Bone Head Move, forgot to unhook the emergency cable

[swatski]

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

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Wow, that is quite a story! Thanks for sharing, really made me think about what I'm doing (and not doing)!

The one thing I always wonder is -- if the brakes activate in the trailer in an emergency -- would the trailer (with locked brakes) rip the chains/cables off of the hitch? or rip the hitch off of the car? or drag the car to a stop? In one of the pics the brakes actuator seems locked-out with tape/nickel trick, so if that was there before it separated the brakes would never activate and lock, maybe that is why there was only relatively minimal damage, as the trailer just dragged behind for a few yards without separating fully?

 

[Ronnie]

The pic above was taken after I got the boat home from the incident. I can tell because I've got one chain and cable on the trailer. I had to put the nickel in place to more easily back the trailer up the driveway, the nickel wasn't in place when the incident happened. When it went down, the trailer definitley slowed the tow vehicle down but the trailer tires did not lock up. I was in the slow lane doing about 60 mph and pulled over within a few hundred yards. If the other cable didn't get pinched I have no doubt it would have been fine like the other one was. Those cables are strong, just one held the trailer and SUV together and allowed me to drag a loaded trailer with the brakes activated to the side of the road.

Overall, I want the chains or cables to create a cradle like they are supposed to do if the ball connection fails, the stock coiled cables i had wouldn't allow for that. If the cradle works as it should the detached trailer may damage the back of the tow vehicle but I should have more control over the trailer which seems better / safer to me than having the safety cable activate the trailer brake which should only happen if both chains or cables break or are severed. I think activating the trailer brakes via the safety cable is really supposed to be a last resort that is meant to stop the trailer from continuing down the road without a tow vehicle.

Once bitten at least three times shy for me where trailering is concerned. I won't ever tow my boat without, among other things, attaching the safety cable to an appropriate point on the bumper, not one of the chains, or leaving it disconnected entirely. I never thought I would need the last resort but that changed in an instant on me when I put the locking pin in the wrong place. By the way I drove about 30 miles before the trailer detached. Putting a new safety cable in was very time consuming but will be worth every second if I ever need the last resort system to work for me again.

 

[Ronnie]

@Jebinok , sorry, didn't mean to highjack/side track your post. Whether you can fix your issue with a simple clip depends on where your cable became disconnected. Mine disconnected from the plate at the front of the surge brake shaft so the only way to repair it was to remove the surge brake mechanism form the tongue and replace the entire cable. The hardest part was getting the brake fluid line / hose out off the brake solenoid.

Here is a link to some pics to give you an idea of how the cable is routed internally. You can't get to / see any of this with the surge brake mechanism installed in the trailer tongue housing. As I recall the surge brake will only come out of the housing by sliding the brake mechanism forward not backward in the housing (there are obstructions which prevent the latter).

http://yamahajetboaters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=63775&hilit=+Surge+brake

 

[Jebinok]

No worries guys, nuttin was hijacked, like @swatski said always good to learn something,

 

[ncnmra]

Overall, I want the chains or cables to create a cradle like they are supposed to do if the ball connection fails, the stock coiled cables i had wouldn't allow for that.

@Ronnie: This confirms my gut feeling that the stock MFI cables are a bad design. Did you replace them with chains afterwards? My big concern would be if the trailer were to fall off the ball, then with the cables being coiled, wouldn't it possibly lead to massive fish-tailing by the trailer if the tongue is allowed to swing back and forth?

Also: Are the brakes on these trailers setup to actually be strong enough to completely lock up the tires? I would think that in case of a trailer detachment, you'd want the trailer to start braking, otherwise as you stated, if it is cradled in the chains, it could cause significant damage and potentially loss of control to the vehicle by its own momentum if the vehicle starts braking.

 

[Ronnie]

I replaced the stock coiled cables almost as soon as I got home after the incident. Here a pick of my current set up. I got the chains at either Walmart or west marine for about $15 each. I also replaced the nickel and D key or side lockout key with a magnetic version of the latter for about $10. I Still have the stock s hook for the brake safety cable but use a trailer keeper / piece of rubber with two holes in it to secure it to the eye in the tow vehicle's bumper, also pictured. Finally, a marked the tongue with a sharpie to remind me where the tongue needs to be before I lock it in place.

Unless the cables are the correct length they are not going to create a cradle in an emergency situation. Instead the trailer tongue will simply drop to the payment like mine did. No fish tailing in my situation but lots of drag. I think fish tailing could be a problem even if the cradle works as it should but I prefer to deal with fish tailing v. Plowing for a few hundred yards at speed.

I don't know if the trailer brakes are supposed to lock up in an emergency (mine lock up when ever I back up the driveway without disabling the surge brake) but I'm glad that mine did not, there was already plenty of slowing down going on between the trailer brakes and the trailer being dragged on its tongue. I'm almost positive that at the time I actually stopped in the slow lane of the freeway for a few seconds before using the tow vehicle to pull over to the shoulder. I know I had to drag the trailer and boat a few more feet to get deeper into the shoulder for safety purposes. The nut that holds the trailer ball in place was ground off at almost a 45 degree angle and of course all hell was breaking loose inside the tow vehicle. Bad times, bad times. Hopefully none of you will ever have the same experience.

 

[DCB-270]

@Jebinok you only tow 1\2 mile to the ramp. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[itsdgm]

@Jebinok my original MFI owners manual has a safety cable clip or two scotch taped to the cover. Check ther if you have an MFI trailer and still happen to have the owners manual.

 

[KXCam22]

The clip is not really required. I dont have one. The main thing is to press that L clip upwards to reset the MFI brake plunger. Of course mine was so bent from the PO backing into it with the truck hitch ball, that I had to break it off to reset. Well it started as bending it back but quickly turned into breaking it off. Cam.