lessons learned
 

1. Either keep a spare tire, a patch kit and air, or some fix-a flat for your trailer in your trailer or car at ALL times.

2. Use some method of keeping the nuts on the bolts that hold your trailer together (e.g. lock-tite, lockwashers, those nuts with the plastic in them)

3. When bolting your gear box to the deck, bolt to more than one of the planks, just in case that one comes loose.

4. An extra ratchet-strap is a good thing to have

5. Even one of tose cheep 20-piece tool sets is better to have on the road than nothing at all.

Cory Waters
narrowly averted disaster yesterday

What happened?

Glad it appears disaster was avoided, but not necessarily heart stoppage :p:

I can personally vouch for everything you said. My 40"x48" tire trailer vibrates more than I could imagine (though you feel nothing in the car). The first disaster was averted when I noticed my large truck bed tool box on the back of the trailer had lost 3 of the 4 bolts holding it to the floor; I replaced them with locknuts. Dumping that thing off the trailer and into the highway would have made a swell accident. Then I checked the rest: the bolts holding the tire rack together were loose, the nuts on the tie downs were loose, etc. I replaced every nut on the trailer with a lock nut of some kind.

I don't at this time carry a 12" spare for the trailer, but I do have a patch/plug kit and an air compressor. Hopefully I never have to use it. Tools are always in the trailer when headed to an event. I rarely use them but I would hate to be sidelined because I didn't have a wrench.

Ratchet straps are like zip ties: If you have extra ones you'll always find a use for them. A tarp is another handy thing I plan to add. You can have a clean place to lay under the car, you could make an emergency shelter :p: , you can contain a spill, you can cover something you don't want wet, etc.

Want to hear the story of a friend's dualie that tows his 18ft trailer with his first gen race car? One morning he forgot to check that the pins were in the hitch. At some point on the higway the trailer detached, passed him on the shoulder and then plunged through a ravine, a barbed wire fence and almost a cow :eek: Trailer, car and cow all lived but not without some scars.

Always check safety pins. Always check brakes and lights. Always be certain lug nuts are tight after changing tires. Always check these every time.