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Broken Couplings and Jack-knife Trailers

by | Jul 17, 2019 | Trailer & Caravan Safety | 0 comments

Broken couplings and pintle hooks are a result of a jackknifed trailer.

Trailer jackknifing usually occurs when reversing and unfortunately the driver is blissfully unaware the trailer is even approaching jack-knife angles.

All of a sudden, the driver feels resistance to his reversing, stops, tries to reverse again.

However, forcing the trailer even further causes severe damage to the rear of the vehicle, rear bumper, trailer coupler, trailer tongue and the camper chassis.

Jackknifing a trailer is more common when reversing.

Jack-knifed trailers cause damage to the chassis, frame and couplings to name just a few items. Broken linkages are an easy mistake; you would not even know there was damage caused.

If you are unlucky like me, the old school was not taught to reverse a trailer or caravan. In 1970, my driving instructor asked me to reverse park the mini into a roadside car park which I did correctly.

If he asked me to do the same with a trailer coupled to the vehicle, this 18-year-old would have failed his driving test.

These days, caravan driver training is available, and of course, I would recommend folks take advantage of the instructor’s words of wisdom, after all, he is skilled in the art of caravanning.

There is much to learn about the do’s and don’t. Like, how do you tell if a hot wheel is pending bearing failure or excessively hot brake shoes?

Ask your caravan driving trainer; he will know the answer.

Finally, there are lots of useful tips on how to reverse a caravan without jack-knife from the trainers.

Jackknife Coupling

Jackknifed 6t Ring Coupling

Jackknife Coupling breakage when reversing

Reversing Jackknifed 6t Pintle Hook Coupling

Jackknife Coupling breakage when reversing

Reversing Jackknifed 10t Ring Coupling

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