U-Haul trailer: Accident waiting to happen (LA Times)

[kurth]

DANGER IN TOW
Driving with rented risks
U-Haul International is the nation's largest provider of rental trailers. A Times investigation finds the company's practices raise the risk of accidents on the road.
By Alan C. Miller and Myron Levin, Times Staff Writers
June 24, 2007

Marissa Sternberg sits in her wheelchair, barely able to move or speak. Caregivers are always at her side. Progress is measured in tiny steps: an unclenched fist, a look of recognition, a smile for her father. Nearly four years ago, Sternberg was a high-spirited 19-year-old bound for veterinary school in Denver. She rented a U-Haul trailer to move her belongings, hitched it to her Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road with her two dogs and a friend. That evening, as the Land Cruiser descended a hill in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the trailer began to swing from side to side, pushing the SUV as if trying to muscle it off the road.

"I knew something bad was going to happen," recalled Corina Maya Hollander, who was taking a turn behind the wheel. "We both knew." The Land Cruiser flipped and bounced along Interstate 25. The trailer broke free and careened off the road. Hollander crawled from the wreckage, her head throbbing. Sternberg, who had been thrown from the SUV, lay sprawled on the highway, unable to move. "Where are my dogs?" she screamed. "Somebody go find my dogs!"

Sternberg fell victim to a peril long familiar to U-Haul International: "trailer sway," a leading cause of severe towing accidents. Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced — or fortunate — drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe. U-Haul, the nation's largest provider of rental trailers, says it is "highly conservative" about safety. But a yearlong Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents.

The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. A leading trailer expert and U-Haul consultant has likened this principle to "motherhood and apple pie." Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles. It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies. Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes. Its midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states. It relaxed a key safety rule as it pushed to increase rentals of one type of trailer, used to haul vehicles, and then failed to enforce even the weakened standard. Customers were killed or maimed in ensuing crashes that might have been avoided...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/uhaul/la-na-haul24jun24,1,4860340.story?coll=la-default-underdog&ctrack=3&cset=true

[BlooInBloo]

1. I saw a truck w/ trailer in my rearview going from Seattle to pdx doing that...

.... It was really freaky - the back of the truck was getting yanked back and forth across the road, opposite to the trailer. Stupid Newton's 3rd law.

I felt bad for the guy - hope he was ok.

[jollyreaper2112]

49. trashcan

I have the same sort of thing happen with my wheeled trashcan. I pull it behind me and there's no stopping it once it starts rocking, not unless you come to a halt. If you keep pulling, the rocking gets into a feedback loop where the rocking becomes more pronounced and the whole can wants to fall over, giving the wrist a nasty twist.

Looks like we have some more corporate execs in need of .45 ACP trepannation.

[Mythsaje]

2. From personal experience as a passenger

towing loads of cut wood in trailers, I know how dangerous this can be. It takes a steady hand and vast experience to do it safely. I've always thought U-Haul trailers a BAD idea for this reason, and this only reinforces that belief in my mind. Knowing they've been so lax with the safety of not only their customers, but other travelers, makes me a bit ill.

[NMDemDist2]

3. the Uhaul truck we moved from AZ to NM in was dangerous as hell

my husband had to fight the steering the whole way, it was loose as hell and dangerous. He almost got taken out by a semi when it decided to switch lanes all on it's own.

U Haul sux!

[puebloknot]

42. Ditto! Moving to NM from California, I reserved a 24-foot truck. But...

...when I went to pick it up, U-Haul didn't have it. My only choice was to rent a smaller truck and a trailer to pull behind it.

I got to Barstow from Los Angeles, with the trailer swaying all the way, and had to wait for U-Haul to deliver a big truck. I had to threaten a lawsuit to get them to do anything! We stood for hours in the heat, waiting, and then they sent an all-woman crew (not bashing women here -- I am one), who were not physically up to the task of offloading and reloading my possessions onto the new truck. Two were vastly overweight, and the third was highly pregnant. And they all brought their small children along!

The steering wheel was misaligned, and it was extremely difficult to drive the truck.

I'll never do U-Haul again!

[thereismore]

48. I drove a 24-ft Ryder truck with full trailer from NM to California,

it was not something I'd like to repeat. Jackknifed once trying to turn in a hotel parking lot, blocked the entire intersection trying to get gas for the guzzler, but thankfully, I did not have your kinds of problems.

[puebloknot]

53. I'm five feet tall, and was terrified when I first climbed behind thewheel...

...of a big truck. I thought I could't do it, but I could. But next time, I'll hire a big strong guy, and a Penske truck!

[MatrixEscape]

4. One would think it is about numbers ...

They get away with this, (despite this bad publicity) because they probably have formulas that calculate the amount they make versus any potential lawsuits or publicity that ensues. Of course, people are going to think this is some amazing and evil flaw with U-Haul, but I think that applies to every industry, from auto makers to insurance companies, etc. Numbers rule the game, you are a number and if it comes up, well, that does not matter at all if the take over rules you value as meat.

My bet is they make much more than might pay out with these trailer problems, so why bother to fix the problem if it is going to cut into profits at all? That would be bad business and financial suicide in a climate where the government says, "Do what thou wilt, that is the whole of the law!"

Just keep those ads running and everyone knows things are fine. A couple of PR bumps don't stop the money from flowing these days because that would take some sort of government oversight, you know, somewhat like how companies check your piss when you apply for a job and landlords run complete checks on you before you can rent an apartment.

[Suich]

5. Wow! I had no idea!

Thanks for the heads up!

:)

[Jonathan50]

6. Happened to my wife and I in 1979

We were moving from Richmond VA to Jacksonville FL in our Econoline van with a u haul behind, both heavily loaded.

We got to Gastonia NC with me doing all the driving. My left arm was hanging out the window and it was sunny and hot so I mentioned that I would probably get a bit of sunburn. My wife insisted that she would drive and against my better judgment, after she gave me some grief I relented.

When we stopped for gas in Gastonia, we switched and she started driving. Now I had been feeling a considerable bit of trailer sway but I knew that getting on the gas and not fighting the sway with the wheel would straighten it out and had no problem controlling it.

It never occurred to me that my wife had not noticed what I was doing since it seemed pretty obvious to me.

She hadn't got half a mile and we were going downhill when the trailer started to sway, my wife panicked and hit the brakes. That did it, the next thing I knew we were upside down sliding along the interstate. I actually got a burn on my back from where I was laying on the ceiling that was being heated by the friction on the road.

When we finally came to a stop, we were both a little dazed but essentially ok. The van was totally upside down and the trailer was still right side up and still connected to the van. It was quite clear from the damage that the van had flipped nearly completely over before it even touched the road.

The windshield had popped out and our Nikon camera and our car stereo, which had just been laying on the doghouse, were both out in the road. My wife kept her cool until one of the people who had stopped to help started to stomp on the windshield. That set her off and she just lost it completely and it took me quite a while to calm her down.

The cops came, gave us a ticket for speeding and arranged for a tow and then the ambulance showed up and the paramedics convinced my wife that she should go to the hospital to get checked out even though we both felt pretty good.

After the useless hospital trip someone gave us a ride to a motel and we checked in and relaxed for a bit. My wife took a couple of muscle relaxers that the hospital had given her and started to get a little loopy. There was only one fuzzy channel on the tv and we were bored out of our skulls so we decided on a little self entertainment so to speak. Well, she ended up pregnant from that evening and nine months later we had our daughter.

The van was totaled but all of our other possessions were fine, even the Nikon that had slid down the road only had a few scuff marks on it.

So we basically lost a van and gained a daughter that day. We were extremely lucky to have come out with no injuries at all really, other than a smallish second degree burn on my back.

I've rented u hauls several times since and had no problem at all. In fact we moved from New Orleans to Atlanta with the largest uhaul behind a pickup truck and I ran 70 to 75 the whole way with nary a squiggle. But then we weren't nearly as heavily loaded as the previous disaster.

OK, there you have it, that's my u haul disaster story.. I don't blame u haul, it really had nothing to do with the trailer being defective. It was a combination of heavy load and inexperienced driver that caused the accident.

If I had exercised my better judgment and kept driving it would have never happened. Since then I have followed my judgment in serious matters much more strictly.

Good luck and good night..

[ArmchairActivist]

9. A ticket....

The cops came, gave us a ticket for speeding and arranged for a tow and then the ambulance showed up and the paramedics convinced my wife that she should go to the hospital to get checked out even though we both felt pretty good.

Just goes to show ya that there's no shitty day that somebody with a badge, gun and uniform can't make just a little bit shittier...

[Jonathan50]

10. I didn't mind, he was just doing his job and he was actually pretty nice about it.

He asked me how fast we were going and I estimated fifty, turns out the speed limit with a u haul is forty five.. :shrug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. The cop ticketed you for doing 50?

Where you on the interstate?

turns out the speed limit with a u haul is forty five.

If you are referring to the little square label U-Haul puts on the fenders of its trailers, that is not enforceable by the police. How the hell could a cop give you a ticket like that?

Doesnt make sense to me.

BTW, those 45MPH "limit" stickers they put on are merely a CYA effort by U-Haul. They know damned well no one is going to drive 45 on the highway hauling one of their trailers.

I've driven a rental truck hauling a car trailer all the way across I 10 from Phoenix to Florida, down to Fort Myers with no problem. But it was a Penske rental. I think i have rented U-Haul equipment maybe 3 times and they are very badly maintained.

If i ever move again, it won't be using U-Haul.

[Jonathan50]

25. Hey, I was young and dumb..

How was I to know?

What could I have done anyway? We moved on down to Florida two days later, I would have had to come back for trial and that would have cost me far more than just paying the damn ticket.

[madokie]

27. what a good story

[uppityperson]

30. Did you name your child after this memorable event?

[Jonathan50]

32. Never even entered my mind...

Besides, "Gastonia" would be an awful name for a girl, sounds like a disease of some sort. :)

[uppityperson]

37. Uhaulia wouldn't work well either.

[Tom Joad]

39. Maybe you could have sued U-Haul for Child support?

Interesting story, thanks for sharing it.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. One of the best pieces of advice my Dad ever gave me

was stay clear of U-Hauls on the road. The people driving 'em don't know how to do it.

[Jonathan50]

8. Just a few weeks ago..

My wife's sister was going to pull a u haul from NYC to south Georgia..

Sis in law makes my wife look like Mario Andretti when it comes to driving.

Thankfully her husband managed to get enough time off to do the driving, otherwise it would almost certainly have ended in disaster.

[qdemn7]

11. I moved with a U-Haul one time

But it was one of their next to 17' trucks with automatic tranny and A/C. It drove great. Drove my car to Fort worth, flew back to Austin, loaded up the truck and drove to Fort Worth.

[Jonathan50]

12. Damn, you reminded me of another incident..

I was driving a Jartran truck from San Francisco to Las Vegas.

Getting close to Vegas there is a spot on the road where there is an optical illusion, it appears you are going uphill but you are really going downhill.

Going down this hill the belt driving the power steering pump snapped.

No big huhu you might think. Well that's what I thought too until the truck started moving a bit too fast and I pressed on the brake to slow down a tad.

Turns out that the power steering pump drove the power brakes also.

I ended up with both feet on the brake pressing with everything I had just to barely slow the beast down.

It did eventually come to a stop but it scared the bejeesus out of me and I hitchhiked to Vegas and got a tow. The company I was working for didn't take it all that well and it caused a bit of friction for me for a while..

[theHandpuppet]

14. Have you ever driven a U-Haul on real hills or mountains?

Austin to Fort Worth? Thought not. Try a trip through WV and get back to me.

[qdemn7]

16. Why so hostile?

Just reporting my experience. :wtf:

I would NEVER use one of their trailers. For that matter I would never use ANY trailer for a long distance move.

[Phx_Dem]

50. Have you?

U-Haul 10' truck has a V-8 capable of towing, the U-Haul 14' and 17' trucks come equipped with a Ford Triton V-10 motor. They handle hills just fine.

[elocs]

13. Speaking of safety: being thrown from a vehicle is a strong indication

that a seatbelt was not being worn. You are much, much safer being belted in your vehicle and staying there after a crash. Choices and consequences.

[nolabels]

15. Rent a REAL truck instead already

U-haul is one the competitors of the company i work for. I hear constant horror stories about their junk pieces of equipment. I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for in the moving equipment business.

[jilln]

22. Don't know what company that is

but it seems like there are only 3 choices for long distance moves: U-haul, Budget and Penske. U-haul seems to be the most expensive of those.

I chose Budget and although in the last minute they tried to stick me with a much larger truck, in the end I got the size I wanted (and with another discount, although I had to drive farther to pick it up) and the truck was in great shape.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. You work for either Penske Leasing or Ryder, right?

Either way, i agree. Spending the extra $ for a well maintained vehicle is well worth it.

[nolabels]

26. I am a truck mechanic for Penske

Ryder sold the consumer part of the truck rental business to Budget Truck Rental which think is part of Sears/K-mart. Them Penske trucks are well taken care of by people like me. When the trucks get a few years old and past their prime we sell them and the wholesalers can't hardly buy them fast enough. If it were me, a Penske truck would be the only way i would go.

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. My best bud was a mechanic for Penske in Phoenix for almost 20 years....

He left them a little while back because they promoted a moron over him. He was night shift shop foreman. Works for a local Autocar shop now.

Yup, nothin' but Penske for me.

[nolabels]

31. I may or may not know that moron they promoted in front of him

We had two guys leave our shop out here California to go work out in Phoenix. There is a couple shops out there so maybe not the same one. Anyway both of them took the lead-man position a short time after going there so it might be. Funny thing is if it was either one because both left our shop kind of disgruntled because they could not get their way with people above them. Both also wish they would of never left our shop also.
Strange small world we live in i guess :shrug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. He worked out of the original shop south of downtown. Right off I17

The newer shop is west of town off I10, near where the loop 101 hits Ten (you probably know all this!)

[Phx_Dem]

51. I agree--U-Haul services it's trucks

every 5000 miles, Penske and Budget every 8000 miles.

[Phx_Dem]

47. U-Haul has great trucks

They have added almost 40,000 new trucks to their fleet, and all their trucks are designed with low decks for do-it-yourself movers. Penske and Budget trucks are good if you need to move palletized product loaded off a dock, but I sure would not want to load one of their trucks with the deck 5 feet off the ground.

[focusfan]

17. I have seen people towing with front wheel drives

that is a very very bad idea those things are not fit to tow anything

[OnionPatch]

18. Yikes!

I've moved many times, long distances, towing a U-Haul trailer behind a very small vehicle! I guess there are some pros to having so much junk you need to move up a step and rent the truck. :)

[angstlessk]

52. I towed a trailer with a Datsun 210 from VA to San Diego CA

I had no idea how dangerous it was, I joked and said the trailer wanted to do the driving downhill. Had I read this story BEFORE I took that trip (years ago) I would have been scared to death! Those mountains between AZ and CA are pretty steep. They had stops for water with anti freeze in it in case your car overheated...

[aikoaiko]

19. IIRC, Uhaul trailers used to come with disclaimers about not exceeding 35 MPH

or some other ridiculously low speed. I realized that it wasn't practical to use one to cross the country.

[Solo_in_MD]

20. The real risk to rental trailers is that people think they are qualified to drive them

and many are not. I've done trailers for years, had a commercial license at one point. You need to be on top of your game when towing, not doing the soccer mom thing with kids, cell phones etc. Loading is also key...heavy stuff up front.

Closest I have ever come to a towing disaster is when I had a load shift aft(a walk behind ditch witch). Thought I was going to lose the truck and trailer.

[Canuckistanian]

24. I have a special hatred for U-Haul

When I moved in 2000, I reserved a truck for the 250 mile move. On the day before the move, I phoned to see if my truck was ready. Truck's not here, they said, we'll call you when it's ready.

Next day. Moving day. I phone U-Haul again, no truck. I have 6 people helping me pack and they're all sitting around, just waiting. I'm on the phone every 1/2 hr. No truck in sight.

Finally, I go out and rent a Ryder truck at almost twice the price. I can't drive a big truck that requires double-clutching, so I have to pay someone to drive it. Moving doesn't start until noon.
Frantic packing, stuff is damaged.

We finally arrived at our new house at 2:00 in the morning.

I put in a complaint with the BBB, but I couldn't find my receipt for the reservation (about $70).

U-Haul DENIED that I ever made a reservation.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[dkofos]

29. They also have a 55 mph max speed.

A friend of mine got a ticket for doing 60.

[blues90]

33. I used a U-haul trailer tp move from ILL to southern florida

It was 1976 and I had an old beater 1964 ford van . the trailer had two axles and some sort of break system that was supposed to work against the hitch , surge brake ?

I had it full to the roof and all the weight as forward as possible and some stuff in the van .

All was fine until I was on a downgrade in tenn , this was when the trailer brakes were useless because they would not apply . I don't knhow how fast I was going because the speedo maxed at 90 MPH but I was passing everyone and I could smell my brakes . I was lucky to be able to steer around the traffic and not have to resort to one of those runaway ramps for trucks .

If I had a larger engine then it may have helped slow the damn thing down and larger brakes would have helped or at least electric brakes on the trailer . In other words a larger van .

[Jonathan50]

36. If surge brakes are working properly they actually do quite a good job..

With "working properly" being the operative phrase here..

I'm glad your adventure ended without incident.

Tennessee and North Carolina can be a bitch with a heavy load.

And don't even get me started about the Rockies..

[robbyrob79]

45. Surge brakes suck

I rented a big double axle trailer from a local rental company (very reputable) for my band's tour in Alaska. The problem with surge brakes is that they only really work worth anything when you really jam on the brakes, so when you're driving down long inclines, like you have to do many many times when you drive from Minnesota to Alaska, the brakes don't do much good. If you're going to tow a big heavy trailer, I'd recommend spending the money on an electric brake controller and a trailer with electric brakes. We blew through the brakes on my van (which were pretty much brand new when we left) in about 3000 miles because of it.
Also, like many people have said, driving with a trailer can be dangerous, and you really should have a heavy vehicle to do it, because smaller vehicles aren't designed to pull heavy loads, the brakes, the transmission, the engine, all not really made for heavy loads. The only problem with electric brakes is that you need to adjust them according to the road conditions and the weight of your trailer. That's something that requires experience and careful reading of the manual.
I drive a fullsize conversion van with a gigantic engine (yeah, not very environmentally friendly, but when you have to haul around a few thousand pounds of gear all the time, you gotta have something like that), and I've never really had problems towing a trailer. When you drive a smaller vehicle though, you definitely need to take it a lot easier, go slower, and be really careful going down hills if your trailer doesn't have brakes, because your car's brakes can easily overheat and stop working.
I don't think I'd ever rent a uhaul trailer though, the times I've rented trucks from them, they've always been in poor shape and made me really nervous about driving them.

[DeepModem Mom]

35. K&R

[rucky]

38. Budget is the way to go for truck rental.

Every U-Haul I've driven has been white-knuckle the whole way. Last move I got a 24' from Budget & it was a nice ride.

[badgerpup]

40. Damn...I musta been living right!

Didn't realize how fortunate I was.
Moved from Grants Pass, OR to Southern Cal, using a small enclosed U-Haul trailer hitched to Sherman, my faithful '68 Dodge Dart.
This involved going over the Siskiyou Mountains...not something you want to mess with.

Had a buddy along as co-driver- not enough money to stay at motels, so we usually just hauled out and slept at the rest areas in sleeping bags.

Nobody ever bothered us, no trouble with the trailer...damn, I miss being young, ignorant, confident and bulletproof. :crazy:

[haele]

41. Back in 1995, we were working cross-country; one of the managers and

his wife, drove the company truck with a U-haul back after the job was done and the trailer flipped going up I-95 from Charleston SC to Virginia Beach. The wife was killed instantly. The co-worker following them said the trailer was swaying while they were going over an uneven section of the highway and he though they hit a pothole - and they were going under the speed limit.

I'd rather rent a truck than a trailer anytime.

Haele

[frogcycle]

43. the dynamics of a towed 2-wheeler

are pretty straightforward. It's all about load distribution. Too much weight behind the wheels and you're in a heap of trouble. The damned things could be designed with the wheels farther back and make them much less vulnerable to improper loading, but that would make them less maneuverable when backing up, and fewer people would be willing to rent them because they could not manage them at low speed in reverse. So we get them unmanageable at high speed instead.

[robbyrob79]

46. 2 wheel loading

I've always tried to load my 2 wheel trailer with about 60% of the weight in the front and 40% in the back, when I've had to rent double axle trailers, I think its best to keep as much of the weight as possible over the wheels and maybe keep it slightly tongue heavy, but definitely with the lighter 2 wheelers, you want to make sure that its held down firmly on the hitch, but not so much so that it makes your car's suspension bottom out.

[mrdmk]

54. Having been a professional driver, here are some tips

1) The two wheel trailer distribution 60% front, 40% back is correct.

2) The four or more wheel trailer distribution is recommended to be 60% front, 40% back with a some latitude.

3) Most important, the load must be equal from side to side. If there is any imbalance what-so-ever you will flip. The three triggers to set off a unbalanced load are a) speed (much lower than you expect, 25 mph or less), (b) uneven, cracked, and/or bumpy road (which can result in load shift; hence, more problems), (c) the wind, even the the wind from an oncoming vehicle (the bigger the vehicle, the worst it can be), (d) improper tires, shocks and/or worn out tires, shocks and also worn out brakes and all of the afore mention must be within manufactures specifications.

If you are a person who cannot judge the weight of a item, do not even attempt to load a truck (did I mention trucks can have the same problems) or a trailer.

If you where not a boy scout or a girl scout and do not now knots and how to tie down, get someone else (a professional mover) who does know.

Before loading anything, make sure the air pressure in all of the tires are not under or over the recommended range of the vehicle or tire manufacturer and this must be done with all tires cold. With extremely heavy loads, tire pressure may need to be filled to the maximum (when the tires are cold). If the tires are low on the tractor (car or truck) or the trailer this will also cause sway and the blow-out of the tire(s).

After loading the trailer (and/or truck), on a flat surface make sure the front is sightly lower than the back and you are exactly even from side to side.

If you are not an experienced driver who has pulled a trailer in past, do not even attempt to drive in bad weather.

Make all rental equipment is in good condition. If there is any problem (such as no brake lights on the trailer, rusted through bed...) refuse the deal, it is your safety at risk not the rental company.

My favorite rental company (and I have tried a lot of them) is none. You must be careful at all times.

[michreject]

44. Unless the trailer is a 5th wheel type

The use of an anti sway bar eliminates the danger. My trailer weighs 3X's more than my truck.