Joe wrote:
> There is also the paranoia towing would inspire. Several years ago we were
> traveling on an interstate highway. It was a nice day, the scenery was
> pretty, the traffic light and we were about a half mile behind a guy in a
> Bronco towing a small travel trailer. He had been ahead of us for quite a
> while during which time nothing remarkable was noted. Suddenly that trailer
> went nuts. "Wagging" from shoulder to the right lane swinging the rear of
> the Bronco around so that the Bronco wildly pointed first to the right, then
> to the left, then right, left again, right, left, right, then off the road,
> over the shoulder and onto the median when he finally stopped. By the Grace
> of God there was light traffic and a wide, flat, treeless median. No one was
> hurt but it is not hard to imagine the carnage had that game of
> crack-the-whip happened under different conditions.
>
> The trailer went crazy because some stuff the guy had in the trailer came
> loose and shifted to the back, thus "lifting" the rear of the Bronco and
> reducing rear wheel traction. While pulling off the road to fix it he
> oversteered a bit too much and BOOM, he was off to the races.
>
> Both the wife an I are fully aware that the incident was caused by an
> avoidable error the guy made loading the trailer. We both know that properly
> loaded and hitched trailers are safe and predictable and any feelings of
> paranoia are unreasonable. We also know that a bit of nervousness is a GOOD
> thing because it keeps everyone on thier toes. Still, that picture lurks in
> the back of the mind and there is no amount of checking and rechecking we
> could do that would silence the nagging doubt that there was "something" we
> overlooked.
>
> The many folks out there who tow and enjoy it have my admiration and
> applause but for us towing sucks.
OK, so some guy made a stupid mistake with shifting cargo in a travel
trailer probably without sway control and a short wheelbase tow vehicle,
and therefore you're writing off all towing, even of a much more
manageable unit like a pop-up?
Shall we ignore the tens of millions of miles thousands upon thousands
of people rack up every year? My parents hauled a pop-up *twelve
thousand miles* this fall on a trip around the country with their
Durango (shorter wheelbase than a QC Dak) without incident (aside from a
pair of cracked brake pads, they discovered when they got home - from a
very long, steep descent in Montana, something you would have to worry
more about w/ the full load in the bed. No problems on the road as a
result). They've also towed their 26' and now 27' travel trailers
thousands upon thousands of miles without a problem. A friend of the
family lost their trailer last year (no one harmed) because he was
sloppy hooking it up, caught a crosswind and didn't manage it properly.
We watched someone roll a trailer and their full-size SUV several
years ago, right in front of our eyes. Does that deter my father from
towing his trailers? No.
Complete, unfounded paranoia. Towing, like anything else, can be
hazardous, but if *you do it right* there's nothing really to be afraid
of. You're writing off a large range of options because of this guy?
I tend to worry that I forgot to lock my door when I go away for a
weekend, but I'm not going to stay home for the rest of my life. You
need to learn to manage your risks. And trading towing for a too-high
center of gravity (can you say rollover?) doesn't seem like the right
direction to me.
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us -------------------------------------------- "Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine" -Bob Tom --------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Feb 01 2004 - 16:29:48 EST