This hobby tried to kill me today...

shilmover

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I went out this morning to pick up a Space Duel. Hooked up the trailer last night, checked it again this morning before leaving and all was good. Got gas and checked it again, everything wonderful.

About 10 minutes later, I am doing about 60 on the freeway in the pouring rain, when someone slams on their brakes in front of me. I apply the brakes, then accelerate and hear a "clang" sound. About 30 seconds later, the truck starts handling like ass. I look in the rear view mirror, and the trailer is out of control!!! Luckily I was able to gain control of the truck and pull over. The pin holding the Hitch and Ball to the frame of the truck broke off and the only thing holding the trailer to the truck were the chains!

Scared the crap out of me!

Anyone else have similar stories?
 
This is a little different, but the notion of the pin "shearing off" reminded me of a story of my own (not arcade related ... sorry).

I fish professionally on the Yamaha Professional Kingfish Trail for Team Evinrude/Raymarine. I have been doing this for the better part of 20 years and we fish up and down the East coast of Florida and as far over in the Gulf as Biloxi and Galveston.

One year we were fishing in Key West and were heading over to the Dry Tortugas in search of large King Mackeral. It is about 70 miles from Key West to the fishing grounds off the Tortugas and we were making good time in a pretty heavy 4-5 foot chop. Suddenly, I start to feel a strange vibration in the floor of the boat and I look at the triple engines in the back - the port engine was vibrating wildly back and forth. Not Good!

I immediately look forward and yell for the captain to stop the boat. Then, I look back towards the misbehaving engine .... well, it was gone. It simply disappeared into the bottom of the ocean. My first thought was that the torque was going to send it flying upward and into the boat with me, but in reality it was far too heavy and simply broke off and disappeared into the blue green ocean. Come to find out, the "pin" that the motor turns on had simply broken and the rest of the bracket couldn't withstand the force of the motor turning without that pin.

We capped off the fuel lines and used the remaining two motors to limp back to the marina at a steady 40 MPH, where our Evinrude crew was waiting with a new motor on a hoist. We spent the rest of the day wiring up the new motor and were able to fish Day Two of the tournament.

It was a VERY scary moment! There were a million thoughts going through my mind when I looked back and there was no motor where I knew one was supposed to be.

Anywho ... thanks for letting me share.

And for those of you that think this hobby is expensive, spend a summer fishing competitively offshore. If you don't win, it gets pricey in a hurry!!!

Steve
MM
 
Ahem Brother!!!
Amen, some more!

Glad to hear you are OK, since that could have been very bad. Did the Space Dual survive or get tossed around too much?

Reminds me of a trip years ago. One a trip with a fellow collector and we only stopped to wrap the Empire Strikes Back on the trailer, since we could see the storm coming in. Went back and got on the travel and within a few seconds it came of the ball of the truck (scared the %&@!#$%* out of me). Needless to say, if we had not stopped the we would have losts the travel a few miles further down the road. +1 to mother nature for the rain. We got it wrapped and it worked great when we arrived. :)

Scott C.
 
I went out this morning to pick up a Space Duel. Hooked up the trailer last night, checked it again this morning before leaving and all was good. Got gas and checked it again, everything wonderful.

About 10 minutes later, I am doing about 60 on the freeway in the pouring rain, when someone slams on their brakes in front of me. I apply the brakes, then accelerate and hear a "clang" sound. About 30 seconds later, the truck starts handling like ass. I look in the rear view mirror, and the trailer is out of control!!! Luckily I was able to gain control of the truck and pull over. The pin holding the Hitch and Ball to the frame of the truck broke off and the only thing holding the trailer to the truck were the chains!

Scared the crap out of me!

Anyone else have similar stories?

Same thing happen to me except I was pulling a 23 foot center console off shore fisherman and it came thru the back of the wife's SUV. Had traffic stopped for a hour. Sucked ass big time
 
Look pal, don't try to pawn the actions of your homicidal trailer off on this hobby we all share. This hobby is pure, economical, harmless to the relationships of friends and loved ones, and not at all addicting. And yes i have my waders on because i'm knee deep in the brown stuff. :) glad to hear you are ok. May want to rename that game Trailer Duel tho. :D
 
i rode a centipede upright off the liftgate once, sucked! that count?
 
I had an old 50's jukebox similar to the one pictured below try to fall off my liftgate once. I was trying to lower it when it suddenly rolled a bit and one wheel went off the edge. The entire thing started going over. My life flashed as I imagined all that glass smashing - especially since it didn't belong to me. I bearhugged it and went down with it on my chest. I landed hard, but kept it from contacting the ground. Carefully eased it off onto a non-glass edge, and got it upright with no damage. I did end up with a large scratch down one arm...

R_1454.jpg
 
I had the exact thing happen on an L.A. freeway. On a merge lane between freeways. It was a crapped out U-haul trailer and it just plain came off the ball somehow. And he aint kidding I saw my life flash before my eyes. The give and take as you brake and gas, break and gas trying to slow down. With each step on the brake the trailer would slam th eback of the truck and then the slack in the chain would take when you sped up. Imagine pumping the brakes to come to a controlled stop with that shit going on. Scary! But somehow managed to get it over when a shoulder just appeard after it happened.

Another time I was nearly killed was backing a game down the ramp of a u-haul and my CROC shoes slipping off as I was backing the machine down. I know. Lots of mistakes were made here. But I can def recommend not wearing Crocs when moving games around :)
 
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Wow lots of crazy stories here.

The worse thing I ever had happen (besides the 2 1/2 flips of a car) was when I was moving to TX from NY. I rented a 26' UHaul and everything seemed fine for the first half of the trip, That all changed when I hit Arkansas. It was getting late and I had been driving far to long. I was resting my arm an door and I hit a big bump in the road. At that time the door decided it didn't like being closed anymore and opened up. If I didn't have my seat belt on I would have probably fallen out of the truck. That was an eye opener. I told UHaul about it when I dropped the truck off and they were nice enough to take $50 of my bill for "my troubles". I wasn't going to argue with someone at the store I just said thanks and left. The next day I called corporate and complained and ended up getting the truck for free.
 
We were in middle Tennessee once on our way back from picking up a 1982 Lincoln Mark VI... We had it hooked up to the tow dolly, and were rolling down the highway at 1:00 AM when we all of a sudden looked in the rear view mirror and saw a car swerving like crazy... took a minute to click until we realized it was OUR CAR. We freaked, slowed down really fast and pulled off the road.

The tow dolly completely unhooked from the truck, and the only thing holding it was the chains. when we hit the brakes, it drove the trailer into the tailgate and bent it in half...

Freaky Night.
 
Yep same here.
Went to Detroit to pick up a race car this summer and the trailer popped off the ball right in the middle of the freeway. Slowed to the side and as I was rehooking it a cop car stopped behind me. Two cops got out and looked pissed. I figured ticket at least, and only a tazering if I was lucky. They just asked me what happened and after explaining to them they said no problem they would stay parked behind me til I got it hooked up for my safety. I guess they just have permanently pissed off faces. :)
 
Crocs? Really Parrot? I think the members of KLOV have scheduled a hearing on this matter. I don't know for sure what they'll decide, but it's a pretty good bet you'll have to hand over your man card.
 
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in 2005 while in my dads truck on business a friends trailer came off with a Ms Pac on the trailer. We had no chains :-( so it slammed in too the side of the truck (Passanger side) and messed up the Ms Pac. Luckly we found a place to do some welding to get the trailer back going. Turns out the guy I was trading the Ms Pac too never told his boss so they wouldn't do a straight up trade even if it hadn't gotten messed up. They wanted the Ms Pac and 500 for a converted Moppet. I said no and just sold them the Ms Pac for 200.

A couple weekends ago while towing my Courier and I just passed my mechanics house (First time I had been there. It's 30 miles from my house). I took a left to circle the block and guess I took it to fast and the truck I was towing jack knifed screwing up my towbar and hitting the side of my truck which had gone sideways. It scared my wife who was behind me.
 
New issue time

New card being issued.
Mangina ID
New EXP 12/22/11
LOL

Crocs? Really Parrot? I think the members of KLOV have scheduled a hearing on this matter. I don't know for sure what they'll decide, but it's a pretty good bet you'll have to hand over your man card.
 
But I can def recommend not wearing Crocs when moving games around :)

I think that can be safely ammended to ever. I can def recommend not wearing Crocs ever.

As soon as I saw that, I knew you were gonna take a beating. ;)
 
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