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Stories Through Storms - CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the metalcore band, Stories Through Storms, shares one of their wildest stories from being on the road. You can check out the story below:

We went on the road with our friends Left On Red for a short run. It wasn’t anything crazy, just a sprint up to South Dakota, around to Denver, and then back home. We called it The Death of Summer Tour. Little did we know, it was almost the death of all of us.

We were in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota when their van broke down. Sadly, it was a full breakdown, head gasket gone and everything. We had just enough space in our van and trailer to squeeze everyone in and toss their gear into our trailer. What we failed to realize was that the hitch on our trailer was upside down.

For those who don’t know, trailer hitches often have adjustable heights to fit different vehicle and trailer setups. Normally, the extra chunk of metal with the grooves points upward so it doesn’t scrape the ground. But ours was flipped. As soon as we got rolling, we noticed the hitch grinding whenever we pulled into sloped drives or hit uneven pavement. We thought, no big deal, we’ll flip it the next chance we get to stop.

Then we hit Wyoming. They were paving new roads, which meant there were these huge dips where the new road met the old one. Every time we hit one, the whole van would groan, “ooohhh,” because the impact was so violent and loud.

Then came the big one.

We hit the dip, and everyone in the van bounced up out of their seats. At the same time, the trailer jumped off the hitch. I was sitting in the back with Corey, the guitar player from LOR. We looked at each other, then looked behind us, and saw our trailer—loaded with thousands of pounds of gear—barreling toward us like a dog on a loose leash.

Luckily, our new drummer Chris had experience hauling trailers and knew exactly what to do. Corey and I screamed, “STOP! STOP! STOP!” and everyone else quickly joined in. Instead of slamming the brakes, Chris calmly eased the van to the side, the trailer rolling loosely with us. When we got out to assess the damage, we realized the trailer had landed on the emergency brake line and frayed it. That’s why the trailer was ready to risk it all on the back end of the van.

Fortunately, the hitch itself had actually saved us, deflecting the impact and keeping the trailer from plowing straight into us. The trailer did get a pretty big hole out of it, though. It was one of the most horrifying moments I’ve ever had on the road.

We did some country-boy engineering, jerry-rigged the trailer back together, and still made it to the show that night. Luckily, Wyoming has no shortage of trailer shops, and some locals pointed us to a guy who specialized in fixing them. We welded the chains back on, flipped the hitch, and continued our journey.

The road is horrifying, and dangerous situations like that can happen at any time. The key is to stay calm and roll with the hits. No one died, no one got hurt—best case scenario.