do you know where to attach the emergency brake cable?

Tundra57 · February 2020

I was looking thro videos on line. There was a discussion about the breakaway cable and where to attach it. I always attach to the safety chain link on the TV. In the video there had been an incident with a well maintained TV where the entire tow bracket broke off the vehicle taking the hitch and safety chain mounts with it. The camper trailer then just rolled away on its own pulling the entire hitch with it so the breakaway cable never was able to operate. Fortunately the trailer stopped safely.

They recommended putting an eye bolt or loop on the TV bumper or similar totally seperate to the tow bracket.

I will be drilling a hole in my steel bumper for an eyelet before my next trip. The breakaway pulls the pin out of the breakaway switch so it doesn't have to be as sturdy as the safety chain loops. But sturdy enough not to snap off before pulling the pin.

Who knew??

AirBoss · February 2020

While that's a horror story, I'm inclined to think it's a oddity one-off, the odds of which are slim and none...and slim is getting on the bus. That said, a belt and suspenders approach can't hurt.

Tundra57 · February 2020

That's what I thought. The video shows the whole reciever section broken off in a lump. Imagine that at 60mph on a freeway???

N7SHG_Ham · February 2020

I wouldn't tie to the ball mount stinger, but the receiver itself is bolted to the frame. I tie to the receiver frame at the same place where the factory tow point is for the safety chains. I guess if the entire receiver framework falls off neither the safety chains or emergency brake are going to do any good!

I think I would notice it banging around long before it fell off.

GatorEgg · February 2020

What if the bumper falls off with trailer?

Bayliss · February 2020

@Tundra57 - My receiver, like most, I presume, is bolted to the truck frame. There are steel openings/loops on either side of the receiver frame for attaching the tow chains. I separately connect the tow brake cable to one of those openings/loops with a "quick-link" connector. If the tow chains break, the brake cable remains connected to the tow vehicle so it can work as designed. I am not sure how the receiver system was attached on the video you watched, but it seems highly unlikely that a bolted-on receiver on a well-maintained tow vehicle would simply break away (unless somehow the weld points completely failed.)

Regardless, it is definitely worth pointing out that the breakaway cable needs to be independently attached to the tow vehicle and not to the tow chains. Otherwise, if and when a tow chain link breaks, the trailer brake cable is going to stay with the trailer and will not activate the brakes.

I would be interested in seeing the video if you can post a link to it. Thanks! ("Quick-link" is depicted below.)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/u3/zblhzqjewekb.jpg

pthomas745 · February 2020

This .pdf booklet from the Purdue University extension service has a whole rundown on everything about attaching trailers to a tow vehicle. Plenty of exciting examples of the wrong way to do things, with examples of the correct, safe way.

The breakaway brake cable should be attached to the tow vehicle.

The safety chain discussion begins on page 42.

The breakaway cable discussion begins on page 58.

https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ppp/ppp-92.pdf

DougH · February 2020

TRIGGER WARNING: SCARY PICTURE

@Tundra57 @AirBoss @N7SHG_Ham ; I can personally attest to this potential serious safety risk.

Following a trip early last year, I noticed the hitch drooping a bit when I got home. Seemed like it was maybe a half inch lower than it had been before.

There had been some Texas sized potholes and bad roads on the otherwise great trip. But upon teardown, was horrified to see the poor quality of the stock class III hitch (company now out of business), with the bar and hitch literally tearing itself apart from the vehicle frame attachment points. As you can see from photo below, it was only a couple inches from tearing the 3/16" steel attachment bracket just like paper, and completely off, at which point towbar with safety chains attached, and breakaway line, and camper, would have gone who knows where. And I keep my tongue weight at or just under 200 lbs, drive under 65mph, and drive dirt roads at closer to 5mph.

After welding in repairs and significant upgrades with higher quality and thicker steel plate, I not only put a high strength caribiner for the emergency brake line on an independent point on the bumper, but also tied the towbar to vehicle frame with separate segments of steel cable. I also now repeatedly inspect towbar before and during every trip. Haven't had a bit of problems since.

But even though this was a name brand hitch, with a company that had been around quite a while, and a class III hitch version marketed to my specific tow vehicle... their design, materials, and construction standards had clearly been slipping badly.

So yup, everyone at a minimum

should create an independent attachment point for their emergency brake wire and not just use the safety chain loop,
should check that emergency breakaway wire for fraying or degradation from road scrapes,
should make sure you have the camper battery cutoff turned off (battery can turn on camper lights) while towing so brake system is active, and
should inspect the towbar regularly.

TRIGGER WARNING: SCARY PICTURE

First clue:

Sharon_is_SAM · February 2020

Good points @DougH. The battery disconnect should be left “on” to provide power to the break-away brakes in case of separation of the Tab from the TV ( battery can turn on camper lights).

DougH · February 2020

@Sharon_is_SAM I wasnt sure how to phrase that at 1 or 2 in the morning. The disconnect should no longer be in the disconnected position? The cutoff shouldn't be cutoff? The switch should be off meaning its on?

And the OP (Tundra57) is absolutely correct. Who knew, indeed. Before my near miss from catastrophe, I didn't.

AirBoss · February 2020

All good info, folks! Forum never ceases to amaze me as a resource! All y'all rock!

ScottG · February 2020

Bayliss said:

...
I am not sure how the receiver system was attached on the video you watched, but it seems highly unlikely that a bolted-on receiver on a well-maintained tow vehicle would simply break away (unless somehow the weld points completely failed.)
...

This actually happened to a former member here--you can probably find the thread if you poke back a ways.

IIRC it involved an aftermarket receiver mounted on a unibody-type vehicle. The attachment points suffered a stress failure and the whole kit and caboodle fell off the back of the car.

N7SHG_Ham · February 2020

aftermarket receiver mounted on a unibody-type vehicle

That about says all we need to know about that incident.

This is why I am a huge proponant of ONLY factory installed tow equipment. How many manufacturers of especially unibody vehicles sell with a "tow package" that is mostly marketing and the owner is left to fend for themselves installing subbpar hitches incorrectly?

A proper tow package from the factory should include any engine cooling mods, a properly wired seven pin wiring harness, a suitable reciever hitch, possibly beefed up suspension and maybe now days an integrated trailer brake controller. Having an oil or transmission cooler ONLY does the consumer a disservice. My 20 year old Dodge Ram had all of the equipment from the factory when ordered with a trailer package (except an intergrated brake controller), it is time a tow package meant ready to go from the factory for ALL makes!

N7SHG_Ham · February 2020

@DougH " I also now repeatedly inspect towbar before and during every trip"

Best advice!

That hitch falling apart didn't happen overnight, the cracks have rust stains indicating it had been cracking for a long while.

BrianZ · February 2020

Glad you caught it in time, @DougH!

I'm curious about the orientation of the mounting shown in the last photo.. In reference to the bent & cracked piece at the top of the towbar, are we looking at the rear-facing or front-facing side of the towbar? It looks as if it was pushed upwards on this side (or downwards on the opposite side?). I'm trying to understand the direction of the forces that were responsible. You seemed to be saying there were downward forces on the hitch, which seems more consistent with this being the forward facing side of the towbar.

I'm wondering if you had been using a hitch tightener or not? Since you were not concerned about excess tongue weight, I'm wondering if there also may have been some excess forward-rearward forces at play in addition to up-down. Without a hitch tightener, any start/stop motion can be more like a hammer. I guess there's also the possibility of a bad batch of steel.
And yes, be sure not to turn off the battery disconnect switch while traveling - must keep power to the brakes. (Let's see, was that a double or triple negative? Hmm.)

pthomas745 · February 2020

@ScottG this thread? Warning: Scary pictures!

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/4409/hitch-problems/p1

ScottG · February 2020

That's the one!

Sharon_is_SAM · February 2020

@DougH, when nuCamp added the battery disconnect/cutoff switch, as a newbie, I found it very confusing as to what “on” and “off” indicated. I think maybe it is better to just call it a battery switch😀

Amazonica · February 2020

@Tundra57 and I must be watching similar videos, I recently had this question come up too. I'm new to this lifestyle, staying at an RV campground, and trying to learn as much as I can. Every single 'experienced' person I have asked, has told me something different regarding this (and other) topics.

Since I don't know, I did some research. Not on Forums, but individual State websites. As far I my searching tells me, there is no 'law' regarding attachment point. You have to have one (breakaway cable for trailer brakes) in *most* states for trailers over 3000lbs (this weight varies by state), but the law doesn't specify where it is to be attached, only that it must be capable of "independently" stopping the trailer.

While I do think the occurence is rare, in my newbie inexperienced opinion, it IS worth taking the small extra step to attach the breakaway cable to someplace secure on the TV other than the receiver or hitch. Most receivers *should* be directly and securely attached to the vehicle frame, but some aren't, they can be attached to crossmembers. Bolts and welds can appear ok but be substandard. I agree with others here that regardless of vehicle newness, hitch rating, attach point, etc. all components should be checked regularly. It's unlikely that anyone else cares about your safety (and liability) as much as you do. Everyone makes mistakes - mechanics, manufacturers, dealers, welders, newbies (me!), even those with lots of experience. My point in rambling is that even though everything is manufactured and attached 'right' things can and do fail.

But ultimately, it is user choice on where to attach it.

ScottG · February 2020

Sharon_is_SAM said:

@DougH, when nuCamp added the battery disconnect/cutoff switch, as a newbie, I found it very confusing as to what “on” and “off” indicated. I think maybe it is better to just call it a battery switch😀

"Battery switch" is indeed how that device is usually described when you go shopping for one. As with any other switch, "OFF" by definition denotes the condition at which the electrical conductor running through the switch mechanism is rendered discontinuous, disconnected, or otherwise cut off.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! :-)

Denny16 · February 2020

Works for me

cheers

DougH · February 2020

@Amazonica ; Agree... 99.999% of the time we shouldn't have any such problem where the vehicle framing fails or the hitch itself fails. But as you say, that extra small step to secure the cable to some other secure place on the TV will remove the chance of getting passed by your own camper on that mountain descent.

@BrianZ ; The top picture was looking down on the attachment bracket forward facing side after cleaning it up. The bottom smaller picture was looking up and rearward from the ground at the bottom of that same bracket as it shows obvious signs of buckling with downward forces. The yellow arrow in the picture below shows how the assembly is lifted onto the rear subframe ~3/4" threaded posts, the bumper frame is slipped over that, and then the whole thing is tightened up. There's no hitch tightened needed, as this isn't a standard horizontal receiver, and there's no play and no clunking with this particular hitch. This brand of hitch used to be the standard manufacturer label hitch, which is one reason I went with it. While 3/16" steel for the bracket is reasonably thick, as @Amazonica notes, welds can be substandard, and in this case the thinner triangular pieces you can see in both pictures (where rust is showing through on the lower picture) had only been lightly spray painted on one surface and only tack welded in place! Yikes! And perhaps it was a bad batch of steel on the main bracket ends themselves, or not properly heat treated parts. The huge flange nuts and lock washers attaching the rear bumper frame over the hitch end brackets and onto the rear subframe threaded posts were still well torqued when I took the thing apart, so there hadn't been any slop or opportunity for movement during bumpy road traversal. The hitch portion the ball attaches to, as well as the horizontal tow bar itself are all strong 2" square tube steel and seemed unphased by it all... the 90 degree end brackets used to slip the towbar over the rear subframe posts were the culprit. I used fresh steel and constructed double layer brackets and fully welded new bracing pieces to distribute the stress/strain. Then painted the whole thing with a primer, bright colored enamel, followed by a black enamel, so any new deformation in the end pieces should show up even quicker. But the brackets are now stronger than the walls of the main tow-bar, so I don't expect that to happen.

In case anyone hasn't seen one of the vertical hitches more common in Europe, the towbar includes a downward facing vertical receiver with several lock mechanisms incorporated. When the hitch / ball portion is not attached, the hitch is invisible. Insert key and unlock one latch, rotate another locking mechanism out of the way, and open the flap to access the vertical receiver opening, and that heavy hitch / ball piece itserts into the vertical opening, locks, then you engage the other locks and fingers crossed it cannot come apart even if you jump up and down on the hitch ball a thousand times. Some of this class of hitch is fully electric where the second piece is motorized and folds and unfolds in place. I opted for a manual one, with an extra fail-safe lock on that vertical connection point (not realizing at the time that the vertical join wasn't the weak point of the system).

So I don't necessarily think it was forward and backward moments that degraded the brackets, but repeated downward force applications that tried to tear the bracket steel like paper. Or that's my guess. Maybe there's enough slop in the stock BAL (?) 2" coupler on the ball to act like a sledge when going over bumps?

Denny16 · February 2020

Trailers can exert a lot of force on a vehicle. That is why, I prefer a 50-percent safety net, using a 6K rated TV setup on a 3K trailer, less likely to have these issues.
cheers

DougH · February 2020

@Denny16 ; That's a good safety margin to use. My wagon is rated for 3950lbs (dry T@B Max S is 1700), and a class III hitch is supposed to be good for 8000lb pull and 800 tongue weight. My hitch sure wuznt.

Denny16 · February 2020

No, each TV hitch setup has its own rating, apart from the hardware being used, which takes into account of how and what it is attached to the vehicle, and the vehicle’s towing capacity. Aftermarket receiver/tow bar setups are normally a lower weight rating than an OEM setup.
m truck is rated for 6500 lbs tow weight, and 600 lbs hitch weight (which becomes part of the trucks cargo rating). The Receiver and ball are rated for 8K, but the truck attachment is going to fail before reaching 8K lbs.
cheers

Tundra57 · February 2020

I am glad that I provided a start to a lively discussion.

Tundra57 · February 2020

When I find the video I watched again I'll post the link.

Tundra57 · February 2020

Here is the link

https://campaddict.com/deadly-towing-mistake/

Cbusguy · February 2020

makes me reflect back to the lady with the 4 door wrangler and towing a 400.

Those pictures are ugly of the unibody blow out. looks like it was either right at or near the max tongue weight of the hitch/tow vehicle combo.....It should give everyone a moment of pause when reflecting on their set up.

Just reenforces a properly sized and equipt tow vehicle. With a standard under body frame.

I have seen a number of tow bars fall off of tow vehicles. both were ford trucks with factory installed receiver hitches......The gentleman towing the first one had about 500 pounds of water on the tongue....duh. The second the frame was super rusty. Both clearly the fault of the owners.

Tundra57 · February 2020

You may be correct however it is very short sighted to assume that because you keep within all weight limits only use factory equipment best quality suitable etc that you will be safe.

Like saying it's almost impossible to be struck by lightening so don't bother about standing in the middle of a field.

If there is a better safer way to do something even if the failure is very unlikely, why not use it?

The remedy is very cheap.

Not everyone who had ever had a hitch break has been totally responsible for it. So it's unfair to allude to that.

Just my opinion. Take it or leave it.

My post was just a view of what could happen and a remedy for it not a discussion topic to blame others for their misfortunes.

gspdx · February 2020

Good points @Tundra57. As a minimum we should be inspecting these connecting points regularly. I feel pretty good about having a full sized truck for a TV (pretty new so rust isn't an issue yet) and use a WDH to help keep so much weight off the rear of the truck.

BUT - none of that means something won't go wrong. Like so many things we see, some of these accidents seem very unlikely, until they happen. And they do happen. Certainly wouldn't take too much effort to create a mounting point for the brake cable that is mounted to the bumper or frame.

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