug rims plus the tires amount to several hundred dollars plus the trailer structure damage, and two small spots where it grazed the fiberglass itself.

 

[90stingray]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

WOW! Glad nobody was injured. I doubt you will get any warranty or reimbursment from who-ever made the bracket. Especially since it's 4 years old. I think you could try the insurance route... but decide what the costs will be and your deductible costs and make a decision accordingly. I hope your insurance doesn't say it was a maintenance fault... or something like it's your fault because you didn't inspect your rig before hitting the road. Goodluck.

 

[bigdee]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Welds are not always the best method. Cheap and easy but bolts would be my prefered method.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Funny - my spare tire carrier cracked too. Noticed it before it broke all the way off. On mine the issue was really bad welding - welds were put on way too hot.

 

[Brewman61]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

If you want reimbursement, file a claim. You can also notify the company that made the mount and see what they say, but I wouln't hold my breath. Thankfully nobody got hurt and you didn't damage any other vehicles, that would be a sticky mess for you. You got lucky on this one!

 

[colbyt]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Really happy to hear that it turned out as well as it did.

Weight very carefully the risk reward ratio of filing an insurance claim. Those guys love to collect premiums but can get a bit nasty when they have to pay. Your future prices increases may cancel any money you get pretty quickly. Honestly for a few hundred bucks I would not file a claim.

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Thanks for the responses all. I will shop for the two tires and rims today now that we trailered home safetly but I sweated the whole time as the trailer is just not right not. Since the spare rim and tire we are forced to use is slightly out of round, the whole trailer frame moves up and down and slightly bounces off the road so I had to keep it slow all the way home from vacation. The six lug, 15 inch rims were only available in one place in the country last when I bought the spare originally four years back and I expect two rims, two of the 205, 75/15, ST's, load rande d, to be over 400 closer to 500, the spare carrier is now $65 and the trailer damage will require some welding and painting to fix plus the new cable lock and the fender plus the taillight and add in the two small gelcoat dings to the hull, I'm guessing the whole bill will be close to $1,500 dollars and that may be concervative. We really counted our blessings and when I got the rig stopped and saw the cars stopped on the highway I was thinking the worst. The boat came out almost unscathed which is the upshot since all the trailer frame and bracing didn't let the tire and attached spare holder do major damage.

To me this is a manufacturer defect/product liability situation. We take every precaution and have all of the safety equipment even including the huge mud flap/rock tamer system so the boat is protected from stones and debris. There was no way to forsee the weld breaking and even my safety cable holding the spare onto the trailer failed me as the thick steel cable snapped in half.

 

[bigdee]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Thanks for the responses all. I will shop for the two tires and rims today now that we trailered home safetly but I sweated the whole time as the trailer is just not right not. Since the spare rim and tire we are forced to use is slightly out of round, the whole trailer frame moves up and down and slightly bounces off the road so I had to keep it slow all the way home from vacation. The six lug, 15 inch rims were only available in one place in the country last when I bought the spare originally four years back and I expect two rims, two of the 205, 75/15, ST's, load rande d, to be over 400 closer to 500, the spare carrier is now $65 and the trailer damage will require some welding and painting to fix plus the new cable lock and the fender plus the taillight and add in the two small gelcoat dings to the hull, I'm guessing the whole bill will be close to $1,500 dollars and that may be concervative. We really counted our blessings and when I got the rig stopped and saw the cars stopped on the highway I was thinking the worst. The boat came out almost unscathed which is the upshot since all the trailer frame and bracing didn't let the tire and attached spare holder do major damage.

To me this is a manufacturer defect/product liability situation. We take every precaution and have all of the safety equipment even including the huge mud flap/rock tamer system so the boat is protected from stones and debris. There was no way to forsee the weld breaking and even my safety cable holding the spare onto the trailer failed me as the thick steel cable snapped in half.

Can you post some pics.......If possible I would bolt rather then weld or maybe both.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Set of 4 for $279 + $80 shipping for some Westlake tires


http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOUR-4-NEW-...5|Rim+Diameter:15&hash=item43b2e0e066&vxp=mtr

http://www.westlaketire.com

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Can you post some pics.......If possible I would bolt rather then weld or maybe both.

It is the type of spare tire holder that bolts on to the trailer for deep v boats between the trailer tire and winch more toward the winch that comes out at a steep angle to hug the v of the hull. The weld is the where the angled arm attaches to the bolted on part.

Bad news on the tire and rim as I see it is still seeminly impossible to locate. The d range 15" tires and rims are 225's not 205's and the same with the 6 lug rims that aren't available in 205 size. I don't quite get why Shorelandr put such heavy duty axels on the trailer for an 18 foot boat thats under only 4300lbs or so total weight. .

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Set of 4 for $279 + $80 shipping for some Westlake tires


http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOUR-4-NEW-...5|Rim+Diameter:15&hash=item43b2e0e066&vxp=mtr

Alright good... call posted while you were posting that.

http://www.westlaketire.com

Alright good call... I was posting while you posted that. Need to find two rims now.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

He ya go:
http://www.easternmarine.com/15-6-lug-galvanized-trailer-wheel-rim

Eastern has most everything for trailer and trailer parts:
http://www.easternmarine.com/em_store/trailertires/

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Wow, thanks, I did a bunch of searching and came up empty on the 6 lug 205. Those are actually very similar to the ones that came on the trailer. I have a zero dollar deductible on all losses except a total loss so I went ahead and put the claim in today. My thought is the policy is so inexpensive even a 50% rate increase is the cost of a rim and a half. The trailer repair is more than I can handle as is the gelcoat. Will see how the claim goes when the adjuster calls me tomorrow.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Funny - my spare tire carrier cracked too.

There have been a couple people on the forums with broken spare tire holders, that fell off the trailer. I wonder is they are all this style of spare tire carrier... I have that spare tire carrier on my 18'er holding a 14" tire and now wondering when it's going to fall off... :facepalm:

even my safety cable holding the spare onto the trailer failed me as the thick steel cable snapped in half.

I had a safety cable looped around my tire-axle-spring, to keep the thieves at bay. One day I forgot about it while moving the trailer around the yard and didn't notice anything until I saw the broken, coiled up cable wrapped around the axle. It didn't take much force to break the cable and didn't even lock up the tire. Since then, I'll never trust a cable like that again and have the tire chained. Chain is cheaper than a thick high quality cable that won't snap, and I'm cheap. That said, I have a steel cable on my spare tire-frame like you. This cable was originally the "safety cable" for the trailer, that I swapped out for a set of safety chains. I wonder how that cable would handle the spare tire falling off the trailer, since it's supposed to be rated to handle the trailer falling off the tow vehicle...

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

There have been a couple people on the forums with broken spare tire holders, that fell off the trailer. I wonder is they are all this style of spare tire carrier... I have that spare tire carrier on my 18'er holding a 14" tire and now wondering when it's going to fall off... :facepalm:



I had a safety cable looped around my tire-axle-spring, to keep the thieves at bay. One day I forgot about it while moving the trailer around the yard and didn't notice anything until I saw the broken, coiled up cable wrapped around the axle. It didn't take much force to break the cable and didn't even lock up the tire. Since then, I'll never trust a cable like that again and have the tire chained. Chain is cheaper than a thick high quality cable that won't snap, and I'm cheap. That said, I have a steel cable on my spare tire-frame like you. This cable was originally the "safety cable" for the trailer, that I swapped out for a set of safety chains. I wonder how that cable would handle the spare tire falling off the trailer, since it's supposed to be rated to handle the trailer falling off the tow vehicle...

That is very similar to mine but mine is more robust or at least I thought so and mine is made of stainess steel. I had the spare locked onto the spare holder with a Master lock then like I said the cable looped around with its own lock. The cable in my mind was meant more for deterance that if a thief saw both locks, they'd move along to the next trailer at the access. I was just suprised at how it snapped in the middle. I bet if the cable was really tight instead of a loose loop around the spare, it would have held it in place long enough to stop instead of slamming to the road at 65 where physics took over. When I get the trailer set back up, I will be looking for a chain wrapped in something that won't scratch the trailer which I trust will be stronger than the cable.
The shocker to me is that everything I assumed about the strength of my equipment was simply wrong.

 

[colbyt]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

I fear that this thread has convinced me that the $10 U-bolts are a safer approach. PITA to use when needed but safer.

 

[jkust]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Sadly my trailer and boat are such that only the spare holder I had will work. There isn't room for any of the other versions. You'd think a company that only makes trailer accessories would have these things figured out.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Mine is like this one, not sure if it is the exact one. Bought it at Northern tool 7 years ago when I got the boat.
http://www.amazon.com/Tie-Down-Galvanized-Mount-Carrier/dp/B000FQ08CY

Mine did not fall off, it just had a weld crack and made the tire wobble around.

If you are worried about someone stealing it, I'd just get a wheel lock nut from McGuard rather than messing around with cables and chains. Honestly though, where do you park that someone is going to steal a spare tire?

 

[NYBo]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

That's a lot of damage! I guess that must be a heavy tire & wheel. How fast were you going when it let loose?

 

[roscoe]

Re: What do you think about my trailer incident?

Mine broke last week too.
Cheap Seasense model I think. Cheap steel, thin steel, ripped right in half.

Don't know if it came loose before or after the steel broke, but it was tight and had been on the trailer for a year. Was checked just 2 weeks ago while getting ready for vacation.

It actually hooked onto the frame and I was able to recover it, tire is fine, galvanized trailer frame is scarred..