Jackknife with Hensley
Saw this today in I-96 outside of Grand Rapids, MI today. No ambulance so hopefully everyone was OK. Hensley
Forum Discussion
Marty, the only way you will be able to see if the trailer brakes can stop the weight of the truck and trailer is to roll down hill and trip only the trailer brakes manually. The trailer brakes are not rated to stop that much weight. You are trying to add apples and oranges.
As for a brake failure on the Airstream and the jack knife, it is possible that on a wet road he tried to stop and had one of the inertia brake controllers. The truck can start to slide on the wet road and the inertia controller senses ZERO deceleration and does not send any voltage to the brakes. Then the trailer will try to get in front of the truck or jack-knife. I had a F350 dually and a Prodigy controller. Exactly as noted above on a wet street and I was 10 under the posted 45 mph speed limit. Light changed and I tried to stop. No trailer brakes yet and the trailer was starting to jack knife. I hit the throttle to straighten out the trailer and as I approached the next light, I manually worked the the trailer brakes while stopping. The trailer was a 35' Avion travel trailer with three axles. That was the last trip made with a Prodigy controller. Truck, trailer, brake controller and Reese Dual Cam hitch were all set up correctly.
From the photo of the jack knife, there is absolutely noway to say it was trailer brakes or what unless some of you have a really good crystal ball.
Ken
As for a brake failure on the Airstream and the jack knife, it is possible that on a wet road he tried to stop and had one of the inertia brake controllers. The truck can start to slide on the wet road and the inertia controller senses ZERO deceleration and does not send any voltage to the brakes. Then the trailer will try to get in front of the truck or jack-knife. I had a F350 dually and a Prodigy controller. Exactly as noted above on a wet street and I was 10 under the posted 45 mph speed limit. Light changed and I tried to stop. No trailer brakes yet and the trailer was starting to jack knife. I hit the throttle to straighten out the trailer and as I approached the next light, I manually worked the the trailer brakes while stopping. The trailer was a 35' Avion travel trailer with three axles. That was the last trip made with a Prodigy controller. Truck, trailer, brake controller and Reese Dual Cam hitch were all set up correctly.
From the photo of the jack knife, there is absolutely noway to say it was trailer brakes or what unless some of you have a really good crystal ball.
Ken
