20,000 Teton 5er - Truck Needed (legally)

fj12ryder wrote:
Just out of curiosity, have you ever had your RV stopped and your brakes checked like you describe? I've never heard of, or talked to anyone who has ever been checked that way. Just wondering as I wasn't even aware of it.

I have NOT been stopped with an RV. I "HAVE" been stopped in my pickup, and class 6 mdt pulling my equipment trailer, and I WAS checked as described! They will also make sure you have at least 11.5V for the battery on the trailer. If it is less than 11.5V, your are impounded on the side of the road until you get the battery up to 11.5, or disconnect and go get a new one.

This has also been told to me in a number of class's I have taken from CVEO's, as to how and why they check and enforce weight laws etc for smaller rigs under 26K lbs. IE what and IF they would do if they also pulled over RV's. folks like myself pulling smaller trailers doing landscape maintenance, contractors working out of pickups to class 6 rigs.

I HAVE had to stop my old TT with just the truck a few times......forgot to plug the trailer plug in after an overnight stay or a couple of nights at a single place where I stayed connected per say, except for the trailer plug.

At the end of the day as noted, truck brakes stops the truck, trailer brakes needs to stop the trailer! Yeah it is nicer to have a truck with MORE than enough brakes, frame etc. BUT, not everyone wants to drive around in a truck with 20K lbs of free payload to stop a trailer when the trailer brakes fail. I did not realize my ground was shot on the equipment trailer one time, drove around many miles with it behind the navistar, hooked up to my old dually......thing did not stop worth a dang!

I can generally speaking stop quicker with the truck and trailer than just the truck alone. Not by much, but still quicker.

Marty