Learned several lessons on Butch's Bed Saver

[DQDick]

First lesson is that if you used to hang the emergency brake cable over your hitch lever don't do that anymore. Hang it on Butch's thing. In a tight turn going into a gas station Butch's cable keeper got tangled in the emergency brake cable and locked the trailer wheels. Second thing I learned is that the Cummings 6.7 doesn't care if the brakes are locked it pulls the trailer easily anyway. Good thing I'm replacing the brakes with disk.

[jimmy2]

yes i found that dodge 3500 did not care eather but the tires did not like tho

[BusyCarol]

Oh boy...that is a good lesson to find out in a gas station rather than on a freeway doing 65mph! We are new to fifth wheeling but we have this red coiled up thing that keeps our emergency brake cable COMPLETELY out of the way...it works like a charm...even if I don't know what it is officially called. I am not familiar with 'Butch's thing' but maybe it is the same 'thing'.

Hope there was no damage to anything...

[Blk_Adventurer]

Thanks Dick for raising this subject, I have a question that you or others might be able to answer, Upon parking my coach and disconnecting from the hitch, I pulled forward and forgot to disconnect the emergency brake cable from the hitch arm. Well , needless to say I pulled the plug right out of the emergency unit. I promptly plugged the plug back into the emergency unit. My questions are, is the emergency unit destroyed? Will the brakes lockup upon hooking up the coach and start moving? Should I replace the emergency brake unit? I have three weeks before I have to move my coach.

thanks in advance for your response.

[bncinwv]

All you have to do is re-insert the emergency brake cable connector into the socket and the brakes will release. It does not need replacement, but rather sounds like it worked just as it is supposed to. Glenn Addams had a neat solution to keeping the emergency brake cable out of harms way. He used a couple of hooks on suction cups stuck on the bottom of the front overhang to drape the cable through. It is the best solution that I have seen and is a marvel in it's simplicity. Been there, done that with the cable pulling out in a tight turn at the Gettysburg rally a few years ago. The Duramax never missed a beat, pulled for about a mile to the campground and in that time the trailer was filled with brake smoke. This was at 2 in the morning, and the family was not pleased with Dad since we had to ventilate the smell out before we could retire for the night (morning??). I will say that if your brakes lock up on pavement, that the brake controller is most likely set too high.
Bingo

[racerjoe]

fastway trailer products makes the coiled cable that busycarol is talking about. They have a 4 foot and a 6 foot cable and works well. never in the way and when you park it is coiled up nicely.

[mhs4771]

I use a stick on from the 3M stick-on system. Just stuck it on the side of the King Pin extension and holds the cable up out of harms way. We made a hard left from the house, then a really hard right onto the main road and came to a quick stop.