The happiest days of a boat owners life......

Outlaw

TCG Elite Member
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Jul 24, 2009
19,609
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Johnsburg
Are the day he picks it up,



And the day it decides to ass fuck his truck.
2012-08-08_16-00-25_470.jpg


Was on rt. 120 up by grayslake,bringing the boat home for this weekend on the chain. Trailer jumped off the ball. I was doing 55 when it happened, but was able to safely make it to the shoulder. Could have been ALOT worse, no other damage other than to the tailgate, easily replaced. Just shitty that it had to happen. Here's a few more pictures of the damage.

2012-08-08_16-03-53_59.jpg

2012-08-08_18-20-35_563.jpg


In all honesty, I'm not that upset. Like I said, it could have ended alot worse.

In the end it was my fault, was using the wrong size ball. Have been since I bought the boat last spring. My fault for reading 2" on the tag, and not double checking.
 

rocket5979

Gearhead
Nov 15, 2005
6,576
18
Round Lake, IL
Too bad to hear. Wrong ball size was the first thing that came to mind when I seen the pics. The good news is that at least you only have do to a simple tailgate swap.

While I was on my last deployment my wife moved the household from the MS gulf coast up here to IL pretty much by herself. She towed our jetskis with my Explorer after buying a ball for it. Months later after I got home and was hooking the trailer up I seen the ball was way wrong for the trailer. Lo and behold she had put the wrong one on and managed to somehow not lose the trailer the entire 1,000 mile trip up. That could have turned out pretty bad. I guess luck was on her side. I told her never to do that again.
 

Turbocharged400sbc

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Jun 16, 2007
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hangover park IL
at least its just the tailgate

well at least you will now have two balls...though i guess we can call you the "chinaman" aka wonhunglo....since only one of em has dropped :jg:

cross your chains so you can shorten em more and ensure it cradles the trailer tongue if it ever drops again

glad your safe and the trailers ok...those surge brake couplers arent cheap...is the surge brake hydraulic system intact and recently bled?
 

Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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Jun 16, 2007
32,542
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hangover park IL
i have like 6 or 7 hitches with various balls/rise/lower including a ball and pintle combo with an multi pattern plate....
....problem is not many of your smaller trailers are ring hitches...plus if ya dont have your tongue weight right they can be pretty noisy clanking around back there

pintles own off road with increased up and down pitch travel without a chance of ripping the coupler off the ball
 

Bob Kazamakis

I’m the f-ing lizard king
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Oct 24, 2007
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Denver
Real Name
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at least its just the tailgate

well at least you will now have two balls...though i guess we can call you the "chinaman" aka wonhunglo....since only one of em has dropped :jg:

cross your chains so you can shorten em more and ensure it cradles the trailer tongue if it ever drops again

glad your safe and the trailers ok...those surge brake couplers arent cheap...is the surge brake hydraulic system intact and recently bled?

After seeing that I was going to suggest twisting up the chains and make sure they're crossed for sure. Learned that many years ago from a friends dad that it'll catch and cradle the end so it doesn't catapult after digging. Won't save a tailgate though! (well being shorter it might have)
 

Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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Jun 16, 2007
32,542
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hangover park IL
with the proper tongue weight % it shouldn't have been able to get that high unless there was a huge bump/roller in the road beforehand and the truck suspension "tossed" the front of the trailer up...in that case ya might wanna make sure the shocks are not worn out and making you porpoise excessively



you might wanna check your tongue weight and you may have to adjust your trailer axles

if yours is a bow fuel tank be aware of the large change in tongue weight it has, check and set it for about half/little more than half full
 

nick122590

TCG Elite Member
Jul 10, 2011
2,008
6
IOWA
with the proper tongue weight % it shouldn't have been able to get that high unless there was a huge bump/roller in the road beforehand and the truck suspension "tossed" the front of the trailer up...in that case ya might wanna make sure the shocks are not worn out and making you porpoise excessively



you might wanna check your tongue weight and you may have to adjust your trailer axles

if yours is a bow fuel tank be aware of the large change in tongue weight it has, check and set it for about half/little more than half full

You should be able to tell just by how the truck sits...
 

ThirdgenTa

TCG Elite Member
Mar 17, 2008
5,156
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Aurora
It's happened to me before. Hit a big bump on 290 and the trailer popped off and when I was slowing down it rammed into the back of the truck. I also had a 6ft spool in the trailer. Didn't think anything of it until the next day I was like "whos the asshole that put a dent in the brand new truck" and realized it was me. Oops.
 
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