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Date Posted: 16:41:58 03/28/03 Fri
Author: Brian French
Subject: My civilian adventure on an LA Fwy with a WWII jeep trailer

Ok, this isn't quite what I had in mind for this forum. (I was hoping for Vet's stories of things they did with jeeps while they were in service), but no one want's to go first... so I will...

This story is kind of a painful memory.
About 1987 while towing a WWII Jeep trailer on the 5Fwy at 55mph in LA, some idiot in a dually pulled in front of me with about 1 foot separating our bumpers. Then he smoked his tires braking. I have no clue what he was thinking, or doing, but I about had a heart attack, hit my brakes & swerved to the right side, as it was an empty lane. My sister & brother in law were following me in another Jeep. They said I was driving on the 2 left wheels with the right ones a foot off the ground. I got the wheels back down in time for the trailer to come around and jackknife on me, smacking me in the side. The trailer came back around and did a 180 landing upside down still attached to the pintle hook. Speed was down to about 15mph by now as I pulled to the side of the Freeway, dragging my upside down trailer for the last 30 feet.

Phewwwww. The trailer was full of 400lbs of jeep parts (we were on our way to a jeep swap meet). I had fitted a top of plywood to the trailer held in place by 5/8" poly rope lashed back & forth hitting all the tie downs on the trailer. The rope was frazzled, but held. The plywood top was ground & gouged. There were 2-dozen small jeep parts lying in the traffic lanes of the freeway. They had snuck out at some point during all the excitement. No other vehicles were involved, although it was quite a lookieloo attraction. The dually proceeded on his merry way, and I was in no position to chase after him with an upside down trailer.

I firmly believe that the weight of the trailer kept the tow vehicle from flipping, and if it had been a ball hitch, it would of done the opposite & made us flip before popping off and going off on it's own.

I opened the pintle hook, undid the safety chain hooks, and with the help of bro-in-law, we lifted the trailer drawbar up until the trailer stood on it's tailgate. Pushing it over completely got it back on its wheels. We spun the trailer around hooked it back up, threw in the ejected parts we had scavenged from the roadway, connected electrical, and went to the jeep show with one more story to tell. :)

I swear by those military jeep trailers and the way they set up the hook up. I have towed one at 95mph with no sway whatsoever down the highways in the Cascades. It's been to driven to Colorado 4 times, Kansas City, MO once & Texas twice. There are many, many miles on the trailer with no trouble at all except for that jerk in the dually in LA, 35 miles from home.

Night all,
Brian

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