Smashed GN trailer into back of my 5058M :(

[shortthrow50]

You posted about adding a toggle switch to turn on the trailer brakes. Wouldn't pulling the breakaway cable do the same thing at no cost?

thats a great idea. However, i wonder if the harness needs to be connected for this to work. I never thought to try this myself but im thinking it needs the power connected. May sound silly becuase afterall its a breakaway but the safty chains prevent the trailer from going to far away and disconnecting harness. With my setup anyway at work

 

[joshuabardwell]

thats a great idea. However, i wonder if the harness needs to be connected for this to work. I never thought to try this myself but im thinking it needs the power connected. May sound silly becuase afterall its a breakaway but the safty chains prevent the trailer from going to far away and disconnecting harness. With my setup anyway at work

The harness doesn't need to be connected for the breakaway controller to work. That's the whole point, isn't it? When you pull the pin on the breakaway controller, the controller's battery energizes the breaks. This continues until the battery is discharged, which may take only a few minutes, as it is not intended for any except emergency use.

 

[Zebrafive]

The harness doesn't need to be connected for the breakaway controller to work. That's the whole point, isn't it? When you pull the pin on the breakaway controller, the controller's battery energizes the breaks. This continues until the battery is discharged, which may take only a few minutes, as it is not intended for any except emergency use.

I too wonder how much time the break away battery can provide. My trailer has power tilt, so it has full size marine battery. The break away is hooked to it rather than having a separate small battery. I do not know if these batteries charge from the tow vehicle or not. Since I do not use my trailer a lot, I need to charge the battery every year.

 

[radioman]

many batteries for trailers breakaways are the wet gel types and sealed so they are the type you cant charge with your normal fast chargers. The small batteries are supposed to hold electric brakees about 15 mins once pin is pulled. You might want to think about switching to rv/marine deep cycle battery and those can be charged by vehicle when hooked up. The deep cycle can handle the long power usage and many recharging over gel/wet types.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I too wonder how much time the break away battery can provide. My trailer has power tilt, so it has full size marine battery. The break away is hooked to it rather than having a separate small battery. I do not know if these batteries charge from the tow vehicle or not. Since I do not use my trailer a lot, I need to charge the battery every year.

You can get a charging kit for your breakaway battery. Whether your breakaway controller has one just depends on whether it was specced with it when it was installed. In order for it to work, your vehicle has to provide, and your trailer has to be wired with, the 12 volt pin on the 7-way connector. My trailer did not come with this pin hooked up, although my truck does provide it.

You can retrofit your breakaway controller with a charger if you like. Here is the relevant product on etrailer.com

Trailer Breakaway Kit Battery Charger Hopkins Accessories and Parts 20011

 

[Don87]

Yes, labor is covered as well. I have an appointment setup for Tuesday morning with the service manager coming out to take a look at it. In the meantime, I'll unbolt the upper glass pane brackets and remove the weather stripping and vacuum out all the glass. This way I can continue to use the tractor as a semi-open station one until all the parts come in.

I'll be picking up some chock blocks. I'll check out the ones at tsc today. This is what their HD ones look like:

I figured 4 of these to block the wheels on one axle would do the trick.

Was also thinking about rigging a toggle switch to turn on the electric brakes at will, but they might drain that small trailer mounted battery within minutes. I know that the Deere dealer has their GN trailers wired so that when they turn on their emergency flashers for loading/unloading, the trailer brakes are engaged automatically. I might look into something like that as well.

Those are junk. they are hollow inside and a loaded trailer will roll right over them. Get the solid chocks.

 

[Don87]

YES YES YES! Some may call me a nervous nellie, but I never move the trailer without the safety chains on, and I never un-hook the trailer without chocking the wheels. Well... okay... I have a perfectly level concrete pad that I store the trailer on, and I don't always chock the wheels there, but I am 100% sure it's not going to roll. Anywhere else, the procedure is always 1) chock the wheels; 2) decouple and raise the tongue; 3) un-hook the chains and runaway brake cable. If you always do 2) before 3), you will never lose your trailer because your chocks came loose or something. You can verify that the trailer is stable before unhooking the chains. And if, somehow, it does get away from you, the brake cable will get pulled and that will stop the trailer.

Never be sure of anything when working with equipment.

Complacency kills

 

[pclausen]

I'll make my own chocks using 6x6 pressure treated lumber. I already have several pieces laying around that are long enough. I'm already using them, just not cut to length at 45 degree angels so they fit between the wheels. Thanks for the tip!

Spent about 2 hours early this morning getting all the glass shards out of the cab and between the cab and rear axle. What a mess...

I then drove the 4 miles down the road to the other property and spent 8 hours clearing trees and cutting. AC worked but the rear vents were dripping water from condensation, bugs were all over, and it got pretty loud when running the cutter. I sure miss that rear glass! Hopefully I'll get it fixed within a week or two.

A cabbed tractor sure will spoil you in a hurry!

I also noticed many more glass pieces that worked themselves loose from using the tractor. Also heard a lot of crunching/breaking glass sounds from the air suspension seat moving up and down. I'll talk to the service manager about that when he comes out. Maybe a complete R&R is part of what they will do as part of the repair.

 

[s219]

Here's a shot of one of my 6x6 chocks.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Never be sure of anything when working with equipment.

Complacency kills

I understand your point, and I'm all about safety, but there has to be a line somewhere. So you chock the wheels. What if the trailer rolls over the chocks, or the chocks slip? Well, it probably won't do that, but it could. Maybe I should put an anchor in the ground and chain the trailer to the anchor. But the anchor could pull out, so I should put two anchors. Etc... At some point, you have to draw the line and say, "this is safe enough." That's not complacency. It's just common sense. I've parked the trailer on the same pad time and time again. It has never rolled. The pad is almost perfectly level. I have manually dragged the trailer over to the truck to hook it up and I'm aware of exactly how much force is required to start it rolling. Unless gravity changes or something, I can park that trailer on that pad without chocking it without creating a safety risk.