Terryallan wrote:
Mickeyfan0805 wrote:
Terryallan wrote:
Mickeyfan0805 wrote:
Cummins12V98 wrote:
My opinion and experience is they each stop them selves if each are in good shape.
And the other -in an emergency. Brake lines blew on the TV when trying to avoid an idiot who cut me off on the interstate last summer. It was the trailer brakes that got us to safety!
Could you not use your parking / E brake on the truck? Those are operated mechanically. Have a cable that pulls them on.
In the moment of slamming on the brakes, there would not have been time. It was the fact that I had a hydraulic controller on the Suburban that kept activating the trailer brakes even after losing the TV brakes trailer kept slowing enough to avoid a wreck. From there, e-brakes could have worked, but didn't need to. The trailer brakes worked flawlessly to draw us to safety.
So it probably wouldn't have worked with a normal proportional brake controler. they only apply the brakes as much as they feel the TV braking. Good to know.
Just wondering. Did you gear it down to help the brakes to stop it? Easy to think of all this stuff while it isn't happening I know. Just thinking what I would do if it ever happened to me. A learning experience if you will.
I am not entirely sure regarding the proportional controller. I think you are right that it wouldn't have worked in this manner. That said, some might have a manual override that would allow you to accomplish the same thing by engaging the controller manually. I haven't had a proportional controller in 8 years, and only had that for 18 months, so I don't remember for sure.
As for gearing, it wasn't necessary. The lines really weren't bad enough that they should have blown (the guy at the shop was shocked). I really had to jam the brakes to avoid the other car, and the truck slowed significantly before the lines blew - at which time we were already moving pretty slowly. From there it was simply a slow crawl to safety.
