One of the guys here at work told me this sad tale and it's worth repeating for safeties sake.

He went up to his Deer hunting club to bring his 28 foot travel trailer home for the summer just this past Spring. He was almost home when he had to get off on one of those ramps that circles around real tight. It was in a light rain after a long dry spell. He went to tap his brakes as he approached the ramp and whoosh! He felt his rear end giving way. Too late to do anything but ride it out he got on them again and the whole truck started pushing around. He is helpless. He has no other choice but to ride it out and so he gets on the brakes and, as would be suspected, he fish tails. Throws his truck over and flips it. Completely totals them both.

Best he can figure is he never got the 7 pin connector seated in properly and it worked its way lose on the interstate because he knows he had trailer brakes when he first started out. But never used them till he was getting off the interstate at this particular exit. He never noticed the indicator light on the brake controller go out.

Scares me to think about this. I have since resorted to putting a wrap of duct tape around the connector after making sure the little lip is locked in good and also try to notice the indicator light every once in a while.

Don't wait till you need em to find out! Think about it. And be carefull.

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2000 F-250 Super Duty, SuperCab XLT, Oxford white with medium grey cloth captains chairs, 5.4L Triton V8 (260 HP - 345 FP Torque version!), 4R100 4 Speed Automatic Transmission, 4 wheel ABS, Deluxe Aluminum Wheels, Trailer Towing Package, Class IV Hitch, Reece load distribution system, Escort Sensor II Electronic Brake controller, Sure Stop towing skirt, "Westin" black powder coated step bars, "White-White" head lamps, Herculiner bed liner, ISSPRO Tranny Temp Guage, Excursion center console, Ford moulded mud gaurds, K&N Air and Oil filter, Amsoil XL7500 5W-30,Air filter minder.

 

always keeping a check on your trailer brakes is good advice anytime you're towing. Hope your friend was alright. Did insurance cover the travel trailer???

 

Hmmm...my 7-pin connector fits kinda loose. Think I'll look into how to snug it up. I hope your friend didn't get hurt, cphillip. Thanks for the heads-up.

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JK_TN
2001 Ford F150 SuperCrew
Black/Lariat/5.4/4x4/3.55LS/Towing Pkg.

Pendaliner SR; Quantum ATB Tool Box by Better Built; TAP BrakeMaster Electronic Trailer Brake Control.

"Often wrong; never in doubt."

 

This is a good story to remind us all how dangerous towing can be and for others who are only beginners to learn good safety strategies.

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2000 F-150 XL,RC,LB,5.4,4R70W,3.55LS,
4-wheel disc/ABS,Chestnut/Parchment,
Ford bedliner & gas/wheel/spare locks,
3" cold air box modification,Superchip,
Dynomax ultra-flow welded 3" cat-back.

 

That's the kinda thing that'd make me question the wisdom of self-insurance, even when things do get paid off. Kinda depends, I guess, on how much they mean to you. If you can picture a worst-case scenario (as this one certainly is) and say "No big loss!" then self-insurance makes sense. I'm not there yet, personally.

 

Use this as a reminder about testing your brakes before you really need them. If he had checked his brakes while he was still on a straight stretch of road and discovered the trailer brakes were out, there's a good chance he could have come to an orderly stop before he hit any curves. Whenever you're towing a trailer, drive and stop as though the trailer brakes are out of order.

Same with boats. Always check your throttles before you enter the harbor or approach the dock and while you still have time to either fix it or avoid a collision.

btw, I thought the story was going to be he went into the ramp and his trailer was too long for the curve and it got stuck.

 

He was alright.

No coverage as he had them both paid for and only was carrying liability on the truck. Total loss for him.

 

My husband was in a wreak yesterday, his fault too. He was driving his F350 and pulling the trailer w/a lot of weight on it (big piece of machinery). He came up to some cars stopped in the road and was slowing down like you normally would, when he noticed that he was'nt actually slowing down. That's when he started really applying the brakes. His trailer brakes weren't coming on. He said just before this that they had worked fine and because of how much weight was on the trailer, he had increased the number on the brake controler. He said he smoked all four tires on the truck but still couldn't stop that trailer. He hit the last car in line, crumpling its whole trunk. His truck only broke the front license plate holder. (Fords are tough) Afterwards he tried the trailer brakes again and they were then working. Sounds kind of like a loose wire or something. No one was hurt. My husband got the ticket, of course.

 

Oh no! Glad he is alright. Them trailer brakes are important aren't they. Thanks for sharing that story.

These Superduty's have good brakes but not good enough to panic stop a good sized load.

 

I've nearly been in that scenario. I've had intermittent connections that cause the brake controller to go into a panic 'pulse' mode -- for which I think a poor ground (grease on the ball hitch??) was at fault.

Gotta come up with a better way to ensure that those connections are good -- it gets real exciting!

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Y2K™

Toreador Red, Keyless XLT SC SB 5.4L E4x4 4wDisc/ABS, 3.73LS, Skid, HD 7700# Towing, LT-245's on Chrome, Tube-Steps, Captain's, 6CD, Tonneau, named: "Nick"

 

Hi cphilip,

Thank God he wasn't hurt! I'm sorry to hear everything was a total loss.

Hi Tina!,

Wow, that must have been scary, I'm glad nobody was hurt!

I was towing with a Chevy C20 van some years ago, which had just had the rear brakes rebuilt at a Chevy dealer. I got to Texas, and in the rain, coming up to a stoplight, the rear brakes decided to go out again, so all I had was the front brakes to stop this heavy loaded van and a trailer that was too light to have it's own brakes. The total load pushed me well out into the intersection, luckily nobody was ahead of me or they would have been hit. It's a helpless feeling, when you're standing on the brakes and you're still sliding and sliding and sliding and checking to see if you've maintained blader control.

Everyone involved was lucky that nobody got hurt in these posted incidents, they easily could have been badly injured.

Our bests to all,

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Info:https://www.f150online.com/rally2000/index.html