Break Away Cable
Anyone have an opinion as to where to hook the break away wire. The folks I bought the TT from had it clipped to a link on the safety chains. I thought it should be attached to the tow vehicle but ...
Forum Discussion
Most folks have never worked on any design team, nor in an industry where
that if your product failed...people potential died or were maimed...
I have a few decades in such an industry...Industrial controls. Robotics,
Factory automation, motion control, people movers, shipboard main propulsion, Etc
Taught to me by one of me mentors while a part time designer working
my way through college:
Management authorized a budget to design, test, re-design, re-test
and the big $$$ certification test for regulatory agency sign-off...
So...the designer can only take care of a 'few' of the potential failure
scenario's and the majority of the other potential failure scenario's
are taken care of via warning labels, ratings, recommendations, etc
that are *ALL* written by liability lawyers...as court case history
has shown that if you followed all the applicable codes/etc of 'that time'
and CYA'd with labels, ratings, specifications, etc, etc...your are
'less' blameless in a court case...
So on the majority of the good days out there...you can have that breakaway
clipped onto the receiver with a clothes pin and it will be okay...but
on that day Mr Murphy crosses your path...either it is connected properly,
or not...not time to go back and re-connect it...
Not a common thing to have the receiver, hitch, coupler, etc break...but
since there is a DOT requirement for safety chains and a break-a-way
lanyard...there were cases that caused our regulatory agency investigate
and then legislate the requirement for safety chains and break-a-way
lanyards...
Quickie search found these images and not to say a common thing, but
common enough for a simple search to find thousands of images of
broken receiver/coupler/hitch/etc...or if they were over their rating
or not
This shows the break-a-way lanyard connected to the vehicle, not
the receiver
This one shows how a back yard welder cause a stress raiser by welding
that gusset onto the shank, which seems a bit on the thin side...which
might have been designed within there ratings/specifications/etc...
This one had this small utility trailer break a way and smash another car
that if your product failed...people potential died or were maimed...
I have a few decades in such an industry...Industrial controls. Robotics,
Factory automation, motion control, people movers, shipboard main propulsion, Etc
Taught to me by one of me mentors while a part time designer working
my way through college:
"design for the idiot and gorilla, as if they
mis-use it...they will"
"you are designing it for that worst
day...when Mr Murphy crosses the path"
Management authorized a budget to design, test, re-design, re-test
and the big $$$ certification test for regulatory agency sign-off...
So...the designer can only take care of a 'few' of the potential failure
scenario's and the majority of the other potential failure scenario's
are taken care of via warning labels, ratings, recommendations, etc
that are *ALL* written by liability lawyers...as court case history
has shown that if you followed all the applicable codes/etc of 'that time'
and CYA'd with labels, ratings, specifications, etc, etc...your are
'less' blameless in a court case...
So on the majority of the good days out there...you can have that breakaway
clipped onto the receiver with a clothes pin and it will be okay...but
on that day Mr Murphy crosses your path...either it is connected properly,
or not...not time to go back and re-connect it...
Not a common thing to have the receiver, hitch, coupler, etc break...but
since there is a DOT requirement for safety chains and a break-a-way
lanyard...there were cases that caused our regulatory agency investigate
and then legislate the requirement for safety chains and break-a-way
lanyards...
Quickie search found these images and not to say a common thing, but
common enough for a simple search to find thousands of images of
broken receiver/coupler/hitch/etc...or if they were over their rating
or not
This shows the break-a-way lanyard connected to the vehicle, not
the receiver
This one shows how a back yard welder cause a stress raiser by welding
that gusset onto the shank, which seems a bit on the thin side...which
might have been designed within there ratings/specifications/etc...
This one had this small utility trailer break a way and smash another car
