Trailer: To brake or not to brake

[PICTUP]

The trip to pick up the Corvair although successful, was at times rather white knuckle. I had rigged up the FJ with a new-fangled brake controller from Curt before picking up the Saab in Seattle.



Well, Seattle is basically a flat run there and back, nothing like over the Hope-Princeton let alone up and over the Coquihalla. Since I have never driven with a regular controller, I didn't know what to expect. To Seattle and back, I didn't put the brakes on much because they seemed to do a lot of grabbing when the they were set to anything more than the minimum setting. With the light aluminum trailer and a very light car on it, I put the "grabiness" of the brakes down to not much weight. The Corvair retrieval came up rather quickly and somewhat unforeseen, so I hadn't got to truly investigating the proper brake operation. Fingers crossed we went anyway. Turned out when more weight was on the trailer it didn't behave any better. Crap! So we just had to make do. I am glad it all worked out in the end.

Once the Corvair was unloaded, I started to drive home and the wheels started to squeal. "Just great", I thought. Fast forward a little while and I finally found had time and the weather(working on the street) get together and I was able to get to pulling the drums off the trailer to try and solve the mystery. Was it a build up of dust? Was it improperly adjusted(or worn) brakes? Or was it the new-fangled controller. I always suspected the controller, but I had to rule out the trailer.

First off was to take all the drums off one at a time and check. These pics are indicative of what I found...

Grease cap off, not looking too bad so far...


Hmmm, that doesn't look like very much grease


Doesn't look too bad really, in fact looks pretty clean


The electro-magnet pad at the bottom there looks okay


Lots of grease in there too. Sure a bit dirty, but a quick wipe dealt with that. Both brake surface and magnet surface looked fine.


So after adjustment, the trailer...wait for it...performed EXACTLY the same. Hmm. What to do? Hook it up to Laurie's new truck that sports the full tow package and 4000lb tow capability, that's what....Towed great! The built-in controller braked the trailer as it should and the truck and trailer felt more stable than the FJ ever did.



I ended up taking the FJ with trailer in tow, up to Mid Island Trailer, where I had bought the controller, and had them drive it. In half a block, the fellow, said, "Yup, that ain't right". I ended up getting my money back for the controller. There was another option from another manufacturer, but, being almost twice the price, I declined. With the intent of only ever trailering light cars, I think the FJ's towing duties might be a thing of the past...

[Volktales]

In a modern world, where everyone seems to think that everything should be operated via "smart" phones, maybe a trailer brake controller was not one of the better ideas... A shame the mighty FJ has been downgraded once the new FORD came to town! Rebecca still won't part with hers...

[PICTUP]

I wouldn't say the mighty FJ has been downgraded because we still both love the vehicle, but I think we haven't been using it for its intended purpose, ie off road...wayyyy off road. That is where it would truly shine. The only problem with that is the question of willingness to put one's prized vehicle through potential mud bogs and scratch runs. I find that a hard one to contemplate and harder to actually do. So not a downgrade, more of a respectful decision. The FJ wasn't really designed to tow, but did well as a pinch hitter having valiantly made it thru all I have subjected it to.