Question about wrecks while towing a 5th wheel

[jayspi]

This is a general question that probably seems morbid, but there's a reason I ask. Have people seen or experienced (hopefully not that one) a 5th wheel coming through the back of the tow vehicle when there is a collision or rear-ended?

I've looked at lots of pictures and it seems that most 5th wheels jackknife or roll instead of coming straight forward. However, I read a post on Facebook a while back where the person towing had to make an emergency stop. When they did, an 18 wheeler or bus (I forget) rear-ended them and pushed them into the vehicle that they were behind. They said it pushed the 5th wheel through the back window, but thankfully it didn't come through the front seat.

Has anyone seen or experienced that? It seems to me like a proper hitch should force the trailer to jackknife, not come straight forward.

To be clear, I'm not accusing the person on Facebook of doing anything wrong. I'm just saying I remember reading about it. My post has nothing to do with them. I don't even remember who it was. I'm wondering for myself. Their situation was very unique...they were effectively rear-ended and had a head-on collision at the same time. I think their 5th wheel had no place to go but forward.

[ChuckV1]

Looking at the picture again I feel there was either a driver following to close an not paying attention or was going to fast to stop ...

I have has a 5th wheel hitch fail on me in a semi, I had two 30,000pd steel coils on an was about to pull into a driveway, the jaws came loose an as luck would have it the trailer dropped on the truck frame not hurting the landing gear ... I jacked the trailer back up an pulled the truck out from under the trailer, they sent another truck to pull the trailer into the factory so I could deliver the load... Mu thoughts were that I had just 10 minutes before been traveling down I-75 at 60mph in traffic Ugh !!! so locking jaws on 5th wheel hitches will brake, trust me I have been there ...

Safe Travels

[allen8106]

theoldwizard1 wrote:
If the trailer brakes are working correctly, a 5er climbing over the truck bed would be very unusual.

If you get slammed from the rear trailer brakes aren't going to do a thing except maybe leave rubber marks on the pavement as the offending vehicle pushed your 5ver forward.

[packnrat]

without reading the reply's. straight line crunch, the 5er frame will impact the rear of the truck. but nothing can with stand too much of a impact. yes even a 40 ft 5er with long truck, can be reduced to less than 20 feet in total length.
think big rock and immovable mt.
weird things can happen with enough force.

[mtofell1]

I've wondered about this exact thing as my kids are often in the back seat of my truck while I'm towing the 5th wheel. It kind of bugs me having such limited visibility behind me. Of course, there's really not much I could do anyway in a lot of cases. As someone mentioned, a lot of energy would be taken up by the 5th and truck frames. I envision more injury to people in the backseat from things like shattering fiberglass pieces and whatnot.

[rhagfo]

Jetstreamer wrote:

laknox wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:
There was a very tragic story posted on here a while back where a family was towing a gooseneck horse trailer and they left the road to avoid an accident (I think). Unfortunately, the trailer came through the back of the truck and killed all but one person, or perhaps all of them.

That being said, I've never read a story or seen where a fifth wheel RV disconnected from the hitch and came through the back of the truck. In my mind, I would find it hard to believe that this could actually happen short of someone driving full speed into the back of immovable object. If this happened, the 5er coming through the back is probably the least of your concerns. Under any other imaginable circumstance, I believe the nose of the 5er would more/less self-implode upon impact and the frame would get caught up somewhere along the way.

The horse trailer mentioned above was probably built more rigid than the truck itself and likely weighed 20K-25K pounds.

Makes me wonder if this happened in a jurisdiction that doesn't require safety chains for a GN. Either that, or a semi rear-ended the rig. Sad, either way...



Lyle

I believe it was because the truck and trailer ended up in a large, steep ditch causing the trailer to almost jacknife vertically through the back of truck cab.

I also recall that post, if I recall correctly they went into a steep sided ditch and the TV frame bent in half. As I recall it the hitch didn't fail.

[WTP-GC]

laknox wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:
There was a very tragic story posted on here a while back where a family was towing a gooseneck horse trailer and they left the road to avoid an accident (I think). Unfortunately, the trailer came through the back of the truck and killed all but one person, or perhaps all of them.

That being said, I've never read a story or seen where a fifth wheel RV disconnected from the hitch and came through the back of the truck. In my mind, I would find it hard to believe that this could actually happen short of someone driving full speed into the back of immovable object. If this happened, the 5er coming through the back is probably the least of your concerns. Under any other imaginable circumstance, I believe the nose of the 5er would more/less self-implode upon impact and the frame would get caught up somewhere along the way.

The horse trailer mentioned above was probably built more rigid than the truck itself and likely weighed 20K-25K pounds.

Makes me wonder if this happened in a jurisdiction that doesn't require safety chains for a GN. Either that, or a semi rear-ended the rig. Sad, either way...

Lyle

I don't recall reading anything about the safety chains in that story. But from personal experience, we tow 16K-18K backhoes on a dual tandem GN trailer. While our safety chains connect to large welded clevis-style loops attached the frame, the standard B & W safety chain connections that comes with their TO ball kit is far less substantial. Much in the way that folks pass judgement on the AUH based on the "eye" test, I do the same with those safety chain connection points. In reality, though, in order for this to be an issue, they GN ball would have already ripped off...and I can only imagine what kind of force that would take!

[laknox]

Jetstreamer wrote:

laknox wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:
There was a very tragic story posted on here a while back where a family was towing a gooseneck horse trailer and they left the road to avoid an accident (I think). Unfortunately, the trailer came through the back of the truck and killed all but one person, or perhaps all of them.

That being said, I've never read a story or seen where a fifth wheel RV disconnected from the hitch and came through the back of the truck. In my mind, I would find it hard to believe that this could actually happen short of someone driving full speed into the back of immovable object. If this happened, the 5er coming through the back is probably the least of your concerns. Under any other imaginable circumstance, I believe the nose of the 5er would more/less self-implode upon impact and the frame would get caught up somewhere along the way.

The horse trailer mentioned above was probably built more rigid than the truck itself and likely weighed 20K-25K pounds.

Makes me wonder if this happened in a jurisdiction that doesn't require safety chains for a GN. Either that, or a semi rear-ended the rig. Sad, either way...



Lyle

I believe it was because the truck and trailer ended up in a large, steep ditch causing the trailer to almost jacknife vertically through the back of truck cab.

Yeah, that'd do it.

Lyle

[Cummins12V98]

"Aridon, this is very off topic, but I'm curious what you think about the 4.10 gears on your 2018 Ram. We just bought a 38 foot Momentum 354M. We're about 16k fully loaded. I'm planning to upgrade to a Ram 2018 3500 DRW Laramie. I'm leaning towards the 4.10 gears. I value power over mileage. But I'd love to know what your experience has been. "

Get the aISIN with factory rear air. If towing 29k combined or under get the 3,42's!!! Forget the 3.73's. Anything heavier 4.10's. I have owned BOTH towing heavy.

I suggest starting a new thread on this subject!

[Jetstreamer]

laknox wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:
There was a very tragic story posted on here a while back where a family was towing a gooseneck horse trailer and they left the road to avoid an accident (I think). Unfortunately, the trailer came through the back of the truck and killed all but one person, or perhaps all of them.

That being said, I've never read a story or seen where a fifth wheel RV disconnected from the hitch and came through the back of the truck. In my mind, I would find it hard to believe that this could actually happen short of someone driving full speed into the back of immovable object. If this happened, the 5er coming through the back is probably the least of your concerns. Under any other imaginable circumstance, I believe the nose of the 5er would more/less self-implode upon impact and the frame would get caught up somewhere along the way.

The horse trailer mentioned above was probably built more rigid than the truck itself and likely weighed 20K-25K pounds.

Makes me wonder if this happened in a jurisdiction that doesn't require safety chains for a GN. Either that, or a semi rear-ended the rig. Sad, either way...



Lyle

I believe it was because the truck and trailer ended up in a large, steep ditch causing the trailer to almost jacknife vertically through the back of truck cab.

[laknox]

WTP-GC wrote:
There was a very tragic story posted on here a while back where a family was towing a gooseneck horse trailer and they left the road to avoid an accident (I think). Unfortunately, the trailer came through the back of the truck and killed all but one person, or perhaps all of them.

That being said, I've never read a story or seen where a fifth wheel RV disconnected from the hitch and came through the back of the truck. In my mind, I would find it hard to believe that this could actually happen short of someone driving full speed into the back of immovable object. If this happened, the 5er coming through the back is probably the least of your concerns. Under any other imaginable circumstance, I believe the nose of the 5er would more/less self-implode upon impact and the frame would get caught up somewhere along the way.

The horse trailer mentioned above was probably built more rigid than the truck itself and likely weighed 20K-25K pounds.

Makes me wonder if this happened in a jurisdiction that doesn't require safety chains for a GN. Either that, or a semi rear-ended the rig. Sad, either way...

Lyle

[Road_Phantom]

If the tow vehicle and trailer are at a slight angle to each other and gets rear ended, and the force is great enough, the rv rig will jack knife.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

If the sky is falling - it's falling.

Assume the position, say adios - and hello to "Murphy".

~

[Aridon]

Very happy with my truck so far.

You really don't see much difference with the 4.10 ratio. In the higher gears, which is where you spend most of the the time, the difference is non existent. On the lower end there is diminishing differences. So first gear is large, second not as large, third and by fourth it is almost the same.

The end result is it really isn't a big deal for fuel mileage. On the highway I get 17 to 20. If I'm doing 78 or so I get closer to 17, If I"m doing 60 I get closer to 20 or so. If I'm in stop and go where I'm never out of idle or second then my mileage will blow regardless so again, NBD. City mileage runs around 15 or so. When towing I get 10 mpg on average but we tow mostly flat areas around 60-63mph.

As for towing, I don't even know that the unit is back there. Sturdy, no sway, no push or pull when the trucks go by, nothing.

Very happy with the truck. Would purchase again without any changes.

[jayspi]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I appreciate the feedback.

fj12ryder wrote:
But why worry, if it happens, it happens. No amount of worry will keep something like that from happening. Do the best you can and let the what-ifs fall away beside you. Life is too short to worry excessively, and especially about thing over which you have no control.

I'm not particularly worried about it. We've full-timed since 2015 with only two accidents. Both of them were caused by very sneaky stumps that just ran up and punched my bumper in a campground. I did nothing to deserve it.

The reason I was asking is because we have a baby who will soon be old enough that he doesn't have to ride in a rear-facing car seat. He's young enough that it's still recommended, though.

I've been mulling over which is more dangerous in the case of an accident...the risk to his head and neck if he's facing forward, or the risk to his face if we were rear-ended.

After looking at lots of pictures and reading this thread I think we'll stick with rear facing.

Oh, and if--God forbid--the worst should happen, I'm not going to come running back here saying "so and so said it could never happen" lol. I was just wondering if it's something people have seen or heard of.

Aridon wrote:
2019 Grand Design Momentum 395
2018 Ram 3500 DRW 4.10

Aridon, this is very off topic, but I'm curious what you think about the 4.10 gears on your 2018 Ram. We just bought a 38 foot Momentum 354M. We're about 16k fully loaded. I'm planning to upgrade to a Ram 2018 3500 DRW Laramie. I'm leaning towards the 4.10 gears. I value power over mileage. But I'd love to know what your experience has been.