Posted 2005-07-11 10:24 PM (#27940 - in reply to #27930) Subject: RE: Breakaway brake cable
Expert
Posts: 2828 Location: Southern New Mexico
My husband used to haul mobile homes and had one come off the ball. It broke the chains and the brake slowed it down some. But the guard rail slowed it the rest of the way down. The foot tore up a bit of road though. There was quite a bit of damage, but nothing that wasn't repairable. Of course there was no livestock in it.
Posted 2005-07-12 12:04 PM (#27961 - in reply to #27930) Subject: RE: Breakaway brake cable
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Posts: 1391 Location: North of Detroit, MI
Someone I know DID have a GN come off the ball.... he had failed to LOCK the coupler and was going over RR tracks or the hump in the road left by the old tracks, and the coupler popped off. The pickup truck tailgate "caught" it and held it.
I can't remember if he had horses on or not... But that's when I created my checklist.
Another use of the "breakaway" brake is if you ever have to unhook with a live load - EMERGENCY ONLY. Pull the cable to lock the trailer brakes, disconnect from the first vehile, switch to the second vehicle, reconnect electrical, re-install pin on breakaway cable.
Posted 2005-07-12 3:20 PM (#27970 - in reply to #27961) Subject: RE: Breakaway brake cable
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Posts: 1416 Location: sc
Originally written by gabz on 2005-07-12 1:04 PM Another use of the "breakaway" brake is if you ever have to unhook with a live load - EMERGENCY ONLY. Pull the cable to lock the trailer brakes, disconnect from the first vehile, switch to the second vehicle, reconnect electrical, re-install pin on breakaway cable.
isnt that what wheel chocks are for? i know were all carrying those with us. it would have to be a pretty big emergency for me to rely on only the little battery that is "supposed" to last 15 minutes.