RV Crushes Truck

I totally understand how it would work, what is there not to understand, trailer starts to tip over ,hitch breaks free, truck remains upright, safer for the occupants in the truck.

I don' think you see the factors involved. Its designed to break free, when the trailer begins to go over , okay great, but at what point ,and what weight of trailer. etc etc etc Just too many factors .

Again have it your way, you don't seem to see mine, I certainly see yours .

cummins2014 wrote:
Qualified or not, I just think there has be some common sense here, you got an 18K hitch towing max rating say a hard swerve you maintain control ,but away breaks the hitch, and off goes the fifth wheel . Just too many factors .

But have it your way, I am more a common sense guy. Until someone comes up with some documentation from B&W stating they design their hitches to break away , it just doesn't make sense IMO.

After reading what you've written, it's obvious that you don't understand how the trailer/truck separation would occur. Examine the circumstances and conditions and you may arrive at a different conclusion.

bpounds wrote:
I believe that was a high-hitch issue.

Now, before we start arguing again, not all high-hitch errors are the same. Sure there is the obvious one, where the pin sits on top of the jaws, and the fifth wheel plates are nowhere near touching. There is also the situation where the plates are touching, the pin is home, but the jaws cannot close into the pin recess. It partially closes, against the bottom pin collar, but the jaw cannot fully close and the handle cannot lock. The jaw will open right up and the pin slip right past it easily.

I believe that second situation is what happened here, and the doubled up Teflon disk is the reason it happened. May easily happen again too. That particular hitch does not have a lot of handle travel to begin with, which makes it easier to not notice it isn't closed and locked, for a newbie that doesn't know his hitch well enough.

Lastly, yes they are making money off the video, but I don't believe they faked this. That guy would be the best actor ever if he could fake his wounded pride at the beginning of the second video. He was acting at the beginning of the first video, when begging her not to post it, so his acting skills are clearly not that good.

I said it from the beginning, I have seen this first hand ,where the handle would not close, call it high hitching if you must, but it was held up just high enough from a teflon disk that was warped ,and chewed up a bit , probably a 1/4" or less ,just enough the handle would not come closed all the way. Took the disc off ,the handle closed ,and he was on his way.

I agree the doubled up disk, did not help.

fj12ryder wrote:

cummins2014 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Well, if the trailer is skidding into oncoming traffic and had the truck still attached, wouldn't the damage be even worse? One skidding vehicle is better than two skidding vehicles.

OTOH, I don't believe that B&W would state that the trailer is supposed to separate from the truck during a rollover. But I've been wrong before.

I would sure hope you don't think a hitch is designed to separate. :S

Well, unless you design and test fifth wheel hitches, I don't think you're the one that's qualified to determine if it's a good idea or not. I can certainly see that under certain circumstances it would be a good idea to have that trailer roll on over while the truck came back to an upright position. Or don't you think that would be a good outcome of a roll over? I'm not fifth wheel designer or tester so that's just my opinion.

Qualified or not, I just think there has be some common sense here, you got an 18K hitch towing max rating say a hard swerve you maintain control ,but away breaks the hitch, and off goes the fifth wheel . Just too many factors .

But have it your way, I am more a common sense guy. Until someone comes up with some documentation from B&W stating they design their hitches to break away , it just doesn't make sense IMO.

cummins2014 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Well, if the trailer is skidding into oncoming traffic and had the truck still attached, wouldn't the damage be even worse? One skidding vehicle is better than two skidding vehicles.

OTOH, I don't believe that B&W would state that the trailer is supposed to separate from the truck during a rollover. But I've been wrong before.

I would sure hope you don't think a hitch is designed to separate. :S

Well, unless you design and test fifth wheel hitches, I don't think you're the one that's qualified to determine if it's a good idea or not. I can certainly see that under certain circumstances it would be a good idea to have that trailer roll on over while the truck came back to an upright position. Or don't you think that would be a good outcome of a roll over? I'm not fifth wheel designer or tester so that's just my opinion.

I believe that was a high-hitch issue.

Now, before we start arguing again, not all high-hitch errors are the same. Sure there is the obvious one, where the pin sits on top of the jaws, and the fifth wheel plates are nowhere near touching. There is also the situation where the plates are touching, the pin is home, but the jaws cannot close into the pin recess. It partially closes, against the bottom pin collar, but the jaw cannot fully close and the handle cannot lock. The jaw will open right up and the pin slip right past it easily.

I believe that second situation is what happened here, and the doubled up Teflon disk is the reason it happened. May easily happen again too. That particular hitch does not have a lot of handle travel to begin with, which makes it easier to not notice it isn't closed and locked, for a newbie that doesn't know his hitch well enough.

Lastly, yes they are making money off the video, but I don't believe they faked this. That guy would be the best actor ever if he could fake his wounded pride at the beginning of the second video. He was acting at the beginning of the first video, when begging her not to post it, so his acting skills are clearly not that good.

fj12ryder wrote:
Well, if the trailer is skidding into oncoming traffic and had the truck still attached, wouldn't the damage be even worse? One skidding vehicle is better than two skidding vehicles.

OTOH, I don't believe that B&W would state that the trailer is supposed to separate from the truck during a rollover. But I've been wrong before.

I would sure hope you don't think a hitch is designed to separate. :S

jerem0621 wrote:

laknox wrote:
As far as the head separating from the base, B&W themselves said that this was as designed. It is to prevent the FW from rolling the truck, too. Better to sacrifice the trailer than endanger the people in the truck.

Lyle

Interesting Lyle, do you have a link to where B&W said that? I’ve searched the inter webs and can’t find that in their documentation. I could have easily overlooked it though.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Think about it for just "ONE" second, designing their hitch to break away, thats ridiculous . How many factors do we have here. Just one that makes it near impossible is the weight of the fifth wheel. The lighter one the hitch hangs on ,and over goes the truck, the heavier one breaks away the truck stays upright.

Yes, Lyle ,we all would like to read that in the B&W literature. I am pretty sure we have went over this before.

I am not buying that corney production. As Cummins sated, it is shown that the slide bar is behind the king pin.

If this thing is real, the only way possible in my eyes is if the slide bar was lower than the notch in the king pin and thus the king pin slipped over the bar.

Well, if the trailer is skidding into oncoming traffic and had the truck still attached, wouldn't the damage be even worse? One skidding vehicle is better than two skidding vehicles.

OTOH, I don't believe that B&W would state that the trailer is supposed to separate from the truck during a rollover. But I've been wrong before.