[08sv]

So Coming home from the panhandle on I-75 I am in the middle lane during a portion of 75 that is 3 lanes southbound. On my left are the fast riders which I did not want to be in as I was very tired and not wanting to evade police. on my right are the slower ones (mostly rigs).

I am slowly coming up on a uhaul truck towing a boat (1 axle/2 wheel) . My norm is to make myself aware of other vehicle lane positions and watch upcoming vehicles (especially on the interstates) for what appears to be impaired/tired/wreckless drivers. I am about 30ft. to the rear and left of the uhaul and slowly creeping up on it when I noticed something moving very quickly.
I locked onto the target and it was an axle nut flying towards my lane. Having experienced a tractor trailer tire "cap" separating and coming at me years ago as I was directly behind the rig, I knew to get outta Dodge.

Sure enough, quick left head check and throttle twist,just as I got into the far left lane the wheel came off. Looking in the mirror I watched it flying into the middle lane.

Sparks a flyin,trailer sportin a single wheel, from the far left lane I aligned myself with the uhauls' driver window motioning to pull over.

The guy was looking at me like I was some crazed biker. The passenger even began laughing(about what I have no clue).

That was until the driver FINALLY looked in his side view only to be greeted with an early 4th of july sparkler per the baot trailer stub axle grinding away on the asphalt.

It pays to pay attention regardless of how many times we travel certain roads.

 

[svsuperninja]

oh snap! death by trailer: averted.

 

[tcl]

Man, how does one manage to maintain their trailer worse then Uhaul maintains there crap? That is a feat.

 

[YoungRider]

I've never had to dodge a tire but you're right, it pays to pay attention. I travel the same roads at least six days a week and there's always something new everyday.

 

[xbolloxx]

thats like something right out of final destination....

 

[mike mc]

I've been dodging flying objects for years, but a few weeks ago, I missed a big one. On the way to work. 100 feet behind a large tree service truck, the type with a large bed and a crane with a clamshell bucket for picking up and hauling large limbs. The truck hits the railroad crossing at maybe 30 MPH, and the clamshell come off. It plummets 12 feet to the tracks with a resounding clang and a shower of sparks and spraying haydraulic fluid. Bucket probably weighed...600-800 pounds. Going only 30 I might have been following too close, but I noticed the clamshell swinging around on the boom and thought it didn't look right, so I was giving him extra space. A piece of steel that size could have given me one hell of a headache...lucky I guess.

 

[frick]

Was it a U-haul trailer as well?

U-haul has the WORST maintenance on their vehicles. I never ever rent from them purely because of that.

 

[08sv]

It was a personal trailer.
I see a lot of personal trailer tires shredding apart on the interstate.
I never owned a personal trailer but my guess is that the majority of trailers don't get used much . I could see where people just check tire pressure and probably do a quick insufficient look over on the wheels.
I'm just glad the nut did not hit me in the face shield.

 

[nyc rugby]

Man, how does one manage to maintain their trailer worse then Uhaul maintains there crap? That is a feat.

How does one manage to lose the wheel on said trailer while going 60mph and not notice any difference in how it feels?

It was a personal trailer.
I see a lot of personal trailer tires shredding apart on the interstate.
I never owned a personal trailer but my guess is that the majority of trailers don't get used much . I could see where people just check tire pressure and probably do a quick insufficient look over on the wheels.
I'm just glad the nut did not hit me in the face shield.

+1, Most small trailer owners don't even know the basic maintainance things to look at on a trailer...

 

[orangegilly]

How does one manage to lose the wheel on said trailer while going 60mph and not notice any difference in how it feels?

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and guess that maybe the u-haul truck was a complete POS like just about everything else they have.

When we moved from Cincinnati to Cleveland, we rented a huge uhaul, and it was brand spankin' new....Ford V10, roughly 7000 miles, and I figured I got lucky and nothing would go wrong.........yeah right. After a full day of loading the truck to the hilt, and it getting dark as we're prepping to leave, I hook the flatbed (where my truck was going to ride) to the big truck, and I have absolutely no trailer lights. Plug the trailer plug into our Grand Cherokee, and everything worked fine. Plug it back into the uhaul...nothing. So it was the brand-new truck that was the problem. :BangHead:

After trying for 2 hours (unsuccessfully) to get someone out to fix it, I ended up driving the 5 hours (via uhaul truck) from Cinci to Cleveland in the dark with no trailer lights. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper, but we made it the whole way with no popo intervention.

 

[TATA]

It was a personal trailer.
I see a lot of personal trailer tires shredding apart on the interstate.
I never owned a personal trailer but my guess is that the majority of trailers don't get used much . I could see where people just check tire pressure and probably do a quick insufficient look over on the wheels.
I'm just glad the nut did not hit me in the face shield.

its funny u mentions this, My buddys and I are big into building minitrucks or for some would call, Newer bagged trucks, Truckin magazine just had a 4 page spread on proper trailer use stating that too many people neglect maintance on personal trailers , because sometimes they dont see the road for months or even years on end and there thinking if it was fine when i put it away its fine now, hook and go, WRONG!

 

[weatherm]

I about lost my rear tire on my fj40 on friday..awesome!

 

[08sv]

What are people thinking, I was talking with a neighbor of mine that was getting his boat out from the back yard to take it out. Now we have the occasional drink and light conversations every so often... So I feel him out by mentioning axle nut checks. Then I tell him about how I run across trailer wheels coming off on the road, he actually had the response of "that's ok I have a spare if a wheel comes off". So me not being able to let that slide, inform him that while that may be ok with him but would sure suck for me on a motorcycle if I were to be hit by his trailer wheel. He just shrugs it off like the whole concept of checking his trailer out is ridiculous because he has a spare tire in case one goes flying into other vehicles on the road.

 

[SgtPhox]

So Coming home from the panhandle on I-75 I am in the middle lane during a portion of 75 that is 3 lanes southbound. On my left are the fast riders which I did not want to be in as I was very tired and not wanting to evade police. on my right are the slower ones (mostly rigs).

I am slowly coming up on a uhaul truck towing a boat (1 axle/2 wheel) . My norm is to make myself aware of other vehicle lane positions and watch upcoming vehicles (especially on the interstates) for what appears to be impaired/tired/wreckless drivers. I am about 30ft. to the rear and left of the uhaul and slowly creeping up on it when I noticed something moving very quickly.
I locked onto the target and it was an axle nut flying towards my lane. Having experienced a tractor trailer tire "cap" separating and coming at me years ago as I was directly behind the rig, I knew to get outta Dodge.

Sure enough, quick left head check and throttle twist,just as I got into the far left lane the wheel came off. Looking in the mirror I watched it flying into the middle lane.

Although, I've seen trailers with the safety chains flopping around countless times. Thankfully, all of the drivers I've alerted of this haven't just shrugged me off as some crazy cook on a motorcycle.

Sparks a flyin,trailer sportin a single wheel, from the far left lane I aligned myself with the uhauls' driver window motioning to pull over.

The guy was looking at me like I was some crazed biker. The passenger even began laughing(about what I have no clue).

That was until the driver FINALLY looked in his side view only to be greeted with an early 4th of july sparkler per the baot trailer stub axle grinding away on the asphalt.

It pays to pay attention regardless of how many times we travel certain roads.

That is one of the primary reasons I stay the hell away from trailers. Too many careless people out on the road who shouldn't be towing stuff.

I've also had too many people just get over without looking so I generally just stay ahead of everyone else.

 

[mad8vskillz]

good info. would have never expected trailers to be a hazard. thanks for the heads up

 

[rambo1214]

Actually from the description it was someone's personal trailer being towed by a Uhaul. Common reason Uhaul gets a bad name for the trailers is misidentification.

 

[UtahSV]

I watched an idiot in a wrangler loose a small trailer off the ball on the freeway. The chains were too long and the hitch dove in and flipped the trailer right up into the back of the wrangler. It completely mangled the rag top. Some how he got it off the road and stopped. I would have stopped to help, but I was laughing too hard. Thankfully I was pretty far back because he had stuff strewn all over the road.

 

[tcl]

Common reason Uhaul gets a bad name for the trailers is misidentification.

My reason for disliking uhaul stems from experiences moving with them too many times to count. Yet, I still keep going back. (actually, the last time -across country- the truck was actually really nice. )

There will be two more rentals in the next 12 months.

 

[TATA]

Trailers and just like cars and bikes, both require maintance every 2 years i have pulled my front rotors off my truck inspected and repacked the bearings on that , the same thing should be done with a trailer regardless of use.

 

[Bob_M]

It pays to pay attention regardless of how many times we travel certain roads.

Yup, You never know what your gonna see. One time I was on the highway and I saw a car hit a pallet at 60+ mph, blowing out what looked like at least a few of his tires and a few hundred feet down the road there was another car pulled off the road with what looked to be all 4 tires blown, probably from hitting that same pallet. Imagine hitting something like that on a bike.