Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[BravoXray]

Similar trailer, similar fail.

Trailer snapped by steel coil on July 9th, 2?19, in Hamilton Ontario : CatastrophicFailure

Bruce

The interesting thing I have noticed when you see a coil setting on a broken trailer is that almost every one is an aluminum trailer. The picture in my post #13535 of the broken trailer was an aluminum trailer also. Of course, probably over half of the flatbeds in use now are aluminum trailers.

A metallurgist friend once told me, and showed me a chart, that aluminum is much more prone to fatigue failures than are ferrous metals. Once it begins to fail, it's integrity is compromised, and it takes less and less stress for it to fail catastrophically. Steel ir much more ductile and will deform repeatedly, and not lose a lot of strength before it finally fails. That's why you will see steel frame flatbeds that are swaybacked from overloading, but not aluminum trailers. once they are overstressed and a crack develops in the structure, it's all over pretty quickly. ****, I even had a steel trailer back in the 70's that a welder friend re-arched the frame by heating the beams with a big rosebud torch. It went from a couple of inches of sag to about three inches of bow. I owned it for a couple of years after that and it still had bow in it when I sold it.

Looking more closely at the picture, I see that there is a toolbox crushed right at where the frame broke. It very possible that whoever installed the toolbox mounts drilled holes in the web, then used steel bolts to attach them. Over the years dissimilar metal corrosion may have started stress risers in the web. I doubt anyone is stupid enough to drill holes in the beam flange, but who knows? I always suspended my toolboxes from the crossmembers instead of drilling holes in the frame web. Better to have to repair a crossmember than have the frame fail.

I'm sure that trailer is junk, I can't imagine a way to fix the beams that would be safe. Welding it would only weaken it more. Nope, he's going to need a new trailer.

I'll bet that Kenworth came to a stop pretty fast when the frame hit the pavement. Probably got a good jolt when he crossed the RR tracks, and that was just enough to make it fail. I feel sorry for the guy, but when you haul those big coils on long trailers, especially aluminum trailers, you're taking a chance on damaging the structure.

He had it secured properly though, as it's still chained fast, so the cop can't ticket him for an unsecured load.

 

[MechE1]

Surprising how many of these their are. Either breakage or coils letting loose. BravoXray....looks to me like he did not come to sudden stop. I see about 20ft of drag there. OR...maybe it did come to a quick stop and they intentionally pulled it off the tracks?

 

[lilranch2001]

I cant see any drag marks, but I do see a pretty little canadian chica pointing at the tail end of the trailer!

 

[MechE1]

We may never know. The image can be viewed much larger. Looks as if it broke about 20ft from where it sits. I see rubble there and then bits of something I presume is roadway leading to the trailer break point.

 

[BravoXray]

We may never know. The image can be viewed much larger. Looks as if it broke about 20ft from where it sits. I see rubble there and then bits of something I presume is roadway leading to the trailer break point.

That rubble is probably asphalt the broken ends of the trailer beam gouged up until it stopped.
Depending on how fast he was going, when it broke, stopping in 20 feet could be pretty sudden.

I see the chubby "Canadian Chica" standing there pointing at something. I can't tell if the guy behind her has a shirt on, or if that's hair on his back and arms. Could be his summer pelt, I suppose.

 

[Peter 315]

No shirt.......

 

[BravoXray]

No shirt.......

Yeah, July in Ontario, was probably 55°F, 12°C.

 

[BravoXray]

Now here is an example of how loads on big container ships can get loose in storms.
This one lost over 1800 containers into the drink. No wonder the bottom of the ocean looks like a junkyard in some areas.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/k90wdj/container_ship_one_apus_arriving_in_japan_today/

 

[lilranch2001]

Every company who has cargo on that ship will need to pony up and share in the loss, for smaller companies that can be devastating

 

[duramaxsky]

That rubble is probably asphalt the broken ends of the trailer beam gouged up until it stopped.
Depending on how fast he was going, when it broke, stopping in 20 feet could be pretty sudden.

I see the chubby "Canadian Chica" standing there pointing at something. I can't tell if the guy behind her has a shirt on, or if that's hair on his back and arms. Could be his summer pelt, I suppose.

Summer pelt. He looks like the right guy for that chubby girl.