Old Brownie almost bit the dust today....

[ischmitz]

Brownie was on Zeke's trailer on its way to the muffler shop. I towed it with a Grand Cherokee V8 and took it really easy. Doing 50 to 55 Mph on the 101 is wasn't thinking of anything bad when all of a sudden the car started to sway a little bit. I got of the gas and the swaying became worse. Nothing I could do; left right left right and then the trailer came around on me. I did a nice 180 pirouette and came to a stop in the middle lane facing oncoming traffic. I was immediately thinking of a line out of Trains planes and automobiles: [shouting ]"You are going the wrong way!" "How the f$ck does he know where we're going"

The miracle was that I didn't hit anyone or made contact with the center divider and the tie-downs held the 911 in place. Motorists on all three lanes had to come to a full stop to allow me to turn the vehicle around and pull over. I reverted to surface roads for the rest of the trip.

I guess the car was sitting with all its weight on the rear of the trailer unloading the hitch and the fact that the shocks on the Cherokee and the tires were shot didn't really help either. Thanks God nobody got injured and as a bonus no damage was caused. It sure got my attention, though......



Ingo

[Schrup]

Bethca had to clean out your britches before you could get back underway. Do you think it would have made a difference if you would have put the 911 on the trailer backwards? Sounds like you were very lucky.

[bell]

wow that's a scary feeling...........glad it turned out ok.

i got lucky once too.........trailering a 25ft long s-10 limo to vegas for CES behind a yukon (was modded for "heavy" pulling)......
exiting a few hours past of denver there was a slight grade........the 4 lanes were icy.........trailer brakes locked as soon as they applied.......hard to keep a 7000lb load from passing you going downhill on ice......went through an intersection backward, no one in sight and nothing hit, that was just plain spooky.........

[GraybeardsGhost]

Weight over the hitch makes a world of difference when towing. I trailered a 67 Chevelle the wrong way for 200 miles at 40 mph to keep the swaying within the lane. Pulled off, swapped the car around, back up to speed limit all the way to Texas. No swaying at all, even with side winds.

[Bob's Flat-Six]

Close call.
I've seen that happen before where a trailer starts swaying behind the tow vehicle and might be trying to pass it? if it's on a down hill grade, Or even on the flat.
When you let off the gas on the Jeep that's probably what it was trying to do. If you had speed up it might have straightened out.
Or if the trailer had brakes that could be applied seperately you could have put them on too to get it settled down.
Also when your tow vehicle doesn't out weigh the trailer by much or at all this doesn't help either.

Scary stuff, And it happens pretty quick.
Glad nothing happened, Ingo

Oh, and Plain trains and automobiles is a favorite of mine too.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by ischmitz


Ingo

Looking at your picture I can see that the rear wheel of the Porsche is beyond the the wheels of the trailer. As everyone know, most of the weight of a 911 is on the rear wheel. By having the weight beyond the axle of the trailer, you are basically using the trailer as a see saw, with the wheels of the trailer as the pivot point.

Placing the Porsche on the trailer backward will have put most of the of th Porsche on the tongue of the hitch.

If you are able to place the Porsche with the rear wheels of the Porsche over the wheels of the trailer that will be the ideal situation. You will have the weight of the Porsche over the wheels of the trailer and not overloading the tongue of the hitch.

[Joe Bob]

Yeah....I mentioned that to him when we had it loaded. I left the house and said take it S L O W.....

When the mid engined 914 was on it....being towed behind my new Yukon Denali SToopid Uglee Vehicle, we did 75-80 and no shimmy.....the truck he borrowed was a REAL POS. Shocks and Ujoints need replacement BADLY.

But the good part is....he got the flying turd a new muffler that SOUNDS SWEET. I'm sure pics will follow.

[Tim Walsh]

I thought I was going to end up with the same problem as well when I towed my 911 back to NC from WI but we had exactly the opposite problem.. too much weight on the front end. It turns out the uhaul trailer is soo big that the 911 sat too far forward.

[campbellcj]

Yikes! That's what ya get for having a car with the engine (weight) in the wrong place


Now you reminded me I need to get my trailer brake controller hooked up...

[ischmitz]

Originally posted by mikez
Yeah....I mentioned that to him when we had it loaded. I left the house and said take it S L O W.....

Ja ja ja, hinterher ist man immer schlauer. [German saying]. Mike let's not forget that you also suggested to get a trailer hitch on my little POST. I wonder what my Chevy S10 fourbanger would have felt. That advice was meant to kill me, right. It's all a conspiracy.

[power]

Quick! get outta Mike's place and go buy a lottery ticket.....It's your lucky day, don't waste it turning wrenches at MikeZ's.... become a millionaire instead!

[GeorgeK]

So, have your gonads started the trek down already??

[lateapex911]

Yup...I never tow my 911 unless it's backwards on an open (light) trailer, or well forward if there's enough room.

Enclosed trailers are generally longer and heavier, so it's less of an issue. And brakes are man-da-tory!

I have a theory that bad stuff like this (if the result was as bad as it could or should have been) happens because of a combination of factors. In this case, a light tow vehicle, no trailer brakes, and the wrong weight distribution. Change just one, and the result would have been different.

Trailering is nothing to fool around with. Glad you got away with one, I've driven thousands of miles on the 101, and pirouetting trailers don't have a happy ending 99% of the time on that road!. You really had an "Irish" moment!

[70SWT]

I noticed the same thing (without catastrophic results) when towing Porsches using my relatively light Nissan Frontier pickup I used to have. Very sensitive to where the weight is. Keep the heavier end as frontward as possible and the swaying disappears.

[Joe Bob]

Yeah the guy driving has a PhD in Physics.....what DO they teach those guys???

[azasadny]

Ingo,

I'm glad you're OK! Be careful!

[Jay Auskin]

I was once hauling a trailer with sand, concrete, and equipment weighing ~10K lbs. I was driving on the expressway, in traffic, so I was only moving at 50MPH. Some guy enters the highway infront of me and for absolutely no reason at all slams on his brakes!!! The trailer starts to fish-tail and swings out 90 degrees in front of a semi. Luckily he wasn't right next to me. So I hit the "panic button" (that's what I call the manual trailer brake switch), and the tires lock up on the trailer briefly and everything comes in line. I look in the rear view mirror, and see the entire highway full of smoke from my trailer, and the 3 or 4 semis that also locked up their brakes. I got a few waves and thumbs-up from the semi drivers that were behind me and saw the "save".

It's good to hear you saved Brown. After my experiences, I'm a huge supporter of trailer brakes, even if the load isn't too heavy, and they aren't "required"

[sammyg2]

When towing a trailer, a good rule of thumb is to have 60% of the weight in front of the axle on the trailer, not to exceed the maximum tongue weight.

When jack-knifing, sometimes the only way to stop it is to accelerate gradually. Bad thing is, if it doesn't stop you are hosed. Usually hitting the brakes will result in exactly the thing that happened to you, directional confusion. (still hosed)
I'm glad it wasn't worse and that it happened to you, not me

[Oldporsche]

I've used my 2 wheel dolly to snatch 911's. It works very well to tow them rear end first. I towed one 50 miles once. I would have preferred to flat bed it, however necessity to get it home was first.

For those that are interested, used car dollys can be bought from RV suppliers and auto auctions at the right price.

Good luck,
David Duffield

[lateapex911]

Originally posted by sammyg2
When towing a trailer, a good rule of thumb is to have 60% of the weight in front of the axle on the trailer, not to exceed the maximum tongue weight.

Right, or about 10% of the total towed weight. So, for this trailer, (about 1000 to 1200lbs, I'd guess), and car, (2400?) a good weight would be 350 or so on the tongue.

Good job on the strapping, that could have been dicey if the straps weren't done well.