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wowens79's avatar
wowens79
Explorer III
Jul 26, 2017

Truck Stops Truck / Trailer Stops Trailer?

I didn't want to get off topic on the debate about the guy pulling the 5ver with a 1500, but the truck brakes being adequate was brought up, and I wanted to get some thought on this.

Lets say there is 1500lb of pin weight as a nice round number. That 1500lbs is on the rear axle of the truck, so the trailer tires don't have that weight on them, so they would have less traction, but that 1500lb would be on the truck, so that would give the truck additional weight/traction to stop. In this case in an emergency stop situation isn't it possible that the light duty truck may not have enough breaking power to get the maximum breaking affect??

Under normal conditions I'd think the trailer/truck brakes would work together fine, but in an emergency would you get maximum braking??

Also the bigger brakes on an HD truck would dissipate heat better, and would not fade from heat.
  • Nor does the truck brakes always stop the truck.
    Same story here only my one ton DRW trucks brake pedal went to the floor with a fully loaded 18k triaxle GN flatdeck. The trailers brakes stopped the combo coming off the interstate in NM. Used the trailers brakes getting to a GM dealer. Brake fluid had boiled out which was not a rare event of that year model 454 GM trucks when towing heavy.
    Moral of this story is trucks brakes sometimes don't stop the truck.
  • OP,
    in your scenario which involves a half ton truck, using the numbers you have and all the details, what difference would a 3/4 or 1 ton truck make in the same scenario? Let me ask another way, if you say the half ton wouldn't reach/utilize its full braking performance, then in that case what is it about any other truck that would allow it to reach its full braking performance?