Breakaway cable snagged on hitch and accidentally pulled out the switch

**RustyTam** · 01-20-2018, 01:44 PM

We purchased a 2017 Solitude 310GK and 2017 Silverado 1 ton diesel in August 2017. Our first trip was close to home. Our second trip was through the UP of Michigan. The day we got home we pulled straight into our driveway...and when we got out of the truck we noticed our slides were out about 3-4 inches. Thought it was odd. The next day we went to unload, and noticed our breakaway cable was snagged under the hitch, and the breakaway pin was dangling into the truck bed. We did not feel anything unusual on the drive home. But the damage was great...melted the brakes and the hydraulic line. Has anyone else experienced this?

**huntr70** · 01-20-2018, 01:54 PM

Yep. That's why you want to use this...

**TucsonJim** · 01-20-2018, 02:03 PM

It has been reported on the forum from time to time. The problem is that your diesel is so strong that you didn't even feel the change when the brakes activated. It happened to me a couple of years ago, but fortunately, I noticed it and got pulled to the side of the road before any damage was done.

When the pin is pulled, it applies full voltage to the brakes. It doesn't take very long pulling in that condition before the shoes glaze up and they start overheating and the damage is done. The important thing I learned is to make sure that there is absolutely nothing in the way that the cable can snag on.

In addition, I'd use the coiled cable that Huntr70 recommends above.

Jim

**RustyTam** · 01-20-2018, 05:05 PM

TusconJim...I like to think of my truck as a beast...but the insurance adjuster said that if the truck had continued to pulled the trailer in spite of the trailer brakes being applied...we should have had flat spots on the tires of the trailer and we should have heard audible screeching sounds. We had neither. No indication that anything was wrong. We just don't know how to explain this unless the trailer brakes were defective or set adjusted properly to begin with. Our dilemma is that none of our insurance policies want to cover the damage, nor does the manufacturer. We simply want our trailer fixed and ready to take the next trip. And we appreciate the suggestion of the coiled cable recommend above. We intend to order one of those.

**Clsfly** · 01-20-2018, 05:46 PM

When you buy your curly cable and pin keep the old one as a spare. I had someone steal mine off my boat trailer, battery was dead when I got back to load the boat and had to pull it home with no brakes.

**JCZhome** · 01-20-2018, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by TucsonJim

It has been reported on the forum from time to time. The problem is that your diesel is so strong that you didn't even feel the change when the brakes activated. It happened to me a couple of years ago, but fortunately, I noticed it and got pulled to the side of the road before any damage was done.

When the pin is pulled, it applies full voltage to the brakes. It doesn't take very long pulling in that condition before the shoes glaze up and they start overheating and the damage is done. The important thing I learned is to make sure that there is absolutely nothing in the way that the cable can snag on.

In addition, I'd use the coiled cable that Huntr70 recommends above.

Jim

Jim when the break away pin is pulled, shouldn't it have locked up the brakes on the trailer? That is, unless the brakes were full of grease or, like in my case, the lining of the brake shoe fell out and there isn't any brakes. I did the same thing (accidentally pulled the break away switch) just a week or so after I got the 376TH and it locked the wheels up. It happened again last week, with the new disc brakes and it locked up so fast and so hard that it jerked the truck so hard we both thought we'd been hit. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what happened and that was only 10 mph in a parking lot, turning around.

My point, how did he not know initially that his trailer brakes had been slammed on unless there were extenuating circumstances.

**RustyTam** · 01-20-2018, 07:27 PM

Basically trying to understand how we never felt anything, didn't hear anything...no sense of dragging or slowing down. We have heard people say they felt like the trailer slammed on the brakes...almost like a whiplash. We felt nothing unusual at all.

**gordofuchs** · 01-21-2018, 06:33 AM

Originally Posted by RustyTam

TusconJim...I like to think of my truck as a beast...but the insurance adjuster said that if the truck had continued to pulled the trailer in spite of the trailer brakes being applied...we should have had flat spots on the tires of the trailer and we should have heard audible screeching sounds. We had neither. No indication that anything was wrong. We just don't know how to explain this unless the trailer brakes were defective or set adjusted properly to begin with. Our dilemma is that none of our insurance policies want to cover the damage, nor does the manufacturer. We simply want our trailer fixed and ready to take the next trip. And we appreciate the suggestion of the coiled cable recommend above. We intend to order one of those.

Given the history of the brake malfunctions on these units, you may have had defective brakes from the start. Even when my brakes had been replaced and adjusted correctly, I couldn't get them to lock up on pavement. They would barely lock on gravel, hence the reason I went with disc brakes.

**JCZhome** · 01-21-2018, 07:19 AM

When I had the disc brakes installed (3 out of the 6 brakes were bad) I asked the installers how often they find this. They told me that it averages about 50% have brake/axle seal issues and that even applies to units that new owners have them install the disc brakes at the dealership before the new owner actually take possession of it. So that means the seals are leaking some time between when the unit leaves the factory and it arrives at the dealership.

That, in my mind, is excessive failure rate.

RustyTam it's just my opinion so it's not worth much but I believe that your brake seals had already failed long before this issue and that your brake shoes were probably coated with grease already and that is why you didn't feel any resistance and why your brakes didn't lock up. The design of the break away switch is to lock up your trailer brakes, should it ever come loose from the tow vehicle.....the same for 5th wheels and travel trailers. Your trailer clearly did not do that.....your brakes had already failed.

**Flat top** · 01-22-2018, 08:47 AM

We also had the same problem, we we connected our breakaway cable to the hitch and it got tangled and pulled out. We never felt anything wrong. We checked brakes and found grease contamination. The RV tech advised us to connect the cable away from the hitch so we now hook it to the floor rail and have not had any issues since, and we have also added disc brakes so no more grease problems.