Couple wrecks trailer 20 minutes after buying it
Link Curious what the forum's opinion is on who should be liable. Seems to me like the dealer has some responsibility. -Eric
Forum Discussion
myredracer wrote:
They were talking about it on the local station KISS FM yesterday on their "9:30 knucklehead nominee" segment. Podcast here. (Starts at about 0.50.) They claim it was bought from an RV dealer in Poulsbo but it doesn't say that elsewhere on the internet. If a dealer did sell the TT to them, I'd be suing them for letting it off their lot. Couple more photos below. Hi-res photos here.
Trailer is an older Mallard. Maybe someone here knows how they were originally built.
It may have been that the WDH was improperly set up or no WDH at all, maybe the trailer was too long for the Jeep or the 2x6 made it much heavier. I drove through Poulsbo last year with our TT. The speed limit on hwy 3 is 50 mph so it's not like they would have been going at interstate speed.
I'm going with the hack repair job theory. What RV of any kind has 2x6 for a floor? Look at the straps that attach the 2x6 to the frame and each other. Looks like the entire subfloor was replaced. Not normal and very amateurish looking. If you look closely at the frame photos, you can see rotten flooring and joists above (below in the photo) the 2x6. Maybe the old rotten floor was even left in place and put back on top of the 2x6 somehow. You can even see sheet plastic between the 2x6 and old floor. The work was clearly visible by looking under the trailer as no underbelly material to hide it so buyer didn't inspect it or if they did, didn't know about TT construction.
If it was a hack repair job, the superstructure "box" may not have been properly reattached and it could have suddenly shifted and caused a huge catastrophic lateral weight shift that initiated unrecoverable severe sway. Luckily nobody was severely injured or worse.
Quote from article: "Unbeknownst to them, the trailer has pressure treated 2x6 boards underneath, making the trailer heavier than they believed," Hodgson said.
So they are not new to towing. This is just an odd statement. Sure sounds like a lot of finger pointing and not acceptance of responsibility. Not really surprising as the OP has already resigned to the fact it is someone else's fault other than the operator of the vehicle.
But I am sure they can rest easy staring up at their kids participation trophy on the mantle knowing their lack of skill and research falls squarely on society and not their own judgement.
