Don't Do This!!!!

These things are why I always, always, always do at least one walk around before pulling away, even from a gas pump. I check things I "know" to be good a second time. It's the: "I thought the gun wasn't loaded" theory. Also, I learned from an old timer that if I'm hooking up the toad and get distracted by anything to go back to the beginning and at least mentally, start over. Missing one step will have bad consequences. I had a buddy that let his son connect the toad to his RV. When he arrived home..no toad. The toad came lose out on the road and lucky for him went out into the trees and no one got hurt. Lesson, trust no one. Always verify and if you can't remember, check again.

My habit is start the RV, get ready to pull off, then get out and walk around, open the door on the toad and confirm brake off, key in position II, gear selector on "N", wheel free to turn. Then I reinspect the tow bar. Ready to drive. Yea, I'm anal about it.

Diesel engines have the greatest torque and thus pulling "power" at the the low end or the beginning of the curve, that is when they start, there are persons that are aware of any change in the operation of a vehicle and there are others that will not sense anything out of the ordinary, it is an individual's natural ability to sense or recognize the situation or be completely oblivious of any thing at fault.

It is very easy for a human to forget of miss a step or action, specially when there are other thoughts or are pressed for time or just simply distracted.

navegator

I run right at 40,000 lbs., 450 HP and 1250 ft lbs. of torque and my towed is a 3/4 ton RAM 2500 Longhorn. We always test before we pull out; wife watches and I roll forward a few feet. One time it was pouring down rain and in the "hurry" one of us forgot to check/release the emergency brake. Rear wheels only on the emergency brake, but, with a wet road (we don't know if the operator started out in the rain) I could feel nothing amiss dragging that 7800 lb pickup truck. If I didn't have her always check, I could merrily have started towing in the rain, the spray would hide any smoke and once up to speed all would have been good. My camera, while good doesn't show a lot when doing 60 mph in pouring rain; a lot of spray, droplets coming and going on the lens and very poor detail. That is just one instance where it isn't the operator's "stupidity", just a bad combination of things not being done thoroughly enough. Maybe it was raining, and he was solo...? I would have been at a loss, if I were alone, to notice anything amiss... Don't think, without the facts, we need to crucify the driver. Live and learn; sometimes our "learning" costs little, sometimes a lot.

I always do a visual check of the toad wheels tracking properly at the first right and left turn out of my camping spot. This is the direct result of screwing up and departing without unlocking the steering wheel the second or third time I toad.

The rear camera monitor on our mh also has a on/off volume button. I turn this on to max when we leave and after several miles and no unusual noises, I turn it off. You will know if anything is screeching, scraping, etc. real quick. :R

rjstractor wrote:

FIRE UP wrote:
People,
This is not about "blown tires". This is not about Tire Pressure Monitoring systems or, noticing or not noticing that you "still have a toad back there". It's about DRAG, and a SERIOUS AMOUNT OF IT! How many of you have ever tried to push a vehicle/pickup truck/anything that had THE EMERGENCY BRAKE STILL ON or, IT'S STILL IN PARK, or, IT'S STILL IN GEAR????????? The simple and incredibly obvious answer is, YOU CAN'T!

Scott, just to play devil's advocate, Phaeton motorhomes can weigh up to 42000 pounds and have over 1200 ft/lbs of torque. Dragging a Honda Civic around even with the front wheels locked with one of those is like dragging a loaded shopping cart with a car. A driver SHOULD be able to feel the extra resistance, but as you and I know from years of riding in the right seat of a fire engine, some drivers are far less aware of what their rig is doing than others. Obviously this driver was not aware at all!

Well Sir,
You could be right here. I guess I get a bit pessimistic quite easily. I'm so acutely aware of what's going on with my coach, my car, motorcycle, boat etc. that, when something's even the slightest out of sync, I shut things down 'till I figure out what's the problem. And, being that aware, has saved my butt and, a few gazillion dollars over my life time. As I stated way early on, I did exactly what the Phaeton driver did but, it was on hard packed sand.

Still, I knew, right off the bat, I was using way too much throttle just to get moving and, also as stated, as soon as I let off the throttle, it was like I was putting on the brakes. So, I had only drug my Jeep a few feet.

I guess I'd have to actually drive that coach, with that engine, towing that load, with locked up front wheels, to see what kind of feeling the person felt in order to accurately judge something like this.
Scott

I left my Focus in park one time and the only clue I had was the squealing of the tires on the black top as I pulled out of my Gravel Driveway. I went about 200 feet before I knew it was not the new fan belt I had put on the Cummins the day before. Being only 230 HP I am always sluggish and foot to the floor to get this rig moving with or without the Toad. Besides my road is uphill either direction from my driveway so I never noticed it. This incident only flat spotted my new tires and damaged the front wheel bearings and a couple of years later I had to replace them. Lesson learned, we BOTH check up on each other now!

Early on, and only once... we left the beach with the brake on the CRV On. The ONLY indication I had (and didn't pick up on it) was that the coach didn't easily roll in idle. My only clue was a guy in the rear view waving me down. Only went about 20' but even as light as this 34' is I had barely any indication there was a locked brake.

FIRE UP wrote:
People,
This is not about "blown tires". This is not about Tire Pressure Monitoring systems or, noticing or not noticing that you "still have a toad back there". It's about DRAG, and a SERIOUS AMOUNT OF IT! How many of you have ever tried to push a vehicle/pickup truck/anything that had THE EMERGENCY BRAKE STILL ON or, IT'S STILL IN PARK, or, IT'S STILL IN GEAR????????? The simple and incredibly obvious answer is, YOU CAN'T!

Scott, just to play devil's advocate, Phaeton motorhomes can weigh up to 42000 pounds and have over 1200 ft/lbs of torque. Dragging a Honda Civic around even with the front wheels locked with one of those is like dragging a loaded shopping cart with a car. A driver SHOULD be able to feel the extra resistance, but as you and I know from years of riding in the right seat of a fire engine, some drivers are far less aware of what their rig is doing than others. Obviously this driver was not aware at all!

I once pulled out and the front wheels on the CRV were turned all the way to one side causing the front tires to drag. Lucky for me I heard it right off and suffered no damage. But, I didn't feel any drag at all. I can imagine that with a DP there would be no feeling wheels on a toad that weren't spinning. My old 7.4L Gasser would have dragged that thing till it was some blue tin and a greasy spot.

How it happened: I was parked on the curb, the toad hooked up and ready to go. I cut the wheel hard to the left and then back hard to the right. The toad went hard to the right, wheels turned hard right. Then it was pulled rapidly forward before the steering could catch up so the wheels locked right and I was dragging it. So, lesson is, when low speed opposite hard turns occur the toad steering may not keep up. Anticipate that and check on it so the toad doesn't get damaged.