MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 60,470
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
All you'd have to do is pull the breakaway cable and if the trailer battery is charged (like it should be) your trailer brakes should lock.I've used several different trailers over 40 years of driving and never had a similar incident, so yeah, they are over rated, you just need to consider the physics of what's going on. Trailer parking brakes would be more parts to fail or maintain plus would add to trailer cost.
Truck and trailer should have been on level ground, Truck could have been put in 4WD if it had it, Trailer tires could have been chocked, trailer could have had rear jackstands. Several ways to have prevented what happened.
Even if the trailer could have had parking brakes, the operator could just as easily have failed to engage it. It just comes down to situational awareness.
While it's not a good substitute for an actual mechanical parking brake, it works in a pinch.