Towing speeds

The two major problems with towing anything is control and stopping. These two go together are the two most overlooked and under considered aspects of towing. First, stopping: Something everyone likes to do but thinks little about until you can't. Everything on cars and trucks has gotten smaller including the brakes. Tiny little shoes, tiny little disks, small surface areas and less heat absortion and dissipation abilities. These work fine for most daily use but when loaded or overloaded simply cannot handle the job.

I just went over this with some guys running 3/4 and 1 ton trucks with snow removal equipment on them. Trucks were purchased with snowplow / towing packages from the factory yet after running the mild winter this year are in need of many repairs. Most common problem was brakes. Heat warped and cracked rotors and pads that are down to the steel backers. The trucks worked fine in the summer but when the weight of the plow and spreaders were added, they could not handle it. The 1 ton could barely be brought to a stop from 40 mph on a 2% grade. The GVW of the truck is 10,000 pounds and the actual loaded weight came in at 8,300 pounds as scaled by a certified CAT scale house. 1,700 pounds under max yet it could not be stopped in a safe distance with all OEM equipment.

With this in mind, think about adding a loaded trailer with no brakes grossing out around 5000 pounds...first off, it's not legal and second off, if the truck could not be stopped with less than it's own max GVW how the heck is it going to stop the additional weight???

Now about control. If the weight is not distributed correctly between the trailer and tow vehicle, you have many problems to consider. The major problem being lack of control. You have too much weight too far back on the tow vehicle and you loose steering. You have too much weight too far back on the trailer and you take weight off the tow vehicle. Both of these conditions leads to many problems and serious safety issues.

All the legal aspects aside, how about personal safety and the safety of all the rest of the people on the road? Someone said about the retired people racing the big RV rigs to the top of the mountian and I have to agree, these are quite the scary sight to see more often than not. I have yet to come across a broken down RV that was not seriously over loaded. Many of them get luck and only break springs or burn a transmission up but some of them are not so lucky and end up splattered on the road. Case in point, last summer a big rig RV lost control going down a rather mild .8% grade. The result, was the loss of three lives, two from the RV and one from the car that was in the way of it. Investigation into the accident lead to the discovery that the RV's maximum GVW was exceeded by nearly 4,500+ not counting the weight of the 4 door sedan it was towing. Offical word on the investigation was that the crash was caused by the RV brakes being burned off.

Then you have the SUV'ers who hitch up their 5,000 boat and trailer to the back of their 3,400 pound SUV. They get on the interstate and run right up to 70 mph with it until they get to the turn when the momentum of the trailer combined with it's weight pushes the SUV into the ditch because it does not want to turn. Same type of condition, guy with the high riding F-250 4x4 towing a farm tractor on a tandem axle trailer. High center of gravity on the truck and high center of gravity on the tractor increased by the higth of it sitting on the trailer. Trying to make a mild right hand swing on a Y intersection at 30 mph, trailer and truck rolled over, tractor coming off the trailer crushing the car stopped in the left turn lane killing the passenger and leaving the driver in a wheel chair for life. Investigation into this one showed that the combination of the high center of gravity of both the the truck and trailer load is what caused the rollover.

I've seen so much of these sort of things that it scares me to even go out on the road anymore. People trying to too much with too little and do it as fast as possible without a hint of concern for anyone elses safety. Personally, I'm all for putting each and every vehicle through the same DOT weigh in and inspections as commercial vehicles. Random weighs and inspections should be done on every vehicle, not just limited to the CDL class ones and especially on RV's and vehicles towing trailers of any kind.

Now, before you go flaming my @$$ over this, ask yourself how you would feel if you or someone you love became yet another statistic highway death or injury caused by someone who did not consider safety or didn't want to spend the extra few bucks to do something right.

In the interest of the farmer's person safety, why can't a couple bucks be spent for flashing yellow lights on the equipment? I mean c'mon, anyone can buy a small yellow strobe light that will operate on 6 to 24 volts DC for about 30 bucks. A short length of 1/2 steel pipe and a piece of wire to stick it up high on the tractor so it could be easily seen is not too much to ask. One or two lights on the motorized vehicle that could be seen above or to the sides of the trailers. Trailers should at least bear the slow moving vehicle sign at least. Even adding a few 50 cent plastic reflectors to the back of equipment would be a help.

As for the trucks farmers use, they should be held to the same safety requirements as any other vehicle if they are used off the farm land. I'm not talking about a truck driven from the barn to the field that uses a paved road, I'm talking the trucks used for transporting products and such beyond the farm property. I've seen some really scary rigs running down the interstate and secondary highways, nowhere near the farm extremely overloaded and not DOT acceptable in any way. This not only endangers the farmers but everyone around them and there is no excuse for it.

Part of my business is moving large heavy mining and construction equipment. I am not exempt from doing it safely and within the limits of the DOT. Overweight / oversized loads require buying a state move permit and or providing escort vehicles. Loads must not exceed the weight limits of the trailers or trucks carrying them. Loads have to be properly chained down and so forth. It's part of my business and I have to stay within the legal limits of the DOT in order to conduct it. Why then should a farmer be exempt from the same laws that govern every other business. Like I said, it's one thing moving stuff around the farm land, same as moving around the mine land. We often move stuff from one mine property to the next which requires crossing or traveling a short section of back roads which the DOT does consider a problem. Same goes for the farmer doing his work on his farm, short sections of back roads to and from one location of the farm to the next. Fine and dandy, no problem or complaints from me. When it comes to moving things beyond the farm limits to the open highways, then all DOT regulations should apply just as they do to everyone else.

Case point: two years ago we had a major accident here, DOT safety regulations were not complied with when a farmer took a 40' two axle wagon trailer loaded with hay stacked to 16' high and 16' wide down a secondary four lane highway. He did fine until the he got to the interstate overpass which has a clearance of only 13'. Hitting the bridge at 45 mph, the load of hay bails was knocked all over the road and into oncoming traffic lanes. A car going in the opposite direction had a bail land on the hood and hit about 6 more bails. The driver lost control which sent the car into a sign pole. Both passenger and driver were very seriously injured in the wreck and had to be extracated with the jaws of life taking nearly an hour. One is now confined to a wheel chair for life with no legs while the other lost a foot and half of her right arm. There was no excuse for this to happen other than total disreguard for anyones safety on the part of the farmer.

I'm not saying we should regulate the farmers out of business but they should comply with the same laws as everyone else once they venture past the farm itself. I don't care if someone is hauling food or bags of rags, if they take it to the highway, they had better do it safely.

Having regard to the grain wagon examples cited below, anyone who thinks that a 500-bushel wagon with no brakes (that's 30,000 pounds or 15 tons of corn) is safe being towed by a 3000# pickup truck, doesn't understand physics. In an emergency, that 15 tons of grain plus another ton of wagon is going where it's going, it doesn't care a rip about the 3000# of pickup truck that happens to be stuck on the front. And all grain wagons by reputable makers are available with adequate brakes, lights and reflectors.

Farmers can drive semi-trucks without CDL's, haul over-width, over-height and over-weight without permits, escort or anything else that anyone else needs. The exemptions from licensing requirements especially are stretched to their very limit - in some parts of the nation, the motto seems to be "anyone can drive anything, at any time, for any reason, that their feets reach the pedals."

Noone wants to put farmers out of business, and we can all realize that they have special needs at certain times. But the exemptions under which they operate often date to earlier and simpler times. I hear altogether too much of the attitude that "well, dammit, they should just slow down, what's their hurry, they should know there's likely to be a combine driving through here, and anyway, those lights and reflectors, they're just for pansies, people ought to be more careful" and a general feeling that farm equipment and rigs have the right-of-way, anywhere, anytime. Many of the worst examples (such as the one which Mark Kw cites) are the result of sheer laziness or cussedness, and the general public won't stand for that forever.

llater,

llamas

60 lbs per bushel, the wagon weights about a ton or better to start with.

Hear of very little problems with them - ever. I guess the farmers that are left have been doing it so long they are used to stopping & starting the loads? I donno.

Ending the practice, and giving the full inspection to all the old farm trucks & all that use the back roads in America will kill off a few more family farms.

I do understand the issues you bring up, & I am not flaming you at all. I wish people could be awarded bonus points for having common sense, and subtracted points for being idiots. Instead of 'one size fits all' laws.

--->Paul

You brought up a good point. Never regulate the farmer. I know where my food comes from!

We had a very long discussion over on the ford-diesel.com website about 6 months ago about your topic on the same type grain bins. Thought I'd let you know who won. The Farmer hands down.

Even though most wanted RV'ers and commerical/private loads regulated most of everyone seam to agree that farmers know how to tow loads in a safe manner and they should be the instructors for the rest. We even had one farmer that was in harvest, take a stopping test of the loaded grain bins at 25mph and if I remember correct the load stopped with-in 5ft of a simular braked load. Impressive!

T_Bone

• Wheatfarm.com

Because driving as a whole is easier than flying, and the consequenses of poor judgement aren't always as dire, every five years is probably often enough. I'm not even saying that we ought to be yanking peoples licenses (necessarily), but we should have a trained professional evaluate skills and techniques and recommend improvements in both. As difficult as it may be to make this a workable system - given the way the DOT works - it would still be better than that present system of having people who may or may not have had any formal driving training when they were teenagers, drivning for decades without ever again being evaluted for skill, safety, and understanding the rules of the road.

I see s**t going down the road every day that makes me cringe and lift my right foot off the pedal.

Last night, case in point, Case 580L FEL/backhoe combo, on a three-axle hiboy trailer, being towed by an F350 shortbox shortcab. I know the electric brakes were U/S because I could see the broken wires hanging. Towing off a pintle adapter stuffed into what looked like a 10,000# frame-mount hitch receiver. The trailer weighs well over twice what the truck does, the CG has to be a good 3 feet higher than the truck. Who knows what the tongue load was.

It's all very well to say that you can pull an awful lot with not much motor if you have the gears and aren't in a hurry. This is all true. But what you can pull is just one tiny part of the totality of what it takes to go down the road safely. I'm with Mark Kw on this one. There needs to be a whole lot more enforcement of GVW and GCVW loadings, and some serious looking done at the "cheater" riggings (eg pintle adpaters) which enable people to skirt the design intentions of the equipment.

llater,

llamas

My point, I just wonder how many posts are made up with imagination? Or is it tell all because you don't know who I am? Makes me wonder!

I never thought I'd here T_Bone suggest more regulations on the average guy but from what I've been reading on the net, I would be all in favor if everyone was required to take a towing test before they could pull/haul any type of load. I can not believe where some of these people get the ideas on how to tow.

Would that help? I really doubt it as it sure don't stop people from driving like there on the indy speedway while in a car on the Interstate!

I do know the next time I get to go out to the back country, I'm watching every rig that even gets a tad bit close. I usually pull over and let traffic go by but the last few years I haven't been doing that as much, but I will change back again.
T_Bone