Date:         Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:54:09 -0600
Reply-To:     jimt <camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         jimt <camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO>
Subject:      Re: The Zombie Thread: Tongue Weight, Hauling Stuff,
              Bicycle Racks, et al.
In-Reply-To:  <12c.63a14553.302c0153@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

About a month ago an incident hit the news here in colorado.  Family on the
way to the mountains with their towed camper. Doing about 55 going uphill
and suddenly the truck and camper were in the ditch totally destroyed.
Witness said the camper suddenly fishtailed all over and the truck was just
flipped right over and off the road.  The miracle is that the family had
only light bruising from the incident.  Highway patrol said probably cause
was a sudden load shift inside the trailer/camper.
The pictures in the news showed a truck that was a totally crushed mess and
a camper that was fragged all over.

Last year I assisted with a guy that had a load shift in a trailer that
lifted the rear of the truck enough that he was stopped going up a hill with
the rear wheels not making enough contact to move.  SECURE those loads well!
jimt

On 8/10/05 7:18 PM, "George Goff" <THX0001@AOL.COM> wrote:

> Judging by an e-mail I just received, I guess I ruffled Coupe's feathers a
> bit with my admonition of his bike hauling scheme.  In the way of an
> explanation
> of why I was so unrelenting I offer the following.
>
> We all do stupid things.
>
> I once had to cart the hulk of a car and an engine some 75 miles.  I had a
> rolling 240 Volvo sedan and Volvo V-6 to deliver.  The engine was a DOHC built
> by, I'm told, Renault, and it was the heaviest most complicated 6 cylinder car
> engine I have ever seen.  I had a pickup with a step bumper, so I rented a tow
> dolly for the trip.  Two of my friends came along for the hell of it and to
> help empty the beer cooler.  Between beers, we managed to get the car cinched
> down to the tow dolly and since we didn't want to fuss with dropping the
> engine
> into the engine bay, we just chucked it into the spacious trunk of the 240.
>
> All seemed to be fine until we got to the edge of town and I started to
> accelerate to cruise speed.  As soon as I got to fifty, that tail of the dog
> started to wag the brains out of the dog and, once it started, it did not want
> to
> stop doing it.  It was all I could do to slow and regain control without
> becoming the opening story on News at Eleven.

>
> George
>
>