Break-away Cable?

mike-s wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
If he trailer comes off the ball it will be drug behind the TV, brakes on or not. Tapping the brakes with the brake pedal will actuate the trailer brakes so it won't be crashing under the TV. It's really a simple process that many like to make difficult.

Uh, no.

You got that right. Once you have any slack in those safety chains they can allow the trailer tongue to ver off centerline and once any TT brakes are applied if you even have any since assuming that the umbilical cord hasn't been yanked out or pulled apart during whatever hitch failure you had it will violently yank the rear of the TV one way or another and could result in loss of control of the whole shabang. I can't count the number of reports of folks attempting to control a trailer only on safety chains only to have that trailer rear end them since there is no good way to judge the decelaration differential between the TV and TT to ensure it doesn't go slack or worst rear end the TV.

In my tests of the TT brakes only slowing down the entire rig from freeway speeds lasts anywhere from 5 to 15 sec so this entire event is extremely short as long as those TT brakes are on full and you stay off both the accelerator and TV brakes.

I'm surprised no one has thrown out this "RED HERRING" about either the safety chains separating or the often used and IMO desired single attachment point of them on the trailer being weak and subject to failure. Just remember EACH SAFETY CHAIN is to have a breaking strength equal to the GVWR of the trailer and IIRC Ron calculated that the max tension on a full braking TT is around 75% of it's max GVWR the probability of a safety chain breaking in that 20sec or failure of that attachment point is unlikely and I would put my money on neither occurring over a SWAG otherwise.

Biggest probem IMO is that trying to change a person's existing belief is near impossible when they have already rationalized reasons why their existing belief is correct and are naturally unwilling to admit they have been wrong and are very unwilling to change that prior belief. My only hope in posting and trying to provide the best credible and authortative information I know of is that someone that has not formed a strong opinion is willing to listen to the alternative reasons that I might provide. This breakaway discussion along with the crossing of the safety chains are the two hardest areas to change already formed opinions on what the facts and correct information really is.

However, as I have already said here one can do what one wants since that's there right, but in this case learning from one's mistakes falls in the too expensive category at least for me and I'm going to go with the what I consider the best expert information and what I feel makes sense to me.

Larry