Like most people, I put my Breakaway Cable over the 5th Wheel hitch arm. On my last trip, when I reached my destination, the cable was just laying freely in the bed of my truck. At first I thought that maybe I had just forgotten to put the loop over the hitch arm so I took extra care to make sure it was on the arm when returning home. When I got home, sure enough, it was laying in the bed of the truck again. I know there's a lot of wind turbulence in a truck bed when traveling and the road was quite bumpy but a lot of good it does putting the cable over the arm if it doesn't stay there. Now I have to come up with another location to attach it. Any ideas?

I had the same thing happen to me. I also thought I forgot to attach it. I loop mine through a coder pin at the top of my hitch and also over the release handle. It hasn't come loose since.

RobWNY wrote:Like most people, I put my Breakaway Cable over the 5th Wheel hitch arm. On my last trip, when I reached my destination, the cable was just laying freely in the bed of my truck. At first I thought that maybe I had just forgotten to put the loop over the hitch arm so I took extra care to make sure it was on the arm when returning home. When I got home, sure enough, it was laying in the bed of the truck again. I know there's a lot of wind turbulence in a truck bed when traveling and the road was quite bumpy but a lot of good it does putting the cable over the arm if it doesn't stay there. Now I have to come up with another location to attach it. Any ideas?Buy a clear 1/2" plastic tube 1 1/2 ft. long. and insert the break away cord through the tube. This plastic tube will add enough weight to solve the problem.

I attach my breakaway cable to the truck and not the hitch.

RCMAN46 wrote:I attach my breakaway cable to the truck and not the hitch.X2. I have a buddy, a retired police officer that informed ne in some states it’s a requirement to have it attached to the TV, not the hitch. I changed to having it on the truck

I replaced one of the bolts in my hitch handle with an eye bolt. And bought a coiled breakaway cable. Ring is attached to the breakaway pin. And I hook the carabiner to the eye bolt so that it can't come off. Tension on the coil prevents it from flopping around in the bed of the truck and getting caught on anything.

Breakaway Cable | Good Sam Community

Lynnmor
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
I had a front row seat to a trailer disconnecting. This was a trailer that was cut down somewhat from a tractor-trailer body and was heavy with equipment. I was following it into a small town and a light rain was falling. The tongue jack failed and dropped down to the road surface, then a small bump jacked the coupler off the ball followed by the safety chains failing. The trailer had no functioning e-brake and the skid plate on the bottom of the jack skated on the wet road doing next to nothing to slow the trailer. It traveled more than a block and scared the he!! out of several oncoming motorists plus a guy on a bicycle. The trailer crossed the oncoming lane and side-swiped a pole sending down a shower of sparks, but that only slowed it a bit. In this case, brakes would have shortened the distance but the damage was minimal due to a lot of luck. It was unbelievable how far that thing traveled before coming to rest and looking like it was parked at the curb in front of a small shopping center.
RobWNY
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
WTP-GC wrote:
I don't understand why this topic is "4-page complicated" (outside of the few related ancillary posts). A cheap hardware store carabiner is all you need.

It's not complicated. Just a bunch of folks with their opinions or thoughts on others opinions. No different than any other thread.
bpounds
Nomad
Aug 30, 2018
DavinD wrote:
I often wonder how effective the brakes would be in a real disconnect event. Maybe there's testing video out there? I picture the trailer nose-diving into the pavement, the front landing gear ripping into the asphalt and perhaps flipping. I'm thinking it would be unlikely to continue to just roll down the road.

Yes, I wonder too. I think that like a lot of things, unintended awful consequences are just about as likely as a good outcome. The perfect world would be the front of the fiver drops down to landing gear on pavement, and quickly slows down while traveling nice and straight, staying in the traffic lane. In reality, it will almost certainly wander to one side, possibly into oncoming traffic, or veer violently to the side of the road, flipping onto the side. You just can't predict.

The law says I will use one, so I use it, putting no faith in it whatsoever.

Veebyes, beats me why a trooper would be interested in the lanyard when truck and trailer rolled over together in a windstorm. Brakes aren't much of a factor with tires up.
Veebyes
Explorer II
Aug 30, 2018
Around the hitch frame & padlock it. First thing the trooper checked when I had a blowover was how the breakaway was attatched to the truck.
DavinD
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
I often wonder how effective the brakes would be in a real disconnect event. Maybe there's testing video out there? I picture the trailer nose-diving into the pavement, the front landing gear ripping into the asphalt and perhaps flipping. I'm thinking it would be unlikely to continue to just roll down the road.
WTP-GC
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
I don't understand why this topic is "4-page complicated" (outside of the few related ancillary posts). A cheap hardware store carabiner is all you need.
bpounds
Nomad
Aug 30, 2018
Lynnmor wrote:

I deliberately wired mine wrong. There is no fuse in the e-brake circuit and a short in the wiring is a possible fire hazard. Fussing with battery cables or looking for a cable cutter takes much longer than flipping a switch.

That's one way to look at it. I suppose you could have installed a auto-reset breaker in the brake circuit. I wouldn't want a fuse on that.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
bpounds wrote:
A properly wired disconnect switch should not disconnect the e-brake circuit. Unfortunately not all are properly wired.

I deliberately wired mine wrong. There is no fuse in the e-brake circuit and a short in the wiring is a possible fire hazard. Fussing with battery cables or looking for a cable cutter takes much longer than flipping a switch.
bpounds
Nomad
Aug 30, 2018
A properly wired disconnect switch should not disconnect the e-brake circuit. Unfortunately not all are properly wired.
wilber1
Explorer
Aug 30, 2018
GMH wrote:
bpounds wrote:
No, they don't have a separate battery. Don't do that ^ !

Good to know! Thanks.

Don't know where you are in Canada but in BC, any trailer that requires electric brakes must have a battery and brake away switch.

RV's use the house battery, they don't have a separate battery for the brakes.