Tragic 69 Camaro Crash of the Year !!!!!!!

[BARNFOUND YENKO]

Would you guy's think this car is fixable or totaled?

[SuperNovaSS]

What a bummer. The car looks to have faired much better than the truck. Is the trailer that was used to tow the wrecked Camaro home the same one that flipped? If so, how was it checked over before putting it back ito service?
Barnfound Yenko,
Anything is fixable but I imagine it is a parts car at this point. If it is fixed I imagine it will never be the same.


Jason

[JIM]

I tow about 25,000 miles a year from here all the way to Scottsdale , Fla and everywhere and back every year with my own trucks. I am crazy rechecking everything at every fuel stop straps, tire temp, lights etc. I checked the flipped trailer out really well,it faired pretty good a couple of broken hooks where the car pulled out, dented fenders that we straightend , BUT no damage at all to the nose. The ball was still in the receiver. My buddy Jeff was shaken when I got there and he handed me a souveneir from the scene what he thought was a gaurdrail nut that had been sheared. I looked at it and commented thats the ball nut and threads. at that point the nose of the trailer was still 65 feet down burried nose first. When they hoisted it up the bank shure enough the ball was in the nose with no damage to front of the trailer at all. The safety chains were sheared as was the breakawy, but thats it. His Lawyer is looking into the ball and receiver as it was only one month old as was the trailer all being bought brand new from the trailer company. if You look at the pictures of the back of the truck you can see the receiver clearly missing the ball. He had replaced his 3 car wedge last month with this setup just to have fresh equippment and avoid the DOT hassels of the 3 car wedges as of late. I will get picts of the ball and post them.

Jim

[Andy]

If you know any mechanical engineers(with a PE) or a metallurgist, it would be worth taking it to them to see what they think caused the failure. A fracture would constitute a failure of the part due to a stress concentration in a particular area caused by a void in the material(small piece missing), or an area that wasn't radiused correctly. Where it fractured at would have rough jagged edges on the outer border. If the ball failed in necking, you would see what appears to be an elongation/thinning of the area where the fracture would be. If the part was designed incorrectly and the defective part illustated that the portion of the design that was incorrect caused the failure, then you could have a valid case for a lawsuit against the manufacturer.

In my opinon it sounds like it failed due to not meeting the rating for which it was given and it wasn't radiused correctly.

A question, where the ball meets the shank, was there a smooth radius there? Or did it look like the ball was cut on the bottom and affixed to the shank with no radius? The reason I ask is that if it had a radiused edge, the stress would be significantly lower than it would be with out it.

Its good to know that he is alright. Sorry to be long winded, but as an engineer when I see problems like this, I try to use the stuff from the books to come up with a reasonable answer why it could have happened.

Oh, one more thing. Most of the time, when something like a trailerball, winch cable, rope....anything that is load rated is desgined by an engineer or company, a factor of safety is usually incorperated. For instance, if the trailerball was rated at 10,000 lbs, but had a factor of safety of 1.5, then the maxium load it should be able to withstand would be 15,000 lbs. This is done primarily to protect the customer. Most people don't know exactly how much things weigh they they are towing/lifting, but they have a general idea. Its better to build a product with some extra capacity than build it with only the rating that is stamped on it.

[CC Rider]

Sorry to hear this, glad everyone is OK.

[69Tom]

Andy, interesting explanation there. Hopefully Jim's friend's attorney is on top of this.

Well Jim, if they part the car out, tell your friend I'm in need of a RS headlight set up if he's able to sell it and it still works.

[Canuck]

Gald to hear the driver was OK. That is one sick image.
I would have thaought that towing with a Dually would be a safe bet, however if the only contact point on that long trailer was a 2 5/16 ball that tapers down to 1 inch at the shaft then that was not enough.

There are better hitch solutions out there. This is what I use:



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