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Opinions Please (for those who have trailered their stang)

L

lethal289

Active Member
In my part of the world, there is only one place in the entire area that does custom stainless exhaust work. It so happens that said place is about 25 miles from me. A little to far to drive with open shelby manifolds. My truck doesnt have a brake controller, and the trailer i am going to use has brakes. Do you actually need trailer brakes, for some stop and go but mostly open road driving. The truck pulling it is a 2008 1 ton cargo van, empty (meaning presently no cargo, its just a shell.).
 
I'm sure there are people who will trailer without brakes, I'm just not one of them! That's a good amount of weight to haul and not be able to whoa it down when a tire blows or some snapperhead pulls out in front of you.
 
Naturally it would be best with trailer brakes.....

I have towed a lot of cars on trailers without brakes. You have to be careful and do not tailgate anyone, allow extra braking distances, if it starts swaying, you cannot apply the trailer only brakes to help maintain things.

Not sure what the legal aspects are in your area. Most have a weight that requires brakes. If in an accident, you would most likely be charged for unsafe equipment.

With all that, I towed my '66 home (4 hours) with my trailer, no brake hook up on the tow vehicle, using my daughters '05 2 wheel drive Mountaineer. It was a good trip.

If you do this, be careful..........
 
That short a drive won't be any problem, just leave plenty of stopping room. I drove cross-country several times pulling my coupe on a flatbed trailer with no trailer brakes. Actually, the trailer had brakes, but we couldn't get them to work with the truck the first few trips. I was pulling with a 1997 F-250.
 
I agree with most, trailer brakes are good to have but more important is the tow vehicle. It needs to have some weight to it and good heavy duty brakes if the trailer doesn't. I'd say a 1 ton Cargo van (even empty) would be fine, especially for a short 25 mile trip. As all have said just give yourself stopping room as you would even with trailer brakes cuz those who don't or haven't pulled a trailer around you don't have a clue.
 
It'll be fine. I towed my daughter's '69 home on a trailer with no brakes about 80 miles when she blew a head gasket in another city. I also tow my 18' Searay boat all the time with no trailer brakes, although it probably doesn't weigh quite as much. All this towing is behind my '02 4-Runner.

Leaving plenty of stopping room, of course, is always a must when towing something, even if you have trailer brakes.
 
Like the other have stated you should be fine. But be very carefull. Back when I first started circle track racing the trailer I had did not have working brakes. I towed it all over the area without a problem.
 
Im sure the truck can handle the weight, but im more concerned with the SW PA topography. lots of hills and mountains, up and down etc.... I probably should have added that in the original question. I have an apointment for wednesday next week. So a few more days to figure it out.
 
"lethal289" said:
Im sure the truck can handle the weight, but im more concerned with the SW PA topography. lots of hills and mountains, up and down etc.... I probably should have added that in the original question. I have an apointment for wednesday next week. So a few more days to figure it out.
Click to expand...

Unless the truck has drum brakes all the way around, I still think you'll be fine. Just use the engine to brake as much as possible and keep it at safe speeds.
 
"lethal289" said:
Im sure the truck can handle the weight, but im more concerned with the SW PA topography. lots of hills and mountains, up and down etc.... I probably should have added that in the original question. I have an apointment for wednesday next week. So a few more days to figure it out.
Click to expand...

As others said don't tailgate and you should be okay. SW PA has nothing on SE TN
 
Thanks to everyone for thier responses. I trialered the car to and from today with no issues. Infact the truck realy couldnt tell the car or trailer was back there. Ill post some picks later.
 
a little off topic, but i just got back from Tulsa and had a problem towing my car.
the brakes were really heating up and the grease was seeping out the bearing caps like they were boiling when i would check them after coming to a stop.
disassembly today showed the grease had really thinned.
doing some investigation, i checked the operation of the electric brakes. I have an adjustable brake controller and everywhere in the adjustment range I was getting about 6.5 volts to the brakes.
while up on the jack, i could just start to spin the wheel and then it would lock to the point of not being able to turn by hand.
is this normal?
seems like the voltage output should have been different at different settings.
almost seems like the brakes are locking. They are real jerky on application.
i'm thinking i have a bad controller.
thoughts?
 
Sounds like your controller is keeping the brakes applied as if you had to much dialed into the controller settings. What brand controller?
 
Not done troubleshooting, but I suspect cockpit error :wtf
It's been so long since I installed it, and because of the mounting position, I failed to notice that the Output Control was set to the max. This is apparently the setting that drives the total amount of brake force available to the trailer. I had been fiddling with the Sync Control, which only determines how fast/slow the force comes on.

Controller is a Reese Brakeman Compact (http://www.bradstrailer.com/reese.htm)
 
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