Brake Lanyard Length

[Boxite]

The thread which discussed crossing the safety-chains provoked me to bring up this Topic: Brake Lanyards.

I’ve seen that MOST people attach their brake safety-lanyards with TOO MUCH LENGTH or use a COILED lanyard.

These are WRONG PRACTICES THAT CAN KILL YOU.

Here’s why: The crossed chains are intended to capture the trailer tongue should it disconnect from the hitch-ball.

IF THAT SHOULD OCCUR: the trailer will be VERY LOOSELY attached to the tow vehicle and WILL BEGIN TO SWAY beyond control! THIS IS DEFINITE because the tongue is no longer rigidly attached to the TV. The chains are FLEXIBLE and the least amount of wind, TV steering-action, or trailer movement WILL introduce SWAY. The CHAINS will ALLOW THIS….and if not quickly stopped… may overturn and wreck the Tow Vehicle.

NOw, think about this: if your trailer begins to SWAY…What is the best action the driver should take?
HIt the TV brakes? NO!

Instead, hit the TRAILER BRAKE CONTROL…to straighten the TV/Trailer combo…to bring it all into alignment.

So… IF the trailer becomes detatched… and IF the trailer is only attached to the TV by flexible CHAINS…the ONLY way and the BEST way to maintain control is to APPLY TRAILER BRAKES to straighten-out those chains to prevent SWAY.

The BEST and most IMMEDIATE way to accomplish that action… is to have the brake lanyard shortened to the point that IF the trailer detaches from the ball-hitch…..that the TRAILER BRAKES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY APPLIED!

This will not only alert the driver that a problem has occurred….. it will also put the
combo in the BEST condition…for safe resolution.

THINK about this. Do NOT allow excess lanyard length.

Hope this helps.

[WellSaid11]

If you make it too short or get it all bound up you can inadvertently pull the pin on the wrong type of turn, etc.

[tbrowne]

The point is well made and some care is needed to ensure the brakes are engaged if the trailer should come off of the ball while towing. There are many videos on the subject but it's worth taking a few moments to ensure the breakaway cable is properly connected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eubR3ssLiOM

[NO NOIZE]

You Are 100% Correct

Thank you for taking the time to post this valuable information!

Unfortunately, you will soon find out that no one wants to hear it.

OR, they will tell you that THEY, want to control the situation by manually applying the trailer braking with the controller. Anyone that may react under the stress of an emergency situation to do this is Superman (George Reeves) in my book, but that is un-realistic and not practical.

At one time I was in the curly cue lanyard camp too, upon intelligent reflection and real life experience I had to admit I was wrong. This led me to make a custom made cable with USA components of the exact correct length as to disconnect the break-away switch with the trailer held by the chains with the coupler off the ball. But not so short, to become detached during tight turn maneuvering.

Of course, the correct place to attach the cable to the tow vehicle is another can of worms.

Thank you again for sharing your opinion (FACTS), please do not be disappointed when this goes sideways real quick.

[jondrew55]

I’ve been towing travel trailers for over 30 years and never knew this until about a year ago when someone mentioned it on this forum. I find I’m also worried about the shortened brake cable getting hung up on my ProPride hitch and accidentally engaging the trailer brakes.

[richard5933]

It's a fine balancing act. The lanyard needs to be long enough to avoid getting hung up during turns, but short enough to pull the switch before the chains reach full extension. Took me a few attempts and routing methods to get things worked out.

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by tbrowne

The point is well made and some care is needed to ensure the brakes are engaged if the trailer should come off of the ball while towing. There are many videos on the subject but it's worth taking a few moments to ensure the breakaway cable is properly connected.

I disagree with only one point in this video. He installs the cable through the chain eye in the receiver. This does not guard against a broken or disconnected receiver-from-the-vehicle incident. It happens...rarely...but it does.

I always hook the cable to another extension cable attached to the TV frame, forward of the receiver. Now, all trailer and hitching components are protected in a breakaway situation.

All of his other length recommendations are correct......although he did have the chains twisted in order to shorten them. This is a huge no-no.

[JJTX]

It's called a brake-away system because this assumes your trailer is not connected to your vehicle anymore. It's not supposed to engage if you have a 'disconnect' from your hitch ball. So the slack is less relevant, but it should not be 'tight".

[NO NOIZE]

Originally Posted by JJTX

It's called a brake-away system because this assumes your trailer is not connected to your vehicle anymore. It's not supposed to engage if you have a 'disconnect' from your hitch ball. So the slack is less relevant, but it should not be 'tight".

I respectfully disagree.

[LilPeanut]

The people who made the cool looking coiled orange ones have been doing a great injustice. I made my own brake cable and have made them for others. I have a Hensley, so I have the same concerns as people with ProPride. Mine cable is just a couple inches shorter than my chains and I have never had an issue with it pulling out by accident.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by JJTX

It's called a brake-away system because this assumes your trailer is not connected to your vehicle anymore. It's not supposed to engage if you have a 'disconnect' from your hitch ball. So the slack is less relevant, but it should not be 'tight".

How is being disconnected from your hitch ball anything other than a breakaway?

This is precisely the type of thing the breakaway braking system is designed for - to stop the trailer the instant it detects that you are no longer connected to the tow vehicle in a safe way. Dangling by the safety chains is not controllable and not safe.

[NO NOIZE]

Originally Posted by richard5933

This is precisely the type of thing the breakaway braking system is designed for - to stop the trailer the instant it detects that you are no longer connected to the tow vehicle in a safe way. Dangling by the safety chains is not controllable and not safe.

I agree 100%

[Ephraim]

So, just to throw gasoline on the fire...

both questions from etrailer.com:

Should Breakaway Switch Cable Be Longer Or Shorter Than The Safety Chains?

How long should breakaway cables be?

There are many others but they all point to the RVIA (Recreational Vehicle Industry Association) which apparently specifically says "slightly longer than the breakaway safety chain". the association does not have any recommendation that I could find about weaving the safety cable through the chains, nor any specific information about disconnecting from the ball, but not the chains. there is a lot of documentation and I did not completely review it as it is not my area of expertise. Given that caveat I'm going to go with the "Experts" advice rather than the "YouTube Warriors" advice. I see this come up quite often on various forums. Somewhere, there is a vocal contingent that advocates "shorter" than the safety cables. If and/or when the RVIA changes to state that, I'll make the change. Until then, I'm going with the recognized expert voices.

[richard5933]

This is interesting to see, but not definitive by any means. The RVIA is just one organization out there which relates to trailer towing, and there are others out there from other industries with different advice. There are also manufacturers of the breakaway switches themselves with different advice such as this one (page 4, condition 1)

https://www.warnerelectric.com/-/med.../p-616-we.ashx

So yes, RVIA may recommend that the trailer dangle on the chains without the breakaway activate, but not every industry or manufacturer agrees.

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by richard5933

This is interesting to see, but not definitive by any means. The RVIA is just one organization out there which relates to trailer towing, and there are others out there from other industries with different advice. There are also manufacturers of the breakaway switches themselves with different advice such as this one (page 4, condition 1)

https://www.warnerelectric.com/-/med.../p-616-we.ashx

So yes, RVIA may recommend that the trailer dangle on the chains without the breakaway activate, but not every industry or manufacturer agrees.

What I find interesting about etrailer.com is that their opinion on the matter has changed. They used to recommend “shorter” and now they recommend “longer”.

[Boxite]

It’s true that twisting the safety chains to reduce their effective length weakens them…. but DUAL 5/16” Grade 70 chain is more than enough to keep the trailer following the tow-vehicle if they are not excessively looooong…. (excessively-long chains are also subjected to increased stresses when they are “jerked” at the bitter-ends due to momentum)…. and I believe shortening those DUAL chains by twisting reduces their workload when they are put to the test… and is better than allowing them to suffer abrasion against the pavement….or hang so low they grab some unplanned-for object.

Those 5/16 G70 chains are rated at 4700 PLUS pounds….and DUAL chains add up to 9400 lbs of tensile strength…. Twisting them probably weakens them by 25% or so… still WAAY more capability than any bumper-pull trailer will exert. IMO.

I pull my utility and cattle trailers with various vehicles and different hitch types…so I cannot simply shorten the chains to fit one vehicle. I twist them and inspect them regularly. So do commercial trailer rental companies who definitely recognize their liabilities…. and twist them under the watchful eyes of their lawyers. (I actually learned to twist them from both the U-Haul and the Premium large-trailer rental companies.)
Sorry if this puts someone’s panties in a wad…but that the facts at my house, ma’am.

[JJTX]

Originally Posted by richard5933

How is being disconnected from your hitch ball anything other than a breakaway?

This is precisely the type of thing the breakaway braking system is designed for - to stop the trailer the instant it detects that you are no longer connected to the tow vehicle in a safe way. Dangling by the safety chains is not controllable and not safe.

A trailer tongue will drop straight down to the pavement. The chains if configured and crossed will hold it, in general. Even if springbars are used.

If the chains fail, brake-away brakes activate after pulling the cord out and slow the trailer as it skids accross the pavement and stops, somehow. In a perfect situation.

Not before.

Trailer brakes activating at mostly full force while you are unhitched would likely be worse and more disruptive to the tow vehicle and yank it backwards with catastrophic results.

Break-away brake activations are to stop runaway trailers.

[JJTX]

Originally Posted by no noize

i respectfully disagree.

ok.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by JJTX

A trailer tongue will drop straight down to the pavement. The chains if configured and crossed will hold it, in general. Even if springbars are used.

If the chains fail, brake-away brakes activate after pulling the cord out and slow the trailer as it skids accross the pavement and stops, somehow. In a perfect situation.

Not before.

Trailer brakes activating at mostly full force while you are unhitched would likely be worse and more disruptive to the tow vehicle and yank it backwards with catastrophic results.

Break-away brake activations are to stop runaway trailers.

Seems like one school of thought is that the chains should not be trusted and that if the tongue comes off the ball the trailer should be stopped ASAP.

The other school of thought is that the breakaway braking system is not to be used unless all other systems have failed, including the chains.

Without seeing some actual data detailing the results of both scenarios, it's nearly impossible for us to know which has the higher likelihood or reducing catastrophic consequences to the tongue coming off the ball.

[dznf0g]

Ok. I had this happen once.....with an empty tandem axle uhaul. The clerk didn't tighten down the coupler.
First, when it popped off, there was a lot of side to side motion. (Again empty trailer, I'd hate to feel this when full)
Second, when I applied the brakes, the trailer smashed into the rear of the truck, destroying the tail gate. (My fathers truck!)..

This was all at about 30mph. I want my trailer brakes ON if a disconnect occurs.

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