Location: 31 | mikie - 4/30/2019 7:07 AM
Seems like 'being smart' would be having the brakes engaged and properly adjusted. If there was little difference they needed fixed so you don't risk not only your safety but the safety of the drivers around you. m
I agree with your comments for the most part, and I'm glad that we are having this conversation because it is important. However, I would also hope that no one would decide to lock out their trailer brakes based only on my post.
I don't want people to take what I'm about to say the wrong way because although I agree that putting safety first is the best policy, I see nothing wrong with locking out your trailer brakes if you are a competent driver and your tow vehicle can handle it. For instance; it's pretty easy to assume that when Wimuskyfisherman locked his trailer brakes out for a couple of months (page 1), his tow vehicle could handle it, and he simply drove more defensively.
Mikey, maybe you shouldn't be jumping to conclusions so quickly because I also suspected there was a problem with the brakes and I had them properly serviced, it turned out they had been working properly because I couldn't tell any difference. In your defense, I probably should have mentioned that I normally tow with an F-450 dually and that my boat trailer only had 2 wheel disc brakes.
A little off the subject but along the same lines… years ago I occasionally drove a large dump truck, in my estimation when that truck was fully loaded it probably needed almost twice the stopping distance as a car in a panic situation. The “not so smart” would routinely cut in front and hit the brakes to make a right turn… like that extra space was left there just for them. It’s almost the same mentality when it narrows from 4 to 2 lanes, it seems like everyone's in a hurry - desperate to get in front of a heavy truck (or one of us pulling our boat), oblivious to the danger behind them.
Moving on, I think it's kind of interesting that Ranger recently increased their dual axle boat trailers to include 4 wheel disc brakes after years of them only having 2 wheel disc brakes, and for some of us it wasn't that long ago that (gasp) many of our boat trailers didn’t even have brakes as 4amuskie mentioned. It's easy to grab the moral high ground with always saying safety first, but this also comes with some expense. Although it might be safer, I don't think we all need to add brakes to our older rigs just yet, maybe exercising a little more caution will also get the job done safely.
|
