LoadRite Trailer Details

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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Jack Innes » Sat Jul 12, 2014 12:06 pm

Actually the trend here in the colonies is toward electric brakes, in some jurisdictions by law. Any trailers built in the last 20 or so years came equipped with mandatory break away systems. This involves a separate battery & a switch with a lanyard that attaches to the towing vehicle. If the trailer comes loose the switch closes & the battery applies the electric brakes. See the following link for the wiring details.

http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/graph ... 20_800.jpg

The system can be wired so the towing vehicle keeps the trailer break away battery charged (if you are lucky).
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Mike Rometer » Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:56 pm

Trailers fitted with brakes over here must have a break-away/snatch cable, but the whole thing is mechanical and held on by the ratchet on the handbrake. Not sure if electric brakes would be legal here???

If no brakes, then a retention chain should be fitted, if the trailer is less than a certain age (cant remember the year it came in). Mine didn't need it due to age, but I retro fitted it anyway.
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Jul 12, 2014 3:20 pm

Here in my state, the police will ticket you in a heart beat for no retention chains. I was misinformed on ball diameter a few years ago when towing a friend's 22 foot sailboat and the trailer slipped off of the ball. The chains held. No damage. We have an insane system here in the states with numerous ball diameters

Electric brakes are very effective. Even the ones with no breakaway safety system are startlingly powerful. They pick up their actuating signal and power from the towing vehicle stop light switch and there is a manual control as well for when you want to use the trailer brakes only. Without the boat on, I can lock up the trailer wheels easily.

The drawback to electric brakes is that they are servo actuated and only work in forward motion. They do nothing when stopped or backing up. I have stout safety chains and wheel chocks and feel safe.

I've never seen a parking brake on a trailer of any size. New idea. I'd want to be able to have a proportional system so that I could steer the trailer when moving it by hand on a grade. Now it is a total circus act. Only marginally in control!
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by PeteThePen1 » Sat Jul 12, 2014 5:23 pm

Hi Mike and fellow steamboaters

Yes, controlling the trailer when off the vehicle is a problem.

Image

My Mr Shifta caravan mover (see above) has been good for the empty trailer, but is pretty well at the limit of control. The problem with it is that the tow ball on it really needs to be locked vertical by some means, but it does not seem to have that facility. If it did then it would just be an issue of steering, rather than having to physically wrestle with the handles to keep the thing upright. I suspect that is why most caravan owners here have moved from free standing machines to built in movers. Watching my next door neighbour squeeze his giant caravan off the road and into his tiny plot with the remote control is amazing. By comparison my antics moving the empty trailer make me look like a madman.

I have been wondering whether it might be possible to set up a pair of caravan mover motors on the wheels of a boat trailer One simply needs some sort of spring(?) clamp to attach the motor to the frame, a similar system for the battery tray, plus the wiring. If one could do that, hitching up the boat to the tow vehicle would be a doddle, as would parking it on return home. However, it needs a competent engineers to examine the concept and offer observations.

Intellectual engineering challenge anyone?

Regards

Pete
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:16 pm

Ah! The light bulb goes on.

So you need to store your boat and trailer in a place where you cannot back it in with your tow vehicle. I didn't get that.

Hmm. And I thought I had a problem. I have to park it and then move it downhill about twenty feet. I just back it in, disconnect it and then call the medics before I start moving it by hand. I move one wheel chock a foot at a time and hope for the best. So far the cat has always been able to avoid loosing one of his dimensions.

I have a screw in to the ground anchor used for power pole guy wires or for holding down house trailers in a high wind. I wind it into the ground at strategic locations and then use a mechanic's engine lift to drag things about. Sort of a modern pyramid construction style. cRude but effective.
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by mtnman » Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:34 pm

Gudmund wrote:
farmerden wrote:I'm sure glad I live in the colonies! Life is so simple here!! LOL Den
But are you any safer?
The thought of a loaded trailer that has broken away from the tow vehicle charging along a road where there are children doesn't bear thinking about.
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by PeteThePen1 » Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:33 pm

Thanks Mike,

You have given me an idea. I too have various anchor points, one of which is a ground anchor. However, I had only ever thought about those in the context of parking the empty trailer. In that context, it gets squeezed into a 'dead' triangle of our frontage next to the garage. However that is level ground.

Image


I do this by backing it into the space where the photographer was standing, then use the winch and the strap attached to a loop fixed in the brickwork in the corner. The ground anchor is in the earth a bit behind the rear of the trailer. To get the trailer out, I use that anchor point to winch it far enough out to use Mr Shifta. Of course that triangle is way too small to get the loaded trailer into, so it will have to sit on the right hand side, out of the photo. Normally the RV lives where the photographer is standing, which is possible with the trailer tucked away.

Now if I was to attach a loop into the brickwork to the right of the second garage door, and than another ground anchor at the top of the drive, it should be possible to use the winch to manoeuvre the loaded trailer into place. Clearly the brakes and chocks would keep things safe between changes of winching position. I guess I would need a couple of pulleys to redirect the winch strap under the boat and out to the rear. My only worries would be the maximum rating on the winch that is stated as 1,600lbs, and the security/strength of small loops attached to the brickwork. The typical Rose hull seems to weigh about 1,500lb fitted out, while the trailer is stated to be 580lbs so the two together would be overloading the winch.

However, I imagine there is some built in margin, so it might work. Any thoughts/observations folks?

Regards

Pete
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Scotty » Sun Jul 13, 2014 5:05 pm

Hallo Pete,

you don't have to lift the dead weight of trailer and hull,
just to overcome the friction on the ground and the inclination.
So the winch should be more than enough.

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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by Lopez Mike » Sun Jul 13, 2014 7:02 pm

Exactly. You will seldom pull more than a couple of hundred pounds. I doubt that my pickup with a 4 ltr. engine and an automatic transmission could develop more than 4-500 lbs pull on level pavement. Maybe a hundred or two more.
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Re: LoadRite Trailer Details

Post by farmerden » Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:37 am

Gudmund Sorry I didn't mean we weren't safety consious. We do have an electric break away switch [powered by a 12 volt battery on the trailer] and Safety chains. Also cross your safety chains [left side of the trailer goes to the right side of the truck] Then when the trailer does drop off the reach will be supported by the safety chains and not dig into the pavement. Did you know that Mike? Of course you islanders know everything! Den
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