Nova Scotia sailboat trailer weld failure (Route 24)

A driver from Nova Scotia returning from Newport sailing races on a home-built trailer experienced a slug-welded joint failure — a bolt had been dropped into the angle iron joint and welded over. The boat broke loose at highway speed. Tom uses it as the one slug weld he has personally seen, and as an illustration of why slug welds are unacceptable.

That one was on Route 24 [coming into] Boston. The guy was from Nova Scotia, and he had a 40-foot sailboat. He'd gone down to Newport sailing races, and he was driving back over to Nova Scotia. He's got this home-built trailer with the boat, and as he's cruising down the highway, there's a big bang, of course he puts his brakes on, and he sees this boat go by. It was his. The trailer broke, and his boat is cruising down the highway with no brakes. And it turns out, someone in the weld — someone took a bolt between two of the angle irons and stuck it in there and welded over the bolt. You wouldn't do that to a product.