If you don't want to attract undue attention...

[digger242j]

...then don't do stupid, unsafe, stuff. :beatsme

Thanks to xkvator for pointing this story out to me.

Ever since the accident described in this thread (http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?p=34545#post34545), the police in this area have been really diligent in looking at trailer safety.

This story (http://www.wpxi.com/news/13410878/detail.html) concentrates mainly on the "illegal immigrant" aspect, but they were stopped because the cop apparently saw the safety chains dragging. Their citzenship status notwithstanding, this is totally irresponsible, and desrves to be punished.

A pick-up truck was pulled over at the Rt. 51 off-ramp around 8 a.m. because officials said a trailer was not properly attached to the tow vehicle, and a chain was dragging on the ground.

[cat320]

funny thing about those pintals they need something on top to hold them down lol

[CM1995]

Pintle hitch? - we don't need no stikin' pintle hitch!

I'll add another funny/scary story I saw once. The brick masons truck broke down so he was using his "sunday driving car" to pull the mixer around. This sunday driver was an early '90's volkswagen hatch-back, good car - you can fit all 6 of your workers in:rolleyes: but the only thing missing was a trailer hitch. No hitch no problem - just raise the hatch back and put the pull bar for the mixer into the "trunk" area and secure tightly with weep rope around the front seats!:eek: I sure wish that I would have taken a picture of that.

[digger242j]

Way back when I was first being introduced to this business, I worked for a guy that would pull a compressor without having a pintle hitch. He took a good sized clevis, and put the bolt through the hole in the bumper where the ball usually goes. I didn't like that idea either, but I sure like it better than what's in those pictures.

[wrenchbender]

I've seen worse than the ones in the pics. One of my Xcustomers has an old GMC Brigadere tandem axle dump and a 30' flat deck pintle hitch tag along. He put his paving machine small grader and roller on the trailer. Then he ran a chain through the pintle eye and around the rear cross member of the frame. With the chain being about 2 & 1/2' long there was a little delay when the truck started off before the trailer would move. I tried to stop him but he said he was only going a 1/2 mile to his place. About an hour later I needed to make a parts run what do you think I saw. My buddy sitting on the side of the road about a mile and a half down the road from my shop. And he had company DOT I found out later he didn't have a CDL or even a drivers license no insurance wrong tag and an unsafe vehicle. And on top of it all he failed the drug test (I thought he had been studying lol) And to beat it all in less than 2 weeks he was on the road again but this time he had a proper hitch. I don't know about the other infractions.

[xkvator]

Way back when I was first being introduced to this business, I worked for a guy that would pull a compressor without having a pintle hitch. He took a good sized clevis, and put the bolt through the hole in the bumper where the ball usually goes. I didn't like that idea either, but I sure like it better than what's in those pictures.

back in the 70's...i was working at USSteel...

a friend of mine was doing concrete work...asked me to get him some 1" clevises...

he was doing the same thing...renting compressors - towing them behind his 1-ton dump that only had a bar type hitch

well...he's traveling north on 51, just south of the Blue Flame restaurant...when he glanced in the right mirror just in time to see the compressor going over the bank into the creek about 10' below...
if he wouldn't have glanced over, he would've never known what happened to it...

they found the clevis laying on the road, cracked in half...
although they're rated to pick up a good bit of weight, they're too hard for the constant shock of the pintle hook...

[xkvator]

...and quite a few of the city, township, borough police forces around here have DOT officers now...

don't think you're goin' to sneak through 51 in Rostraver Twp. on a Sunday morning, either...you better be legal & not over weight...they really watch, now

[CM1995]

...and quite a few of the city, township, borough police forces around here have DOT officers now...

Ain't that the truth. The local police have figured out that DOT reg. enforcement is quite the money maker!:mad: The frustrating part is some of these officers don't know what they are inspecting. A friend of mine had a local police DOT guy tell him he needed a CDL to drive his 3500 Dually and he was not pulling a trailer!:rolleyes:

But I do think more DOT enforcement is needed for idiots like the ones in the pictures. The problem is the over zelous rookie that wants to prove a point and it doesn't matter how well taken care of your rig is they can still find something if they really want to.

[nedly05]

Around here those of us who make an effort to keep up with things, do pre-trips, be all legal and do it right are the ones that end up in the check points, while the guy who is out of class with no plates no safety chains...get away with whatever. Like my ol' man says. It's just a matter of time before one of those guys gets stopped and then the DOT will be all over everyone like flies on you know what.

[thejdman04]

some people

[bluntman410g]

back in the 70's...i was working at USSteel...

a friend of mine was doing concrete work...asked me to get him some 1" clevises...

he was doing the same thing...renting compressors - towing them behind his 1-ton dump that only had a bar type hitch

well...he's traveling north on 51, just south of the Blue Flame restaurant...when he glanced in the right mirror just in time to see the compressor going over the bank into the creek about 10' below...
if he wouldn't have glanced over, he would've never known what happened to it...

they found the clevis laying on the road, cracked in half...
although they're rated to pick up a good bit of weight, they're too hard for the constant shock of the pintle hook...

we had that happen with our hino and compressor a guy was pulling and he fell asleep at the wheel i was in front pulling the backhoe out to the job and i get there and wait and wait finally get a call from him and the compressor is rolled in the ditch parts all over the road! good thing i had the hoe with me cause i had to load it up on the trailer and head into town to the junkyard total loss on our sul:Pointheadair!!

[Taylortractornu]

Scrap ironers are the next best on hitching things like that and tying down but the DOT here wont check them. The MDOT road crew here isnt too far from my house and I know a few folks that work there. They were working near my day job at the land fill. They were handling brush and chipping I told them that they could dump with at our site rather than drive 20 miles the the county. then we heard a crash, one of them was unloading a new cat backhoe off the trailer and the the thing came un hitched. This was hauled from the end of the county to the other end about 50 miles plus the first 14 going to pick the hoe up empty the trailer hadnt been hitched or safety chained.
One thing about the DOT they are alot of the pure bastards. I was taking a new Mack straight from the dealers to get a bed on it for a friend and got checked. They said theTepm tag didnt count and that it had loose lines that didnt pass the hand pull test. Most dont have any experience with trucks or such. One fellow I know thats DOT has only wanted to tote a gun ever since we were in highschool. I have a 94 1 ton Dodge company truck with a flat bed set up for a service truck I have a welder Air comp and a fuel tank. The fuel gage doesnt work in the truck but we use the odometer for a gauge. One night I forgot to fill up and got nearly home from a parts run and the truck cut out, I realised my mistake and pulled off and got the fuel hose out. We run road fuel in all the equipment to keep from a mix up and this clown got me had to sit there 45 minutes till he could get another officer to tell him that green was a road fuel.

[zhkent]

I thought a corn binder was an International Harvester, not a hitching mechanism.