Bad Bad day yesterday (kind of long)

[vc]

Yesterday afternoon the guy that does the killing for the local butcher’s called me to tell me he could process my pigs today. I told him I would haul them to his place that evening so they would be there in the morning for him (wife does not like things killed at the house). On my way home I see the truck I use to haul the trailer going down the road, oh well I just use the ½ ton I only have to go about 15 miles and it is just 2 hogs.
The truck had been down for about a year, I just had the transmission replaced, plus it only has 250,000 miles on it. When I went to turn the gooseneck ball over it was stuck, I spray some WD-40 on it, nothing. I get out a pipe and a block and try and lift it out nothing, I end up getting out the farm jack and jacking it out with some effort. Get the trailer hooked up and everything is good now.
I get the hogs loaded no problem, just through some feed in the back and they jumped right in. Get down the road about 8 miles (I am more than half way there) when I look in the mirror to see a pig doing a tumble on the road. I pull over jump out and go to shut the trailer door to make sure the other pig stays in the trailer; he is nowhere to be seen. Cars comes buy and the people tell me he is down the road about a ¼ mile. I get her off the road and down an embankment, and jump in the truck to find the other one.
As I get down the road I see cars pulled over traffic backed up, and a guy with a news camera (you have got to be kidding me) I get the trailer turned around and go to park it and it will not go in to park (come on now).  The pig is shook up, but seems to be OK, The guys that pulled over offer to help me get him in the trailer, as the guy with the camera starts asking me what happened (now I already figured out I screwed up when I shut the gate, and I feel about an inch tall, now I have to explain it, great. He then ask how I feel about the people that stopped to help, I tell him in this community I would not expect less, that’s how people are in this town.
We get him loaded back in the trailer, only after I ask the guy with the camera to please turn it off; pigs like to scream when you handle them. I head back down to the area the other pig is, she is just cruising around, looking for her buddy. I back the trailer down a service road and as I go to park it, it won’t go into park. I’m on about a 15 percent grade and can’t get out of the truck, the same three guys who helped me with the first pig came to help with the second, they tell me to just stay in the truck, they will load her. She walks to the back of the trailer, they grab an ear and a tail and in she goes (both pigs are pushing 280 or better), they close the trailer and assure me it is shut, (I still want to get out and check after all I have been through) But don’t.
I get them where they are going water them, get them watered down and they seem to be doing fine.
I have been hauling animals for over 30 years and that is the first time I have messed up, I am just glad the pigs and everyone else did not get injured or worse.

 

[SeannyT]

Wow very bad luck. Glad that the pigs weren't injured badly. One of my biggest fears when hauling cattle is looking in the mirror to see a calf rolling down the highway. I often double or triple check that the door is latched correctly.

 

[vc]

I usually do too, I check at the gate, just got in a hurry to get done before dark, wont happen again I can tell you that.
Just like the plug leaving the plug out of a boat, it only happens once. (ya I did that once too)

 

[lightnin4]

Just like the plug leaving the plug out of a boat, it only happens once. (ya I did that once too)

I did that once...fortunately I also forgot to unhook the boat from the winch on the trailer. :  So, I just pulled it back out and let it drain.  (lol)

 

[OH Breeder]

So Sorry about your luck. I think its happen to us all at one time or another. I had it happen with two horses in a two horse trailer. I trusted someone else. When I back up and out on the highway the trailer teeter up and down and I about had a heart attack. So glad your pigs were okay and you and them were not involved in anything. People are so sue happy today it could have turned out bad. I always no matter what walk back and check all the connections before i pull out. It is my thing.. the kids know I will always ask and walk around the trailer ...everything hooked up and secured. Glad for your happy ending!

 

[WJ Farms]

Some guy in my hometown loaded 3 horses on a 16 foot bumper pull stock trailer and took off heading down the road all he had to drive was about 15 miles to his buddys house where he was gonna drop off his his buddys horses. One of his buddys horses leg and broke through the floor and he the guy driving never stopped and he drug it for you about 8 of those 15 miles averaging about 60 MPH and when he go there to unload the horses. That one horse had nothing below his ankle just drug it completely it off and for about a month you could see a blood trail down the highway where he had drug it!!!! My first thought was how could he not feel the horse struggling if he even was I dont know. He was just pulling it with a chevy 1/2 ton..........I dont know thought but pretty bad story none the less

 

[nkotb]

Last year my dad was taking a crippled 450 lb. calf to the butcher, about a 25 mile drive.  We loaded him and both double checked the gate.  He got out on the interstate and was headed in, about 3 miles from his destination when a highway patrol pulled him over to tell him he needed to go back and pick up his dead calf.  He had lost it about 15 miles before, the slide gate that we never use because it's too hard to open had somehow slid open.  He called on his way to say he might need help lifting a dead calf into the trailer.  The next call I get is to meet him on the Interstate and bring some ropes, when he had bent down to pick the calf up he had jumped up and took off running down the interstate.  Luckily the hi. po. had already shut down both lanes of interstate, so no cars coming.  The police were able to help him get it cornered in a drainage ditch where he could back the trailer down in and load the calf up.
Also had a 2-horse bumper-pull trailer one time that my wife said she hooked up come off the ball.  We were going down the highway in Missouri and I see the trailer start to sway so I pulled over.  Turns out she had hooked the safety chains but hadn't latched the ball.  When it came unhooked it caught on the safety chains, but bent the jack so I couldn't just reattach it.  We unloaded the horses and were trying to figure out how we were going to get it up high enough to hook up when some MODOT employees pulled up.  After some ribbing, they told us it was illegal to graze horses on the MODOT right of way, two very large gentlemen picked up the tongue of the trailer so I could back under it. 

 

[chiangus]

Had ones of the those days before, but lucky no camera crew to film it.  Did you get your truck back into park.  Sometimes that cable linkage between the handle gets messed up.  I had a truck that didn't like to go into park either and had nothing to do with transmission.

 

[justintime]

When I read your post it brought back many memories for me. I have had a few things like this happen over the years and I get a bit faint when I think about them. The first thing I remembered, was many years ago shortly after we had imported IDS Duke of Dublin from Ireland. I loaded him and headed to a stud that  was 600 miles from here to get him collected. I wanted to get there before they closed for the day, so I drove straight through and only stopped for fuel a couple times. When I arrived there I opened the trailer gate and almost died when I saw what had happened. Four of the floor boards of the trailer were gone along with the rubber mat that had covered them. Duke was standing with his front feet about 4 inches from the open floor and was a happy camper. I have no idea how many miles I had travelled with the boards gone and I have no idea how he had not fallen through. I was almost sick for most of the trip home.

The second incident I remembered happened two years ago last February when I was headed to the Iowa Beef Expo to meet a guy from Texas who had purchased a couple bulls and several heifers. I had taken one load down to meet him a couple months before and was taking the last ones he had bought. I stopped in Minot ND for lunch and when I left there it had started to blizzard pretty good. The snow was drifting across the highway and visibility was pretty poor but I kept going. As I pulled into a gas station in Carrington ND to fill my truck, another truck pulled up beside me and his wife was waving frantically at me. I had not even got out of the truck yet when I heard her yell " your trailer gate is open". I think I could have won an Olympic Gold for my dash to the back of the trailer. The sliding door on my trailer had slid open and a heifer was standing with her head out of the trailer. I shut the gate and went back to thank the people for letting me know. They said they had pulled onto the highway behind me 23 miles west of Carrington, and the door was open then and the heifer was standing with her head out of the door then. The driver told me that he had tried most everyhing he could think of to get my attention. He said he had blinked his lights, which I had seen but just thought it was from the drifting snow. At one point he said he had pulled up close behind me to try and keep the heifer from jumping out and his wife said that if she does jump out he would drive right over her before he could stop. He said it was blowing so bad that he could not see far enough ahead to try to pass me and get me stopped. After filling up, my next stop was to buy some chain and a lock, and I now chain and lock all my trailer gates no matter if  am heading out on a long trip or just to a pasture a mile away from home. I have no idea how that gate latch got opened as it is pretty hard to open and I had not used the sliding door in at least a year or more. I have often wondered if someone had unlatched it when I had stopped for lunch in Minot. In any event, they will need a bolt cutter the next time if that is what happened.
The other thing I have done since that incident is that I have put my cell phone # on the back door of both my trailers.

I'm glad your story had a happy ending and that everything turned out OK. It certainly brought back some scary memories for me!!

 

[Sparkle]

Bless your heart! That was really bad. We, who have hauled animals of any kinds, all fear the same thing happening to us. But, I would be on the look out on You tube for a video on your situation...

 

[vc]

Well still nothing as far as the guy with the news camera, hopefully he was just a local. The truck, the shift cable wore out, 2 hours on Saturday crawling around under the truck and were back on the road.