Check your trailer brakes....

I had a scary moment yesterday. I was hauling a load of pallet racking I won at auction and a car pulled in front of me just as the light was turning yellow. She decided to stop and I was squealing all the way. I lifted off the brake for a moment and was able to steer into the empty right lane… She looked up at me and realized what a bone head move she had done. I smiled and shook my head. Of course now I need to check my trailer brakes as they didn’t leave any marks like my truck did. I rewired the trailer 2 years ago but something isn’t right. Also I was boneheaded too, I should have checked my trailer brakes before loading. Glad no damage or anyone hurt.

I checked the wiring and the ground wire in the plug had come loose. Hooked that back up and I have brakes working on the front axle but not the rear. There are some lights not working so I’m going over the whole wiring thing again. I’m going to check all the brake linings too.

Good note, I haul stupid things fairly often... every time I haul a stupid load I at least look at the indicator on the brake controller which means at least one works... My F350 has pretty good brakes, but when hauling ~18k pounds combined trailer brakes are very important... backup is manual transmission... I know from experience the trailer brakes combined with 4th gear will keep my setup to 45mph down the Santiam Pass, well that was without the camper when the vacuum pump went out.

I took off once towing my 7000lb camper behind my 77 F250 and had a car pull out as i was doing 50....downhill.

I had 0 trailer brake, luckly them old 70s camper specials had pretty decent binders....

Stupid me i forgot to plug in the damn light cord.

I agree on this one. I work at an RV dealership and I see insurance claims every week. Not always from accidents like this but tire blowouts are most common. People think that just because they have good tread that the tires are good when they sit in the sun for years and years they become cracked and weather checked bad. These can cause a tire to tear itself apart while driving. Few weeks ago had a guy had two blowouts on each side on one road trip only few hundred miles apart. Had a blowout, called insurance, put spare on, got going again only to have same issue on other side of axles down the road. Had to find a local tire shop, buy tires just to get it home. Oh and call insurance again for second claim.

alwaysFlOoReD said:

I had a scary moment yesterday. I was hauling a load of pallet racking I won at auction and a car pulled in front of me just as the light was turning yellow. She decided to stop and I was squealing all the way. I lifted off the brake for a moment and was able to steer into the empty right lane… She looked up at me and realized what a bone head move she had done. I smiled and shook my head. Of course now I need to check my trailer brakes as they didn’t leave any marks like my truck did. I rewired the trailer 2 years ago but something isn’t right. Also I was boneheaded too, I should have checked my trailer brakes before loading. Glad no damage or anyone hurt.

Click to expand...

Close call. glad no one was damaged.

Yep, helps if all the connections are connected HAHA!!! I still have an old 80's tekonsha brake controller, no need for anything new, the old one works just the same. Had a close call several years ago on the freeway about 30 miles from home where a lady decided that at the very last second was a great time to cut off 4 lanes of traffic to get off at the same exit I was already heading down at 55mph...yep, truck and trailer brakes locked up, laid on the horn, and the lady just kept on texting as if nothing else was going on...nevermind the 80's Ford F250 with trailer heading towards her plastic car. Luckily the truck's brakes and trailer's brakes slowed me down in time...but seriously people need to realize a truck and trailer can't stop like a little car...and the total lack of attention that people pay to what's going on around them are the #1 cause of accidents. Even my little 7' x 14' flatbed trailer has brakes....well it was a travel trailer prior, and I turned it into a flatbed, so the axle already had brakes on it, very nice addition, granted I don't load that thing down very heavy but just having the extra stopping power is a huge plus.

And yet many people on many forums keep claiming the brakes on the tow vehicle are just fine to stop their additional weight of a trailer that often times weighs more than the tow vehicle...especially as people keep buying smaller and smaller crossovers...err cars to tow heavy trailers because the manufacturers claim these small crossover cars can tow stuff...so they skip the trailer brakes and trailer brake controller because? Well that was an additional $200 for the brake controller system...but causes serious injury or death because their cheap ass doesn't think their 2,000lb crossover can easily tow a 5,000lb trailer without any brakes.

91stranger said:

I agree on this one. I work at an RV dealership and I see insurance claims every week. Not always from accidents like this but tire blowouts are most common. People think that just because they have good tread that the tires are good when they sit in the sun for years and years they become cracked and weather checked bad. These can cause a tire to tear itself apart while driving. Few weeks ago had a guy had two blowouts on each side on one road trip only few hundred miles apart. Had a blowout, called insurance, put spare on, got going again only to have same issue on other side of axles down the road. Had to find a local tire shop, buy tires just to get it home. Oh and call insurance again for second claim.

Click to expand...

They can also blow out from just sitting too long and developing flat spots. I’ve had 2 tires blow out one 1 trip at different times on a empty car trailer.
If it’s a camper type it’s best to have it raised off the ground when it’s not in use and the tires shielded from the sun as well.

While I was checking the brakes, bearings, and wiring, I found a significant crack in the frame. It couldn't be seen until I jacked all 4 corners up. I'm in the process of fixing it now. Ill be fixing a bunch of very poor welds at the same time. Ill post pics later.

Once I'm hooked to my trailer, I always slide the lever on my brake controller to apply full braking, and then let off the truck brake to make sure the trailer brakes are locked. Then I give it a little gas to make sure they're holding. I never pull out of my driveway without checking that.

I actually had a brake line blow on a F250 one time getting off the freeway, and the brakes on my trailer brought me to a stop.

A teaser pic;



This is directly in front of the front spring hanger. I'll start a new thread about my trailer with more pics and link here later.

That has been cracked for a while. Good catch. You were headed for a disaster one day soon.

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Link to new thread about trailer repair.

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177981