TrailManor accident?????

I was surfing on rv.net/forum and saw this:


"mikeb9550
Senior Member
MI      
Date Posted: May 30, 2003 6:36 AM      

           Dadoffourgirls,

           I seen the accident with the Jimmy on the way home from work last night on S I275. Yes it was a little Jimmy towing a 26'ish Trailmanor. The Trailmanor was in 2 pieces and the Jimmy looked pretty bad too.  . . ."



Sure hope everyone was okay.  I am guessing his reference to "S I275" means southbound I-275.  Anyone have futher info?

[mjlaupp]

:'(  I don't have any information about the I275S accident. However, my 2002 2720SL was totaled in another accident on Thur. May 29th on the bypass around Birmingham, AL. This is the same Trail Manor that had all of the roof leaks, re., "Maintenance Discussion", "Interior Leak - Need Help" & "Water Dripping In". The dealer was towing my unit behind another new unit and was on the way from the factory back to Louisiana. HE got into a high wind area on the bypass and the rear TM went airborne. By the time it was over my TM was upside down under the other TM in the ditch along with the dealers truck. No one was hurt.


 I'm getting a new TM as a replacement for the totaled unit. The factory had just put a new fron top shell on my unit as a repair for the delaminated top. I won't be able to report on the fix for the delamination since the new top shell was destroyed in the accident.

As a testimony to the durability of the Trail Manor, all three vehicles remained hitched together. The tow truck had to pull the rear bumper off of the front TM to get the mess untangled. The dealer towed the front TM back to the factory after the wreck and picked up my new replacement TM to bring back to Louisiana. While he was at the factory, they made up a new swingaway hitch for him to use on my old unit to return it to the factory this week. It's sitting in a wrecking yard east of Birmingham and he is going to pick it up and tow it back on it's own wheels!

I'm glad to get a new TM to replace the old leaking unit. I'm glad that no one got hurt. Please take heed of 'High Wind Warning Signs'. One of the factory drivers turned a TM over on this same section of interstate last year. Evidently, the road is bumpy and the combination of bumps and wind can fly the Trail Manor. Eyewitnesses said the rear TM (my TM) was 3 to 4 feet above the roadway when this all started. The dealer said that both TMs were in the air and that all that was on the ground was the front wheels of his truck and the back bumper of the rear TM.

If I find out any more details, I'll post here later.

Mike Laupp reported:
"Eyewitnesses said the rear TM (my TM) was 3 to 4 feet above the roadway when this all started. The dealer said that both TMs were in the air and that all that was on the ground was the front wheels of his truck and the back bumper of the rear TM."

Mike, if your TM jumped 3 or 4 feet above the ground, you really didn't want it back after it hit the ground again. A drop from that height may have permanently bent the frame and axles and broken a lot of stuff inside the trailer.

It's had to imagine how the trailers could have gotten that high up in the air - unless the driver was towing it at high speed over some very tall bumps. It's been our experience that TMs are very stable when being towed in windy conditions. When the gusts are very bad and we feel some buffeting, it's wisest to slow down.

This reminds me of an incident that occurred on the San Francisco Bay Bridge about 35+ years ago. The bridge was being repaired and a short ramp had to be placed over a section of roadway just outside of the tunnel (the Treasure Island section of the bridge). Warning signs were installed to warn motorists of the ramp ahead and to slow down. Some newspaper reporter - SF Chronicle, I believe - felt that sooner or later some motorist wouldn't heed the warning signs. The reporter camped out on the far side of the ramp and waited, and waited with a camera. His wait was rewarded around 2 A.M. one morning when an automobile came roaring down on to the ramp. When it hit the ramp, it went 4 feet up in the air before it finally came crashing down on to the roadway. The Chronicle ran a picture showing it in midair the next morning. The automobile, of course, was destroyed when it came back down to earth - unlike all those indestructible TV and movie autos that continue driving after flying off a ramp at high speed.

Mike,

Are you saying that a TM was hitched to another?   In other words was the tongue weight of one placed on the rear bumper of the other?   This in my experience with TM sensitivity to extra weight placed at the trailer ends to be anunstable setup and, in hindsight, foolish.

Like Larry Loo stated, I also doubt a normal wind lift a low profile 3000 lb object off the ground, short of tornado forces.

[mjlaupp]

Yes, the Trail Manors were hitched together. This is the method used by a lot of dealers and factories to deliver travel trailers. It's legal in most states provided the total length is less than 80 feet.

There is one owner in my area who tows a fiberglass bass boat behind his TM. I've seen him on the road a couple of times. Knowing this, I don't think that we have to worry about the strength of the TM back bumper for hauling toys.

Both of the TMs were towed back to the factory for salvage.

[Civil_War_Buff]

In California, you can tow 2 trailers as long as the combined trailer and vehicle length(s) does not exceed 60 ft. AND the second trailer must be a boat. That way they don't have issues like the one here..not that anytime towing 2 trailers isn't trickt..I sure wouldn't do it.


Larry

[mjlaupp]

A second thought about the accident. The south bypass around Birmingham has several very high fill areas where the roadway is built up to go over valleys. I understand the high wind warning signs are in this area. A high wind blowing down the valley would be redirected from horizontal to vertical by the built up roadway. If the TM bounced up just a little bit, then it is possible that a wind in excess of 60 mph vertical could have gotten under it and lifted it 3 or 4 feet.

The driver was slowing down when this happened and I understand that a tractor trailer rig had blown by him just before this happened. It's one of those times when everything came together at just the right time to cause the accident.

Tipper stated:
"In other words was the tongue weight of one placed on the rear bumper of the other?   This in my experience with TM sensitivity to extra weight placed at the trailer ends to be anunstable setup and, in hindsight, foolish."


I believe that Tipper hit the nail on the head. No travel trailers, even our very stable TMs, are designed to have the tongue weight of another trailer placed on a rear bumper. In the case of two TMs being towed in tandem fashion, this would mean that the middle one would have 350 to 400 pounds loaded at its extreme rear. This would make for a very, very unstable towing condition, one that increases the risk of swaying and jack knifing. It's no wonder this accident occurred.  The trailers probably jackknifed when hit just at the right time with wind gusts that were in harmonic rhythm with their swaying. The trucker might have escaped an accident if the first trailer in line had been a very heavy one - with a heavy tongue weight on his towing vehicle. TMs, however, are lightweight trailers. The first trailer in line had its weight forward overbalanced by an equal or greater load at its rear. This shifted its center of gravity to the rear of its axle(s), an extremely dangerous condition.

Even though we should always respect gusty and windy conditions when towing our TMs, I believe that TMs are very stable trailers when we're towing them under normal conditions - with weight forward on their hitches. I'm certainly not a towing expert, but, after approx. 8,000 miles of towing our TM last summer without a hint of swaying, I can vouch for its stability.

[mjlaupp]

I have been towing my TMs for the last two years without any sway caused by wind or other over the road forces. I have had problems when the tires were underinflated. The trailer will bounce from tire to tire and that feels like sway. But this is not what happened here.

This is a special case (area) where the high wind warnings must be observed. The Trail Manor factory drivers are not supposed to use this route during the "high wind season" after one of the trailers being delivered in a single tow turned over on this same area of the interstate last year. There was no loss of stability untill the rear trailer went airborne.

The driver involved has been transporting trailers using this method fro many years. It's the first time he has had this happen to him.

I won't  be towing two trailers at one time, but I will be very carefull about my speed if I ever get into a high wind area with only one Trail Manor behind me.

Dear Mike Laupp

You may be talking about my TM last year that was towed behind my best friends TM from Florida to Tennessee.

The Manufacturer was taking both of our trailers back for warranty work that the delearship could not repair after having our units for over a month.

I was shocked to see a 91 6 cylinder Explorer towing 2-2619's but he said it was done all the time, and true some states do not permit it.  I am not quite sure where the accident occured, but know it was in Georgia on I75 towards Lake City Tenn.

It took a while but Trailmanor did replace both units with brand new 2003's (ours were just a few months old and they were 2002).

We both found that the new units were "Much better build" then the 2002's, why I dont know .  Our biggest complaint were the AC units leaked into the trailer all the time and they couldnt find out why.

The Quality control on the new units is far superior to the older ones.  Everything seems to fit into place much better and with much less effort.

Good Luck with your new units

George