Trailers on the road today

As I mentioned earlier all this is interesting rhetoric and opinion but the fact is people rarely drive in a manner "they" feel is unsafe or uncomfortable. They drive the way they think they should drive and probably have driven that way for years without incident. As long as their driving is legal they will continue.

You and I might complain about the way a person sets up his rig, how much he chooses to overload his TV, the amount of fish tail they ignore and the speed they are traveling at but unless one can prove they are in violation of some law they are perfectly legal and we can only shake our heads.

My opinion of safe driving means nothing to the next person.

As for braking, tow vehicles have brakes, trailers have brakes. Anyone who thinks they can stop their rig as fast as they can stop their tow vehicle alone is in for a rude awakening. :)

Be safe.

Couple of points, unless you are a trucker it is unlikely you have towed as much as me. Several thousand miles in a year and for 50 years.

With over 1.2 million miles in a 11+ year period pulling heavy GN flatdecks/enclosed trailers legally as a owner/operator (LTL work) with a dot number using 3/4 but mostly one ton DRW trucks in a eight state area .....plus hauling three truck campers and pulling three 5th wheel rvs since the late '60s, I would say you sure must tow a lot.

I have three 250k mile company safe driver awards issued to contractors for no tickets of any kind or breaking any company driver operational rules.
I'm all for safety also ....but I'm wise enough to know my limitations and not judgemental towards others pulling a trailer slower or faster or different than I do.

siamese wrote:
To paraphrase George Carlin, 'anyone going slower than you is a moron, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac'.

I miss George Carlin. His observations were spot on.

Like everyone else on this thread, I too observe rigs, tow vehicles, lash-ups and things like that. Since I worked in an RV Shop for many years, I am particularly interested in lash-ups. I am very much an advocate for W.D. hitches. I am amazed by two things: Rigs without W.D. Hitches. And even more amazed by a lash-up that has a W.D. Hitch that is not setting level. One of my buddies was telling me that his 29' trailer, hooked to his hefty 1/2 ton(I'm not a fan of that)is not level. Always nose heavy on the trailer. I told him what he needed to measure and adjust and he was stunned how much better his rig towed. Seems that there is a lot of "just bolt it together and go, it's supposed to be right" happening out there.

JIMNLIN wrote:

I guess from my point of view, you would be a part of the problem and not what I would like seeing coming up on me in my rearview. IMHO, as we were talking a safe trip for the family and what you described is not that at all. You are a danger to me and my family.

Comments like this tells me this person doesn't tow much. Its really a silly uncalled for comment towards others on the road who make a living or who has the experience and equipment to drive at faster legal speeds pulling heavy trailers than he wants to travel or thinks everyone else should.

Couple of points, unless you are a trucker it is unlikely you have towed as much as me. Several thousand miles in a year and for 50 years.
As for professional driver of semis, they sure aren't what they used to be. I don't trust them on the highway anymore. There are fair more big rig accidents in the last few years. My BIL (a trucker for years) say it is poor training and the lack of money that gets an inferior driver today.
I had 2 near misses last year from one driver asleep at the wheel and one that didn't check his rig when passing and would've hit us if I hadn't locked my rig down to miss his trailer. Stay alert on the road folks, no one cares more about your family then you do.

I guess from my point of view, you would be a part of the problem and not what I would like seeing coming up on me in my rearview. IMHO, as we were talking a safe trip for the family and what you described is not that at all. You are a danger to me and my family.

Comments like this tells me this person doesn't tow much. Its really a silly uncalled for comment towards others on the road who make a living or who has the experience and equipment to drive at faster legal speeds pulling heavy trailers than he wants to travel or thinks everyone else should.

Many of you make me look like a homebody, as in never going anywhere. We do almost all our camping 20 minutes away. Every other year, my Dad and I drive 5 hours down to the Outer Banks for some Father/Son surf fishing (an awesome trip even if we don't catch very much). Then weekend before last, my wife, son and I drove 5 hours to the mountains for a one-nighter. We were on a mission for that one. Camping was not the primary purpose.

On the few long distance trips we've taken, I set the cruise on 62 or 63 and just roll along. What I have found is that the trip is relaxing. Almost everyone passes us in the fast lane, and I have to slow down for very few people. I will admit that merging traffic is a little more of an issue this way. If I can't move over, the mergers have to contend with a 47' rig. I don't slow down if I don't have to. They have to step on it or slow down to merge.

If we traveled like some of you do, I might see things differently. We have a 1/2 ton Suburban and a conventional WDH setup. If we had a 3/4 ton or 1 ton with lots of margin, a Hensley or Pro Pride, and LT tires on the trailer, I might be more willing to roll with the pace of traffic.

On our mountains trip, we were passed by almost every truck/trailer camping rig, some really moving along. I wondered then how many were set up really well for 75 or higher speeds should something go wrong. If you're set up well, no problem. But there are a lot of people who don't understand physics.

We followed a 30'ish newer Jayco yesterday doing over 75mph on I-70 east of Washington PA for a few miles. The setup had the trailer riding nose high by a good 4 to 6 inches, and it was fish tailing badly. The rear of the trailer was swinging back and forth constantly over the dashed center line and solid right hand line while in the slow lane. I was riding shotgun with my plumbing superintendent, and told him to pass the rig as I wanted to see the TV and the moron driving it. It turns out it was an early 2000's Suburban being driven by a woman with at least 5 kids inside, along with about a ton of gear crammed into it. She was totally oblivious to her situation. She had a cigarette in her hand that was on the steering wheel, and was yacking full tilt on her phone with the other. If you were ever on this stretch of I-70 you would understand just how bad a section of Interstate this is. It's heavy bumper to bumper traffic with 4 or 5 merge points in a few miles, as well as combined with I-79 between Pittsburgh and Morgantown WV as it skirts around to the west and south of Washington PA. It's also crammed chock full of all sorts of vehicles from pickups and water trucks to semi flats loaded with pipeline and drill pipe for the Marcellus Shale gas play. This Dingbat was lucky to get through there alive not to mention causing someone else to pile it up.

She had a conventional round bar WDH with no sway control, and I could tell from the angle of the bars compared to the A frame it had way too much spring dialed in to it. She had maybe 2 links from bar to snap bracket, and the bars were almost at the bottom of brackets at the ends. I'd bet it was taking a substantial amount of weight off the rear axle of the TV, by that I mean as in lifting the rear of the Suburban way higher than it should of been with a proper setup. That may have been the cause of the nose high stance of the trailer.

I am never surprised what I see on the road, or coming in and out of the state parks we frequent. I'd guess 80% or better of people towing trailers are clueless to what they are actually doing. When we leave with the weekend summer crowd on Sundays, we follow many down the west side of the 2 western most ridges of the Alleghenies. Both grades are over 9%, one around 4 1/2 miles and the other 2 1/2 miles long. I have seen, and smelled, my fair share of cooking brakes as well as a few who have lost it and ended up in the ditch or woods on the way down.

Wish I could agree about more trailers being driven responsibly. We have just returned from a trip from North Texas to Virginia to Iowa and back to Texas. I drove mostly at 60 mph with an occasional 65. Everything on the road except granny in her wheelchair sailed right on past me. While in Iowa I made a couple of side trips without the trailer and drove mostly 70 to 75 and still watched many trailers and Motor Homes as they passed me.