Boat Accident On The A12 Causes Delays

[ranworthbreeze]

Boat accident on the A12 today, it must have bee a nightmare for the driver.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38866986

Regards

Alan

[Vaughan]

Could one suspect that it was loaded too far forward on the trailer, followed by an excess of speed?

And how come it's all facing the wrong way up the carriageway??

[JennyMorgan]

Those white marks on the road look suspiciously like white gel-coat that would surely have been abraded as the hull slid across the road. I also wonder what damage the outboard suffered? I have no doubt that she can be returned to an as new appearance but I would be concerned about the integrity of joints within the hull. Think I'd change the name and put her on E-Bay.

[jeffbroadslover]

How many times do we hear "Don't leave your boat under a bridge, I may get damaged" ?

Jeff

[Viking23]

Looks like they tried to recover the boat onto it's own trailer at the scene.

You can see the Honda outboard has been ripped from the transom too.

There will be some serious damage to the Transom. There will be a lot of damage underneath the boat under the port quarter. 

I'm sure they can patch it up like new with some antifoul to cover it over, but a cosmetic repair is not a structural repair. 

As said... to be seen on an auction website near you. If it says in the description... low engine hours, delivery miles only... buyer beware. If this boat was sold as seen in the water after the repair, who would know.

[Bound2Please]

According to our local news it did jack knife John, not the first accident like that there, normally though its caravans.

Charlie

[Viking23]

I was in a land rover series 90 once with my friend driving, we had a fletcher 16 on the back with a mercury 140 hp engine, on every corner it was so unstable, it tried to jack knife all the time, my friend was used to it...

It was more uncontrollable when it started to sway when you are going in a straight line.

Adding to that, the engine centre of gravity is very high too, adding to the rolling effect on corners. There are rarely anti roll bars on trailers. 

As I said, heavy load well behind the axle causes the wagging tail scenario.

What is the answer?  

Maybe Increase the nose weight by either moving the boat forward, or moving the axle(s) back. Might help, but it will not stop it.

Maybe, Drive into corners as if they were covered in ice...

Be ready to lower your speed when the first wag starts... It is not a relaxing drive for a driver when the load is unstable, loose your concentration for 1 second and miss that first wag... game over.

Fit a stabiliser to the vehicle, often frowned upon, as it can mask unstable loads in say caravans. 

Only drive a vehicle with stability control that has been upgraded to know when a trailer is attached, not all after market tow bar fitters upgrade the car's software. 

I never got around to understanding whether it is better to slow down or as Clarkson  and Hammond say, accelerate out of it... takes a brave man to do that, if it doesn't work.... What next?

 

[JennyMorgan]

Me thinks an insurance write-off, if she's insured. The damage to either the engine or the transom, or both, must be immense. The spray rails also look to have been severely damaged too. I can only guess that the driver was in a hurry, the silly billy.

[Jonathan]

As mentioned above, there are often accidents at that spot.  Having the heavy engine right at the back is part of the problem, it will always want to "overtake" the wheels when downhill or decelerating, and being a long way from the axel(s) it has a nice long lever to use to its advantage.  The other problem it will cause is that even if there is a good weight on the towing hook when stationary, if the trailer goes over a bump then the engine stays where it is and the trailer acts as a see-saw and tries to lift the back end of the car.  Once the rear wheels are lifted, if the trailer is pushing the car at all, even slightly off-straight, it will pivot around its front wheels unless you use the front-wheel drive to "pull" the combination straight again:  Hence the "accelerate out of it" advice above.  Better advice would be to distribute the weight evenly along the trailer (don't have a very heavy lump at the back) and ensure that the weight on the tow hook is towards the maximum allowed for your vehicle, also make sure the trailer brakes are working well.

[grendel]

there is also the possibility that the whole combo was exceeding the allowable towing weight for the towing vehicle, I drive an old heavy volvo, and the maximum weight I can tow isnt that huge, I would imagine most boats will top out over 2000kg, so even with a braked trailer I would have thought a bigger vehicle would be needed, yes I know its a 4x4, but with the modern trend of lightening everything to increase the fuel economy the maximum allowed drops,

the overall maximum is about 3.5 tons towed weight at 7m long and looking at that, they would appear to be pushing both those limits.

[Bound2Please]

Just now, grendel said:

the overall maximum is about 3.5 tons towed weight at 7m long and looking at that, they would appear to be pushing both those limits.

Was also thinking this Grendel.

Charlie

[grendel]

I know the caravan club recommend that towed weight is only 80% of the towing vehicle weight, now with my older v70, I believe I can go up to about 1700kg (at 100% and still keep below a 3500 gross train weight) but the modern Volvo v70s, are restricted to just over 1300kg as the gross weight of the car has been reduced.

Towing limits are also further restricted if you took your test after 1997 I believe.

as for the tail wagging effect, I have only ever had that once, and would say that accelerating hard is probably not the cure, it does work if you have a lot of spare power, but if the load is heavy you would struggle to get it straight, my cure was to slow down gently by coasting, and gently steer the waggle out, but as stated above, you have to recognise that first waggle, and have room to correct

[TheQ]

A Discovery of that type is 3500KG towing limit, as are generally,  all the Land Rovers except the Freelander and military lightweight air portable land rovers. with coupled braking it can be up to 4000Kg

 I'm not 100 % sure but there appears to be a shortage of tie down straps...

[Bound2Please]

Its against the law to tow a trailer 750kg total weight or over unbraked. The towing laws are far more involved than saying this vehicle can tow 3500kg. That was when we used to make service and repair trailers, and I'm sure the laws havnt been relaxed in the last 10 years.

Charlie

[ranworthbreeze]

I had a problem towing a Tow a Van once, I made the mistake of not checking the breaking cable on the trailer, I left it to the hire company.

Needless to say I had just got onto the M1 and gone a few miles before the tow became unstable, it was a empty 4 wheel trailer but once the waggling started I went into the emergency lane  to slow down, the result was I ended with the car a few inches from the central barrier with the hitch across all three lanes, I was lucky I did not hit anything and nothing hit me. 

I managed to get the car and trailer back into the emergency lane to check out for any damage, I found straight away why the load became unstable, the brake wire had been wrapped around the jockey wheel and the trailer brakes were gradually locked on and the slowing down had fully locked them on.

After I had calmed down I proceeded with my 3 hours journey to South Wales.

If I had a caravan or my own trailer I would have fitted a Whitter dampener.

That happened well over 20 years ago, but tends to stick in your mind.

Regards

Alan

[JennyMorgan]

Having followed this entire thread I do now rather suspect that the driver's insurance will be invalid, as well as the boat-owners, as it appears that the tow-vehicle and trailer combination might not have been either legal or suitable. Small issue of the boat coming off the trailer too. Whoops, if I were the owner I think I'd consider emigrating pretty sharpish. 

[ZimbiIV]

Look lets be fair it was forecast for heavy rain.

paul

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, Bound2Please said:

Its against the law to tow a trailer 750kg total weight or over unbraked. The towing laws are far more involved than saying this vehicle can tow 3500kg. That was when we used to make service and repair trailers, and I'm sure the laws havnt been relaxed in the last 10 years.

Charlie

I was quoting the vehicle can not whether the driver can. or whether the trailer was suitable for that weight.

New drivers cannot tow more than 750KG without taking an additional towing test.

[grendel]

I regularly used to tow a ton in a trailer, that did have trailer brakes as it was an old caravan chassis, the trouble was my old v4 transit with drum brakes all round, the problem was not stopping the trailer, but that heading downhill, you couldnt slow the transit down enough to trigger the trailer brakes, if you did manage to trigger them, the stopping distance was halved from the transits normal stopping distance, I do remember one instance where I crested a hill and headed down the steep slope the other side, there was a roundabout about 400 yards away at the bottom, as soon as I saw the slope I stamped on the brakes, but too late, I sailed straight across the roundabout still doing nearly 30mph having crested the hill at about 40, then heading up the hill the other side the brakes let the trailer brakes kick in.

[MauriceMynah]

We don't know how much 'stuff' was left on the boat. We don't know how well balanced it was. We don't know how experienced the tower was. We don't know how fast he was going. We don't know the gross weight of the rig, nor of any of it's component parts.

I fail to see how anybody can reasonably surmise anything, yet now we are saying he probably wasn't insured, was towing a poorly loaded boat too quickly and basically that he should be taken out and shot.

I agree with you all .   

[JennyMorgan]

It was my suggestion that, with the opinion of seemingly well qualified forumites, that the insurance might be invalid. In my experience insurance companies, rightly I suppose, do tend to withhold payment if there are any, even slight infringements to the policy. I agree that we know absolutely nothing about the facts of this one, only the reality of what we can see and that some of us can compare that with our own experiences. I might add, if I may, that had everything been as it should have then perhaps a jack-knife would have been unlikely. As for shooting, no, I have no evidence to suggest that! 

[MauriceMynah]

It was my suggestion that he be shot. He may have stretched a point on his insurance, but perhaps not sufficiently to render his policy null and void. but I do not see that as any reason for not shooting him. It is of course quite possible that his rig was within the weight restrictions but what the hell I say, shoot him anyway.  It is equally possible that he was towing a perfectly well balanced set up, but that shouldn't stop a bullet.

What I don't think has been mentioned is the gender of the driver. I could make suggestions here but that could well get me shot.  

[JennyMorgan]

Conjecture is fun! As for gender, no clues but my guess that the driver was blond and bald with a penchant for driving in poorly fitting 'Crocs', probably pink ones.

[johnb]

51 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Conjecture is fun! As for gender, no clues but my guess that the driver was blond and bald with a penchant for driving in poorly fitting 'Crocs', probably pink ones.

So when did you see me driving Peter?

[Bound2Please]

3 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Conjecture is fun! As for gender, no clues but my guess that the driver was blond and bald with a penchant for driving in poorly fitting 'Crocs', probably pink ones.

Well it wernt my daughter, but it did make her late for diner.......

Charlie