trailor breakaway boxes

[rob10858]

i had two truck and trailors impounded today at a safety check because the breakaways werent working correctly. the boxes were about a year old and cost about $175 apiece [multiply that times 16 trailors] they were the dot approved recharging batteries that supposedly recharge every time the tr brakes are engaged. they were made by tekonska which is large mnf of trailor brake controllers and safety devices. this is an impoundable violation whether you are commercial or private vehicle. the best way to prevent this from happening to you is to pull the connector out , with your rig hooked up [parked, preferably] the brakes should lock and the indicator on your box should be on the strongest signal, or glow bright red. the way the dot checks these things is to have you slowly move forward as they disconnect the switch , the trailor brakes should completely lock up. dont think that this isnt the most important safety feature you have. in 17 years, ive had two trailors that broke at the 5th wheel, both times the breakaway saved me from losing my load and maybe killing someone. my 2cents worth.

 

[dmurdock]

caution in testing!

Just some caution when testing your breakaway. . i have a tekonsha controller and it states clearly to disconnect the trailer harness before pulling the breakaway cable... if the breakaway device is activated while the controller is hooked up, it could "fry" it (the brake controller). So, check the manual for your controller before testing. .

 

[rob10858]

iwasnt aware of that and thanks for the info. its interesting to note that the dot checked our breakaways with the pigtail attached. i wonder how many functinal breakaways are damaged by doing this, and who pays for it? us. i never have liked these elec brake systems, too many things can cause them to fail. i talked to a psd owner the other day that has a hyd system. has any one had any experience with these?

 

[Bad340fish]

Packman, The systems I have seen use a gell cell battery in them. A gell cell requires a special charger. They cannot take bieng overcharged like a standard lead acid battery can. Were your batteries puffed up or sucked in either one?? If so it was do to overcharging. I don't really see how you could charge one properly though without removing them and using an automatic charger. The few that I have seen use an Interstate Batteries Part # PC1240 I believe. If you get me measurments I can get you part #s if batteries are your problems. Good Luck

Clark

 

[rob10858]

i was told that the battery was only being sent a charge when the trailor brakes were being applied. i guess that this could prevent overcharging as long as the system was working properly. but if its not its hard for us laymans to really know how to monitor this. our dodge dealer has a guy that only does elec work on their vehicles and he more or less told me that these systems are unreliable at best. any suggestions would be welcome. i have to wonder if im the only one that has this problem or if every one else is like me, never thought to check?

 

[Bad340fish]

I wonder how often your trailer brakes see a FULL 12 volts?? Unless you have some flatspotted tires I would say its not very often lol. Go out and Voltmeter all your trailers. 12. 65 is a true full charge for a 12 volt battery. I would assume that anything over 12 would be more than sufficient to hit the brakes. Let us know what you come up with

Clark

 

[Lurch]

I've got a deep cycle marine battery in my trailer for the winch and lights. Don't have to worry about juice for the breakaway.



Lurch

 

[Eric_77]

My trailer uses the hot lead from the 7 pin connector to charge the battery which is just an old truck battery that I swap out everytime we get a new battery in a vehicle. So it is always getting a charge when hooked up to truck.

 

[rob10858]

i like the idea of marine batteries but the dot says no. although i dont think an inspector would notice a different battery device, they only approve of three types, and they have to be dot approved. my boss and i were talking a couple of months ago about checking thes boxes and he said "how many times have you ever had the dot check your breakaway?" after 17 years the answer was never, until last week.

 

[Lurch]

DOT looked at mine and never said a word. You're probably right though, just didn't notice.



Lurch

 

[B.G. Smith]

Breakaway boxes

I think the danger of blowing the brake controller is if the polarity on the switch is backward from the controller. This should not be a problem with travel trailer types but could happen where the battery is for break away use only. It is a good idea to check the switch occasionally. I found a bad one on my pull behind, the material the contacts were mounted on had warped and the contacts would not touch when the pin was pulled. bg

 

[sam peterson]

I hope that 175. 00 for the break-away kit was installed price because I sell the complete tekonsha kit for 89. 33. Having installed several hundred of these kits you can pull the pin to check for lockup anytime if things are hooked up properly. The only requirement of a battery is that it have enough amps to hold the brakes on for 15 minutes when the pin is pulled. The charger in the kits is designed to charge any size battery,even the small 4 amp without any problems. ---Sam

 

[rob10858]

sam , when i order our trailors, there are alot of options that i have to choose from, even up to the ratings of the tires. ican order a trailor with or without a breakaway and install them myself, or let the people that supposedly know what their doing set it up right from the factory. i do this more or less to cover my rear in case theres a problem because they arent that hard to install. bought a kit at napa today for $89. 99 , let me ask you this the battery was completely dead, so are we counting on the battery to get its charge from normal use, or should we charge it before installing? ive never bought a battery that was dead right from the start, put a voltmeter on it and there was nothing until we charged it for about 10 mins. by the way its a 12 volt battery.

 

[sam peterson]

I would get a fresh battery from the parts store to replace it. they should be at least partially charged when you get them. the life of those batterys is approx 5 years so who knows how long it may have been on the shelf before you got it. if you have a designated hot wire running to the charger it will be charging and maintaining full charge anytime you are hooked to the trailer. if it hooked to the running light circuit it may not keep up unless you operate the lights all the time. ---Sam

 

[rob10858]

that takes us back to an earlier reply, woundnt that fry the breakaway battery? i guess the determining factor would be that we are hooked up to our trailors eight months out of the year, but rarely in the winter. im sure these batteries lose their charge then and most dont recover after being drained all winter. do these tiny batteries have something that our truck batteries dont?

 

[sam peterson]

the setup i like for a breakaway kit is a larger box with a 30 amp gell cell and the same little charger hooked to it. that lets me operate lights inside the trailer when i am not hooked to the truck. it also runs the power jack on the tonge. these gell sells are great, mounts anywhere, any position, pile stuff on it, no maintainance, no fumes.

 

[RATTLINRAM]

Breakaway boxes

packman,

My 5er is a 1986 Nomad and I just replaced the breakaway switch last fall after finding the pin contacts corroded. It looks like the unit was factory installed and it uses the deep-cycle battery which powers the 5er when unhooked from the truck. It gets charged when hooked to the truck or by the charger/converter on the 5er. It seems this would be the best system because you would always be aware of your battery condition.

And you say that DOT does not approve this setup?



I wouldn't think this would be a violation when it was made that way from the factory, but who knows when it means the states might make a few bucks!

 

[rob10858]

even a better idea is sometimes not good enough for the dot, after all they are government and unless theve paid someone millions to test and approve it, they are not going to pass it in an inspection. this idea of a gell cell interests me, sam can you email me more info? thanks rob

 

[dasyure]

Any battery you buy from napa should have a date on the side for when it was made. Its a small 1/2 to 3/4 round stiker with like a-1 (jan 2001) a=jan b=feb c=march etc. some time in 2000 2001 they went to a rectangular maybe 1/4 by 1" with the three letter months and two digit years. I allways make them sell me a new (same month as it is) battery so what if the warrenty dosen't start untill its sold I don't need the hassel.

And any battery (wet cell) thats new should be above 12v without you having to charge it.

If you can't pull the batteries, charge them fully and store them in the winter then just making shure there fully charged will get them thru 3 months

Sean

 

[Lurch]

I was somewhat misleading in my earlier post, just reread it. I have the normal small battery for the breakaway, but it's wired in with the marine batt so it allways has juice. Don't have to worry about it being dead.



Lurch