Yesterday I was unloading my GT4 off my open Trailex trailer with a friend, and a peaceful Sunday afternoon nearly ended with a major accident. I thought folks would benefit from hearing what happend, which is probably going sound similar to other stories out there, but is a good reminder of what not to do.

About a week ago I took delivery of my new X5 diesel, after trading in my X5 35i. The dealership swaped the trailer hitch from the old X5 to the new one and my friend and I were checking the tongue weight on the trailer, as the diesel was setup with air rear suspension (the 35i had coil springs), and I wanted to just make sure the tongue weight had not changed. I also wanted to check to make sure the lights were working on the trailer. After the GT4 was loaded onto the trailer we used a tongue weight scale to measure tongue weight and then set the coupler back onto the hitch ball and locked the coupler down. I then pulled the X5 forward about 15 feet (with the trailer loaded and connected to the X5) to give us room to unload behind the trailer. I put the X5 in park and set the parking brake. I then chocked the left side trailer wheels. After the ramps were set in place, I started to back the GT4 off the trailer and very soon thereafter began to feel and see the nose of the trailer come up. It happened very quickly, but since the motor in the GT4 was running, I was able to pull the GT4 forward fast enough to get the nose of the trailer back down. It is hard to say how high the nose came up, but it felt like a lot.

The trailer came down on the tongue jack, which was not up all the way, and we think the coupler missed hitting the hitch ball, as the coupler was off to one side when my friend first approached it. I think the fact that we had wheel chocks on only one side of the trailer caused the nose of the trailer to shift to one side when I accelerated in the GT4. Luckily it appears that no damage occurred to either the X5, the trailer, or the GT4, but it was a very close call.

I did have the safety cables attached to the hitch as well, which may have helped some, but it is impossible to say for sure. There are no marks on the bottom of the X5 bumper, and I would expect there would be if the cables had played any role, but that is speculation on my part.

Bottom line is that you should always check to make sure the coupler lock is fully engaged before backing the car off the trailer. We had the lever down, but apparently the coupler was not lowered enough to fully engage when the lever was pulled down.

In case anyone is wondering, I do have a checklist for loading and unloading and one of the items on the list is to check the coupler lock engagement from the underside of the coupler, but I did not use my checklist this time. I don’t have any excuse for not using the checklist, but this story is a good example of why it is so critical to have a checklist and to use it every time.

Also worth noting: I did manage to do a nice burnout on the trailer deck. My friend said he saw the back wheels on the GT4 spinning after I hit the gas and there are black marks on the trailer deck. Perhaps one more reason Porsche should not do away with NA engines.

i don’t think my Trailex has any stands. I wish it did though. I would use them if it had them. Seems like even if the coupler is attached properly unloading puts a lot of upward force on the hitch. Stands would would prevent the upward force on the hitch.

My enclosed Montrose has stabilization jacks in the back.

mike