when to use trailer handbrake?

Seems CRST orders their trucks without a trolley. My build sheet says they ordered 30 cornbinders in '02 without them, mine being one of course. How hard would it be to add one? seems like just the valve, some line and a couple of check valves..?

 

Valve, lines, relays and wiring for the lights....

 

The key is to get those tires "rolling" again so they have traction and you have the ability to steer the vehicle. By the way, to recover from a potential jackknife you MUST be quick and you must steer into the skid AND get OFF the brakes. I know it sounds counter intuitive because all you want to do is STOP but by jamming on the brakes harder you simply make the problem worse and lose all steering control.

Using the trailer brake is suitable for coupling, tugging on the trailer before starting out to insure no-one has tampered with the fifth wheel draw bar, and to assist in sliding the trailer tandem.

Otherwise brakes should be adjusted correctly and all brakes should be used when braking through the normal foot valve (brake pedal).

As a matter of fact the new training videos used in many trucking schools explains that a wheel that has stopped rolling has a tendency to want to "lead the parade." I have also found this to be accurate in real life situations.

I have had 2 instances with jack knife situations to deal with so far in my career. The first was in snowy conditions on a back road in Maine. The empty trailer I was pulling started to slide while braking through a curve in the road. Realizing my error I released the brakes, steered in front of the trailer, and applied slight pressure on the throttle to keep the truck in front. Fortunately there was no other traffic on the road because I did in fact use both sides of the 2 lane road to recover. The lesson I learned that day was to brake well before ANY turns or curves in the road (even gentle ones) in the roadway AND reduce my speed well below the posted speed limit. The second instance was climbing Snow Shoe on I80 through Pa with a light load. I was passing slower moving trucks going up the hill and as I crossed through the snow pack in the middle of the road the tractor began to spin out due to the heavy acceleration. The tractor RPM's shot all the way up and I felt that sickening slide begin in the seat of my pants. To recover I eased off the throttle and again steered the truck back in front of the trailer using all of the road to bring the truck back into line. Gentle throttle pressure and not hitting the brakes again solved the situation.

Another little tidbit; in the event you drive through puddles of water or are driving in a lot of rain you should apply gentle pressure to ALL your brakes to dry off the brake pads. Otherwise wet brakes will take longer to slow you down and stop than dry ones will.

 

The trailer hold is only useful for sliding tandems, IMHO. They will not get you out of a jackknife- they will cause one.

The only way you have control over the direction in which your rig is moving is if the wheels are rolling. The physics, to either a tractor 'kick out' or a trailer 'chase' is exactly the same, rolling tires grip locked tires slip. The only way to recover from a slide is keep wheels rolling, most training calls for pushing in the clutch, and countersteer in the skid. We, had the great previlage of going to a skid pad for a day. The trainers had us get into 7th and purposely yank it into a skid. You push in the clutch and countersteer to your desired path. It was fun as hell on a huge skidpad, hope I never need it on the road.