Ken / Claudia
11-27-2016, 09:54 AM
Was Elk hunting a 9 day trip. We decided on me taking my truck as backup. Buddies truck is 04 f350 and trailer 2000 keystone 30ft. toy hauler. He said is around 10,000lbs. At the 200 mile point his truck was maybe having injector problems. It had black smoke when pushing down throttle and short on power.
We hook up my truck for the miles of 6% upgrade and same down after. Everything worked correctly before pulling out of fuel station. At about 30 miles the trailer brakes quit working. Tried to fix them but couldn't. We could not find what was wrong. I tested how well I could stop with just truck brakes in a parking area. Yes it was longer but, did stop and 20 and 30 mph. Maybe 40 miles to next city and all down hill. Roads dry, temps 40s. I drove at 40-50 up grade and than down in a 65 speed zone. Buddy following with flashers on when traffic approached. Not much other traffic. At those speeds I never needed to brake at all until freeway off ramp. I slowed way early before the stop sign. Never had smelly brakes or brake fade.
We than found that the e brake wires were fried and had shorted on the frame. A 12 dollar fix with a new e brake wire/cable kit.
Would I have done that at max towing CGVR with any vehicle. NO. Or any snow/ice on road would be a no go without trailer brakes. That would have been a big towing bill but, likely necessity. I felt with caution after testing it would work and did without any white knuckle driving.
We hook up my truck for the miles of 6% upgrade and same down after. Everything worked correctly before pulling out of fuel station. At about 30 miles the trailer brakes quit working. Tried to fix them but couldn't. We could not find what was wrong. I tested how well I could stop with just truck brakes in a parking area. Yes it was longer but, did stop and 20 and 30 mph. Maybe 40 miles to next city and all down hill. Roads dry, temps 40s. I drove at 40-50 up grade and than down in a 65 speed zone. Buddy following with flashers on when traffic approached. Not much other traffic. At those speeds I never needed to brake at all until freeway off ramp. I slowed way early before the stop sign. Never had smelly brakes or brake fade.
We than found that the e brake wires were fried and had shorted on the frame. A 12 dollar fix with a new e brake wire/cable kit.
Would I have done that at max towing CGVR with any vehicle. NO. Or any snow/ice on road would be a no go without trailer brakes. That would have been a big towing bill but, likely necessity. I felt with caution after testing it would work and did without any white knuckle driving.