After my rant the other day about people towing stuff wrong and not knowing how to back up, I got an email from BangShifter extraordinaire Greg Rourke who said he had something good and entertaining to share. Oh this video is good alright! And I seem to recall running it on the site once before, but I can’t find it so here you go!
(Words by Greg Rourke)
Trailer towing is best left to the experts. Clearly, Chad has some strong opinions on folks hauling trailers that have no business hauling trailers. I do too, my day job involves renting trailers to people who have never seen a trailer before let alone pulled one, but I digress. Chad’s rant reminded me of this vid that’s been around for a while so I thought I would share.
Setting up a tow vehicle involves more than slapping on a hitch and a light cord. Many vehicles aren’t rated to tow anything, but that doesn’t stop the aftermarket from manufacturing a hitch for them. And in the case of the car in this video, I’m guessing some cat wandered over to Farm and Fleet (or whatever the European equivalent is), bought a buzz box and some steel stock and welded up a receiver. The car seems to be some sort of Fiat 124/ Renault Le Car crossbreed. The camper trailer is about 24 feet long, likely weighing 3500 pounds or so. That’s about 3400 pounds more than he should be towing. Some cyclists are fixing a flat tire when we hear this mess attempting to climb a hill. The car is belching smoke, which might be oil or clutch, but the car is surging along barely, until it motors out of the frame. We hear it stall, then the starter grinding, and then the hapless rec vee rolls backwards down the hill. Now we learn two important facts. One, if you cannot back up a trailer, you have no business driving one forward. And two, trailer brakes do not operate in reverse.
Next time, this guy should consider staying at Motel 6.
Why didn’t he do us all a favour and reverse into those mobile traffic jams known as cyclists?
That would have made this clip even funnier!
probably towing with the trans in over-drive (a no-no when towing anything) and cooked the trans. now,if it was a stick–just not much in the motor-department and even less in the brain bucket
Seen this a few times over the years, still makes me laugh out loud.
I’m speechless, really
A one-week drive through Spain and France years ago had us coming across a tiny-car/”caravan” wreck or jack-knife each day. Usually w/ an older couple or group standing around scratching their heads over it, like “what the hell just happened?”. At least in the U.S. the idiots try it w/ trucks or Suburbans.
Seen it before still think it’s great!
“He’s running a bit rich, I would say”
late 80’s Renault R5…never built to pull such a large caravan/camper. Head gasket was long gone by this point…