Learned a lesson today....

[hillbilly beef man]

I learned a few years ago to always double check the back gate on the cattle trailer. My dad and I were moving cattle off of summer pasture. It was stating to rain, and we couldn't get the trailer back into the loading chute if the ground was wet, so we were in a hurry. BIG MISTAKE!!! We loaded 4 cows and 3 caves into trailer and started the mile trip to where we kept cattle in the winter. We had just got out on the main road when we heard a metallic clang. My dad and I looked at each other with and oh s#%t expression. I asked him if he latched the door, he said that he thought that I had latched it.
About that time we looked in the rearview and saw a cow and two caves skidding down the road on their hooves (luckily we were only going about 30 mph, so they were not hurt much). We stopped the truck and shut the gate before the rest of them got out. Luckily a constable was behind us, so he already had traffic stopped. The cow and two caves were still in shock standing in the middle of the road. I opened the gate to a neighbors pasture and we started to run them into it. We got behind them and were hitting and pushing them. After about 30 seconds they finally snapped out of it and darted into the pasture. We left them alone for a few days to calm down before we moved them in with the rest of the cattle. We ended up selling the cow because she would go bizerk every time we would go to load her. Can't say that I blame her though. Now the latch is checked at least three times before we pull out. :lol:

 

[Dusty Britches]

In one day, I saw 3 different people in 3 different locations lose their trailers because they didn't hook up the safety chains. One guy, the trailer unhooked, went around him and into the intersection, where a car stopped it. The other 2 were lucky - the trailer just went under their trucks.

On another occasion, I was driving home and saw a truck with a flatbed hauling a bumper pull trailer. He flew over the RR tracks and the trailer came off, but the safety chains kept the trailer from going too far out of the way. Luckily, I was able to pull off the road and escape damage. The driver of the other truck was also able to pull off and bring the trailer to a stop without a lot of damage. I thanked him for using the chains.

We also were moving a bull in a trailer, but latched the gate wrong. Luckily, he jumped out before we got to the gate and it was when the trailer stopped.

Another time, I was pulling out from the vet's and decided to go back and check the gate that the tech latched. He latched it wrong, but the cows had not figured it out.

Lessons -

Always use safety chains
Always double check the hitch and safety chains. Then check again.
Always check the gates - even if someone else says they locked them. Maybe that should be - especially if someone else says they locked them.
And last - read Cattle Today and learn from other people's mistakes so your truck doesn't wind up in the tank. ;-)

 

[cowtrek]

Never try to move an 1800 pound bull and a 1200 pound cow in a 16 foot bumper pull trailer pulled behind a Chevy S-10. Came around a curve a hill one time to find the overturned result of this combination in my lane. The guy was ok, his truck was on all four wheels but the trailer was on it's side, and the bull and cow were kinda in shock standing in a vacant lot between two houses but started heading for the hills when they got their senses back. The guy's bumper was folded like a slice of cheeses around the trailer hitch. We managed to hammer the ball undone from the hitch and this is where lesson two comes in--

Never pull off into the road ditch after an unknown amount of rain on an unknown type of soil. I threw a chain onto the trailer and pulled off on the shoulder to pull the trailer out of the road and sank to the axles. Tried rocking it out and left some good ruts about 10 yards long before I buried it. Of course about this time the DPS shows up and think I'm involved in the wreck. Luckily a passing cowboy cadillac pulled my half ton out, got his horses out of the trailer and headed off on horseback to rope the wayward stock.

The trailer chains advice is good too. Girl that works with my brother at the tractor salvage lost her husband when a carpenter lost his 16 foot bumper pull and it crossed into his lane. Head on at 70 and it was all over.

Also, lesson #3, if you're pulling a GN and have to stop on the other side of RR tracks at a traffic light, make sure the trailer is clear of the tracks. A guy in Eagle Lake TX recently learned that lesson the hard way. His horse in the trailer exploded, the trailer was bent into a taco shell across the front of the train, the truck was dragged a couple hundred feet down the track, overturned, and finally unhitched and pretty well totalled. Guy was lucky and basically unhurt. My brother mentioned seeing a trucker parked across the tracks behind another truck waiting for the green light and the train was coming, so both trucks just ran the light out into oncoming traffic and nearly caused a big pile-up. I drive a schoolbus so I deal with this issue a lot, but it's easy to forget in the pickup with a trailer behind. Semi-drivers should just know better. We have to stop for the tracks but once we cross them if we don't have room for the bus to clear the tracks, we have to run the red light if it changes on us after we start to cross and if it's safe. Nobody should EVER stop on tracks or park across them if they don't have room to clear them on the other side. The problem is with an intersection that is closer to the track than the length of your vehicle. Think about it before you do it!

Yall keep em between the lines out there! OL JR

 

[cmjust0]

My dad ran my brother's Tundra halfway into Norris Lake in TN once.. They had a jetski to unload from the bed, so my dad was backing it down an auxiliary ramp to where the end of the tailgate touched the water.. What they didn't realize that the auxiliary ramp was only gravelled past a few feet in the water, and the gravel was pretty much gone. They got the jetski unloaded, so my dad put'er in D and hit the gas.. The rears immediately lost traction and the bed pretty much disappeared into the lake before he even realized what was going on. He hit the brakes and it sliiiiiiid to a stop, just as water got to the bottom right of the driver's door. He couldn't find the 4WD shifter and everybody was yelling "It's a button!!" but he was freakin' out to bad to understand... :lol: Finally he calmed down enough to hit the button and pulled right out.. Other than the taillights being completely full of water and my SIL having used some choice language in front of the family, there was no harm done. Could have been MUCH worse.

To this day, that little incident is among the funniest things I've ever witnessed. :lol: