What hit my trailer?

[Julie-Bob]

What ever it was has you replacing that skin panel at a cost of around $2,000.00

[PamsCruiser]

First, I'm sorry this happened to your trailer. It looks painful, ouch! My two cents guess is a high profile vehicle scraped it at the service station OR it was some sort of object falling from the sky. Hope the repairs turn out well and you get back on the road again soon.

[DavidsonOverlander]

Originally Posted by smithcreek

Along with what I posted above, it's possible the dent occurred when you weren't behind the wheel at all, but while you were parked at the diner, someone ran into you.

They were transporting something that was sticking out from the side of their truck, they pulled up too close next to you, scraped and dented your trailer, backed away after realizing what they did, then high tailed it down the road. Those scratches were clearly made going forward AND then going backwards and this would explain it.

That's what it looks like to me as well. My first thought was that it was caused by backing into a tree, but that doesn't seem possible considering the places RichHog had been.

[Ted S.]

When I was in a rest area once, I was almost hit by a large motor home side mirror. They were right about that height. My trailer was parked and I watched if from afar. That could have been a high and low mirror form a semi rubbing you while traveling at a similar speed.

[Martee]

Originally Posted by Ted S.

When I was in a rest area once, I was almost hit by a large motor home side mirror. They were right about that height. My trailer was parked and I watched if from afar. That could have been a high and low mirror form a semi rubbing you while traveling at a similar speed.

Yes Indeed....thats also a very strong possibility. A sideswipe from the double mirrors of an 18 wheeler, that is passing your AS on the inside lane. Your driving slower at speed limit on the outside lane. His passenger side mirror sideswiped your Airstream.

Best of success on the Airstream repairs.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Ted S.

When I was in a rest area once, I was almost hit by a large motor home side mirror. They were right about that height. My trailer was parked and I watched if from afar. That could have been a high and low mirror form a semi rubbing you while traveling at a similar speed.

I’m liking this theory better than the tree I liked earlier. This (double mirror) could explain the crease in the middle....wonder if the material left on the trailer is plastic or rubber....

Hope you can get it fixed soon!

[zenman60]

Originally Posted by smithcreek

Yep. The dent is on the rear street side. Whatever hit the trailer came from behind, dented and scraped the trailer for a foot or more from back to front, stopped, then reversed direction and scrapped the trailer from front to back.

The pointy end of the V-shaped scrapes point forward. That means whatever did this had to be traveling in the same direction as the trailer and going faster than the trailer. If it happened when the OP thinks it did, that means the object that hit the trailer was traveling at 60+ mph in the same direction as the trailer. I can't think of anything that would do that.

Nothing getting kicked up by the TV, from a vehicle in the lane next to the trailer, or the other side of the road would hit the trailer from behind with more speed than the trailer.

It looks like front-to-back to me. The buildup of rubber on the leading edge of the rivets at the front would be caused by something like a tire hitting and scraping backward.

[Zybane]

Originally Posted by RichHog

It is the streetside back corner, so something could have come from the left lane or they opposite direction across the median. 06 Safari 25 FB LE Insurance covers it minus the $1,000 deductible. Will ask the repair shop for their analysis on what the residue is. Should her first week in December.

Do you not have a ladder? I would have literally examined a sample of the brown marks within 2 minutes of finding the damage.

[J. Morgan]

A semi mirror wouldn’t have done that much damage, it would have folded. (The damage is too high for that too)

With all due respect I’m going to theorize that at some point during a hard turning event that the trailer pivoted on its axles into an overhanging fixed object. This object might not have ever been seen by the driver, therefore it’s not remembered.

This damage up high might have gone undetected for hours or days even until an unexplained sound made the OP look closely at the trailer.

That is the likely explanation. It could happen to anyone on a given day because for sure overhanging obstacles are not always visible through the mirrors in a casual observation.

In a maneuver where the tow vehicle is in excess of a 90 degree angle with relation to the trailer there is a point at which the trailer will move backward and forward even as the tow vehicle only moves in one direction.

I’m guessing that this happened the last time the OP had to make a very tight turn,,,,, and he had no idea that this happened.

I’m of the opinion that should the OP think about the last time he had to make a really sharp U turn, the spot can be visited and the offending overhanging object can be found and the mystery can be lain to rest.

Of course that’s my opinion, but it is the opinion of a long time fleet owner.

[RichHog]

Originally Posted by Zybane

Do you not have a ladder? I would have literally examined a sample of the brown marks within 2 minutes of finding the damage.

We examined it when we got it back to Houston. We determined it was not blood from a bird and couldn’t tell what is was.

[RichHog]

Originally Posted by J. Morgan

A semi mirror wouldn’t have done that much damage, it would have folded. (The damage is too high for that too)

With all due respect I’m going to theorize that at some point during a hard turning event that the trailer pivoted on its axles into an overhanging fixed object. This object might not have ever been seen by the driver, therefore it’s not remembered.

This damage up high might have gone undetected for hours or days even until an unexplained sound made the OP look closely at the trailer.

That is the likely explanation. It could happen to anyone on a given day because for sure overhanging obstacles are not always visible through the mirrors in a casual observation.

In a maneuver where the tow vehicle is in excess of a 90 degree angle with relation to the trailer there is a point at which the trailer will move backward and forward even as the tow vehicle only moves in one direction.

I’m guessing that this happened the last time the OP had to make a very tight turn,,,,, and he had no idea that this happened.

I’m of the opinion that should the OP think about the last time he had to make a really sharp U turn, the spot can be visited and the offending overhanging object can be found and the mystery can be lain to rest.

Of course that’s my opinion, but it is the opinion of a long time fleet owner.

I stopped for gas an hour before this happened outside of Waco.
I always do a walk around inspection when filling up and it wasn’t there at that time. I’m pretty sure the thud sound we heard was the impact on the trailer. As said above this road doesn’t have a lot of overpasses on it and we would have known if a passing truck would have dropped something on to it. Could have been from a vehicle headed the opposite direction but there is a 30’ median between the roads.

[WestieHouse]

Here’s my hypothesis. A panel truck with a ladde(s) on a roof rack.(not properly secured) began passing you on your left. The rear of the ladder swung wide to his right as he (or she) began to pass. The extended foot of the ladder made contact with your trailer (initially moving from your rear to your front). The other driver immediately heard the noise and/or saw the ladder movement and quickly decelerated. As a result your speed relative to his then increased resulting in the “reverse” (front to back) movement of the ladder on your end cap.

Black debris / marks mentioned likely are rubber from the ladder’s base.

A photo of a truck I just passed on I-5 illustrates the posdible height and image I described.

[J. Morgan]

My whole contention revolves around my belief that a dent way up high like could remain unseen for some amount of time unless a person was looking for it.

I walk around my vehicle every time I fuel, but in these walk arounds I never (or at least hardly ever) deviate from the inspection of what makes my combination road safe, I’m looking down, not looking up.

When was the last time you made a really hard U Turn or a hard right angle back in?

My contention is that this damage LOOKS like damage that would be incurred had your trailer pivoted into an overhead obstruction. That said, as always, I reserve the right to be wrong. [emoji4]

[Sovereign85]

Tire marks from a crop dusting airplane that flew a little to close while hazing the Airstream?

[RichHog]

Originally Posted by J. Morgan

My whole contention revolves around my belief that a dent way up high like could remain unseen for some amount of time unless a person was looking for it.

I walk around my vehicle every time I fuel, but in these walk arounds I never (or at least hardly ever) deviate from the inspection of what makes my combination road safe, I’m looking down, not looking up.

When was the last time you made a really hard U Turn or a hard right angle back in?

My contention is that this damage LOOKS like damage that would be incurred had your trailer pivoted into an overhead obstruction. That said, as always, I reserve the right to be wrong. [emoji4]

It agree with you that on a walk around as I did that day at a gas stop and even when I pulled over to check the trailer after the loud thump that the inspection was focused on the tires, hitch and lower half.We stoped about an hour after pulling over in College station for dinner and it wasn’t til we were walking out that I noticed the dent. But the restaurant was higher than the trailer so no way I would miss it.

[OTRA15]

A good discussion! When do you expect to have some feedback from the shop about the debris caught in the rivets etc.?

It is amazing how widely the back [and front] of the trailer can swing during a very tight turn. We were getting on a ferry years ago, trying to hug the left wall of the vessel, and a very observant deckhand prevented us from causing the upper left street-side corner of the AS to hit that wall.

Well done, and thank you sir!

Peter

[slowmover]

General observation

The biggest change (difficulty) dealing with increased TT length is the tail swing. The longer the TT, the faster bad things happen.

Th experience our friend Morgan is working from shouldn’t be discounted. It should be the starting point.

Backing tractor-trailers isn’t even a tenth of a percent of distances travelled. But it’s probably 60-70% of all “accidents”.

The truck driver joke is that the they don’t pay us to get this rig down the road, they pay us to BACK IT IN from the road.

[Mattirs]

Originally Posted by slowmover

The truck driver joke is that the they don’t pay us to get this rig down the road, they pay us to BACK IT IN from the road.

That is so true, I worked as a Weighmaster for years and it always amazed me when a great driver put his rig right where I told him by backing it in.

The things the good ones did was a walk around first, were not rushed, used their mirrors!!!, after the big set up then made small adjustments going in.

I once asked one after an impressive job of parking, "How do you do it?" He said exactly the above.

[Bill M.]

I still think something airbourne hit the trailer when the OP heard it hit.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, and I still think it was a tree branch; And it might have been done previous to this last trip and was never noticed.