[Presto]

I have a fear of forgetting that I'm towing something. This video does nothing to alleviate that fear :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0h-IQE0_s

[TOPEC]

whats a flatbad?

[Santofu]

Looks like I'm not gonna tow anything in my entire life...

[jpark]

holy fuck LOL

[BrRsn]

Revscene: Spelling and Grammar FAIL

[mmmk]

Revscene: Spelling and Grammar FAIL

so wat, no 1 carez

[pintoBC_3sgte]

holy shit! that's nuts. A+ on strapping the car down to the trailer tho :D

[Leopold Stotch]

god damn, trailers are scary.

[Qmx323]

... is that a BMW 8 series on the trailer?

[GabAlmighty]

What caused that? I can tell it's basically just an oscillation that got worse and worse but what was the initial event to have caused it.

[jlenko]

... is that a BMW 8 series on the trailer?

I'm curious what's towing the trailer... it's clearly WAY overweight... no way it could properly tow another vehicle on a trailer.

[bcrdukes]

It looks like an E34 or E39 5-series touring wagon.

Regardless, that trailer was definitely far beyond its towing capacity.

Edit: Having second thoughts. Maybe a Mercedes-Benz E320 wagon based on the tail lights.

Whatever. They did not real their owner's manual.

[fliptuner]

What caused that? I can tell it's basically just an oscillation that got worse and worse but what was the initial event to have caused it.

The trailer/load was probably overweight for the car but that would only strain the tranny and brakes and not be the cause of the trailer swaying like that.

My guess:
-he was driving too fast
-too much weight on the tongue (load too far forward)
-trailer brakes not fuctioning properly or unable to control trailer brake independently
-the trailer wanted to follow the ruts in the road

Notice how he's driving on the crown of the road and outside the white line. I've had this happen just towing a tent trailer behind my fullsize (obviously, nothing this bad). Too much weight was loaded to the front and the road was badly rutted. If the trailer started to sway, I'd just hit the gas, give the trailer a tug to straighten it out and then slow down. Once I stopped for fuel, I redistributed the weight and had no problem.

[JSALES]

LOL

[Volvo-brickster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFQJYDkfZqw

don't send a car to do a truck's job

[orgasm_donor]

Thats a great way to write off two cars quickly.

[quasi]

I was towing a trailer before and I didn't double check it which was my bad. It was just sitting on the ball of the hitch and not fully locked down. Driving down the road at about 70, hit a bump and it comes detatched. Thank Jebus for saftey chains but trying to stop that thing without fucking up my truck and the trailer was scary as fuck. Everytime I braked the trailer would slam into the back of the truck. The most amazing part was once stopped there wasn't even a scratch on my truck and the only thing wrong with the trailer was the leg handle slightly bent.

Something like this.

http://www.westerniron.com/userfiles/wells_cargo_002.jpg

[1exotic]

Oh kurwa

[JS1988]

ja pierdole..

[godwin]

Looks like a e36 coupe.. notice the moulded part underneath the door line towards the rear wheels.

The wagon looks like a A4 or W124 wagon.. None of them would have trailer brakes etc.

... is that a BMW 8 series on the trailer?

[GabAlmighty]

The wagon looks like a A4 or W124 wagon.. None of them would have trailer brakes etc.

Trailers can have built in trailer brakes. Uhaul car haulers do.

[fliptuner]

Trailer brakes can be wired into anything though. Gab, you're referring to inertia brakes.

[Rich Sandor]

Surge brakes or inertia brakes are independent of the towing vehicle. They won't activate at all in a trailer-sway situation such as in the video above.

Generally, when your trailer starts to sway like that, the CORRECT thing to do is to gently GO FASTER and pull the trailer straight. If you have electric trailer brakes and a trailer brake controller, you should gently squeeze the controller (applying some brakes on the trailer only) This will straighten out your rig right quickly.

The WORST thing you can do is hit your brakes, because it just makes the whole situation even worse. So, the driver in the video above did all the wrong things as far as his reaction to the sway.

As far as the towing configuration goes:
- A car usually weighs 2500-3500lbs.
- An open trailer usually weighs 1500-2500lbs.
- (combined weight of 4000-6000lbs)

A mid-size V6 car is usually rated to tow around 1500lbs.
A V6 AWD Edge or Escape or Flex is only rated for 3500lbs.
A Toyota FJcruiser or Ford Explorer is rated for about 7700lbs.
A 1/2 ton truck like an F150 or Ram/Silverado 1500 will tow 7000lbs -10,000lbs.

So to start with, the tow vehicle was already towing more than it was probably rated for.

Second of all, Look at that BEAST of a trailer. The deck is so high, sitting ABOVE the wheels. SOOOO top heavy.

Accident waiting to happen!

[RangeRoverTurbo]

http://gifsforum.com/images/gif/lol/grand/lololol_gif.gif

[AzNightmare]

wait.. so why was the flatbed and car swaying like that in the first place? What happened?

[brute_4s]

like what was previously said having badly distributed weight on the trailer can make it sway....to much on the toungue (front) cand make it want to push ur rear end around. too much to the back can make it try and lift the rear of the car off the ground which i think is what the problem was in this vid.

#1....you shouldnt tow a car with a car

#2...you shouldnt tow a heavy car with a car

#3...that cars towing capacity would be nothing near the weight it was pulling

#4...once the trailer started swaying, the driver didnt seem to do anything right away to compensate ie. lift off the gas (might not have helped) or slowly get back into it to try and pull it out of the weaving.

#5...driver left his brain at home

[Rich Sandor]

you do not lift off the gas if you have trailer sway. you GIVE it gas to get rid of trailer sway.

trailer sway can happen even if you have perfect weight distribution, but bad distribution does make it happen faster.

i've had some light trailer sway caused by wind upset when getting passed by a semi.

[fliptuner]

Yup, even just the ruts in the road can cause it. You have to pull the trailer out of the sway then slow down once it's straightened out.