Separating your vehicles in an emergency
You may have read that we lost our truck and fifth wheel last week in a horrendous fire. Although the exact cause has not been identified yet, it appears to be from a diesel fuel leak near the top of...
Forum Discussion
Doss wrote:
If truck is on fire, forget it.
If trailer was on fire, I would drop tailgate, pull handle.
Then I would try to borrow a trick from the truckers and leave the electrical cord connected.
Then you could engage the brakes on your trailer, hammer the throttle and see what happens.
I would give it one shot and then head to cover.
All in all this is sounds good sitting at an air conditioned desk. Real world, who knows what I would do.
This is a good tip, and something I'll have to keep in mind. I have always thought about what I'd do if I was towing my trailer and it suddenly caught on fire. My plan (if there was time and it was safe to do so) would be to pull the hitch pin, drop the safety chains, jump back in the truck, and punch it to try and drop the trailer to get the truck a safe distance away. Leaving the umbilical cord connected so you could manually lock the trailer brakes as you punch it may improve the chances of success.
If something this tragic were to actually happen, all I'd likely have time to do is get all the people and pets out of the truck and to safety, and watch helplessly as the entire rig burns to the ground. As many others have said, material items are replaceable, and that's why we carry good insurance. People and pets are not.
