3rd gen towing accident

The trailer was bought in Washington, not Minnesota. Looks lie this article is pretty bad, just like the rest of the news we read.

 

Exactly. This has nothing to do with the truck.

 

You can have the right truck, the right gear and the wrong driver and wind up in this mess.

You can have the right truck, the right gear, the right driver and still wind up in this mess based on weather or other knuckleheads on the road.

Everyone here is guessing based on pictures and a fairly obviously inaccurate news article (which way too many are these days).

So I'm sincerely going with......... I hope no one was hurt, that all the occupant safety features worked as designed and that the owner has good insurance.

(and also sincerely that it wasn't a leaking diff that seized up causing lack of control)

 

Totally understand. It's a perception thing.

 

I bet that was terrifying to lose control at highway speeds. Grateful I started small with my first travel trailer, 3000 lbs wet and only a 14 ft cabin. I put on weight distribution as well just in case

 

This gets reposted a lot. Never too many times regardless of the cause. Very relevant here simply to make common knowledge even if it wasn't the cause of this.

 

I think this was southbound I-17 around Sunset Point. I think I saw it on the news. Several wrecks a month there - downhill, fast, sharpish curves, high congestion.

 

I saw something similar to this a last month in my area. 3rd gen pulling camper, facing wrong way

 

The coupling strength of these trailers always amazes me!

 

That gotta be at least a 35' camper there..

According to the news...

 

The biggest problem is people speed while towing and exceed 65.

 

I found the problem. You can't tow if your truck is laying on it's side.

It also helps if the trailer is on it's wheels.


Let me know if you need any more towing tips.

 

A gust of wind could knock a 20' trailer around if you aren't ready for it, especially if the trailer was empty on it's way home from being picked up. Just imagine what a 25-30 mph Gust of a crosswind could do...I've felt them in a 33,000 pound semi running empty that would just about make it change lanes, and wiggle pretty heavily. Imagine it with a Tacoma at speed, getting caught unawares...

 

LOL


It just happened right before I got there, no rescue or wrecker there yet. I could see it's headlights jumping as I was in the traffic it had created. I'm guessing the guy put it in 4WD and tried to move it

 

No tow mirrors, not safe!
Trailer too big, not safe!

lol this website cracks me up sometimes. We towed a 21 foot boat behind our tacoma for years and had no trouble. Lot of assumptions being made. Could be driver error or could be someone elses fault, who knows.

I had a driver change lanes into me just yesterday without looking and almost hit me, locked the brakes up with a cloud of smoke and had rubber marks on my tires from her but no damage. No doubt would have been a wreck had I been towing something.

 

I don't think it's a Nash 30 footer (29S), there are no slide-outs. Also compare the trailer's length to the truck's (looks like a DCSB--17'8" long), the Nash 29S is 32'4" O.A.L.--that would be almost twice the length of the Taco.

Looks more like a Nash 22H--24'9" O.A.L. 4,222 lbs. dry. You cannot believe a thing the media reports...

 

How many times will this be repeated by people not reading all the posts?

 

I have had my share of towing incidents but I guess I had to learn somehow. Driving cross country with my former Taco (2005 4cyl. AC 4x2) loaded with everything I own. I put too much weight at the back as I didn't plan well and was just stuffing stuff in the back at the end of my packing. Seemed mostly fine at first, and then I got to New Mexico with some crazy strong winds. At one point I passed a semi and the force of the wind when my trailer got past the truck almost pushed me off the road, and I got that dreaded wobble. Luckily I got it to calm down before jackknifing. Pulled over, redistributed the load and I was good to go after that. The wind still pushed me around a bit but I was in control and never got the dreaded wobble the rest of the trip.

Also one time when GPS was still relatively new to the masses I was driving for over 24hrs. before I realized it was getting unsafe and I needed to stop. Desperately trying to find a hotel to stop at as I was barely able to keep my eyes open I was blindly following my GPS. Since there was a lot of construction and my maps were outdated and I ended up driving down an off-ramp instead of an on-ramp . I didn't see any other cars coming toward me but I was exhausted and freaked out so I started backing up and went too fast, jackknifed, and the trailer dinged the side of by bed. No big deal in hindsight but could have been way worse.

 

I wouldn't tow that size trailer with the t acoma. About 3500lbs is all I would feel comfortable with behind this light little truck.

 

Better be safe than risking something your not comfortable with!