Thread: Trailer kills woman

A certain emergency service to which I belong lost a 2 ton trailer off the back of a Hilux last year... it rolled twice and fortunately ended up off the road with no other damage...

Originally Posted by stevo68

Ok, what type of trailer can cause that sort of damage?? Am I missing something ,

Regards

Stevo

At speed any type of trailer can cause fatal accidents.

Land Rover Perenties towing number 5 trailers had a habit of killing soldiers when the combination rolled. That is the reason for the rotator lock being removed from the pintle on military LR.

In this case the trailer was a fruit bin, a type of trailer usually towed at low speed behind a tractor during fruit picking. They can weigh several ton loaded. Many of these don't have safety chains.

What really gets me is the pathetically small non-rated "D" shackles you see on many tow bars and connecting trailers to vehicles. Or worse still little tiny padlocks or keyring snap links not designed for any shock load or weight rating.

Diana

Originally Posted by Shonky

A certain emergency service to which I belong lost a 2 ton trailer off the back of a Hilux last year... it rolled twice and fortunately ended up off the road with no other damage...

How much marching did they have to do to make up for that event?

I had occasion to rent a car-trailer ('cause I needed to tow my Series III) from a national trailer hire service this year and was shocked to see the ****y little mild steel shackles they provided for the break-away chains. They would have lasted all of 0.2 nanoseconds if it had come off the ball on Bellbird Hill....

Originally Posted by lardy

amazing stuff, can you attach chains to the rails on caravans?
my last head chef position in the u.k. had a caravan park within the business and we used to watch caravans pull past the reception on the way out the gate the amount that jumped off the ball and hit the deck!
now we always went and helped out after picking ourselves up off the floor, but we always mentioned how it would be a disaster if it happened on a major highway with a truck up ya **** as they tend to drive over there

The trailers must be chained to the towing vehicle in Aus. The chains go from the drawbar to the towing vehicle.

Originally Posted by DiscoDave

I had occasion to rent a car-trailer ('cause I needed to tow my Series III) from a national trailer hire service this year and was shocked to see the ****y little mild steel shackles they provided for the break-away chains. They would have lasted all of 0.2 nanoseconds if it had come off the ball on Bellbird Hill....

Don't get me started on rental car trailers.

Most car trailers weight 500Kg or more, that means that most vehicles not set up for towing with electric or vacuum mechanical/hydraulic trailer brakes will only be able to legally tow a car 1500Kg or less. That means nothing bigger than a series 1 shorty without a hard top in the Land Rover marque, no Holden Commodores, no Falcons etc.

Ever tried to rent a car trailer that can legally tow over 2 ton?

Even if you can, most of them are illegal as they have only 1 safety chain and the breakaway brake system (if there at all) is not charged by the towing vehicle, because of the inherent problems of only 7 pins in most trailer connector plug/socket systems.

I can go on till the morning if you'd like.

Diana

Trailer regs in the sunny state says car trailers (2T GVM) should have two 10mm chains AND shackles and should be attached to seperate points on the towbar (not the tongue). crossing them is a great idea as it catches the hitch if it should come off.

As Diana said, heaps of drivers secure their (usually over loaded) trailers with p****y little padlocks

The thing that really strikes me, is either the lack of appropriate tie down point on car trailers, and also the methods and straps that are used to hold vehicles in place. I'm surprised more vehicles dont fall off the trailers.