Today I finally decided to move my parts car, a '90 BMW E34, off my
parents driveway and instead park it in their barn about 50 miles
outside the city. Apparently neither my parents, nor the neighbors,
liked it there, and not having valid registration and no insurance it'd
be illegal to park it in the street. Figuring, how difficult can it be,
I took my newly bought '90 Cherokee, rented a trailer and drove over
there. Long story short, after looking for the keys to for about half an
hour I was ready to go. My dad thought it would be fun to come along,
which turned out to be a good thing. Anyway, loaded the car on the
trailer and hit the freeway.

At first everything was fine, but that quickly changed. Going up a steep
hill I was hard on the gas to maintain a steady 60 km/h, and after
reaching the top the speed increased. Talking to my dad I wasn't paying
attention so I don't exactly know how fast I was going, but I guess
around 90 km/h, maybe more. Then all of a sudden both the Jeep and the
trailer started do sway back and forth. Not sure what to do I did
nothing but ease off the gas, but the oscillation increased. Now,
realizing that this is *not* good, and knowing that if I didn't
straighten it out we'd sure have an accident, I was trying to think of
what you should do in these situations. All I could think of was either
do nothing or accelerate and pull the vehicle straight, deciding that
accelerating might only get me in more trouble I just kept my foot off
the gas. Finally, after swinging back and forth maybe ten times with
increasing strength the rear wheels on the Jeep lost traction and it
started going sideways. This might be what saved us, because I think the
surge brakes on the trailer kicked in at that moment. Either that or the
sway transformed into just pushing the Jeep sideways. Needless to say,
having owned my Camaro for ten years I know how to handle oversteer, so
after straitening it out everything was fine. I must say though, that
was the most frightening I have experienced pulling a trailer.

It was a bit funny though that after that, and despite going about 40
km/h below the speed limit, it took a while before other drivers dared
to pass us. The rest of the trip I kept the speed under 80 km/h on the
freeway and 70 km/h on the two lane highway. I did pull over twice, the
first time after driving on a long straight and seeing cars behind me
the entire length. I started counting them, but I lost track at about
30. I estimate about 40 vehicles were directly behind us, but only one
honked and I'm not sure if it was a "get off the road" or a "thank you
for pulling over" honk. I hope the latter... :-)

Anyway, aside from that everything went smooth, except that all four
wheel chocks had moved around and were useless, the tie down on the
right wheel was loose and that the tilting bed wasn't secured. And, of
course, the lights on the trailer didn't work either. First time pulling
a trailer with the Jeep and I suspect the trailer light wiring is not up
to par.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77946624@N00/sets/72157602103663080/

Ulf