Fifth wheel with passengers?
I was reading about fifth wheels and I saw that in some states it is legal to tow with passengers in the trailer. My question is this, would you and have you towed with passengers in the rig?
Forum Discussion
KATOOM wrote:
If its windy enough to blow over a 5th wheel then you shouldnt be on the road. And if a 5th wheel does blow over then its taking the truck with it too.
Rite-on, on heeding the conditions.
Taking the truck with it too.....
Been to many rollover cars & trucks.
Some outcomes were bad for the occupants - some were surprisingly good.
Have opened doors, cut off tops, etc. for extrications on lots of cars & trucks over a 30 year period with various hydraulic tools (Hurst "jaws-of-life", Holmatro, etc.).
Could do the same to a trlr in a tenth of the time with hand tools.
Has everything to do with structural integrity, designed (and required) safety features.
Making "kindling" doesn't have to be the result of a blowover..:S
KABOOM!
Guy I worked with had a front tire blowout (almost new Firestone tires - which were *not* part of the recalls of the era) while towing a 28' TT with a 3/4 T pickup. Summer, daytime, dry road, good weather.
Truck rolled (totaled), trailer completely destroyed (*really* totaled) - he and his wife in the pickup were uninjured.
Utah highway patrol had pics of one of the (separated) sides of the TT with tire marks from the pickup on it. Lots of head scratching on that one!
Two chances anyone in the trailer would have survived: slim and none.
*If* I had my choice of vehicles to *occupy* in an accident of any kind, TTs and 5ths would be WAY behind: trucks, cars, MHs (in that order)..;)
Maybe the NHTSA (or?) will get going on some trlr crash testing..:@
~
