# Electric Brakes



## RCColby (Oct 12, 2004)

I am on a two month southeast & central US vacation with my almost new 28F RLS. When I arrived from Michigan at my first "destination" campground in Florida I found that I had a very difficult parking situation. Drive in frontwords to site on riverfront, unhitch, then drive right up to the river bank and try to squirrel my truck out backwords between me and neighbor. That is the way the manager wanted me to park so my awning would not overhang the office parking lot and all my cords and hoses would reach. I was going to be there for 10 days so of course I did what he wanted.
I had a lot of "helpers" to accomplish this task which made me a little bit nervous and when I got the trailer unhooked from the truck I was in a hurry to get it out and have the audience leave. 
After parking the TV around back, hooking everything up and putting the slide out, I popped a cold one and was sitting down in the easy chair when I noticed the converter cooling fan running. Now this is not supposed to run much unless you have a pretty good load of 12V on it and I only had a couple of lights on at the time. Well after checking everything 12V I could think of and unplugging the shore power to reset it, the cooling fan was running again most of the time. I then went outside and looked around and happened to see my emergency brake disconnect cable sitting in the truck bed instead of hooked on the trailer hitch as it was supposed to be. It had got caught on the 5th wheel hitch in the truck during my back and forth antics trying to get my truck out from in front.
Luckily no brake damage seems to have occured from having the brakes fully engaged for over 30 minutes, I am over 400 miles away now and they seem to be working fine.
Just thought I would post this for others to watch out for in the future, we learn from others mistakes.
BTW, I use an older recycled IBM 600X laptop, 750 mhz, 12 gig hd, with ethernet and wireless cards, a phone modem and in a pinch a cellphone to do email on the road. Although not the latest and greatest, it works for me, is bullet proof and was relativily cheap from a used computer dealer several years ago. 
Bob


----------



## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Glad the brakes are working alright.

If you can get the wheels jacked up, you might want to get a brake adjusting tool and adjust the brakes. If they were dragging for a while, some of the lining may have worn away and they may need adjusting.

Mike


----------



## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Bob

Are you sure you had the brakes engauged during your tow? I think if the cable pulled the brakes on the trailer, you would have noticed this for sure. The sudden drag or even tires smoking. Pulling the trailer for 400 miles with brakes on --- they would be red hot for sure and you would have seen this or even smelt this while having your cold one. My guess would be that you pulled the cable during your parking. It sounds like you had some extreme angles to get the trailer just right.

I am glad nothing is wrong, but like Mike, I would check them out. Better safe than sorry.

Thor


----------



## dougdogs (Jul 31, 2004)

Guys, Guys, Bob's post says he sure the damaged occured when he was un-hitching.

Thanks for the heads-up Bob, we will soon (come on, spring!!) be making our first trip in our 5th. I'm getting my hitch installed this week.


----------



## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Great tip. Thanks for posting.


----------



## GlenninTexas (Aug 11, 2004)

On my first outing with my 5th wheel, my brake cable also hung on the hitch and disconnected while I was backing into a space.It definitely stpped the trailer from moving any further.

After that, I got a piece of elastic from my wife's sewing basket, the kind they use to put in cuffs and things about 1/4" wide. I tied one end to the pull plug and the other at a spot on the cable so that the elastic was just stretched a bit when hooked up. This holds the slack in the cable up so it can't catch on the hitch, but it won't interfere with the disconnect in a real use situation. It's not fancy or particularily pretty, but it works well and was cheap and easy to do.

Regards, Glenn


----------



## RCColby (Oct 12, 2004)

Guys,
Sorry if I was not clear but it happened after I had the trailer up off the hitch, wheel chocks in and rear jacks down. I noticed it within 30 minutes and put it back where it belongs, on the kingpin. Yes, brakes are definately working fine I tested them several times when I re-hitched a week later.
Bob


----------



## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Bob

I glad everything is working well









Thor


----------



## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Bob

I glad everything is working well









I read your posting again. I think I miss read it. sorry









Thor


----------

