trailer brakes

hillslider · Oct 21, 2004

Bird,

Hope you enjoy your trip to WV. The trees are about peaked here....north of Charleston. You should have some great scenry to enjoy. If you ever find yourself going north through WV on I77 let me know......I will let you drive the L3130 around the fields. That is of course the best place to be during the fall to look at the colors and the hills of WV.

Rob

ronjhall · Oct 22, 2004

Here is a thread that will lead you to another using Equalizer Hitch . This is the same type of hitch that travel trailers use.

Bird · Oct 22, 2004

Rob, I've been through Charleston a few times, but haven't been north of Charleston in over 30 years. One of my wife's brothers just finished building a new home in Vienna this year. Don't know if or when we'll ever get up there. We might be a little late for the peak foliage, but I've no doubt it'll still look pretty good next week.

Hambone · Oct 22, 2004

no law requiring trailer brakes 

State of Indiana requires trailer brakes on any tandem axle trailer. They don't recognize surge brakes either.

rdln · Oct 22, 2004

no surge brakes really? even on a boat trailer? Given how electicity and water dont mix.

Hambone · Oct 22, 2004

One of my vendors recieved a nice ticket. Maybe commercial, or weight limit thing.

chucko · Oct 22, 2004

( State of Indiana requires trailer brakes on any tandem axle trailer. They don't recognize surge brakes either.
)

that is all u-haul and such have so how to they rent trailers up there?

Hambone · Oct 22, 2004

That is a good question Chucko. I never thought of that and you are right. Maybe I was mis-informed. I will do some checking if time, but, I am positive on the brakes on tandem trailer thing.

chucko · Oct 22, 2004

all of these are surge

Bird · Oct 22, 2004

Texas has some very lengthy, complex, and detailed statutes on trailer brakes, but the oversimplified version is that trailer brakes are required on trailers over 4,500 pounds and surge brakes are permitted up to 15,000 pounds. At one time, at least, there was a federal standard (recommendation, not a law) that trailer brakes should be required on any trailer that weighed as much as 40% of the weight of the towing vehicle.

Hambone · Oct 22, 2004

Thanks Bird,
Maybe my vendor was over that limit carrying all those truck tires, or plated higher anyway.

virgil · Oct 22, 2004

The surge brakes issue is something that is still getting kicked around by the D.O.T. and other lawers and industries (rental) that have a vested intrest.

The great state of Indiana and a few others seam to have a real tough time getting along with other states and their regulations that pertain to trucking. That includes but is not limited to surge breaks.

I PERSONALLY require breaks (that really work) on ALL axels, period, END OF DISCUSSION.

As far as the lawer crack about how good is he...
Just try rearending someone who has a GOOD lawer, and you dont have enough breaks, overloaded, insecure load, not enough of the right kind of insurance, on and on, and on...It could get real nasty and expensive. It is a cold hard fact of insurance... it is cheaper to kill someone on accident, than it is to hurt someone on accident. Breaks are much cheaper.

I like more WOA than GO !!

Have a good day. virgil

ronjhall · Oct 22, 2004

I tried to distribute the weight as best I could, but had to have a 5-6' tiller up against the front of the trailer and drop the FEL bucket on it. I not sure if that could account for the wheelie I was doing, but I'm sure it didn't help. Any other tips on distributing the weight on a car hauler? 
Woodlot
I took a couple of pictures this morning when I picked up my JD Front Mower. It weighs about 1500 pounds. Put it all the way forward on the trailer.
First picture is with mower off trailer.

ronjhall · Oct 22, 2004

Second is with mower on trailer.

GaryM · Oct 23, 2004

Looks a little too far forward to me. I'd load so that the CG of the mower is about even with the front trailer axle. That should put a reasonable amount of weight on the hitch.

DannyD · Oct 24, 2004

I have noticed that my brake controller on the sport trac is now showing 0.0 when I dont have the trailer on and brakes are applied. It is supposed to be just a dot. I just had a brake job done on the trac, wonder if they screwed up something. It is a Reese controller and the trailer company that installed it had to run all the cabling.

Any ideas?

Soundguy · Oct 25, 2004

I thought DOT was mandating brakes for anything over 5k in many states? ( and break-away safety devices ).

As for tounge weight.. i like to keep the bulk of the weight near the center of the to rear axles.. then gauge tounge weight on the truck for fine tuning.

Soundguy

Soundguy · Oct 25, 2004

( my brake controller on the sport trac is now showing 0.0 when I dont have the trailer on and brakes are applied. It is supposed to be just a dot. )
My controller from drawtite also shows a dot when disconnected but breaks on.. , and then the x.x when the trailer's connected depending on breaking force.. etc.

Soundguy

woodlot · Oct 27, 2004

I got my new brake controller yesterday, works great. I was getting strange LED lights on the old one, especially when the trailer was NOT connected. I called tech support and he had me explain the light pattern. Right away he said it was defective and had a new one in the mail the same day. My advice, if you think something might be haywire call tech support. Oh, the trailer breaks where not working too, that was another tell-tale sign.