I notice we have a new forum. Looks good. I just started looking it over and I think this link might came in handy for those not knowing if trailer brakes are required in their State.
That's a good link, in my opinion. You can see from the difference in the states that there's lots of different opinions about what should be required. So I'll throw in my own opinion, too. You'll notice that I could pull a 4499 pound trailer behind a Ford Escort without brakes (my '93 Escort wagon weighed in at exactly 2,500 pounds) in Texas and be legal, while in some states you must have brakes on a 1000 pound trailer even if you're pulling it with a one ton dually. My point is that a specific weight for requiring trailer brakes doesn't seem logical to me without considering the towing vehicle. Since I haven't kept up with things in many years, I don't know whether the Federal government still has their safety "warrants"; don't know where they came up with that word for the list of recommendations for state traffic rules, but they used to recommend trailers be required to have brakes if the gross weight of the trailer and contents was equal to or exceeded 40% of the weight of the towing vehicle. That seems to me to make a lot more sense. But of course, I'd recommend obeying the law in your state, whether it's logical or not.
You'll notice that I could pull a 4499 pound trailer behind a Ford Escort without brakes (my '93 Escort wagon weighed in at exactly 2,500 pounds) in Texas and be legal, while in some states you must have brakes on a 1000 pound trailer even if you're pulling it with a one ton dually. My point is that a specific weight for requiring trailer brakes doesn't seem logical to me without considering the towing vehicle. Since I haven't kept up with things in many years, I don't know whether the Federal government still has their safety "warrants"; don't know where they came up with that word for the list of recommendations for state traffic rules, but they used to recommend trailers be required to have brakes if the gross weight of the trailer and contents was equal to or exceeded 40% of the weight of the towing vehicle. That seems to me to make a lot more sense. But of course, I'd recommend obeying the law in your state, whether it's logical or not.