Towing overweight

[WhittleBurner]

In the end it is someone making the wrong decision and not thinking about safety first. That kind of neglect deserves full punishment. Not passing blame.

[Wicked ace]

You are right, stupid is as stupid does. But I bet the person had absolutely no clue that the truck would not stop that heavy object behind him. Education may have helped because no education sure did not.

In the end, it's the lack of brakes, not overloading.

Because of the ad blocker I cannot open the linked article but guessing it involves an RV crumpled up with the tow vehicle. I agree on education but what are we learning? The tow vehicle's purpose it to pull the load not stop it. Correct me if I'm wrong but every trailer over 3000# GVWR is required to have brakes installed on the trailer. My point being setting up the trailer brakes to stop it, not depending on the tow vehicle to do a job it wasn't intended to do is what needs to be learned.

[4x4dually]

No amount of training or licensing will stop people from doing the wrong thing. This guy didn't even have a valid license to begin with. This guy planned on doing the wrong thing right from the beginning when he hooked onto that boat. I hope he pays BIG TIME for taking the lives of two people.

Nailed it. No different than gun control or any other debate. Evil will find a way. Evil (in this case stupidity) will do what evil does no matter what the laws are. I too hope he learns his lesson.

In the end, it's the lack of brakes, not overloading.

I'll slightly disagree with you on this one. One, that tow vehicle wasn't anywhere near rated to pull that load, even with fully functional trailer brakes; however, on the flip side, you take most any farmer/rancher from the midwest and they could have towed that rig without incident almost anywhere it needed to go. It all boils down to planning....which coming back around to the "proper education and training" argument.

Let's take Farmers/Ranchers as an example since outside of RV'ing, we are mostly the ones towing excessive loads on 1-ton trucks. Farmers/Ranchers tow excessively over the rated limits often, and in the state of OK, the farm exemption allows us to do so without CDL, health cards, etc. We are still required to follow the proper rules of the DOT CDL manual when it comes to proper driving, safety equipment, payload securement, etc, but it exempts us from the requirement of actually having the CDL etc. Typically we cannot be fined for over-weight/width/height within reason....which is also a grey area and not properly defined in the laws. As posted in another thread, I've towed between 30-40K gross numerous times with equipment on my Dodge. There isn't anyway around it without buying a class 6-8 truck which are cost prohibitive for small farmers/ranchers to purchase and/or maintain to use a few times a year. You just have to be smart and understand physics. You have to see the road as far ahead of you as you can. You have to start braking and use gearing to slow down. This cat should have seen the stop lights ahead and even if they were green in his direction, he should have started to slow down and plan on stopping. You can always speed back up. The sad thing is, this state requires you to know the CDL rules and follow them, but they do not enforce you to prove that you have read them or can perform them properly. I feel like for the sake of the public's safety, those who tow should have to take a test and prove they can do it; however, you will destroy all the old farms where those owners are 70-80 years old and wouldn't be able to do it. As with anything, it has pros and cons. Likewise, in the RV world, you would take over half the 44ft fifthwheels off the road because I'd bet a pay check over half of them towing couldn't pass a driving test or back them into a camping site on the first try. One of my pass-times is to get setup and grab a lawn chair and watch other campers pull in. I swear one time this year I was going to send my 14 yr old girl over to back a camper in for this couple. Anyone can go buy a 44ft camper and leave the lot without ANY knowledge of how to pull it or corner it. It's scary to say the least.

[Butcher]

Remember, the trailer brakes were not working on that boat trailer. What pull vehicle could stop that weight without trailer brakes? I'm no expert, but I do not think there are many that could. You don't need a license to drive a car. You need a license so you do not get a ticket. You do not need a license to tow an object and you will not get a ticket if you do.

Ignorance is bliss. You have no idea what you are doing because you never went to school on it. No one ever taught you. Education is a start but as pointed out earlier, does not mean it would have prevented this situation.

Russian Roulette is not played too often because we all know what a gun can do. Towing overloaded, not hooking up your trailer properly, not servicing your trailer brakes, and not educated to know what the repercussions are could prevent the ignorance portion. We all took some type of training before we got behind a wheel. There is no reason why we could not get that 'endorsement' for towing. They do it for motorcycles in my state. Not often a motorcycle kills another motorist. A drivers license should be for a small car/truck. Wanna tow, they should have an endorsement. Wanna drive something big [Bus type RVs] endorsement.

In the end, this thread has started a discussion that we all need to be aware of when we travel. We need to be responsible, aware of our surroundings, and cautious that our ignorance and decisions could kill someone. Our trailers are heavy objects and we need to treat them that way.

[JKellerJr]

Remember, the trailer brakes were not working on that boat trailer. What pull vehicle could stop that weight without trailer brakes?

I completely lost the brakes on my solitude first trip out. Luckily only a couple of minutes from my destination. First time I went to slow down was an adventure. The trailer was pushing the truck hard and it weighs maybe 17K. I cant imagine if it weighed 38K, it would have no shot from any significant speed before they overheated and failed themselves.

[4x4dually]

In the end, this thread has started a discussion that we all need to be aware of when we travel. We need to be responsible, aware of our surroundings, and cautious that our ignorance and decisions could kill someone. Our trailers are heavy objects and we need to treat them that way.

Nicely stated. Unfortunately, the common sense gene is being bred out of the general public way too fast these days.