RE: [a/s] My First Tow: A Lesson in Fear

["Phil Sinewe" <phil@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, you are right.  I understand and agree 100% with the 10-15% range. I
should note that this whole part of the conversation started because I
prefaced a comment with an off note that too much weight was not safe
either, because a post had been made than seemed to leave the top number
open. I did not want someone to read between the lines and say I was saying
that 50% of a trailers weight on the tongue was OK.  Before I know it,
someone would be saying that Hensley supports 50% tongue weights.

> business because they don't make super-duper hitches. Take a walk
> through the campground at your next stop and see what folks are using,
> you'll find the vast majority with 'not enough' hitch. Yet, you don't
> see those trailers littering the road.

500 trailers in the campground, if even one of them rolls in the next 10
years and kills a 3 year old, does walking through the trailer park and
saying that because they get away with it make it OK?  I also disagree based
on my sales experience.  We sell a hitch a week (at least) to people whole
say they completely regret towing with that "not enough" hitch.  It is hard
to listen to a person tell you (over and over, it is the same story) about
the accident they have had, and then buy the theory that "people are doing
it every day, so it is some how justified"  I realize that this is not
exactly what you are saying, but I simply walk through a campground and see
500 potential disasters, not 500 potential lucky campers.

Another way to look at it is this.  Hundreds, likely thousands of people
drive drunk every day.  It is very unlikely (statistically) that a person
leaving a particular bar will have an accident.  I would assume that no one
on this list would view drinking and driving as OK, simply based on the fact
that we do not see accidents from drunks at every intersection.

Let me explain a little of my background.  I have been a firemen and
paramedic for 22 years.  I have seen my share of nasty calls.  As a young
kid, it was all fun and games.  As I get older I have learned that
statistics mean absolutely nothing to the person on the wrong end of the
numbers.

Take the Alaska accident I mentioned.  The fact that only 1% of all trailers
crash (a made up number, only an example) makes no difference to the man
that owns that trailer and tow vehicle.  His 3 year old is dead, plain and
simple.  Dead because of trailer sway from most likely "not enough hitch"

A lot of my passion for the Hensley is not based on sales at all, as a few
(very few on this list) want to imply.  The easiest way to argue my
viewpoint on safety is to say "Oh, he's just a salesmen"  Which, Jim, I
fully understand you have never said which I appreciate.


> of folks who hitched up and set off on their first trip with (seemingly)
> not much more than a kick of the tires and an adjustment of the radio.

I agree 10000%.  The problem is that a large majority of trailer dealers
(not all) are not telling them that.

Phil & Kathy Sinewe
Curtis, Marcus & Asher (the Lab)
25' Airstream #2681
mailto:phil@sinewe.com
http://www.sinewe.com