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Topic ClosedCrashed on the interstate while towing the R-Pod
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danthoman View Drop Down
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Joined: 04 Aug 2012
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Posts: 183 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Crashed on the interstate while towing the R-Pod
    Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 4:10pm
The hand on the trailer brake control button is a great idea.  I've always thought I could accelerate faster than I could reach the button but from now on I will keep a hand on the button going downhill. 

CharlieM - I would not recommend taping the TV brakes. Things can get out of control much to quickly.
Linda and Dan
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Posts: 49 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 4:10pm
Being a very green newbie I appreciate Seanl's explanation of what happened. It had to be very scary and I'm sure you all will be shaken for a bit. 

Thanks for being willing to share what happened so we can learn from it also. I am finding that there is a lot that my husband and I don't know.

Hope you can relax tonight before you hit the road tomorrow.
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Posts: 466 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 4:34pm

First things first.  I'm glad that everyone is OK.  Life it too short to begin with to have it altered by an accident such as this.  That being said, something doesn't sound right to me.  With all things being equal (not speeding, no mechanical failures, etc), I just don't understand how this could happen, especially since you had a WDH installed.
"Ray & Connie"

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- 2007 Toyota Tacoma TRD-Off Road
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Posts: 21 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 6:00pm
I wonder if the length of the wheel base of your tow vehicle had something to do with the jack-knife?
A friend of mine used to tow a sailboat behind his pickup truck and never had a sway problem even in a strong side wind.  He traded the PU for a Jeep Grand Cherokee which had almost the same engine horsepower and tow capacity as the old PU.  But a much shorter wheelbase.
Coming home one day they encountered a sidewind coming down a fairly steep hill...they found that the boat-trailer began to jack-knife.  They couldn't counteract it.  Luckily before the boat and trailer could pull them off the road...the trailer hitch twisted and snapped along with the safety chain.  The boat & trailer proceeded to roll down the embankment, leaving the Jeep on the side of the road.
My friend had a lot of experience on hauling long heavy trailers and said that he never had a trailer act like that before.
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Posts: 53 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 8:23pm
First a few more answers to questions:

Speed: We were probably going between 55-60 when the sway started. In retrospect it was probably too fast, but had felt fine at those speeds through a day and a half of mountain driving up until then.

Weight: We had both our fresh tank full and grey almost full, black nearly empty. This meant we were tongue-light which probably contributed to the sway. As for equipment, etc. we were pretty evenly loaded. 

As of now, the trailer has been deemed road worthy. Our insurance will cover the rest of the cosmetic repairs and a detailed inspection once we get to our interim destination in Houston and have a few weeks of down time. I'm a little concerned that things are a bit out of alignment since the driver's side fender seems off-center from where it's supposed to be, but it should be okay for a few more days on the road.

We're actually tossing around the idea of trading in the Highlander to get a bigger TV, especially since my wife is really gun shy about it now and we've got our 9-month old in the car with us. We'll see how we feel leaving camp tomorrow morning and keep you all posted.
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Posts: 165 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 8:37pm
Originally posted by thadd

We had both our fresh tank full and grey almost full

That's an extra 500lbs Ouch Just out of curiosity where are these tanks on your model? Are they in front or behind the axle? 
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Posts: 672 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 8:47pm
   Thank goodness that everyone is alright and that the guardrail was there to keep you from going down into the ditch. Traveling over the road for most of my life this happens more often than you think, it's all Weight and Momentum. The trailer has the Weight and your speed sets the Momentum, after just 7 degrees of deflection from a straight course at highway speeds a lose of control is going to happen and is not recoverable, a jackknife most likely will happen because it is the trailer that is now in control. 7 degrees is not much of an angle at highway speeds.
   Seanl is right that the trailer brake only should have been applied as soon as the sway started and a slowing of speed ahead of the curve would have helped.
   Thadd if your wife never pulls the trailer again that is to be expected, this was a very traumatic experience that may not hit her for a few days. My wife has seen several major accidents involving people pulling flatbed or box trailers behind their cars on mountain roads as we have traveled over the years that made her very worried when we first got our trailer and headed off west. She is much more comfortable on curvey roads now but it really took awhile, she only co-pilots.
   Your honesty in what happened is to be admired and your wanting to share your disaster with us so that it might help someone else in the future really stand out. 
    Safe travels for the rest of your journey.  Goose
Mother Goose's Caboose..2011 RP171..07 Grand Cherokee
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Posts: 9059 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 9:15pm
 
Originally posted by thadd

...
Weight: We had both our fresh tank full and grey almost full, black nearly empty. This meant we were tongue-light which probably contributed to the sway. ...

The biggest contributors to sway, in this order:

1. Not enough tongue weight

2. Speed

3. Short wheelbase vehicle

4. Not enough pressure in the TV and trailer tires (they should be at or near their max sidewall rating)

5. Lack of sway control

6. Outside forces like side winds, etc.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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CharlieM View Drop Down
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Posts: 1797 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 9:26pm
Danthoman,

The idea is not to tap the TV brakes, but to only lightly touch the brake pedal, just enought to actuate the stop light switch. This engages the trailer brakes, but not the TV brakes. This is the same thing as manually using the brake controller control, but maybe not as aggressively. The idea is to let the trailer put some drag on the TV, thereby straightening out the rig. I can easily feel this point when I touch the brake pedal, albeit, I'm not in a panic situation.
Charlie
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OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD
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Posts: 9059 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Dec 2012 at 9:41pm

As others have mentioned already and I want to stress, when sway starts ...

... never touch the accelerator, this adds energy to the equation right when you need to be removing it.

... never touch the TV's brakes, this magnifies the problem even though you are removing energy.

... never try to steer opposite of the the wobbling feeling, there is a 90% chance you'll increase the wobble, and increase it significantly.

... ALWAYS apply the brake controller aggressively, even if it means temporarily locking up the trailer brakes.  You may have to keep applying some trailer brake all the way down the hill.  This forces the TV to pull on the hitch which negates the sway.

One exception to the accelerator rule - if you are pulling a trailer without trailer brakes, and you are within 100 feet of the bottom of the hill, and nobody is in front of you, then mash on the accelerator.  It has the same effect as applying trailer brakes by forcing the TV to pull the trailer straight.  But this is a rare exception to the rule.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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