Bone Head Move, forgot to unhook the emergency cable

[Jebinok]

So last sunday we went out for a while and dropping the trailer off at storage i miss unhooking the break away brake cable, So now what? I searched the Quick reference section and found nothing,

 

[Joe Hellaby]

I know I've seen somewhere on hear a write up with pictures of someone replacing there's. But I couldn't find it...

 

[ncnmra]

I believe that you just need to replace the clip. Check out page 28 of this manual:
http://www.ufpnet.com/Portals/0/PDFs/A-60, 75 _ 84 Actuator Maintenance.pdf

 

[Scottintexas]

I did a google search of jetboaters.net emergency cable reset and found this,

https://jetboaters.net/threads/doh-surge-brake-reset.4747/

 

[Jebinok]

@Joe Hellaby and @ncnmra OH man you guys are great, thanks for the quick response, now all i have to do is find a clip.

 

[Jebinok]

thanks @Scottintexas i will look in our boat file and see if there are any clips

 

[Zarrella]

For future you might want to consider hooking it to the hook on your safety chain. That way if you have removed the chains you can't make that mistake.

 

[Ronnie]

@Jebinok , I think you will find that the clip and cable are inexpensive but reinstalling the cable in the surge brake mechanism / inside the tongue sleeve is a real PiTA.

I screwed up a few years ago and put the receiver locking pin behind instead of through the bar the tow ball is mounted on. My trailer with boat separated from the tow vehicle on the freeway. One of the safety chains was ground open, if my safety cable was attached to that chain or the other one it would not have engaged as it did. For the reasons above, I recommend that you continue to hook the safety cable to the bumper or at least not on the chains.

 

[ncnmra]

For future you might want to consider hooking it to the hook on your safety chain. That way if you have removed the chains you can't make that mistake.

I think that really defeats the point. The idea is that the break away cable is supposed to be a "third" defense. First, trailer would would have to come off the hitch ball, second, the safety chains would need to come off the hitch, at which point, the break away cable breaks off and engages the trailer brakes.

If you attach the break away cable to the chain hooks, then it may never actually break away.

 

[Jebinok]

I always connect the brake cable independently for that reason @Ronnie and @ncnmra, from my boat storage to the launch is 1/2 mile i always do a full hookup. This is the reason i pulled the cable instead of the chains when i pull away from the trailer

 

[swatski]

I think that really defeats the point. The idea is that the break away cable is supposed to be a "third" defense. First, trailer would would have to come off the hitch ball, second, the safety chains would need to come off the hitch, at which point, the break away cable breaks off and engages the trailer brakes.

If you attach the break away cable to the chain hooks, then it may never actually break away.

One also needs to consider a scenario where the break away cable slips off the hitch, as those things can do. If it snags on something it is not going to be pretty, I guess... I always thing about it.
I see what you are saying of course, but kind of like @Zarrella way.

 

[Zarrella]

These chain hooks won't ground open.

I don't want the brakes to set unless the chains separate. My thought is if the trailer separates from the truck the chains will keep us as 1 unit. If the chains also fail then I want the E-brake to take effect.
Just my opinion.

 

[Zarrella]

@ncnmra
If you attach the break away cable to the chain hooks, then it may never actually break away.[/QUOTE]

Exactly!! I don't want my boat trailer skidding down the road if the tounge is riding in my crossed chains. Otherwise it will separate from the chain cradle.

 

[ncnmra]

One also needs to consider a scenario where the break away cable slips off the hitch, as those things can do. If it snags on something it is not going to be pretty, I guess... I always thing about it.
I see what you are saying of course, but kind of like @Zarrella way.

That is why I equipped mine with a snap hook. It only has to be strong enough to break it free from the trailer. I agree that the stock hook is garbage because it can easily fall off especially with the stock cable being relatively rigid.

@Zarrella: ok, so you are counting that if the chain (cable in my case) may fail, then the hook will stay attached to the vehicle? Did you replace your hooks with the ones pictured? My stock, open hooks I modified with a simple rubber "gasket" to close them so they don't bounce off. Either way, I think more system independence is better than less, but to each their own.

 

[Zarrella]

I haul trailers everyday. I always change out the chains or hooks to create a nest for the tongue in case of a failure. Braking a trailer that is no longer connected to the truck should be a last resort. I would much rather attempt a controlled stop with the tongue cradled in crossed heavy duty chains then to hope for the best as the trailer skids away from the truck uncontrolled.

 

[ncnmra]

I haul trailers everyday. I always change out the chains or hooks to create a nest for the tongue in case of a failure. Braking a trailer that is no longer connected to the truck should be a last resort. I would much rather attempt a controlled stop with the tongue cradled in crossed heavy duty chains then to hope for the best as the trailer skids away from the truck uncontrolled.

Sure; I agree. However the MFI trailer that I have has some rather silly design choices. The safety chains are actually cables, and "crossing" them isn't really possible. They are literally right next to each other, and the cables have a natural coil. Crossing them doesn't create any sort of cradle. The hooks are just open ended, as well as the break away cable. Additionally, the safety "chain" for the boat itself (again, coiled cable) is in my opinion too far back... if the bow strap were to break, the boat would easily slide 4-6'; before the safety cable caught it. All that is way off topic, just my anti-MFI gripe.

 

[Zarrella]

@ncnmra
Perhaps you should consider upgrading them for safety purposes. Definitely would improve your piece of mind.

 

[swatski]

That is why I equipped mine with a snap hook. It only has to be strong enough to break it free from the trailer. I agree that the stock hook is garbage because it can easily fall off especially with the stock cable being relatively rigid.

I don't have a good picture here, my chain hooks are pretty solid snap hooks, but my break away hook does not close (like you said, it is a POS with a stiff cable -- hooked to the pin ring/handle here).


I'm going to go "@Zarrella" style with a semi permanent hookup to the chain snap hook. Thanks, @Zarrella.

Good topic guys! Always learning here.

--

 

[Ronnie]

A lot has to or should happen before the safety cable engages the trailer brakes, tipping point theory. In my case all those things did happen and luckily for me nobody got hurt and property damage was low.

In my case I had the stock safety cables not chains yet. So instead of creating a cradle for the front of the trailer to ride in, like chains would, the cables uncoiled / stretched and allowed the trailer tongue to drop to the ground. The cables held the trailer to the tow vehicle but one ended up getting stuck between the road and tongue which caused that cable to fail. So for a few yards I was dragging my boat and trailer around on the freeway at freeway speeds with a single safety cable. The brake cable had already done its job before it failed (detached from the surge brake at the connection point in the tongue) as well. According to the tow truck driver who came out to help me get the trailer back on the properly mounted tongue / ball, having the brakes engage probably minimized the damage to the trailer and back of the tow vehicle, if the trailer brakes were not engaged the trailer could have kept going at speed right into the back of the tow vehicle.

I've since replaced the cables with chains that have spring loaded hooks/clips at the end. I also still use a trailer keeper (rubber loop) to keep the s hook on the brake safety cable connected to the bumper of the tow vehicle. One nice thing about my Ford Expedition is that it already has points to hook the safety cable up to.

In case you are interested, Here are a few pics from my incident as well as a link to the thread about it on yjb (like I said it was a few years ago).

http://yamahajetboaters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=59119&hilit=Disaster&start=15

 

[DCB-270]

Ripped mine off heading to @Jebinok
House one night. Never fixed it.