Most recent used of the trailer, yesterday, almost got Hachi killed. I've been having nightmares about it all night, and even daymares yesterday, flashing back to it with all sorts of "what if" bad stuff happens. Can't seem to stop thinking about it.
I finally got DayGlo Avenger and everything working with the trailer and motor, so I could start taking the dogs out again. It's been a few months now because of problems with stuff and lack of time and parts to fix them. I took Hachi out in the Kennel Trailer up to work to socialize her some with dogs and people that might be there, and maybe go to the park afterward.
On the way there, though, the trailer hitch came apart as I was transitioning from a driveway on the sidewalk to the road, because the sidewalk was going to get too narrow for the trailer a little bit ahead.
At that moment, the hitch came off, and becuase of the way the load was changing in the turn, and the heaviness of the bike itself plus the motor helping me pedal, I didn't evne feel it happen right away!
A car that was a little ways behind me stopped and moved the trailer and Hachi back into a parking lot and watched her while I turned around and came back, and everything turned out ok, but if they had not cared or not noticed (somehow) and hit her, she coudl've been hurt or killed (instead of just terrified).
I also almost broke her ribs hugging her so hard after getting back to her, and she was happier to see me than when I have been gone for hours from home.
Failure details: My hitch has the handlebar stem on the bike end, and the steerer and head tubes (minus the fork) on the trailer end. Stem goes up into the trailer's steerer tube (upside down from normal, ostensibly to prevent exactly what happened even should the bolt fail), and is tightened securely by wrenching the stem bolt down, which forces the wedge nut to clamp into the steerer tube.
The failure was that somehow the bolt and wedge nut failed and CAME COMPLETELY OUT. I looked around a little on that road, but didn't find them. Hachi probably moved rearward past the back axle of the trailer, and the turning plus that lifted the front of the trailer enough to allow the steerer tube to come up off the stem, disconnecting it entirely from the bike.
I am certain that I had tightened it securely, as I couldnt' turn the wrench any further, just like normal, when attaching the trailer before leaving the house. I can't imagine a situation other than the bolt actually breaking off at the base of the wedge nut that would allow them to fall out, and even that shouldn't be possible, even though the bolt is the hollow type from a BMX that usually has the front brake cable passing thru it.
I really want to find the bolt to figure out how this could have happened.
What I SHOULD have done with the hitch, that I did once during initial testing but nto during regular use, is to run the bike lock thru the front of the kennel's vent holes and then around the U of the fork the hitch attaches to the bike with, so that even if the hitch broke or came loose, it would never have been able to come off the bike itself (although it would probably drag the bike to a stop really fast).
I DID do this for the rest of the trip, but I moronically didn't do it to start with, and nearly got her killed because of it.
Even having a stupid bungee cord between them as I had to do for other reasons before moving the wheels forward a bit would have kept it on the bike long enough to let me know the hitch had failed, and let me stop before it came off.
Anyway, now at least I will always always always put the bike cable lock thru the kennel and around the U-fork so that even the same failure cannot result in loss of the trailer. I may weld a U onto the bottom front of the hitchpost to bolt a specific cable of shorter length to, rather than using the bike lock, but even the bike lock will do the job fine.
