I was taking my nephew to go fishing this morning. About half way there, I get in an accident. One car stops abruptly to make a last second turn onto another road. The next vehicle reacts and makes a hard stop right in front of me. I’m about 5 car lengths behind that car. We’re doing 45. No problem. I hit the brakes. The truck doesn’t stop.
Short story = I rearend the car.
Long story = I think my trailer brakes failed. I felt the boat “pushing” the truck. It’s 4K empty before the 66 gallons of fuel and all the gear. Then I notice that the boat has shifted on the trailer. It pushed the bumper bar all the way forward and jack up the motor due to the bar pushing up against the trailer frame.
Boats sitting at Bass Pro to get looked at. Trucks going to the body shop tomorrow. My fishing days have just been put on hold. This really sucks!
Wow, that sucks. Glad you’re ok and hate to hear this about your new boat. Make sure they check out those trailer brakes and your lower unit if it got banged around any.
Thanks guys. Thankfully no one was injured, but we were only going 45. The air bags didn’t even go off. They are definitely going to look at the brakes on the trailer. Oddly enough, I had taken it in before I went to work due to some kind of recall on the braking system. This would have been the first time that I took it out since then. I would really hate to think that the trailer brakes caused all this.
I did check out the power trim and hydraulic jack plate to make sure they were ok. I also turned the motor over to make sure everything worked there. I couldn’t find any problems with the motor but BPS is going to check it all out really good. The only obvious issue with the boat was the boat sliding about 2’ up on the trailer and push the post over. It broke one of the U-bolts and bent the other over pretty good.
I think I have to place a new saying on my profile. If you can’t dodge it, RAM it! The truck took very little damage, but that poor car.
Glad to hear that everyone is OK. I’m sure that was a scary few seconds.
You ain’t kidding. It’s funny how fast things go through your head when something like that happens. When I hit the brakes and covered about half the distance to the car in front of me and I realized I wasn’t going to stop in time, it seemed like I had an eternity to think about what was going on and why it wasn’t stopping. That’s when I felt the truck being pushed by the boat.
Then heart break set in. I had just got that truck. I know it can be fixed but dang, that was my brand new truck. Then I noticed the damage to the boat trailer. Double whammy.
When crazy stuff like that happens, it always sucks when thinking about dealing with the property damage, but it’s so much easier to deal with when nobody gets hurt in the accident. Glad no one got hurt & best of luck getting your stuff fixed up & getting back on the water.
Glad to hear that everyone is OK. I’m sure that was a scary few seconds.
You ain’t kidding. It’s funny how fast things go through your head when something like that happens. When I hit the brakes and covered about half the distance to the car in front of me and I realized I wasn’t going to stop in time, it seemed like I had an eternity to think about what was going on and why it wasn’t stopping. That’s when I felt the truck being pushed by the boat.
Then heart break set in. I had just got that truck. I know it can be fixed but dang, that was my brand new truck. Then I noticed the damage to the boat trailer. Double whammy.
Truck is meant to be scuffed up a little, it’ll be fine.
That sucks. The boat will probally be fine, maybe some scratches, no worries. The trailer can be fixed, but the brakes should have helped you stop. Do you have brakes on both axles of the trailer? If there are only brakes on 1 axle that might have been an issue. That is a big boat with alot of weight.
Sorry to hear, glad everyone was ok. There is nothing worse than collecting your nephew with excitement of going fishing with his Uncle, and then not being able to go. Not a fun day for either of you. I’d say go fishing twice to make up for this missed one…
The question about the brakes on both axles is a good one. I’m going to have to check that. I thought they were on both, but now you got me wondering.
Got the estimate on the truck today. Just a little over $2500. Pretty much everything below the grill has to be replaced. But the grill and the head lights didn’t even have a scratch on them. Did a little damage to both front fenders. I’m glad the air bags didn’t go off. They said that would have been in the $10K range. Wow.
Went and checked on the boat today. They say the brakes are working properly. Hum. Anyways, it’s going to cost me $150 to get a new winch post, decal on the step and to replace the u-bolts that broke on the winch post. Other than that, no other damage to the boat or trailer. I was lucky there.
But I really feel bad for the lady that I hit. That was the third car that sustained damage that week. We had some tornadoes come through last week and they were in the path of it. They had two cars totalled by trees falling on them. No wonder she didn’t look real happy. I really wanted to tell her, “well, things happen in threes, and all your bad luck has probably just come to an end”, but I thought better against it and figured it would be best not to push it.
I don’ t know if this helps but I know a redneck way of testing surge brakes. You can unplug the wiring harness to the trailer and then gently apply throttle in reverse to see if the surge brakes prevent the trailer from moving backwards. A spotter on the ground observing the trailer wheels is best. Too much throttle and you can damage the mechanical device, or switch of sorts, that allows you to reverse in manual mode. You want both the electronic and mechanical switch off to engage the surge brakes when in reverse.
Also, check the obvious thing. A lot of times “shops” fail to do that. Make sure the manual override switch/lever is not on. It’s purpose is to allow you to turn off the trailer brakes when you reverse should you loose power to the trailer or in the post apocalyptic future when tow vehicles are made out of whatever we can salvage from our destroyed civilization.
