I have recently bought an old Zephyr caravan, from the 1970's. It has a very useful and, I have found, effective hand-brake so that it does not roll down the hill while parked. I had to reverse it earlier today, and the hand-brake activated itself, rendering the caravan unmovable. Is this a fault with my knowledge of caravans or a fault with the braking system? Please help!
aj.2.,
Nov 15, 4:28am
There may be a flip over lever to stop the brakes going on when you back up , and you have not put it into place, there fore the brakes are working. This will only apply if there is a sliding shaft set up in the trailer coupling.
franc123,
Nov 15, 4:32am
You need to flick the reversing pawl in, its the lever that pivots on the side of the nose of the coupling that stops the coupling head sliding backwards and thus activating the brakes. Naturally when you try to push it backwards it will apply the brakes. Be aware that the handbrake shouldn't be left permanently on, chock the wheels if its to be parked for a period, especially if its got hydraulic brakes. Some older vans used cables which don't suffer from hydraulic pressure loss but its still best to leave it off where possible.
m16d,
Nov 15, 1:41pm
And you'll have to pull the coupling forward before you can flip the reverse pawl over. if your parked downhill you'll have to chock the van to stop it following you.
lookoutas,
Nov 15, 1:55pm
Or pull the handbrake on?
mm12345,
Nov 15, 2:14pm
Exactly - in fact that's about the only thing the handbrake on a hydraulic trailer/caravan brake system should be used for. OP comments that the handbrake is useful - I hope he's aware that it should never be relied upon, and that the caravan must be chocked if left parked on a slope.
xs1100,
Nov 16, 12:38am
its not considered a park brake/handbrake but merely a brake whilst chocking the wheels as in no other setting would a handbrake be hydraulic. told this by a mechanic lol
lookoutas,
Nov 16, 2:20am
It's funny tho - what this is actually proving to the OP is that the brakes work.
aj.2.,
Nov 16, 3:03am
Now that was my thought too when I first saw his post. I also was going to post that so long as when he puts the caravan onto the tow ball next time , be sure to flick the the lever out, so that the brakes will work when towing , as its a bit of a shock when you expect those brakes to pull up , and no they don't. Has not happened to me , but have heard of one chap that , had to get out on heavy rain , just to fix that problem after sliding the rear of his car side ways.
brapbrap8,
Nov 16, 3:52pm
Ah yep, I managed to forget to flick the lever off again on my tandem trailer with 2.5 ton of sand on the back. It was a wet day and my first intersection leaving home is a T junction with a state highway, and is down hill coming from my way. Luckily I started braking very early and wasn't going too quick, because I knew something was very wrong as soon as I started braking. I was glad it was my new ute with ABS, stability control and everything else, as well as good tyres but it still probably took about 100m to get it stopped.
Love my new trailer with electric/air brakes on it now. As long as you have the cable plugged in it works perfectly forward and reverse, no need to flick levers over or anything. Also very handy on the boat trailer when you are backing down the wet boat ramp as it is quite hard to stop a 3.5ton boat going backwards down a steep hill without trailer brakes working.
xs1100,
Nov 17, 1:56am
hope yr not running electric brakes on the boat trailer
sr2,
Oct 9, 1:28pm
Electric brakes are fine on a boat trailer, (you're starting to sound like intrade mate).
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