Brakes or No Brakes

[Classic Finn]

What Id like to know is: If you were to build another tear would you install brakes on the new build or no?

We are having a family discussion on this as I write. My wife says we should and Im with the answer of not necessary??

What do you folks say to this?

[rainjer]

It is all a matter if how heavy the trailer is and what you tow with. If you tow with a small car or it is a heavy trailer, yes. If it is a ultra-light trailer or a large truck I would not bother.

I have a 1250# trailer towing with a Jeep Liberty that has a 5000# tow capacity. I live in a area that I tow thru the mountain all the time and don't have brakes on my trailer. I hardly know it is back there. If I was towing with a small car I would have brakes.


Jeremy

[vwbeamer]

Lot of variables. Like I've mentioned before, I have towed 1500lb beetle with my 3000 lb jetta with no brakes.

I never felt the need, but i always allowed a little extra time to stop. BTW, even in an emergency situation, i felt confident i could stop in a safe distance.

So, i would say if you have a modern tow vehicle, ( disc brakes, ABS) and the trailer is less than half the weight of the Tow vehicle IMO trailer brakes are not needed.

I have seen some serious accidents with trailers, in all those cases the trailer weighed nearly as much or more than the tow Vehicle.

Remember that most towing laws were written in time when most cars had inadequate brakes to even stop there own mass.

[dhazard]

I have surge breaks on mine and #2 will also have breaks. The added price is so small compared to the headache and price of an accident if you can’t stop in time. Sometimes every millimeter maters. I agree that you should drive with extra caution but you never know what the other IDIOT or animal will do.

[vwbeamer]

No doubt brakes are better.

I have an idea for a very light and simple surge brake for a teardrop.

It would be basically a very large nascar style flap on the roof of the tear, it would open in the direction of travel.

You can see the nascar flaps here-

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-raci ... afety2.htm.

A simple cable would pull it close as long as there was drag on the hitch. Like a regular surge brake, the cable would slacken whenever the trailer began to push the TV, and the flap will open. Patent Pending.

Not as good as regular surge brakes or electric brakes, but much lighter.
The penalty is the fabrication cost upfront.

I'm not sure if it would cause the trailer to be unstable, so experimentation is in order.

[angib]

You'll get very different answers to this question in Yurp and Merka, because the parts available are so different. Merkan electric trailer brakes may well be better but it does seem they are sufficiently complex (modifying the tow vehicle, etc) to encourage people not to bother with them. In Yurp much lower technology trailer brakes are used (mechanical rod/cable operated, just like yer grandad's Model T) but they are so simple that they get widely used.

However simple doesn't mean very cheap (I'm sure electric brakes are much cheaper for trailer manufacturers, if not consumers) as a little look at this UK trailer parts web site would show: http://www.autow.co.uk/trailer_parts.html

The brakes themselves add maybe only as little as $30 to the cost of the suspension but the big cost is the coupler - this is nowadays required to be hydraulically damped so costs around $150-200 more than a simple unbraked coupler - though that does give you a handbrake mechanism and a jack clamp as well. Another $50 or so buys the cables and/or rods to connect the brakes to the coupler - installation of which I'm sure US trailer manufacturers would hate.

The benefits of this system is that (a) it works on its own and (b) it's completely independent of the tow vehicle. It's a shame they're not available in the US as they would suit teardrops well.

Andrew

[asianflava]

No doubt having brakes on the trailer is a big help. Stopping my loaded car hauler (6000lbs) feels better than my unbraked TD (1200lbs). The car hauler adds 4 more tires with brakes vs 1200lbs of dead weight.

One problem is when you go to sell the trailer, most people with regular cars don't want to mess with having a brake controller installed in their tow vehicle. The advantage to having a small camper is to avoid complexity like large tow vehicles and brake controllers.

[len19070]

Since I always tow with a Truck I would say no....but that's for me.

If I towed with a car, and depending on what size the car was I may go with Brakes.

An old RV guy told me years ago that if a tow vehicle has 15" wheels or bigger then the brakes under those wheels are capable of stopping 2000lbs with no problems.

That was years ago though and I don't think that rule holds as true today as it did then.

i.e. the Mazda Miata has 15-16 & 17" wheels and this cars weight is 22-2400lbs. Try to stop a 1000lb+ trailer without brakes in this and you've got problems.

Lots of variables.

Happy Trails

Len

[Wolfgang92025]

Finn,

There have been a couple times in my life when I took the less expensive or easier way of doing something and I was sorry when things got tight.

If trailer brakes makes a panic stop 15 or 20 feet (5 to 7 meters) shorter and prevents a wreck, you easily saved the extra expense, not to mention the trouble with insurance companies.

None of us plan on being in a wreck, but we all carry insurance because it will happen sooner or later.

Just my two cents...........

Wolfgang

[Pdbeta]

Our store bought 6' Wide Little guy does not have brakes.
We also tow with a smallish pickup truck (Toy/Tacoma/05).

Brakes?
All depends where and how much weight ya towing? Here on the crowded East coast with the volume of traffic, sometimes i wish I had them?

When doing the wide open spaces during our XC trips with unlimited viz, pancake flat roads, and light if any traffic, no need mostly.

Coming down long National Park access paved roads with four mile mountain down hills, well once or twice a parachute wudda been really nice!
OK, brakes would have made the trip somewhat easier. If your always in high country I would consider it.

Our unit has a dry weight of about 1100 lbs, so with gear & trip stuff maybe 1600 lbs? Only once in 25k miles towed thus far, did i ever wish I had brakes? We stopped in time and it was somewhat exciting, but we stopped.

We also drive to present conditions, and leave a lotta space between vehicles. We also have no fixed schedule.

Brake systems do require light upkeep. No brakes less to do?

[Shadow Catcher]

Going is optional, stopping is not