416 jackknife

[bazookajoe]

While pulling my 416 with the A-1 a week ago I had a thrilling moment, it had just started to rain when I turned on an entrance ramp at a very reasonable speed and just touched the brakes and immediately jack knifed and ended up in the ditch. I was fortunate enough to be able to back out immediately and continue. Before proceeding i checked the road surface and felt it was very slippery, oil i suspect. No damage to jeep trailer or me....whew. So ...if you are pulling a trailer and get caught in the rain be extra cautious

[Lindsay36551]

Any weight in the trailer! ????

[rickf]

The beginning of a rain is the worst time since that is when any oil built up on the road is all on the surface and not washed off yet. Put that together with NDCC military tires and you are skating on wet ice! Glad it all worked out well. Also very glad there was no curb to hit sideways and flip you over!

[bazookajoe]

The only thing in the trailer were some folding chairs.

[SturmTyger380]

I am thinking you didn't have enough tongue weight and the trailer was lifting the back some. And the independent nature of the rear suspension makes it worse on a turn.

On other Jeeps I when using a trailer I have tried to keep most of the weight over the axle of a little ahead of it. For the M151 do you guys thing it would need more tongue weight than other Jeeps?

Alan

[rickf]

It would not have made any difference if it was a 151 or a M38 or a 38A1. The tires are the main factor here and anyone that rides a motorcycle knows that the start of rain is the worst time for oil on the road. The military trailers are all pretty much set up with the axle centered to keep the weight all in the trailer since the tow vehicles are usually fully loaded also. These were not set up to do long distance high speed towing like in a normal civilian situation. Therein lies the problem I believe, most people just jump in these military set ups and drive them just like a civilian vehicle and then they get into trouble because they were never trained on the different ways the military vehicle handles. They were built primarily for unimproved roads and lower speeds. In the same situation that spin Joe out if he were on an unimproved dirt road going the same speed he would have been fine because the tires would have had bite in the dirt. Another thing to consider is braking, as soon as you let off the gas the trailer is pushing you. If you are in a turn it is going to push the rear end sideways. Even if it is an A1 trailer with brakes the brakes are not going to come on with that little force applied to the hitch.