MacGregorSailors.com

That's quite a debate you guys had goin on. I voted to have the brakes lock after the chains detach. I voted based on experience Chip. The pin holding the tow bar and ball somehow broke or the lock on it failed near the end of a 300mile trip. The chains held the tounge of the trailer as it started to sway. After swallowing my heart back into my chest, I told my wife to hang on as I slowly applied the brakes. The trailer hit my bumper once and the truck then acted as a brake and I was able to guide the trailer off the freeway. It was a busy SoCal freeway. I don't know what would have happened had the trailer brakes applied first. I hope I don't ever get the opportunity to find out.
The pin that disappeared was one with a locking mechanism. I have gone back to a simpler, basic pin.
Skip

Well,

One of the other or attorneys on the board can verify,

But,

9, and 5 th appellates have recorded decsisions on when accidents start

and the definition in West's was pretty clear, braking is to start when its no longer on the hitch.....

now admittedly that is just the legal basis, not the engineering basis....

practically speaking....braking should apply when there is no longer rigid connection with the tow vehicle.... in this case off the ball., But If you want to find out what the law is.....CFR. and state laws and regulations are a good start, but interpretation is with the courts.... and since we are talking of accident scenarios......one would probalby find more information in WestLaw or one of the other legal document summary services. Liability for loss of control and lack of controls is fairly deeply documented with many decisions.


While I enjoyed reading the mulitple sides of the issues discussed in this thread, I disagree slightly, and have to say. "If the hitch is off the ball, and the vehicles are moving, braking should be underway, "and yes I have thought of that when backing also. and even with the postulated scenarios, of a punctured brake line or the othes...... both tow and towed are better off braking immediately..... IMHO. lets face it, for years we used our trailer brakes only(for travel and horse trailers), to have slower controlled stops....

And tho my experience includes only 3 trailer separation accident conditions ( One pintle hook failure 14,000 towed load, one Dico surge brake hitch snapped.....5100 lb. towed, one hitchball snapped 6500 towed). I far prefer the trailer braking immediately, than being pushed somewhere I dont want to go.. (somehow its inconvenient to go off road.....lol)

Oh well, now to go find a new small dehumidifier for the boat.....(anyone have any ideas???)

While I enjoyed reading the mulitple sides of the issues discussed in this thread, I disagree slightly, and have to say. "If the hitch is off the ball, and the vehicles are moving, braking should be underway

You don't disagree with me. It's exactly what I said. You are I are right; everyone who disagrees is wrong

Our position seems most logical to me, but seriously, it is open to several different interpretations. It almost seems the laws regarding breakaway switches and safety chains are ambiguous by design, in order to preserve the possibility of a lawsuit regardless of how they're hooked up.

In fact, it occured to me as I reread the requirements, that you must have them, they must be of a certain capability, but there's nothing that requires they actually be hooked up. As you imply, liability is a whole 'nother, somewhat unrelated can of worms.

I think the Champion Trailers website makes it worse, in that they have an extensive warning as to the dire consequences, no warranty of course, of having the breakaway actuator cable too tight, thus causing the brakes to actuate too early when you don't want them to. They are silent as to how long the cable should be, and the consequences of making it too long. It's pretty obvious they're concerned more about warranty than safety; almost as if they're encouraging you to not hook it up at all, or at least leave it too loose to accomplish anything useful.

What kind of dehumidifier? 120VAC, 12VDC or (electrically at least) passive?

If you really want to start on this, you should ask the question on one of the other forums (fora?) Perhaps Modifications?