Has anyone else had trailer come off towbar with horses onboard?

[SteadyNeddy1070]

Nightmare experience yesterday on way to our RC event.

We set off from our yard and drove up the driveway. As we went over the last speed bump (very slowly I add), the trailer came off the car towbar and crashed onto the tarmac.

Thank goodness both boys were ok and stayed upright and we managed to get them off unscathed. Walked them back to yard. Shortest trip out ever. Don’t think they could believe how short their trip out was!

Has anyone else had this experience or can think why it happended?

My friend had travelled 5 miles (15+ minutes) to my yard with her horse onboard and no probs. Had already come in over speed bumps and the potholes with no issues.

Car is huge Nissan Navara and trailer is well serviced and has towed 2 horses before. Up to two x 16.2hh capacity.

Really scary experience! It’s rather put me off buying my own trailer!!!

 

[Headpiece]

No, never happened to me. Frightening for you.

I can only think the locking system when the tow "clips" over the ball got jammed, or didnt click on, and therefore came off. When hitching up i always try and pull the coupling upwards to check this.

 

[Potato!]

When was the trailer last serviced and where was the safety chain that pulls the handbrake on if that was to happen.

 

[dornrose]

No I've never had that happen and I tow loads the only thing I can think that might have gone wrong is that it wasnt attached properly - did you check it was hitched on properly?

For those that arent sure how to do that once you have attached the trailer to the car by winding down the jockey wheel then you wind the jockey wheel up again until you're sure the hitch is secured, you will notice the car being raised up by you turning the handle for the jockey wheel.

 

[Amaranta]

I have

Whilst turning a corner (2 mins into the journey) my trailer came off the hitch, was my own stupid fault, I had not done it up properly (in a rush), had to call OH out of bed to come and help me put it back. Trailer and horse none the worse for wear.

 

[flyingfeet]

The only time mine has come off was when I didn't put it on properly I now always jump up and down and if I don't hear a satisfying "click" will lift the car up with the jockey wheel as described

However I am aware people don't ever have their trailers serviced, which is a bit

 

[nicknick]

This happened to me but with no horses on board, was told that it has something to do with the angle between the trailer and the towing vehicle whilst going over a speed bump, it puts the hitch to a point that it cannot hold any longer and "pops" off, very scary without horses on board so i cannot imagine how you felt loaded up. I have travelled over the same place loads of times before and since but it only happened once. x

 

[freckles22uk]

yes, but without horses in.... I had hitched the trailer up to take the horses out, and was just reversing it, when it came off and went straight into the bumper of the car,

I had not hitched it on properly, lesson learnt, and now I always check its on right.

 

[NeverSayNever]

initial thoughts are that it simply wasnt hitched up properly did the breakaway cable stop the trailer?

eta - sorry, glad to hear your horses were ok, meant to say that.

 

[Suechoccy]

Nothing's wrong with your trailer. Sounds like you hadn't attached it properly in the first place.

My trailer/car lives up top of a steep drive and once, soon after I'd first bought it, I attached the trailer (or so I thought), it made the usual "clunk" noise, but it was only resting on top of the towbar in the shut-position, it wasn't completely over the top of the towbar as it should ahve been in the shut-position.

So as I reached bottom of drive and angle between car and trailer changed (like you going over the speedbump), the trailer came adrift but the car stopped it going awol.
Two passing travellers in a Transit very kindly stopped and helped me quickly spin the whole outfit round and rehitch it.

Your trailer wouldn't have come adrift when you loaded the horses as that would just have given you more noseweight pressing down on the towball.

Ever since then, my hitching method has been very OCD as follows:
1. Turn jockeywheel handle to lift towhitch clear of towball, position trailer with towhitch above towball.
2. Turn jockeywheel handle to lower towhitch until it's resting on top of towbar.
3. Release jockeywheel handle and pull jockeywheel up out of the way into its resting place on the A-frame. Secure with lever.
4. Now wiggle towhitch lever until towhitch drops down over towball (with jockeywheel up out of way, you know the towhitch can drop 100pc over the towball rather than 50%) and clunks shut.
5. Grab neck of towarm or a-frame of trailer and just try to lift it - back of car should lift with it. If it doesn't, then you're not hitched.
6. Attach break-away cable to back of car/towball frame.
7. Connect electrics.

My break-away occurred because I did (4) before I did (3). Always do (3) first and you'll never have this problem occur again.

So always do (3) then (4) then (5).

 

[nicknick]

It can happen after you have done all the correct checks in the correct order, the breakaway cable pulled on my handbrake but the momentum from the speed bump kept my trailer moving thankfully into the back of my R rover instead of down a steep hill, another common cause for this happening is a small bit of the tow ball has become slightly worn or corroded (hardly visible to the naked eye) so I have been told, I had the tow ball and had the hitch thingy checked over, just in case (nothing found wrong with either) but changed the tow ball "just in case".

 

[ladyt25]

I don't tow trailers but I do know someone ths happened to an trailer started coming past their car! They had to run the trailer into a hedge using the car - think that would have been pretty scary!!!!

 

[Circe]

Could be the safety catch is sticky or broken so it hasn't locked on properly, aslo, you could have a mismatch betwen the ball size and the socket size,
eg 50mm or worn tow ball with a 2 inch or worn towbar coupling. It can be hard to tell if its worn.
Disclaimer...I'm not an expert, OH has just spouted this off, so if its rubbish, blame him

 

[SteadyNeddy1070]

No I've never had that happen and I tow loads the only thing I can think that might have gone wrong is that it wasnt attached properly - did you check it was hitched on properly?

For those that arent sure how to do that once you have attached the trailer to the car by winding down the jockey wheel then you wind the jockey wheel up again until you're sure the hitch is secured, you will notice the car being raised up by you turning the handle for the jockey wheel.

Great tip. Thx.

My friend is experienced tower and she had travelled to my yard with her horse onboard 5+ miles.

Towbar specialist I spoke to this morning suggested towbar ball or trailer hitch may be worn. May have caused. She's going to get it thoroughly checked before it ever goes out again!

Trailer serviced annually and well maintained or I wouldn't have put my boy in there!

 

[SteadyNeddy1070]

It can happen after you have done all the correct checks in the correct order, the breakaway cable pulled on my handbrake but the momentum from the speed bump kept my trailer moving thankfully into the back of my R rover instead of down a steep hill, another common cause for this happening is a small bit of the tow ball has become slightly worn or corroded (hardly visible to the naked eye) so I have been told, I had the tow ball and had the hitch thingy checked over, just in case (nothing found wrong with either) but changed the tow ball "just in case".

That seems most logical explaination and is being investigated and checked out.

Safety breakaway cable was there and fitted corretcly but didn't seem to stop trailer - very worringly!

Again we were lucky on flat and car managed to stop it due to very large bull bar type tow bar. No damage to car. Or horses thankfully.

 

[PennyJ]

It happened to me once, when I tried to hitch up too quickly and didn't check everything properly before I moved off. Learnt my lesson now and go slower and check everything first. The breakaway cable worked for me though and stopped it.

 

[OWLIE185]

When we had a trailer I always had a high tensile anchor chain attached to the trailer and car chasis so that if it became detached it was still connected to the car.