[A/S] Re: Exhaust brakes - A word of caution

["Jack Canavera" <jpcanavera@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,
Wow what a scary experience.  I know what you mean as far as things 
going so quickly that its hard enough to concentrate on what your 
vehicle is doing and then think about what is happening to the 
trailer.

You bring to mind an experience that I had while pulling my old 21' 
Hi-Lo in Tennessee.  Apparently a driver fast approaching me from the 
rear nodded off and went into the median.  I heard tires squeeling 
only to see his vehicle approaching the drivers side of the trailer as 
he was coming out of the median (almost perpendicular to the 
trailer!).  I threw the wheel to the right to put me on the shoulder 
and then back left onto the road.  The Hi-Lo yawed severly to the 
right and then on the return out to the left.  The driver had 
recovered on the left lane only to be forced off the road by the  
returning yaw of the Hi-Lo.  Even though I didn't tow with a sway 
control, the Hi-Lo came right back in line after one yaw and I pulled 
over with a case of the shakes (nerves).  The other driver kept on 
going.  My wife got out of the van looked around the outside of the 
trailer and said all was well.  When we got to our campsite I opened 
the door of the trailer and popped it up.  I found every cabinet on 
each side of the trailer had come open spilling the contents on the 
floor.  Thankfully no spills but quite a mess to clean up.

This happened about an hour after a semi blew two tires on his trailer 
forcing me to dodge flying rubber.  I couldn't get off the highway 
fast enough after these two events.

Jack