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Re: [Shop-talk] Electronic trailer brakes

To: mharc@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Electronic trailer brakes
From: "Randall" <TR3driver@ca.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:48:12 -0700
>  In particular, ABS systems can find
> the point at which the wheels are going to lock without overshooting;

Not true, at least not of any system I've heard of.  They actually sense
when the wheel has locked, then as a binary function release the brake on
that wheel until it is turning at road speed again.  Then they turn the
brake back on again, so the wheel locks again.  The locking and unlocking is
what causes all the noise when you get into the ABS.

> Yeah, well, you live in California.   Some of us live in 
> places with weather.

I live less than 50 miles from a snow ski resort, so I'm not exactly a
stranger to slick, steep roads.  I just quit towing trailers with electric
brakes once I bought a motorhome (and snow chains for it).  Besides, I
learned to drive (and tow a trailer) in northern Indiana, which could be
reasonably said to have weather.  The year I decided to move, there was a 27
foot snow drift on the road between Purdue and my parent's house, which the
state left there for almost a week!

I've also gotten stuck, trying to back a trailer with surge brakes (which
are essentially a mechanical accelerometer) up a steep hill.  Both backing
up and facing down a hill look exactly like applying the brakes while going
forward, to an accelerometer.

Randall
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