Learned a lesson today....

[Nowland Farms]

I learned a valuable lesson today.

I need to pay attention to what I am doing while hooking up the gooseneck trailer.

Today after church and lunch, my oldest son and I went to the pasture to hookup the gooseneck trailer so I could load the tractor and disc to take it to our other place so we could plow the ground this week to get ready to plant foodplots. When I started the tractor up the ramps, the trailer lurched forward. :shock: I immediately stopped everything and got off the tractor to go see how much damage I had done to either the rearend of the truck or the back of the cab. Much to my surprise there was no damage because the saftey chains had done there job. The trailer only moved forward about a foot or two and did not hit anything.

I backed the tractor off the trailer and then jacked the trailer up with the tounge jack. Re-hooked the gooseneck trailer to the ball and locked the gooseneck hitch this time. I was lucky !!!! ;-)

Let's hear the stories, I'm sure that I am not the only one whose has done this, right?

 

[WORANCH]

I learned to let the tailgate down when I unhook the gooseneck.

 

[msscamp]

My niece learned right fast to either 1) chock the wheels when unhooking the gooseneck, or 2) make darned sure she unhooked it on level ground.

 

[dun]

I learned to let the tailgate down when I unhook the gooseneck.

I've learned this one several times.

dun

 

[ga. prime]

Don't place an antique Coca-Cola icebox in the bed of your truck in such a way that it gets crushed when you make a sharp turn with gooseneck attached.

 

[cfpinz]

Ripped one tailgate off a truck with a two-week old paint job. Was loading a tractor on the trailer another time on a gravel road with a slight incline, truck/trailer took off with me and tractor on top. 300 feet later, truck turned around under neck, trailer went through pass. side door, pushed truck sideways til it stopped. Truck had 30k on it, only vehicle I've ever bought new.

cfpinz

 

[stocky]

I learned to put the tailgate UP after hooking onto the gooseneck. Now, I just leave the tailgate off. This way, I never push another tailgate through the side of the pickup.

 

[john250]

I don't have a story, but I've learned over and over that the hurrieder I go the behinder I get.

Lets be careful out there.

 

[cowtrek]

Well better to learn from others goofs than your own...

Dad told me that Sunday afternoon he got scared for us. Said he was pulling down the driveway and saw a Ford tractor with a loader bouncing down the road and slide out into the ditch. Bucket hit the ditchbottom and bounced the machine back to a stop. He whipped out on the road because there were two cars coming and he thought maybe one of them had run into the rear of the tractor as it was going down the road and pitched the tractor driver off backwards and sent the tractor into the ditch. We run Fords and have one with a loader so he thought it was me or my brother. Turns out it was a 5900 (not 5610's we run) that had rolled off the back of a lowboy trailer going down the highway when the dinky chain they were using to hold it on broke. The tractor hit the ground rolling and bounced down the road and off into the ditch totally driverless and the loader stopped it. The woman driving waited til a guy she knew came over and started it up, used the loader to push it out of the ditch, and drove it up on the trailer again and (hopefully) chained it down properly this time.

Lesson: Don't use next of kin to dog chain to hold your tractor on the trailer. That very nearly became a VERY expensive lesson!

Good luck and yall be safe! OL JR

 

[MikeC]

Maybe you need to put some "Outriggers" on the rear of your equipment trailer.

I have picked up the entire back end of a truck without them.

 

[kjones]

This doesnt have anything to do with trailers but it does involve tailgates. If you have a locking tailgate, use the lock. I lived in a town of about 3,000 people so I thought nobody would steal a tailgate. I was wrong. It was stolen right off the back of my truck in my own driveway. Its about $1200 to replace for a 2000 ford. I got lucky and found one at a wrecking yard for $250. I have added an electric lock so now it gets locked with my doors.

 

[rkm]

Back the in the seventies, when there was a lot of investor money floating around I sold a reg holstein cow for $10,000. Now that was a lot of money for a ole WVa farm boy. So I went out and bought me a almost new IH tractor, the first and only tractor I never had to borrow money to buy. Couple of weeks later we were unloading hay in the dark and pulled the tractor up in the driveway and set the brake. Started walking back to the barn and we heard a click, then a rumbling noise. It was that tractor headed for one of those WVa hollows. No insurance! Still wish I kept that cow. :shock: :shock:

 

[aplusmnt]

Wife dented the tailgate either by backing into the trailer or leaving down when driving forget which it was. We took it to the Body Repair man to get it straightened so it would shut.

After I got a little mad about it. About a month later I did the same exact thing. But body man said it was to bad to fix, now the farm truck has no tailgate. And I got a mean look from the wife :lol:

 

[msscamp]

Wife dented the tailgate either by backing into the trailer or leaving down when driving forget which it was. We took it to the Body Repair man to get it straightened so it would shut.

After I got a little mad about it. About a month later I did the same exact thing. But body man said it was to bad to fix, now the farm truck has no tailgate. And I got a mean look from the wife :lol:

No offense Aplus, but I love it - talk about your basic poetic justice! :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[sidney411]

I've forgot to latch the gooseneck more times then I want to admit luckily I've never had it come off the ball.

I have learned that drive throughs in Houston are not meant for big trucks. I did get half a new truck out of that one.

I have learned not to forget I was pulling a trailer and cut the corner too tight through the gate or cattle guard (both).

 

[Herefordcross]

Gooseneck+Tailgate=Trouble Flatbed all the way.

 

[aplusmnt]

I have learned not to forget I was pulling a trailer

One of the biggest times I fet like an idiot was once I was pulling a Cargo Trailer for work with my Astro Van. Pulled into Mc Donalds to get some dinner pulled into a regular parking place. Totally forgot I had a Trailer on, the trailer was sticking out in middle of driveway. Talk about getting some your an idiot looks from people. :lol: I got back in the van and went and ate somewhere else.

 

[dcara]

I learned to put the tailgate UP after hooking onto the gooseneck. Now, I just leave the tailgate off. This way, I never push another tailgate through the side of the pickup.

Been there done that.

A few years back I had loaded the tractor on the trailer, hopped in the truck and had just started to drive back across the pasture when I realized I had forgot...hmmm I don't even remember what it was, probably a tool of some type. Anyway, hopped out of the truck and ran the hundred feet or so back to the spot to get whatever it was. When I turned around I saw the truck and trailer, with the tractor on it, rolling down the slight incline towards the tank. Did I mention the tank? The race was on! I don't think I'd ever ran the 600 ft or so it took me to catch it that fast in my life. Fortunately the door had stayed open and I managed to get in and stop it just as the front axle entered the tank. Had to unload the tractor and pull the truck and trailer back out.

 

[MrGale]

i did manage to hook the support cable for my tailgate when i dropped the trailer at a sharp angle....don't do that no more !! messed that tilgate up a bunch, but no damage to the trailer thank god.

 

[SkinMan]

Had a buddy borrow my trailer to move his tractor. He got it moved and worked a half a day at a farm that he just bought. He unhooked the trailer to go get some lunch. When he got back, he lowered the trailer onto his ball, but didn't latch the hitch. Apparently, he was in a hurry.
I'm sure you can guess what happened when the tractor hit the ramp on the trailer..... :roll:

$300 later, and a little touch-up paint for my trailer, everything is as good as new!!