Trailer Tongue Break

E

edquayle

Newbie
I was towing our 560 Ultra on vacation and ran into horrible road conditions and construction along I-10 from New Orleans to San Antonio with constant pot-holes, unenven road surfaces and level changes in the roadway. Our trailer was constantly bouncing down the highway. Upon arriving at a hotel in San Antonio I discovered that the frame on the trailer was broken. Has anyone ever had to seen this type of trailer failure before? Is it fixable? I had to rent a flatbed and trailer it back to Denver.

The trailer had about 200 lbs of camping gear, if even, and the 11 gal propane tank on it. No cracks were noticed prior to the failure.

If you have experienced a similar situation I would love to hear how it was repaired.
 

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Oh my, I am glad you are safe. That's not supposed to happen, it looks like Camp in is going to make it right. I have never heard of something like that, we have towed on some pretty rough roads in the back country. Good luck and keep us updated with the progress of the repair.
 
Holy cow! That looks gnarly. It doesn't seem like you had an excessive amount of weight in any way. I'm surprised the frame did that. I'm very interested in hearing what the final resolution is, since we do a lot of travelling on bad roads with ours.

We just got back from a 10-day Arizona trip, and we hit some really nasty washboards on some of the backroads. After seeing yours, I just went out and looked for any signs of cracks or bending on ours...but everything looks OK.

Best of luck in your repairs. Please keep us posted!
 
That is crazy. Surprised to see this. I never would think frame would bend from bad road. With such a short wheelbase you would think it would just bounce up and down. Look like a lot of down force needed to bend the frame.
 
Contrary to good driving etiquette, I have used the left lane on washboard Interstates. When I see bounces of over a foot I move over. Slowing down doesn’t seem to help.
 
rmbrowder said:
Contrary to good driving etiquette, I have used the left lane on washboard Interstates. When I see bounces of over a foot I move over. Slowing down doesn’t seem to help.
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I don't want to unload or put more financial on the truckers....they are already fuel taxed, and fuel cost'd badly --- and ultimately that price hits the shelves...

That said --- trucks do a hell of a number on roads. I wish we built roads to the standards necessary to support the weight without falling apart. Was up in Michigan last month, the roads there were so bad I bailed out and drive local roads...they were worse
 
Went out checked mine, but I’ve always been sure that if mine didn’t break in 2016 when when we hit a huge dip somewhere near the Four Corners it would never break. Mine doesn’t show any problems. Glad nobody got hurt there, that could’ve been bad.
 
The one I have looks identical from what I can see. Beefier steel than most of what I've seen in much bigger campers.
 
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As light as these units are, running tire pressure at 25-28 psi can help a lot with the bouncing.
I now run my 550 at 26psi and it rides much better than at 35 or more. Digital temperature scanner verifies that even after 150 miles on a hot day, tires are only about 10-15 degrees hotter than ambient temperature.
All the stuff in the galley likes the ride a lot better as well.
 
Lipster said:
As light as these units are, running tire pressure at 25-28 psi can help a lot with the bouncing.
I now run my 550 at 26psi and it rides much better than at 35 or more. Digital temperature scanner verifies that even after 150 miles on a hot day, tires are only about 10-15 degrees hotter than ambient temperature.
All the stuff in the galley likes the ride a lot better as well.
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LOL --- lets hear it for cast iron :D
 
I keep my tire pressure higher and carry more weight. Gas mileage isn’t lowered that much because I keep my speed down and more important my RPMs going up a hill. It does mean I might be doing 45 mph and in the truck lane.

Being retired alows me to not be in a hurry so I can be gone a month at a time three or four time a year.
I have a bumper sticker on back that says I’m Retired Go Around Me.
 
Tour 931 said:
I keep my tire pressure higher and carry more weight. Gas mileage isn’t lowered that much because I keep my speed down and more important my RPMs going up a hill. It does mean I might be doing 45 mph and in the truck lane.

Being retired alows me to not be in a hurry so I can be gone a month at a time three or four time a year.
I have a bumper sticker on back that says I’m Retired Go Around Me.
Click to expand...

I'm not retired and I do the same...downhill and on the flats I mght do 60 --- but mostly 55 --- I get better milage, and its easier on the car.

E=MC^2 applies to all things :)

We'll see how this works over major distances this summer...once you get to 500 miles the foot does tend to want to get heavier.
 
As a reference point, we achieved 20 mpg on our recent Northern California to Arizona (and back) trip towing our 560 with our (2016) Ram 2500 diesel. The 560 tire pressures were 27-28 psi, with about 200 pounds of cargo weight in the trailer (water, extra propane, dishes & food in the galley). We pretty much kept it between 60 and 65 mph on the highways. It dropped down to 15 mpg at one point when we were doing a lot of mountains, but it recovered to 20 mpg by the time we got home. I'm pretty convinced at this point that the 560 improves the aerodynamics of the truck, though there is still a penalty for the weight of the trailer. We typically average 21 mpg without the trailer. We did have some nasty washboard roads, but kept it to around 10 mph while on those to minimize trailer bounce.
 
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