Attention hunters

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Dan, that rule of checking trailer connections applies to anything anyone tows for any reason. Boats, campers, utility. Good point to remind us. I use to drive tractor trailer and you would not believe how many people for some dumb reason or another walk around a truck and pull the pin on the trailer. I think maybe they just like to watch someone drive out from under them. And it does happen.

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I had this happen to me several years ago; someone pulled the cotter pin on my trailer hitch and while driving down the freeway, my other pin came out and the hitch came undone! Fortunately, the chains saved me. A friend of mine taught me to cross the chains undernieth the tongue of the trailer, and that's what it fell on. Heard an awful "THUD" when it happened....looked in the rearview and saw that the boat was sitting lower than it usually does.
I managed to get the hitch back in and used the outboard motor lock to secure it temporarily for the ride home. I now use a lock mechanism on the pin that holds the hitch in place.
Don't know who did it, or why.....couldn't need a cotter pin that badly, could you?

[Rapier]

I have also had several customers loose trailers at restaurants, where the trailer, or trailer and boat were just removed from the rear of the vehicle. Keep your trailer hitch locked and the vehicle in view when you stop.

Last year I had the local County chief deputy loose his trailer at Tulsa on Saturday night. Stolen from the parking lot. So it can happen to anyone. That trailer was locked and the thieves just cut the lock off.

So when towing a trailer you should keep an eye out for all kinds of mischief when you stop. There are some very sick puppies out and about.
Ed