[1saxman]

Riding to the gig yesterday in the Suburban pulling the 23' trailer, it suddenly started to sway - before we knew it, we were crashing off the road. Some trees saved us because they stopped the trailer from turning over and flipping the SUV. Just three of us on board and nobody got hurt. My horns were in the SUV and were fine. The band owner was driving and has over 30 years experience pulling band trailers. We have now concluded that because of putting some new amp racks and other stuff on the trailer without taking it all out and repacking, we managed to get too much weight at the rear. With a long trailer, any weight problem like this can amplify the normal side-to-side movement you would expect, and turn it into the violent oscillations that always result in a wreck. Anyway, I figured that this was about my 20th 'incident' involving something happening on the road over the 45 years I've been gigging. Not all accidents, just everything, including seeing other bad wrecks, getting stopped by cops, almost wrecking myself, etc. Actual wrecks are only about 6, none my fault, never got hurt. So you want to gig, eh?

 

[ratracer]

Good to hear you and no one else was hurt. Sounds like you've been pretty fortunate down through the years. (45 of 'em, knock on wood!) I've heard about unbalanced loads causing a lot of accidents. Might you be able to shoot for at least another 45! (and no incidents while at the gig permitted!!)

Anyway, at least you've been gigging! I've probably seen just as many mishaps on the beltway here around Washington DC in just the last 10 years I've lived here! :shock: And that's just doing the mundance such as going to work!

 

[RS]

Glad you're okay. Being on the road gets scarier every day. A year ago I was driving home from a gig when a 16 year old kid ran a red light and totaled my car. I came out okay (thank god for airbags) but I'm still nervous driving through intersections. That was my first wreck in 30 years of gigging. I've logged thousands of miles on such death traps as the Pennsy Turnpike (I remember Clifford), I-95, Schuykill Expressway (Philly), BQE (New York City), DC beltway, two lane state highways, etc., etc., without even a fender bender. And then I get hammered 5 miles from my house.

 

[Rick Adams]

...nobody got hurt...

Who cares about anything else? Very glad you're OK.

 

[1saxman]

Man, you ain't lived until you've been through a trailer wreck - the sickening lurch as the tow vehicle gets yanked from side-to-side, the howl of the trailer tires...but the worst part is you have time to realize that you're probably going to get messed up. This was actually the second incident with this particular trailer, but the first time it didn't wreck. It was doing the 'swing' thing but the driver (a different one) decided to counteract by steering in the direction the trailer was swinging. This took a lot of room, which we were fortunate in having since all the other traffic backed off when they saw what was happening, and actually worked. Needless to say, we are looking at the whole transportation issue in a new light. We might get a truck. I don't know yet since this is one of those groups where the owner has the ability to just go out and buy whatever he wants/needs for the band, and we don't have to pay for it.