stevieboy308:
the maoster:
99.9% of posters here will not agree with me here (although I’m comfortable with that) but with the notable exception of split coupling I never touch the trailer brake! The reason I have never been killed, injured or had a roll away is that I pay attention to what I’m doing and so consequently never leave the unit handbrake off. Those that do not have the attention span necessary to perform a simple task such as ensuring that the unit handbrake is on are in my mind somewhat akin to those that use a box of matches to search for a gas leak and quite frankly deserve to be removed from the gene pool.
I’m the 0.1%!!!
Plus there’s a massive lack of understanding by people who seem to think if they use the trailer brake they can’t have a runaway, all you’re doing is changing the point at which the runaway process starts to happen.
I think they’ve a dangerous mindset, and a trailer that’s been stood a while and dumped it’s air can still runaway and squash you at the back whilst you’re putting the number plate on several seconds after you released the trailer brake
Youre making a lot of sense there. A routine is good, but to be safe you need to understand the reasons behind it, not merely learn parrot fashion. For myself I dont put myself between two hard objects if at all avoidable. Number plate? Pull forward far enough to get a big gap to work in.
And another thing I always do every time is to check the brakes. Pull forward and give `em a good push. If there is a problem you want to find out at 5mph in a yard. Not at 20mph heading onto the road. Same routine with my cars and bike. Few yards down the road and check them.