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battle short concept and trailer breakaway systems

John Frum

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Travel trailer's are required to have a breakaway system.
A while back I searched for documentation didn't find anything that seemed authoritative.
The ones I'm aware of are battery operated electrically applied brakes that are activated by a "breakaway" cable between the tow vehicle and the trailer. The idea being to stop a runaway trailer from causing mayhem on the road.
From this forum its come up a few times that this function is so important that it is not to be fused.
For more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleshort
tl;dr For certain critical systems its less important to avoid localized damage to protect the ship.

I'm told the breakaway system draws ~16 amps and I believe they have to be manually deactivated by defeating the trigger mechanism.
If deployed that will drain a completely full 12.8v@280ah battery in ~17.5 hours.

If you've been in an accident deativating the breakaway system may be far from the top of your list of stuff to do.
Is it worth it to keep your house battery bank separate from the breakaway system?
If your RV and contents are insured then probably yes.
But... does this integration interfere with the permitting process and or insurance liability?

Since I help a lot of beginners here, I coach them to isolate and otherwise ignore the tow cable, driving lights, trailer breaks and breakaway system.

Thoughts?
 
If you have experienced enough mayhem that your break away system engages, probably 1 of 2 things occur.

1) The brakes saved the day, and you can re-hitch to move on. At some point you will realize your brakes are at full lock up, and will have to figure out how to release to continue. Therefor saving your battery

2) Damage ensued and the trailer is no longer towable. The recovery crew will have to disengage the breaks to get the unit on a wrecker or roll back, therefor saving the battery.

But luckily this event has not occurred in my life, so all scenarios are pure supposition. :unsure: :)
 
Thinking more about it.

Most of us would not worry about adding a fuse tap to our vehicle's fuse block or making the required changes to charge the house battery via the alternator.
That doesn't seem to effect the vehicle road worthiness permitting.
Not sure about insurance though.
 
Just to clarify, not all trailers are required to have a breakaway system. Most single axle trailers don't even have brakes. My single axle trailer used to haul my side-by-side UTV does have brakes, but only because I replaced the axle with one that has brakes. There is no breakaway system there because there is no battery.
 
If you've been in an accident deativating the breakaway system may be far from the top of your list of stuff to do.
Is it worth it to keep your house battery bank separate from the breakaway system?
If your RV and contents are insured then probably yes.
But... does this integration interfere with the permitting process and or insurance liability?

Since I help a lot of beginners here, I coach them to isolate and otherwise ignore the tow cable, driving lights, trailer breaks and breakaway system.

Is it necessary to separate the house and breakaway circuits? No, I don't think it is necessary, but it's real easy to "upgrade" a battery system and inadvertently make it so the breakaway system gets no power. I posted about this a few days ago.

The insurance company has no idea about my breakaway system. Would it come up in an accident investigation? I would say probably not.

There is no government inspection process for RV trailers that I'm aware of. If you take an RV trailer to a dealer or repair facility for a thorough inspection, the breakaway system is often part of their checklist. My breakaway switch was replaced during such an inspection. The trailer was about 11 years old at the time. Was the switch really bad? Maybe. I didn't quibble because I didn't know much about trailers at the time and it was only about $20.
 
The insurance company has no idea about my breakaway system. Would it come up in an accident investigation? I would say probably not.
I would bet your insurance company would investigate your break away system, if your trailer caused great bodily injury or death to others. If they found it was purposely disabled, I bet they would use that as a reason to let you lie in the bed you made.... all alone :oops:
 
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