Made a TWO WHEELER out of it
Since early December been checking out South Florida in our Airstream. Before we left I put on new axles. The old ones had been on since 1987 and was feeling that the torsion in the rubber had gotten brittle and worn out. In addition one of the arms had become broken and the thing was ready to fall off.
The new axles took that second bounce out of the freeway whoop-de-doos. Best of all they took some of the "lean" out of the unit in curves and it made the ride smoother in the truck by handling bumps and such better...…………
Okay, so we were in the Everglades, Naples, Marcos Island, and mostly down at Flamingo Campground using the Folbot. The Folbot is a collapsible 2 man kayak/sailboat. Perfect for the shallows and getting back into the islands to fish and just have fun...…..Time to head home:
On our way back from Florida on the Florida Turnpike, there is a section of road that is being repaired. In that process there is a 5" edge of the road where the road ends and the shoulder begins. A truck was passing us and was going to clip the front of the truck as he was pulling back over into the lane we were in.
We braked and dodged over to the edge of the road and onto the shoulder. We didn't realize that there was a 5" edge of the pavement and when we came back into our lane from the shoulder, the tires of the truck and trailer "grabbed" that edge. The trailer tires "caught" that edge, hung up on it for a second or so as the truck continued on after catching the edge itself.
The sway from hell began!!! In perhaps !/4 mile we went across the 3 lanes 5 times with the trailer on 2 wheels for at least two of those oscillations. People behind us that stopped to see if we were having a heart attack were in total shock that we were OK. They said that the trailer had gone into the air at least 5 feet and came down on 2 wheels. Then the weave across the 3 lanes began with me fighting to slow down and as the trailer went one way to fight it from going into the center median or guard rail. Doing this was so we could attempt to go back the other way. It took 6 times of going back and forth to do this and fight the movements until we got the thing stopped...….
FINALLY I GOT IT STRAIGHTENED OUT!!! I slowed down, off onto the shoulder, looked back to see traffic at least 1/2 mile back, and then, checked out my shorts......The contents of the trailer were as if a mini-tornado had gone through the unit or imagine that the trailer is a clothes washer on the spin cycle and the contents of the trailer the clothing...…….frig doors off, drawers open and the contents everywhere, clothes from the closet and cabinets hanging where no one had thought of or on the floor soaking up spillage from the frig or cabinets. On and on; but just imagine the most well made drawers broken and their guides torn off the framing. The exterior shows nothing except the tires have wear/rubbing all the way from the tread up to the tire wheel/rim obviously caused by the trailer riding the tire on it's side...……
What can I say...…...God is good...…..