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Posted by Tim Holloway on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 22:39:09 :
In Reply to: Re: Electric Brake Booster? posted by John in NH on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 21:34:33 :
Hi John,
I suppose just like a modern controller, you need to vary the voltage to the brakes, deternined by the load, the road, and other conditions.
When I was 17 I was working at a boatyard in Rockland Maine. I had the opportunity to buy a beautiful 32' racing sailboat, built Finland in the 30s. I borrowed an undersized boat trailer and convinced my buddy with a Toyota Land cruiser to tow it home to Vermont for me. We got the lights working on the trailer and there was one wire left over. We traced it back and it was trailer brakes. Hmmmm, what do we do with that? Well, we reasoned, you need trailer brakes when you hit the regular brakes, so lets hook it up to a brake light? Cool! The bow of the boat was sticking out over the roof of the Toyota but that didnt seem like a problem. We took off for Vermont, I could make the trip in 6 hours in my Triumph, but this would be a bit longer. Everything went fine, until the first time Frank hit the brakes. The trailer brakes locked, the bow of the sailboat swung down and was like an ave hitting the fiberglass roof. BANG! what the heck we wondered, not yet making the connection. After a couple of times of this giant axe hitting the roof we figured it out. We were afraid to disconnect the brakes because it was too heavy to pull without brakes, but Frank was just as afraid to touch his brakes. I cant remember how long it ended up taking but our Guardian Angels were drawing overtime pay that day and we made it without incident. The funny thing was, every time the bow would crash into the roof, the roof would cave in to the shape of the boat, then pop back out. Even after a full day of this the top didnt look bad, but in retrospect the gelcoat must have been a mess! Ahh, youth and ignorance, what a combination!
Tim
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