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Old 03-24-2010, 11:27 AM   #1
madjan
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we picked up our elkmont monday at texasrv in cleburne.. after a thorough walk thru.. btw we went with the wd hitch.. its not as difficult as i'd imagined. we stayed the night at cleburne state park.. tried out all the new gizmos and gadgets... had a wonderful time but who knew there were so many accessories!!! hahaha after setting up the trailer we headed to camping world.. yeppers.. lots of accessories!! it was in the 40's monday night but we stayed plenty warm.. i checked outside the trailer for noise level.. our tv was up pretty loud.. i couldn't hear it at all outside the trailer.

our toyota fj pulls the trailer very well.. even against a 35 mph wind coming home yesterday.. the last 90 or so of 308 miles.. at an average of 60-65 mph..

only bad thing was that my breakcontroller wouldn't work.. it would only show 0.0 meaning to me that it wasn't sending any voltage. i'll be working on that before our first trip to the mountains.. but.. the fj having disk breaks front and back didn't seem over taxed to stop the trailer.. and we were on flat land all the way home..

also.. we hauled the trailer on I20.. no problems.. but we did get passed alot!
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Old 03-24-2010, 12:26 PM   #2
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only bad thing was that my breakcontroller wouldn't work.. it would only show 0.0 meaning to me that it wasn't sending any voltage.
Hoo, boy. I would be plenty scared towing with no trailer brakes. And if I had to do it, I would not come anywhere near 65 mph. Since the trailer weighs about as much as the tow vehicle (or more), it will take at least twice as long to stop in an emergency situation. And with the tow vehicle braking hard, it would be quite possible for the trailer to come around and pass the tow vehicle in a hard stop, especially if the road is wet or sandy or limited in traction in any way. Not a good idea.

What kind of brake controller do you have? You need to get it looked at ASAP, since I think you are right - a readout of 0.0 means no brakes.

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Old 03-24-2010, 02:16 PM   #3
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madjan, what type of WDH are you using ?? With a conventional trailer and a fairly short wheelbase vehicle like that on a FJ, that should probably be a WDH with integrated sway control like the Equalizer or Reese Straight Line. Sway control has not been talked about much on this forum in the past because the fold-down Trailmanors don't need them, but on a conventional upright like the Elkmont, that is a whole nudder ball game.
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Old 03-24-2010, 03:16 PM   #4
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madjan, what type of WDH are you using ?? With a conventional trailer and a fairly short wheelbase vehicle like that on a an FJ, that should probably be a WDH with integrated sway control like the Equalizer or Reese Straight Line. Sway control has not been talked about much on this forum in the past because the fold-down Trailmanors don't need them, but on a conventional upright like the Elkmont, that is a whole nudder ball game.
You're being a bit facetious....... 105" WB is very short. I'm not sure that I would tow an Elkmont with or without a WDH....... but that's just me. Just be aware that these guys are right about being very cautious with the tail wagging the dog.
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Old 03-24-2010, 03:57 PM   #5
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Ok, I didn't really want to toss this out here . How many ridiculous things can one be expected to expose . . .

All was well with our trailer brakes until the tow cable was damaged (you can't make me say more about that) coming back to the river from San Diego. We spliced it (extremely well if I do say so myself) and replaced the fuse in the truck. Once again, all was well. We drove to Sedona, happy campers. We woke up in the morning and the truck and trailer weren't talking. Read, you have to be kidding me. Anyway, we had one more night before we were home. We figured we survived the trip home after we picked up the trailer in this same situation . . . ignorance is in fact bliss.

We really didn't have time for those reindeer games at this point. From Sedona we spent the night in Moab and then home to Denver. I'll let you do the geography from there. The brakes did honor us with their presence at Mexican Hat and that made us very happy. Other than that, nothing. I'm still yapping so obviously this trip was survivable .

I'm not suggesting it and we'll get it figured out. I'm just saying . . .

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Old 03-24-2010, 05:26 PM   #6
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Ok, I didn't really want to toss this out here . How many ridiculous things can one be expected to expose . . .

All was well with our trailer brakes until the tow cable was damaged (you can't make me say more about that) coming back to the river from San Diego. We spliced it (extremely well if I do say so myself) and replaced the fuse in the truck. Once again, all was well. We drove to Sedona, happy campers. We woke up in the morning and the truck and trailer weren't talking. Read, you have to be kidding me. Anyway, we had one more night before we were home. We figured we survived the trip home after we picked up the trailer in this same situation . . . ignorance is in fact bliss.

We really didn't have time for those reindeer games at this point. From Sedona we spent the night in Moab and then home to Denver. I'll let you do the geography from there. The brakes did honor us with their presence at Mexican Hat and that made us very happy. Other than that, nothing. I'm still yapping so obviously this trip was survivable .

I'm not suggesting it and we'll get it figured out. I'm just saying . . .

Malinda
This is exactly why I always say, "Make sure that you have trailer brakes but don't count on them working 100% of the time". It's important to have a vehicle that is capable of stopping your load without trailer brakes. They can fail you at the worst time. Thankfully yours didn't fail you in the middle of a 5 mile long 8% grade. That could have been ugly for some people. Your TV may have been OK but a marginal one could have been in real trouble.

We've had our electric brakes fail due to bad magnets, defective brake controller and twice (on 2 different campers) due to the wire getting cut from the axle squashing it (last time was 2 weeks ago). I've never had them fail me at a bad time though. It was usually on the way to a local beach or something.
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Old 03-24-2010, 06:16 PM   #7
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Congrats! Glad you had fun and were safe.

We are picking up our Elkmont tomorrow in Portland. We had them put on Pro-Eagle WDH, sway bar and electric tongue jack. Also had a Valley Journey HD 52740 brake controller put on my Eurovan. We are hoping the Eurovan will do OK, it's rated 4400. We had them service the transmission today to get as prepared as possible.
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Old 03-25-2010, 06:10 AM   #8
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We are picking up our Elkmont tomorrow in Portland. We had them put on Pro-Eagle WDH, sway bar and electric tongue jack. Also had a Valley Journey HD 52740 brake controller put on my Eurovan. We are hoping the Eurovan will do OK, it's rated 4400. We had them service the transmission today to get as prepared as possible.
It looks like the Pro-Eagle WDH does not have integrated sway control. You probably need a friction bar (or 2) added to help with sway.

I don't think the Valley Journey HD is an inertia brake controller. It looks like it is a time-delay. A Valley Odyssey or Tekonsha Prodigy might be better choices for trailer braking.

I am not familiar with the Eurovan, but it looks like a rather small vehicle with a short wheelbase.......not really conducive to towing a conventional travel trailer.
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Old 03-25-2010, 12:18 PM   #9
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Not to add to the complication, but the Valley Journey is a time-delay controller. You might read the brake controller tutorial in our Technical Library. It is at

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=2830

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Old 03-29-2010, 03:19 PM   #10
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actually the elkmont weighs bout half what the fj weighs.. monday i took the entire rig to the brake controller installer.. they switched out units and it went to working.. now about sway.. is that what happens when a semi passes you on the freeway?
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