It could have been a lot worse.
We had an almost disastrous start to the tiny house adventure. Just before our exit off of the interstate, the trailer’s coupler popped off the hitch. Thankfully, the safety chains did their job. We made it to the shoulder safely where we could assess the situation.
The tongue jack was actually under the tow vehicle. Anthony had to lift his SUV while I yanked on the trailer to get it out from under. At first look the damage seems to be as follows:
- The bottom of the tongue jack is worn and bent from the contact and probable dragging on the asphalt.
- The crank on the jack is totally bent from the contact with the vehicle.
- Something may have happened to the electrical as well because only the main driver’s side light works.
- The box that the cable connects to for the runaway brake is messed up as well - looks like it got pulled up off of the tongue.
- A superficial ding on the fender where we may have hit the guardrail while pulling over.
There was also a burning rubber smell which I hope was just the emergency electrical brakes engaging. Though given that the tongue ended up under the SUV I’m not even sure the brakes worked. I hope that is the extent of the damage, but I don’t know. We’ll have to get everything checked out to be sure. Not to mention getting Anthony’s SUV checked for damage. Argh.
The lesson I’ve learned is to double (triple even!) check all of the connections yourself before you start moving. Don’t assume that the guy at the dealership knows what he is doing when he hooks the trailer up to your vehicle. You know, Anthony had a feeling when we started driving that something wasn’t right, that it was bouncing too much. Turns out he was right.
Such a scary experience. I’m still kind of coming down from it.
