All I can say... if we designed our weapon safety systems the way the toad brake systems are designed, we would lose a lot more aircraft and other war fighting machines before they ever reach the war zone. A vehicle in motion (i.e., with a lot of kinetic energy and momentum) is, in some ways, like a weapon. It's not designed to destroy targets per se but it certainly has the capacity to destroy things in a wreck, for instance. If you accept that propositiion, then the design of the safety systems is more reliable if they are passive and fail safe as opposed to active and fail in an unpredictable way.
Ned said: "Yes, I have had the towed brakes lock up and we caught it by the red light on the dash." What if the bulb failed, or the sun was shining just at the right angle to not see the bulb, or the wire shorted out that brings current to the bulb, or the power supply that powers the bulb, or probably many, many other components that have to work to cause the light to come on... this is an acitve system... lots of components have to work for this system to work. Then there's the oppostie failure, the light comes on but the brakes are not on so Ned thinks the brakes are on and takes emergency action in response, unpredictable outcomes to a false positive light bulb. Compare this complex and uncertain system to a passive system that is engineered to make sure that the toad stays attached to the MH no matter what... as best as the engineers can do. The system is passive and has fewer failure modes and remains predictable.
another quote for example: "only use a system that acts directly on the towed brake pedal and uses a radio transmitter connected to the brake lights switch to send a signal to the driver every time the brakes are applied." I can only guess how many ways to spoof this system... a radio transmitter in series with a safety system???? Most radio transmitters can fail to transmit or not for many reasons. Transistors, printed circuit boards, connectors, switches, capacitors, all have to work perfectly as well as a radio receiver on the other end.
Another quote: "However, if the hitch does fail, the safety cables or chains are in place to prevent a complete break away. Now, heaven forbid, if both those items fail, and a complete separation occurs, the breakaway cable is designed to activate the loose toads brakes. This is the safest and most desirable outcome in this scenario." Maybe so, maybe not... if the breakaway cable breaks (and it is far more likely to break than the hitch or the chains) and the brakes are slammed on, the situation becomes unpredictable very quickly. The chances that both the hitch and the chains fail is way lower than the chance that the breakaway cable breaksl, but a broken connection of an electrical wire can suddenly turn the situation into a hazardous situation at best. Without it, the brute strength of the hitch and two chains are passive and far more reliable from a safety perspective.
I don't know... I guess it's up to each person to decide how best to operate in a safe way. I just worry that the marketing department of the toad brake systems companies has sold the MH community a, what would you call it, a false sense of security.
I will say no more but thanks for reading... I do think it is important. G.
