What's the right amount of "play" to have in the cable that activates the breakaway brake?  The cable on mine appears to be so long that (heaven forbid) if the GN came loose it wouldn't activate the brakes until the gooseneck had slammed against/through the tailgate.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Lets face it, it your gooseneck should become detached, it will then be resting on your pickups bed, ruining it. If the cable is short, then the brakes would be applied on the trailer, stopping the trailer as you are going forward, taking your tail gate as the trailer brakes are applied. The only winner when the breakaway brakes cable is used is the trailer and its contents, the trailer should skid to a stop. I would rather replace the box on my pickup that replace a horse.

true, all that matters is a safe stop.

as for the saftey chains, i keep mine adjusted a touch shorter than the pigtail/breakaway cable, that way if the trailer comes off the ball hopefully the chains will keep it attached to the truck(some control is better than none), with the brakes still under my control. if the chains/entire hitch comes lose then the emergency breakaway comes into play. 

Originally written by bits on 2005-07-09 1:27 PM

Humm! never thought about that very much. Our breakaway cable reaches to the ball. It has a built in loop so we just hook it over the ball before we lower the trailer. As this is our first gooseneck we just assumed that was the place to put it. What do ya think?????? Our cable is about the same length as the chains I guess so I believe everything would start to kick in at about the same time. Should we be hooking it somewhere else???????? Thanks

it should be hooked to the "frame" of the tow vehicle. hopefully a part that will remain with the tow vehicle in the event of ball and saftey chain attachment point failure.

reg, on the theory of trailer separation, all the info ive read/understood, make it a point to say "frame".  the saftey chain loops may also leave with the trailer, of course then we really are discussing a disaster.

TO help anyone who has now become afraid of something similar happening to them, I'll give you my "tip".

I have **7** things I do for hookup. I count each one off everytime.

1. Lock the coupler on the ball and be sure the handle is properly seated/latched.
2. Attach right safety chain.
3. Attach left safety chain.
4. Connect BA cable.
5. Attach Electrical and check lights.
6. Raise foot and lock.
7. Remove wheel chocks.

I tick them off... If you want, you can add 2 additional steps - lower tailgate and close tailgate. That step is MOST critical when unhooking.  

I guess you can make a 6a and 7b... (no electric jack) - but I just stow the crank handle when I'm finished cranking up the jack foot.

The walk around. Part of my electric check is to drive forward and back up a few times to "warm up" the trailer brakes and make sure I've got orange tinge on my brake controller before I load the horse(s).  But with your situation, you don't always have an empty trailer to start with.  

And, after I have loaded, I make one last potty run, come out and do the walk around. Even when camping and sleeping in the trailer, I always do the 7-point check. Just in case someone fiddled with something.

hmmm....  I avoid I-75 at ALL costs... although I was on there through the construction zone up by Flint, the day after I got my GN, and I was hauling live animals on it for the first time... I had to squirm through that lovely construction zone - with the narrow lanes and 3' high concrete barriers on both sides of the lane... PHEW... that was a TEST of my GN driving abilities - let me tell you!

i would like to see it too, but the break away system has to be better than nothing. i doubt a gn would make it to far by itself, but a bp might "ski" a fair distance especially if it had a wheel on the jack. maybe?