I’ve had 2021 problems with bakes. \u00a0My old trailer had brake problems, caused by my failure to plug on the connecting trailer brake cord to the truck. \u00a0I went through long wait hell to get a new trailer brake installed by my auto repair shop. \u00a0Again, another trailer brake problem, with touchy brakes. \u00a0Again a long wait and \u00a0I was told the trailer brake lines were causing the brakes to “short out”. \u00a0The fix would take a trailer repair shop to tear out the brake lines under the floor of the trailer.<\/p>\n
So, I bought a new trailer!<\/p>\n
Recently, my truck started to have a brake problem. \u00a0I noticed that the brakes were not working all that well in stopping, even though the trailer brake system seemed to be working, ( but still grabby). \u00a0I did have a vet appt and decided to give it a go. \u00a0I lived through it. The truck braking system got worse and when I got home, I unloaded my horse and got back into the truck to figure out what might be wrong.<\/p>\n
I saw this word on my truck dashboard. \u00a0It said BRAKE!. \u00a0What the heck? My emergency brake was off. \u00a0It was. \u00a0I decided to unhook the trailer, but that nasty word remained lite up on my dashboard. \u00a0I turned the truck off and on again and the nasty word remained and my brake pedal went almost all the way to the floor before the brake worked. \u00a0Scream. \u00a0Now I’m scared to drive the truck to the repair place. \u00a0I gave that some thought overnight. \u00a0Oh, all I need to do is drive slowing shift to \u00a0first gear when I wanted to be able to stop. \u00a0My plan worked and I made it to the repair shop. Thank you to my new-neighbor-to-be for bringing me home.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the next group lesson with Erin resulted in a nearby rider taking Fancy, me and her horse to the lesson. \u00a0This was the first time I had visited Erin’s new place. \u00a0The trailer was a two horse straight load and it took Fancy probably 1 1\/2 minutes to load. \u00a0It was agony waiting that long in the heat to get her to load.<\/p>\n
The next day around 11:30, I drove by the repair place and my truck was in the “repaired location”. \u00a0I went into the repair office and was told my brake line had a hole and all the liquid had drained out. \u00a0I had no idea my vehicles have brake lines and fluid is involved in braking. \u00a0I always thought my vehicles stopped with brake pads and I’ve often wondered why I’ve never had to have new brake pads! \u00a0Now I know! \u00a0I should be a mechanic.<\/p>\n
A couple days later, I have a lesson with my horse and trainer about a 30 minute drive away. \u00a0A chance visitor came by and was forced to help me hitch up the truck and trailer. \u00a0That saved me a half hour of hitching failure time!<\/p>\n
I’ve been to her place once, but I had to get my GPS working to make certain I could get there again… It’s out in the middle of nowhere, but there does seem to be traffic on the gravel roads and houses every now and then…out in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n
I loaded my horse, got in the truck and pressed the accelerator. \u00a0It felt like something was holding the truck from moving. \u00a0I got out and checked under the tires and both sides of the truck. \u00a0Nothing. \u00a0I got in and checked the emergency brake. \u00a0Oh, it was on. \u00a0I released it and pressed the accelerator. \u00a0Again it drug. \u00a0I tried a few more times with no success. \u00a0I got out, went to the trailer and glared at the hitch. \u00a0Hmmm, a thin silver cord was hanging from the hitch. \u00a0Oh my, there is a wire that connects from the trailer brake to the truck. \u00a0If that wire is unconnected, it assumes the trailer has come loose from the truck and automatically brakes the trailer. \u00a0Maybe the helper who helped me hitch up the trailer had disconnected the wire? \u00a0So the unplugged wire connection\u00a0means the trailer brakes are being applied. \u00a0Incidentally, I had not taken my truck out of drive, so it was trying to pull the trailer while I stood there glaring at the hitch. \u00a0I plugged in the connector. \u00a0This magically stopped the trailer brakes from working and my truck could move. \u00a0SCREAM. \u00a0My truck \u00a0MOVED! \u00a0The truck started coasting down a very slight downhill part of my driveway. \u00a0 I started walking, jogging and running to the truck open door. \u00a0I managed to grab the steering wheel and haul myself in and stop the trailer. \u00a0(Scream!)<\/p>\n
I got back out and went back to the hitch. \u00a0The trailer brake controller was smoking. \u00a0Smoke was rolling out of it! \u00a0SMOKE! \u00a0A small hole was burnt through at the top of the mechanical device! \u00a0My horse was still in the trailer. \u00a0I had a group lesson. \u00a0Should I go or stay home and scream for hours. I decided to take a chance and go. \u00a0Sadly, my brain was too frizzed to ride. \u00a0I unplugged the main connector from the truck. \u00a0I was able to drive the truck and trailer…no brake lights, no turn signal…but the route didn’t involve much contact with other vehicles. \u00a0I texted Erin that I had brake problems again and too frizzed to ride.<\/p>\n
My mental condition improved to trembling when I arrived and felt like crying. \u00a0For certain, this is not a time to ride a horse. \u00a0I enjoyed watching Erin ride. \u00a0I left Fancy there. \u00a0I did not want to drive with her in the trailer without brake lights or turn signals.<\/p>\n
I took my trailer to the trailer place and left it. \u00a0I got a call it was fixed! \u00a0I drove my truck and picked up my trailer. It was fine when I drove truck and trailer home, but the next day was another hell day. \u00a0The trailer brakes grabbed, the trailer brakes moaned and the trailer shook. \u00a0All this happened when Fancy was in the trailer. \u00a0I continued the drive to the group lesson and left Fancy there. \u00a0Fancy became an abandoned horse. \u00a0I took the truck and trailer back to the trailer place with the help of good friend, Hope Robinson.<\/p>\n
A couple days later, I got the call to come get truck and trailer. \u00a0Again, Hope Robinson to my aide. \u00a0You will not believe what was wrong. \u00a0Except for the hole in my truck brake which leaked the brake fluid, the answer was so simple it was unbelievable. \u00a0I might not even had to buy a new trailer!<\/p>\n
The brake controller in the truck usually has one button to set the force of the trailer brake. \u00a0Amazingly, my controller has two buttons. \u00a0I didn’t really look at my controller because everyone knows there is only one button. \u00a0Since my brain knew all about truck brake controllers, my eyes did not see the second button. \u00a0My car repair people didn’t know about the 2nd button either. \u00a0They repair cars. \u00a0When the new brake controller was installed, i didn’t get the information papers. \u00a0I tried to look up the controller on the Internet, but couldn’t find this exact one. \u00a0Oh who cares, I know all about brake controllers.<\/p>\n
My controller has two buttons! \u00a0The invisible, but in plain sight, other button has a higher force. \u00a0I’m thinking this might be a brake controller for a semi truck. \u00a0The 2nd button was set on 9, the highest force possible. \u00a0That brake might have stopped a freight train!<\/p>\n
My trailer person explained all this. \u00a0He also said, my truck has good enough brakes to stop this small two horse bumper pull trailer. \u00a0I don’t even need trailer brakes. \u00a0Another trailer person explained that one of my tires has a flat spot and the rotary brakes on my truck seem to be bent a little. \u00a0I need a new tire. \u00a0I skidded those trailer tires a lot while applying freight train brake control.<\/p>\n
The answer…..took months! \u00a0I have driven truck and trailer with Fancy in it twice now. \u00a0No problem. \u00a0I’ve got to get a new tire now.<\/p>\n
There aren’t enough thank you words for getting my life back or swear words at what Fancy and I have been through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had 2021 problems with bakes. \u00a0My old trailer had brake problems, caused by my failure to plug on the connecting trailer brake cord to the truck. \u00a0I went through long wait hell to get a new trailer brake installed by my auto repair shop. \u00a0Again, another trailer brake problem, with touchy brakes. \u00a0Again a long wait and \u00a0I was told the trailer brake lines were causing the brakes to “short out”. \u00a0The fix would take a trailer repair shop to tear out the brake lines under the floor of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brake","category-fancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7432"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7467,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions\/7467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}