Trailer breakaway cables :eh:

[CJL]

I have recently changed the pathetic small break away cable on my trailer to something more substantial.

The monkey (No I am not being harsh, he REALLY is!) at the local chandlers tells me its suicidal to have a bigger cable on here as I'm towing a big boat with a little car (6m Ribtc with an A3).

The monkey says the idea of the cable is to pull the break on and snap, leaving the car and trailer to separate and go their seperate ways.

Now my impression was that the cable is to STOP the rig separating and saying ta ta to each other whilst applying the brake.

My employer uses pin and eye hitches, brake away cables and webbing straps halfway down the drawbar to prevent seperation and some of these are BIG trailers on Land Rovers/Mitsubishi's/Toyota's. Overkill if you ask me

If anybody has got any ideas on which is the correct understanding of the system please let me know cause I'm a bit confused!!!

Cheers in advanced people!!!

Chris

[Rogue Wave]

monkey correct!

Emnployer norty not overkill just kill

Honest upon hitch separation you have no directional control of trailer so it can go one way and the car goes another Trailer will flip car over very easily or spear the rear end and possibly fracture the tank.

You owe the monkey a Banana

Sorry

[CJL]

If you look in the attachment the extra straps are wound around the draw bar not in use for moving round the yard.

[Nasher]

Have to agree with the Monkey on this one.



Nasher.

[Rogue Wave]

Is that a 6M searider!

If that strap goes from the trailer to the tow vehicle it's dangerous and shouldn't be deployed

[CJL]

If that is the case I'm tempted to put the pathetic little cable back on (wy did I use wire cutters??? ), but I do see people using chains as break away cables.

Are these people party to a secret I don't know or suicidal??

Chris

[Nos4r2]

Just pointing something out here. If you have an unbraked trailer then the cable linking the car and trailer has to be strong enough not to break so your boat can't bugger off across 6 lanes of the m6 at 60mph if it becomes disconnected.

That might well be the chains you see as breakaway cables. My unbraked snipe trailer has one like it.

[Nasher]

Stuart

Don't worry, once the boats jumped off and its just the trailer thrashing around behind the car, then the car will slow down enough to collect the trailer up the rear end and stop it doing any more damage.

Nasher.

[CJL]

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

Is that a 6M searider!

Well spotted that man!!!! Give him a banana!!!

Thats a work rib with the straps on the draw bar. Our entire fleet has them fitted and every vehicle with a tow bar has extra eyes either side of the pin and eye coupling.

My rig is a bit less industrial as you can see;

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

Just pointing something out here. If you have an unbraked trailer then the cable linking the car and trailer has to be strong enough not to break so your boat can't bugger off across 6 lanes of the m6 at 60mph if it becomes disconnected.

That might well be the chains you see as breakaway cables. My unbraked snipe trailer has one like it.

correct Unbraked is the operative word. Is is a very short chain/cable which effectively emmulates the towing hook but without slack. if you have no brakes then the tow is less than 750k and that doesn't have doesn't have such a dramatic effect as a bigger payload when attached but not secure.