Towing

Back in 2004 I put tongue in cheek and wrote about the trailer tug test. You hook the trailer up, drive off and look in the rear view mirror, if it’s still following you, carry on! I found myself behind a couple of vehicles pulling trailers yesterday and wondered if their drivers had missed the fact that I was being facetious. Neither trailer had any functioning lights and I can only guess what else might have been overlooked.

A reader reports that she was driving to Nanaimo and somewhere around Cook Creek there was a black vehicle with several flashing lights stationary at the side of the road. The road was not particularly busy and she was in the curbside lane.  As she approached, traveling at the posted 110 kph. She gradually reduced her speed, checked her mirrors and moved into the outer lane so that she was traveling at 70 kph before she drew alongside the vehicle.  As seh passed this vehicle she could see police officer walking in front of the vehicle, taking photographs into the ditch.

This is an interesting 5 minute video explaining how to connect your tow vehicle to your RV using an equalizer hitch. The only addition that I would make to it would be to cross the safety chains under the tongue of the trailer so that if the hitch fails the tongue falls onto the crossed chains instead of digging into the roadway and causing more mayhem!

I was given a 24 hour Driving Prohibition in Richmond BC in December 2009. When I called the tow company after 24 hours to get their address, I was told that there was a police hold on the Vehicle. This so called hold carried on until I contacted the RCMP Officer who had issued me the 24 Hr Suspension.

One would think that there was a weekend push, pull or drag sale on trailers. I once checked three of them on a Friday evening and found one that was too heavy for a surge brake, one that had no brakes functioning and a third that needed brakes but was not equipped with them.