Disasters Tend To Happen In Threes

[Chaplain Kent]

Barry,
As I read your story I could not help but remember your earlier post about wanting a Classic MH to pull your trailer. This experience should convince you and everyone else why the Classic is not a tow vehicle. You were able to avoid further damage and most of all injury by skillful driving and having a vehicle which allowed those skills to be used.
I am sorry to hear of your "threes" but thankfully all is repairable and no one was hurt.

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by Chaplain Kent

Barry,
As I read your story I could not help but remember your earlier post about wanting a Classic MH to pull your trailer. This experience should convince you and everyone else why the Classic is not a tow vehicle. You were able to avoid further damage and most of all injury by skillful driving and having a vehicle which allowed those skills to be used.
I am sorry to hear of your "threes" but thankfully all is repairable and no one was hurt.

I agree with Chaplain Kent. There is no telling what kind of damage might have occurred to the frame/rearend of a Classic Motorhome if you had been towing your trailer with one when this happened. Not to mention that your might not have been able to control the tow vehicle at all if it had been a Classic Motorhome. Just be glad that there was no physical injuries noted.

[3Ms75Argosy]

you know, I have that same brand too.. It's made by EZ lift. I had been happy with it until last year, when it too dropped the driver's side bar. I found that the metal spring lost it's "sprong"... allowing the bar to pop out. My secret failure mode was / is going slowly, taking a sharp left, with a driveway or other hump, allowing the streetside bar to unweight and drop. My new 'solution' was to tape the spring tight to not let it come out.... I know, McGyver at best... but I really didn't see the problem of the bar coming out at slow speeds.... until now. As an aside, I've towed with this hitch over 6000 miles, only dropping the bar three times, each time it was as I was leaving our campsite.

You can bet I'll be buying a new setup soon!

You mention getting chain tension correct. I'm not inferring at all that this was not done correctly, I'm just stating how I do mine. I have a 1 ton van, so sag really isn't noticible, but the weight transfer is (I've CAT scaled weighed the setup, so I know my weight is distributed well). With onlly one chain loose, my steering was light, with two loose, the weight is evenly distributed (only 10% more on the rears). To get that cam to close though, requires me to hitch up the trailer and van, and then use the tongue jack to lift the rear of the van/trailer tongue combo - allowing me to easily swing up the chain tensioner.

Again, I'm so glad you guys are ok, but man, I feel your pain.

Did you ever CAT scale weigh your setup? I remember that your trailer can balance on it's wheels with it's airspring setup. I'm curious about what tongue weight it has when towing.
Marc

[Barry2952]

To bring you all up to date. I appreciate all your concern.The hitch is a Round Robyn. Avoid it at all costs.

I posted this thread on the Lincoln Forum and, believe it or not, someone loaded up their prize Lincoln on a 20 foot trailer, attached it to an F-250 and intentionally left one round-bar off just to see what happened. He said that the load acted so strange that he had to stop and put the bar back on. Imagine losing a round bar at speed.

Kudos to Hagerty insurance. They didn't say boo about the claim. On the Porsche their attitude is, "Whatever it takes". The car is so rare that they know that there are very few people capable of repairing it properly. Most mechanics at that level will not bid their work, they works strictly on an hourly basis.

The Porsche suffered some severe suspension damage but luckily the attachment points were undamaged. As you can imagine, parts are very rare. The car has sleeved aluminum brake drums and two are bent. The real tough part to obtain is the front spindle. This mechanic just happens to have the last known NOS spindle. The whole front suspension folded when the front wheel impacted the wheel well. Both wheels are bent, too.

He said he likes working on my car bcause it's a fresh restoration and there's no rust and very little dirt. It's only been driven in the rain once.

The engine and transaxle are being pulled. The transaxle will be shipped to another expert as they suspect that there might be some internal damage and a bent axle. The car will be further disassembled by the mechanic, removing all trim, windshield and interior in preparation of a complete paint job. The insurance company is paying for 2/3 of the paint job so I'll get it back looking better than new.

The body shell will be attached to a rolling jig and sent off to Autometrics, in Pontiac. The owner is a friend and fellow Porschefile and recently had his shop restore a 356B for him. They normally only do extreme high end cars at this shop (he has 7) so it will be in some mighty fine company. I should see it home about next Spring.

The trailer. The insurance company sent out an independent adjuster who, luckily for me, happens to be a pilot and immediately recognized the airplane technology used to build the Royal Spatranette. He insisted that the trailer needed to be rebuilt by an air frame mechanic. I said OK.

His original guesstimate was $80,000. He had an air frame mechanic come out and write and actual bid to do the work in my facility. His bid was $42,500. The only requirement for a settlement was proof that there were no leinholders on the title. They are cutting me a check for that amount less a $250.00 deductible.

As you may have guessed, I'm going to do the repairs myself. I was hesitant at first, but, unlike an airplane, a failed rivet won't make it fall out of the sky. My skills are sufficient to make proper body repairs. It also lets me think real seriously about adding that '40 Continental convertible to the collection.

In fact, I started today. In about two hours I had accomplished what the mechanic had set aside 4 days to do. I stripped the FRP from the damaged areas, pleased to find it firmly bonded to the wood structure. This revealed broken wall studs about a foot above the base of the wall. I removed the wood inner wall and removed the rigid foam at the base of the stud spaces.

By removing the broken pieces of stud and freeing up a couple of bent aluminum supports I was able to push the wall back into its original position. When I did that the rear opening kind of righted itself and the upper door fit properly again.

Cosmetically, I only need to replace the bottom 24" of aluminum from the rear of the fenderwell back. The hard part will be locating the curved aluminum trim pieces on both lower sides. I'm sure I can have some made but it would be nice to find a junkyard trailer to take them off of.

If anyone knows the whereabouts of a 1948-51 Spartanette, Spartanette Tandem or Royal Spartanette that's being dismantled, please let me know. I can't use a piece from a '52 because they switched to steel.

I'm going to start posting in the "Toybox" trailer thread again. Please feel free to lend your assistance, as always.

Thanks again for your concern,

Barry

[Barry2952]

Originally Posted by 3Ms75Argosy

you know, I have that same brand too.. It's made by EZ lift. I had been happy with it until last year, when it too dropped the driver's side bar. I found that the metal spring lost it's "sprong"... allowing the bar to pop out. My secret failure mode was / is going slowly, taking a sharp left, with a driveway or other hump, allowing the streetside bar to unweight and drop. My new 'solution' was to tape the spring tight to not let it come out.... I know, McGyver at best... but I really didn't see the problem of the bar coming out at slow speeds.... until now. As an aside, I've towed with this hitch over 6000 miles, only dropping the bar three times, each time it was as I was leaving our campsite.

You can bet I'll be buying a new setup soon!

You mention getting chain tension correct. I'm not inferring at all that this was not done correctly, I'm just stating how I do mine. I have a 1 ton van, so sag really isn't noticible, but the weight transfer is (I've CAT scaled weighed the setup, so I know my weight is distributed well). With onlly one chain loose, my steering was light, with two loose, the weight is evenly distributed (only 10% more on the rears). To get that cam to close though, requires me to hitch up the trailer and van, and then use the tongue jack to lift the rear of the van/trailer tongue combo - allowing me to easily swing up the chain tensioner.

Again, I'm so glad you guys are ok, but man, I feel your pain.

Did you ever CAT scale weigh your setup? I remember that your trailer can balance on it's wheels with it's airspring setup. I'm curious about what tongue weight it has when towing.
Marc

Please explain CAT scale.

I don't know the tongue weight. A little late, but I just bought a hydraulic tongue scale. I do know this. I had enough tongue weight. The truck is an F-450 with a 12 foot box. It sat down about 2" when the weight of the trailer was put on it. I saw the rear end of the truck rise slightly when I applied tension to the round bars.

I followed the instructions exactly. They clearly said that the bars are to be parallel to the trailer frame and the ground when properly tensioned. One addition link of 2" chain produced a noticeable upward sweep to the bars. I've also noticed on the bars that failed that they are bent to a 90° angle. I think they should have been bent at a 95°+ angle to preload some tension when parallel. I believe this to be another manufacturing flaw.

I believe that, in the final analysis, I have found that I loaded the Porsche too far rearward. Although I believe I had proper tongue weight I had positioned too much mass behind the rear axle. I believe that the operational round bar system masked the sway potential. The crazy experiment confirmed that steerring inputs went haywire with only one bar attached.

This condition was confirmed by a trailer engineer with many years experience. He agreed with my assessment that I had quite effectively created a pendulum that simply obeyed the laws of physics. This was one dynamic that I was unaware of.

[bake315]

Thanks a bunch for the update, Barry. Looks like you're going to make out all right. Let us know what hitch setup you end up running with when it's all back together.

[JStanley]

Berry2952: Kudos & Karma for posting your professional analysis of the accident. It was interesting to read a well researched and documented report and with favorable results with the insurance company.
Your ‘lesson learned,’ recommendation is to avoid that EAZ-LIFT ‘Robin Round Bar Weight Distributing Hitch’ assembly. I would like to know if the problem was caused by a poorly designed clip & pin assembly or by poorly manufactured & inspected pins? Or was that WD hitch well used and perhaps the pins were warn down over the years?

Why? It appears I have a very similar hitch and although I’m only towing a 7300 pound (max.) 25’ Safari with a ¾ ton Suburban, there is no other known independent source which evaluated that hitch. As posted earlier, I’ve once noticed someone’s failure of the unit’s clip & pin assembly. (They hold each spring (torsion) bar in place.) The thought of losing a round bar at highway speeds is quite sobering.
It appears that such critical parts need to be periodically inspected and routinely replaced.
I would guess that someone sells those parts, but who & where?
When you replace that hitch, please tell us which one you choose?

[Barry2952]

Originally Posted by JStanley

Berry2952: Kudos & Karma for posting your professional analysis of the accident. It was interesting to read a well researched and documented report and with favorable results with the insurance company.
Your ‘lesson learned,’ recommendation is to avoid that EAZ-LIFT ‘Robin Round Bar Weight Distributing Hitch’ assembly. I would like to know if the problem was caused by a poorly designed clip & pin assembly or by poorly manufactured & inspected pins? Or was that WD hitch well used and perhaps the pins were warn down over the years?

It's Barry, not berry. Berry is a fruit.

The hitch was brand new. I believe it was cumlulitive manufacturing error that led to a cascade failure. Look at some of the pictures I've posted and listen to some of the people that have posted their experience or observations of other people's wd hitches. Upon close inspection I'd say it's a pretty stupid design and I fault myself for not recognizing it. I know what to look for now.

[Silverhobby]

Barry, I was towing a borrowed enclosed trailer from a friend of mine to move furniture. He insisted that I use his equalizer hitch. It was also a round bar design of unknown brand, but I do know it was not an Ea-Z-Lift. I experienced the loss of a bar from the socket while traveling. I discovered it upon routine inspection while stopped. The round bar was hanging by the chain to the snap up bracket. The pin clips had very little tension to hold the bars in. I will contact my friend tomorrow. Thanks for this very informative thread. I am glad that you will be able to complete your repairs, but I am sorry for your loss of time and pleasure of enjoying your "toys."
Kevin

[Neophyte]

We tow with a "Valley Industries" V5 (1000#) weight equalizing hitch that is so similar to the EaZLift that it's scary. Anybody else using a Valley and concur with the similarities between it and Barry's.

[3Ms75Argosy]

Probably the same item with different tags.

Failure - although I've had many miles, (and scoring too on the bars), I think it really comes down to those spring clips. They don't push those buttons in very hard. I think the design principle is good, just the exacution is poor.

Now - who has the best prices on the Reese or Draw-tite hitches?
Marc

[scottanlily]

The equalizer hitch that was originally on my travelall (used 400# bars )
had round bars that had to be inserted sideways then rotated 90 degrees
into position ,absolutly never could come out. my hitch is like barry's and
i checked those pins ,they are still in the correct position .i think modifying
and installing new pins that will index far into the groove is the key,and you would have to pull the clip back to get the bars installed as opposed to having the bars snap up easy do to that pin having that angle machined into it.Im now thinking of changing the design to the equalizer design without to
much difficulty ,those pins are the problem for sure.

Scott of scottanlily

[SilverToy]

Barry et al -

This thread was very sobering to read - Glad that you survived that mega scary incident. Also REALLY glad that you have learned from it, as well as passing that knowledge on to others here....

It seems that there are more than a few that have similar hitch designs, some made years ago, that they use with not further thought given. Hope that they read this thread - or have it pointed out to them by some one here that has seen it.... Pass that knowledge on people!!!

Barry, if it was me, I would toss that hitch PRONTO and start over with your parameters in mind when getting a new hitch. Naturally, you seem to have the skills, tools and ability to reengineer the current set-up ala Scott.

Me, I'd start over. That hitch would give me the willies every time I hitched it up.... Then again, that's just me!

All the best!

Axel
SilverToy

PS - Post photos of that '40 you are getting courtesy of the Insurance co!!!

[scottanlily]

Silver Toy hello,

You are right i can easily refit that poorly designed pin business .and I had
no idea of the crappy way those pins barely engage the bars.round bar or
other hitches are not inherintly bad ,but the hitch head design is ! I did a 9
day arizona trip last april and been other places since ,little did I know those bars could drop out.Anyone with that hitch setup ,very common ,needs to
get it reworked or replaced with somthing else ,and as you said ,Barry should
start over with somthing better ,especially with a long spartan that he has,
A Hensley hitch comes to mind ,as that trailer needs to really eliminate the
possibility of sway at all costs .I agree totally ,I also would feel uncomfortable with the current hitch ,the bent hitch bar itself tells me that
that hitch for that size and weight of trailer is not capable of performing the task at hand. A huge disaster really could have happened far beyond what already has happened .

Scott of scottanlily

[scottanlily]

I refit the hitch head on my tv from these pins to the equalizer hitch design,
using the old 400# bars I had .the large 7503 bars I now use have been changed to be able to engage in the hitch head .photos to be posted now.

[scottanlily]

Was only able to get three on so Ill get three more.this will eliminate the
bar drop problem permanently .you have to insert the bar sideways then rotate it into position.

Scott

[scottanlily]

this business of (page cannot be displayed is really irritating) causing photo upload problems ,sorry for that everyone.here are the last couple I hope

Scott

[scottanlily]

those metal tabs are 1/4 thick and 3/4 " wide ,they engage almost 3/8 into bar and welded in place from the outside ,it was pretty easy to do .i didn't show a photo of the 750# bar modified ,but it now has the look of the smaller 400# bar ,one part is machined off to allow the bar to fit up and rotate into position as i noted before.

scott

[SilverToy]

Scott -

Thanks for the photos of the mod you made, and where. Since I am unfamiliar with that design, I have a question - How are the pins held in to maintain the bars within the hitch??

I see that you removed the tinny looking retainers that were there.... and I don't see a new retaining mechanism, hence the question.

Also, is the name of that hitch really "Equalizer" since I have an 'Equal-I-zer' on SilverToy and it looks nothing like that, nor is it of that design. My Eq has the bolts/pins that go thru the bars and have a retaining pin to hold them within the hitch head. Also, no chains - more of a saddle on the A frame upon which the bars slide back and forth (sometimes with GREAT BIG GROANS!!) providing the sway control. There is NO drilling in the A-frame needed for the mounting - no weakening the structure in that key area. It allows for rather severe angles in forward turning(gas stations, Oops, missed that turn situations, etc....) as well as backing, WITHOUT removal of anything - just do it. Hitching and un-hitching can be done on an angle as well. All good things in my book.

I like my hitch (surprise, right??) as it is easy to hitch in all conditions. There is no need for adjustment due to weather or other conditions - period. Not a flimsy contraption - a GOOD thing since I have a 34 footer (similar to yours Barry?) and 'The tail wagging the dog' is a BAD thing - as the thread amply demonstrates!

The hitch I have is a 10K/1000lb bars. This works VERY WELL on SilverToy. Did consider the Hensley but nearly everyone I asked about hitches prior to the decision point said the Equal-I-zer was great, up to the job, cheaper and a serious quailty product with great factory support. That all added up to a great buy. Plus the dealer gave a $200 discount including install - on the spot. Sold.

Back the thread. Seeing the photos got me thinking and so the questions appear above - Thanks for the time taken to answer!

Axel
SilverToy

[overlander63]

Barry, a (hopefully) simple solution to your rear-heavy problem may be to back the Porsche into the trailer. Shifting the weight of the running gear another 10 feet or so forward may be all it takes.