Busboy

Lately I've been doing a lot of towing in icy conditions and have had a number of close encounters. If you just touch the brake pedal even with the brake controller set at only 2 of 14 it locks up the trailer wheels then the ABS cuts in and things go sideways very quickly. I've started setting the brake controller at zero and letting the truck try to take care of things. What do other people do???

Scotty

Busboy

Thanks for the reply Scotty, I also don't use the exhaust brake when it's slippery and have always used the neutral trick even on cars but I was unsure about turning the brake controller to zero, seems like I'm on the right track. Just wondering if there are any other tricks out there for keeping the rig between the ditches when it's slippery.

j_martin

This is exactly why every "modern" inertial brake controller I've owned went into the trash can, and got replaced with an old school hydraulically driven controller.

What happens is that the inertial brake controller lightly applies the trailer brakes as soon as it sees brake pedal movement via the brake light circuit. On glare ice, that will lock up the trailer wheels. With a Kelsey-Hayes 81740 controller one only has to hold back the lever to prevent that.

My son crested a hill in Montana on glare ice, noted traffic far ahead, lightly touched his brakes and launched his tool trailer into oncoming traffic. Nobody was hurt, but that was a miracle. I think my son got a wreckless driving ticket for it, though I would consider it unexpected equipment failure.

If I were to keep using an inertial controller, I'd install an "icy roads" switch to open up the brake light lead to the controller. That might totally disable the inertia driven function of the controller, but it shouldn't affect the manual operation of the controller.

Busboy

That is a fantastic idea, thank you. When the roads are icy all the way I can set the brake controller to zero but when they are clear it's nice to have some trailer braking, then you hit an area of slippery sections I find myself frantically turning down the controller. A simple "icy roads switch" as you suggested would be the perfect answer, I'm going to install one ASAP.

That should be in the instructions for the installation.

j_martin

Understand that you're working with pure theory here. I haven't tried it on anything. Check it out and report back for the rest of the curious minds that inhabit this place.

Busboy

Will do but it might take a couple of weeks... I'm moving 825 miles and my truck with a trailer broke down last week 825 miles away from home. I flew home to get the next trailer load ready with another truck. The local dealer quoted $3100 to $4100 to machine the head and replace the head gasket, no choice as we have to be out by the end of the month.

Busboy

Well finally got around to doing the icy road switch that has been on my to do list for a long time. It took about an hour to complete and it works fantastic, I just came back from the test drive and after 2 days of freezing fog on top of snow covered gravel roads it works just as planned. The simple toggle switch when turned on will lock up the trailer wheels just by touching the brake pedal and the trailer starts to go sideways, flick the switch and you can hammer on the brake pedal with the ABS cutting in and out but the trailer stays straight with no braking action to the trailer. Every brake controller should have a cut out switch for slippery conditions and it's something I recommend installing.