Destroyed trailer brakes

[Microsoftsteve]

Any help would be great. I picked up my trailer today and the guys had the trailer break away switch hooked up for me when I got back from paying. They also pulled the truck out of the service bay hooked to the trailer too. Well on the way home I noticed that the truck had no power and could barely keep 55mph!. After I drove 30miles home I park my truck to find out that they had given no slack on the break away switch and it had been pulled so the whole way my trailer brakes were engaged. I saw no smoke but am thinking the drums could be glazed, I called the service shop and the manager was like "he (the guy who did it) was just trying to help" Needless to say I'm going back on Monday to speak with them and have them look at the whole system. Do you guys think the trailer brakes could be fried of anything else I should look for? Also these guys did all the work to the trailer including brakes so I'm guessing they are going to try to get out of it again.

[Buster]

Ultimately its your responsibility to check this stuff before you move the truck. I would try to offer to pay for parts and have them kick in the labor for free.

[Dorsey]

Unfortunetly Lee is right. I'm guilty of it too but it is your responsibility to do a walk around to make sure every thing is right.

[ccoop769]

the question at hand is why wasnt your brakes locked with 12 volts running to them??? Your rims shouldnt of been even budging!!!! either way, that crap sucks, sorry bout your luck, my guess would be time to order new brakes and hubs. Just posted a link for great buys.

[Microsoftsteve]

yes this freaking sucks I was thinking like you guys and probably will eat this one. Will 30miles really do them in I wonder I hope not.

[Haul-A-Round]

Ultimately its your responsibility to check this stuff before you move the truck. I would try to offer to pay for parts and have them kick in the labor for free.

any other time I would agree with you but not here.
they are in the wrong, they did the work and he paid them to do it. they are responsable for hooking it up and pulling it out. sent him out ready to go , he trusted a shop to do things right. this aint his baby it's theirs and legally they are responsable for damages and he should not be out another dime.

although he should have suspected and checked things out further when he couldn't even run 55mph.

[Haul-A-Round]

the break pads , drums , mags , everything is toast now , got way to hot. they were not right or it would have locked you down instead of just dragging.

[Microsoftsteve]

I agree I think the whole thing is fried. I'll see what they say on monday and hope they do the right thing....

[Dorsey]

the question at hand is why wasnt your brakes locked with 12 volts running to them??? Your rims shouldnt of been even budging!!!! either way, that crap sucks, sorry bout your luck, my guess would be time to order new brakes and hubs. Just posted a link for great buys.


I actually looked on that site earlier tonight. Didn't see them on sale.

[pmmjarrett]

the break pads , drums , mags , everything is toast now , got way to hot. they were not right or it would have locked you down instead of just dragging.

Yep, what I was thinking. If your brakes were working properly they should have been locked up and flat spotting your tires instead. You already have a problem somewhere could have been worn brakes or a bad ground not letting the brakes get the full 12 volts from the battery..... mabey a bad battery too.

[Microsoftsteve]

Yes Gary mentioned that too on the other forum. I'm thinking there may be hope. The battery was disconnected for two weeks due to the repairs so maybe it was so weak they didn't get destroyed. We'll see I'm going down there today to open things up and look.

[blacktruck]

Unfortunetly Lee is right. I'm guilty of it too but it is your responsibility to do a walk around to make sure every thing is right.


the question at hand is why wasnt your brakes locked with 12 volts running to them??? Your rims shouldnt of been even budging!!!! either way, that crap sucks, sorry bout your luck, my guess would be time to order new brakes and hubs.


any other time I would agree with you but not here.
they are in the wrong, they did the work and he paid them to do it. they are responsable for hooking it up and pulling it out. sent him out ready to go , he trusted a shop to do things right. this aint his baby it's theirs and legally they are responsable for damages and he should not be out another dime.

although he should have suspected and checked things out further when he couldn't even run 55mph.


Yep, what I was thinking. If your brakes were working properly they should have been locked up and flat spotting your tires instead. You already have a problem somewhere could have been worn brakes or a bad ground not letting the brakes get the full 12 volts from the battery..... mabey a bad battery too.

#1 is correct.
#2 is correct.
#3 is only partially correct. Not to be arguemenative here, but maybe this shop might be responsible for hooking it up. That is usually not the case. Regardless of whether they hook it up or not, it is the driver's responsibility to make sure it hooked correctly before operation on the highway. If they did the hookup wrong the driver should have caught it during the pre trip inspection.
#4 is correct.
Also if he knew it was pulliing hard and there wasn't a load or other factors to contend with, he should have stopped and investigated the problem. Call this a lesson in trucking but I would have a hard time seeing how he could hold the shop responsible for not hooking the trailer up correctly. My thoughts anyway.
Stay safe out there.
Ken

[Haul-A-Round]

who the hell are you kidding ? I have owned this business allmost 25 years ! the law states you are responsable for it if you worked on it. if they serviced it and the hooked it back up it is there baby. yes it is the drivers responsability BUT the shop has a responsability to do it correctly and they are liable for all damages.

[blacktruck]

who the hell are you kidding ? I have owned this business allmost 25 years ! the law states you are responsable for it if you worked on it. if they serviced it and the hooked it back up it is there baby. yes it is the drivers responsability BUT the shop has a responsability to do it correctly and they are liable for all damages.

As I said, I wasn't trying to be argumentative but you are only partially correct, again. Congratulations on sharing the 25-year fact with all of us. As a repair shop, they are responsible for the items and the quality of the repair they completed and they would possibly be liable for damages caused by their repairs and nothing else. They are not responsible for hooking the truck and trailer together. I can't say that I have ever been in any shop in more than 25 years (not saying how much) that have hooked my truck and trailer together. If they did, I would thank them for that but check them anyway. It's a legal responsibility of the driver to ensure that the vehicle is ready to be operated on the highways. The question also goes back to why, if that was the problem weren't the brakes locked up with the break away pulled? He should have noticed that right away when he started driving if they were dragging that badly. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't a driver supposed to check for operation of the brakes? To say the repair shop is liable for all damages that were caused by pulling the trailer with the brakes dragging is not correct. If through some fault of their maintenance they caused the brakes to drag then maybe, hooking it up wrong is on the driver. The reason I made my statement is valid. I don't know why the unit was in the shop to begin with, I didn't see any agreement between the shop and owner about who is responsible for what or what they actually did, I didn't see it hooked up, I didn't see the driver do his pretrip, I wasn't there to know what the conditions were when he was pulling it.
I do know the driver is responsible to complete his pretrip. I do know that as a driver I would not assume that it was hooked up correctly if I wasn't there to see it. I do know that as a driver if I was pulling my trailer and the brakes were dragging enough to keep me from going over 55, I would know to stop and check for a problem. It is indeed unfortunate that this happened. If the shop did crap work then go after them. If the driver stepped on his crank by not checking the hook up then man up and move on. It happens.
This is a public forum and that is my opinion.
Stay safe out there.
Ken

[Haul-A-Round]

again , you are not correct on the liability. if they moved the truck/trailer, unhooked the trailer and did repairs , hooked it back up and said you are ready then it is their baby. we are not pulling straws here but stating facts !

I don't care what the driver did after the fact. loose your know it all attitude about something you know nothing about. bullshit someone else but do not correct me on something that is my livlyhood and daily business.
that is like telling one of these drivers on here how he should be securing his loads.
you drive them and haul your stuff
I'll build them and maintain them and tell you who is liable for what and when .
the shop made a mistake , pure and simple.

[blacktruck]

again , you are not correct on the liability. if they moved the truck/trailer, unhooked the trailer and did repairs , hooked it back up and said you are ready then it is their baby. we are not pulling straws here but stating facts !

I don't care what the driver did after the fact. loose your know it all attitude about something you know nothing about. bullshit someone else but do not correct me on something that is my livlyhood and daily business.
that is like telling one of these drivers on here how he should be securing his loads.
you drive them and haul your stuff
I'll build them and maintain them and tell you who is liable for what and when .
the shop made a mistake , pure and simple.

Sir, you make me say it. Again you're not correct. As I said in my previous post, it's a legal responsibility of the driver to ensure that the vehicle is ready to be operated on the highways. If the brakes were dragging why did he leave the shop? Did he check the brakes and the hook up of the unit? Did the shop even work on the brakes? Way too many questions for us to be able to assess liability to the shop from what I have seen in this thread. I have no idea who the shop is nor do I care. The driver is responsible to check those types of things.
I'm not trying to display a "know it all attitude here". If you would have read through what I said, I simply stated what we, as drivers must do by law before operating our trucks. Sir I would say that your responses here depict much more of an "attitude" than anything I am saying. You are far more worried about being corrected than anything else here. Particularly by someone you don't know. Whether the shop is or is not liable is not my call and as I said, if they did crap work, go after them for it. Let me pose a question to you. If the driver had a wreck because the trailer came unhooked from the truck, is the shop liable for damages caused by the wreck if they didn't work on that particular piece of the truck?
If I were wrong about the responsibility of the driver then I would apologize and move on with life. We all make mistakes. As I said this is a public forum that does promote discussion of different topics and also I mentioned that it was my opinion.
Stay safe out there.
Ken
PS Check the last few lines of your response to me. You will see an "attitude".

[Haul-A-Round]

IF the company that did the work disconected the trailer and hooked it back up and it comes unhooked then yes , they are liable even though the driver is responsable for checking it they will be held liable.

no attitude here , just don't like being told I'm wrong when it is my daily business to know the facts.
yes the driver can be held liable but when the dust settles it all comes back to who did the work. they hang you out to dry. the company is at fault no matter what the driver did or should have done. if you look back at my second post in this thread I also questioned the driver as to why he drug it on home knowing there was brake problems. they are both responsable but the shop doing the work is responsable for damages.
you keep the tit for tat going if you like but I know what I am talking about , I am used by attornies all over the country in casses like this and defective materials/poor workmanship. no being smart but I know my stuff , I have to be in business and consult. I'm done with this but do hope the driver gets taking care of.

[Dorsey]

I've learned a long time ago you can't trust anyone. You need to check for yourself and not take anyones word because you will be burned. I doubt the shop will take any responsibility on this wether it is their fault or not(how this world works). Why was the pin out of the breakaway in the first place. Have you received any answers from the shop yet?

[bayou hotshot]

if the shop didnt hook the trailer up and come off the truck killing someone who would be in the hot seat-
its like when you get a tire fixed at a tire shop thay have signs that say check your lug nuts after 100 miles if the wheel comes off before 100 miles are thay responsable if it comes off and kills someone before a 100 miles NO
Just like a load when you pull out of there place it become yours
When i work for ACME a guy had a load of pipe there was a 5ft bar that was in one of the pipes nobody new about it came out and killed a lady with her family in the car the driver was responsable and ACME was responsable for the load
Its commen sense if someone gave me a gun and said it was unloaded would i put it to my head and pull the triger HELL NO commen sense

[ccoop769]

LOL on the gun part!!!

[Microsoftsteve]

The shop is taking the stance that it's my fault. Due to the battery being close to dead it didn't destroy the brakes because the battery hadn't been charged for 1 month. I think that is what saved it. But that being said I've learned my lesson and will always check everything before I leave a shop again. I will say it was pretty shitty that the shop took the stance they did. There were a number of things they did wrong before I left of which some I caught and some I obviously didn't. For example the mounted up one of my outer duals and forgot to put the ring on the outside of the wheel so when I pulled out the first time the wheel was mounted lopsided. It looked like it was going to fall off the trailer. Also they did the break away switch which has been mentioned. And lastly all the wiring they did had no wire loom on it. So oddly enough when the guy who does the DOT inspections who works there too came to look at it he was like "whoever did this wiring needs to wire loom all this work" I told him it was the trailer division of the shop and he just laughed and in disbelief and said " I just come here to get a paycheck" You could tell he was embrassed about the work the trailer division had done.