RE: [A/S] On the Eve of ....

["Perry Joe Scudder" <perryjoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You tell them Rick,
I have been on this soap box so much on this list that people hit the delete
key as soon as they see my name and the word controller. 
I really hate to do this, but think one of the great reasons for belonging
to this list in the educational function it provides. Like all adult
education, the teacher is subject to rejection by the students because of
old habits.
Here goes. The Hensley Hitch increased the need for a good brake controller.
NOTE - I took a long pause to wait for the falling debris to let up, so I
can now explain my comment. The Hensley, I love mine and will not ever tow
without one, has a side motion function that is part of the tracking feature
to make the trailer follow the tow vehicle around curves much better than a
regular "ball hinged" hitch. This feature allows me to tow my 34' trailer in
turns people can't tow a 25 foot with an "on the ball" hitch. Believe me it
is a very good thing, but it ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES THE TRAILER BRAKES TO BE
APPLIED FIRST AND AT THE PROPER LEVEL. The first place you will notice the
outage from an improper brake controller setup is when you touch the brakes
on an interstate ramp with a curve. You will feel the trailer give the back
of the truck a jerk and try and push it side ways. This is caused by the
trailer taking all the motion out of the tracking system in the hitch, which
allows the trailer to travel to the outside of the curve until it runs out
of travel. The jerk happens when the trailer hits the end of the travel, and
the sideways push is caused by the fact that the trailer has started to go
around the truck and is now traveling at a different - faster - speed than
the truck. Now, the weight of the truck, and the tire traction on some
angular component of force must slow the trailer back to the speed of the
truck. This can all happen any time you apply the brakes while turning the
wheel on the tow vehicle - the more the turn the worse the problem gets. YOU
WILL NEVER KNOW ABOUT THIS IF THE TRAILER BRAKES DO THEIR JOB THE WAY THEY
ARE DESIGNED TO WORK. The small lag time in most non proportional
controllers works perfect to make this jerk work. I had the same problem in
the first Hensley controller I got from Hensley. I bled the 4 inch hydraulic
line numerous times, and did everything else that could hopefully help the
problem. I saw a point made on this list that triggered me to trace the
problem to the fact my controller was a very early model from BrakeSmart
before they added the function of applying a preset amount of brake voltage
boost as soon as there is a pressure change in the hydraulic system. This is
required with a Hensley to allow the proportional brake voltage to be fine
tuned to the braking needs on the trailer through this split second during
breaking in a TURN. Hensley replaced my controller with a new one that had
the needed feature, and all is wonderful now. I had no intensions of living
with what I got with the first controller. The jerk caused by this feature
of the Hensley could cause you to loose total control of your rig on a wet
road under the proper set of conditions. It was funny when my brother in law
recently got his first Airstream with a Hensley hitch and said "do you have
any idea what would cause this trailer to jerk sideways when I pull off the
interstate and start to slow down to stop at the end of the ramp". I gave
him the above speech, and left him with the chore of working with his
current brake controller or replacing it with one that works with a Hensley.
Enough said!!! I felt this was not a problem I had to live with when there
was a Jordan controller out there that could tame the Hensley "jerk" to the
point that I had towed with one for 4 years and had forgotten all about the
"jerk". You see I had the Jerk in SPADES with a Pull Right controller I got
installed on the truck as the default by my installer, when I just requested
a "brake controller". After my first two week trip with the new Airstream, I
took the Pull Right controller back to the installer, along with a new
Jordan I had learned about on this list. I told the installer I would give
him the old controller if he would swap the two, and he could place the Pull
Right in any moist dark place he could find on his body. 

Joe Scudder
GMC - Hensley _ Airstream