Lost control twice now, what happened?

Two times now over a course of about 3 months, in rain, I felt my truck losing control. Both times, I regained control too fast to even see what was going on in my mirrors, but I’m guessing the trailer was sliding and I was feeling it i the tractor. Scared the crap outta me!

I suspect it was the same trailer in both instances, but not sure. The first time it happened, I was going in a perfectly straight line. No braking, no hard acceleration, 60mph or so, nothing that (from my experience) would cause a sudden loss of control. I felt my tractor being pushed in a weird way, not wind, and immediately knew something no longer had traction. I steered instinctively and it cleared up. Pulled over, everything looks fine, suspected my trailer brakes locked up or something and wrote a DVIR for it. The second time, as the roads were pretty much dry or drying from rain that had stopped, I felt the same exact thing and it cleared just as fast. This time it was during a lane change, probably going 60+. Both times were an empty trailer.

I’ve driven well over 20,000 miles in rain and snow, and thought I had a good feel for it. Now I’m not so sure. Why would a trailer just lose control without any sudden (de)acceleration or swerving beforehand? Is it possible that if this was indeed the same trailer, the trailer is at fault somehow? It’s hard to ignore that this happened both times in/after rain. Oil patches maybe? Just simply going too fast with an empty/salvage TRL?

 

I’ll have to check when I get to work tomorrow.

 

I used to always lock my axles in rain and snow but these International’s have a consistent and annoying beep whenever the switch is toggled. Would turning that on help?

 

Little if anything. Both times were return trip so either empty or light salvage.