big accident, need opinion

[gotmud?13]

hey all. so i know this is not a Ford site, but the real issue was not with the truck, rather the trailer.
my cousin and i were heading home last night, after a long night of finishing off concrete pouring in this
small hick town, blackdiamond, and were heading back to home in okotoks. the truck, a newer ford (yuck) f-350
(non-dualie) with a 8" lift, and 13" wide mickey tompson ATZ tires. it has some ridiculous like 400 ft turning
radius, because of those ridiculous tires. anyways, the brake booster on the trailer wasnt working,
so we simply said **** it, as it was a quiet night and heading home.we were halfway home, when the trailer
started to violently weave and swing back and forth. ( we wernt on the brakes at all) it swung out sideways
and jackknifed, so my cousin counter steered, and it swung back out the other way even harder. the trailer
smaked the side of the truck, and it sent us travelling sideways down a main highway travelling a buck 40 (140 km/h)
we hit the ditch, and spilled most of our gravel on the highway. when the cops and ambulance came, we had the truck
and the trailer out of the ditch. the cops tried to give us a ticket and fine us for spilling the gravel, and for
endangering the public. but we argued it, saying it was us who could have been killed, and we talked out way out of it.
point is, why would the trailer do that? it was by no means overloaded, but my theory is, that the weight was too far
back, and not enough tounge weight to hold the trailer down, only the lock, so it just went its own way. any ideas?
thanks,
Jake Engel

 

[the_dingman]

Were they electric brakes on the trailer?

This is a long shot, but something I saw on the discovery channel about reconstructing an accident, and it sounds like it might be a similar situation.

Basically this guy rewired his trailer lights and accidentally swapped the power brake wire for the turn signal wire, so when he went to use the turn signal, instead of signaling, the trailer started braking on and off. Any chance you had the turn signal on at the time?

It's also possible that the wind hit it and started it swaying, or that it hit a bump and started swaying.

I also had issues with a brake booster in my old 4Runner where the booster was not working and would randomly kick in and start locking up my brakes. It could be that the booster started going crazy.

Few ideas...

 

[ovrrdrive]

If you were too light on the tongue that was definitely the problem...

All the weight being in back like that makes it very unstable. Always put the load towards the front of the trailer.

If you want a good place to learn about, and ask questions about anything Ford related - including towing tips, that's why those guys buy those trucks - here are 2 good places to do it.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum30/
http://fordtruckworld.tenmagazines.com/ew/forums.asp

Glad you guys were ok...

 

[gotmud?13]

thanks everyone. it scared the crap outta me though. but nope, no signals or whatnot. we unplugged the trailer -i believe- becuase it wasnt working, and it was a quiet night. im almost 100% convonced it was tounge weight. again, thanks for the input. betcha me AND my cousin arent gonna talke the Ford work truck anymore. stupid ford. mmmay, thanks for the input. i have to go and bash the bobcat operator for not loading it right, and bash me for not checking it

 

[zombie]

Glad you were o.k.
Probably was the load being too far back. Iif not, it was wrong anyway and would have been a problem. Maybe tell your cousin that doing a buck and change isn't the best plan especially knowing there was braking issues. :bash:
Main thing is that everyone was o.k.
Oh yeah, fix your leafs so you can take the trailer next time...lol

 

[racedirt1]

Yup, trailer sway is scary stuff. I think it was a combination of several factors. Tounge weight should be around 15% of total trailer weight, so as stated above you load was prob. to far back and I'll bet that was the major issue.

Also towing with that much of a lifted vehicle has it's own concerns. I bet that the trailer wasn't level, prob. tounge high which is a major towing no-no. Also tow vehicles with a high center of gravity are not the best option. I tow my 3,200 lb. camper with my '01 4Runner and have had serious sway, I have since purchased a friction sway controller and that helps a lot. I am also packing heavy things in the front of the trailer to increase my tongue weight and have basically eliminated all sway.

Be careful, towing stuff is a major responsibilty. Not just for you but for everybody else out there on road around you.