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Surge brakes or inertia brakes are independent of the towing vehicle. They won't activate at all in a trailer-sway situation such as in the video above.
Generally, when your trailer starts to sway like that, the CORRECT thing to do is to gently GO FASTER and pull the trailer straight. If you have electric trailer brakes and a trailer brake controller, you should gently squeeze the controller (applying some brakes on the trailer only) This will straighten out your rig right quickly.
The WORST thing you can do is hit your brakes, because it just makes the whole situation even worse. So, the driver in the video above did all the wrong things as far as his reaction to the sway.
As far as the towing configuration goes:
- A car usually weighs 2500-3500lbs.
- An open trailer usually weighs 1500-2500lbs.
- (combined weight of 4000-6000lbs)
A mid-size V6 car is usually rated to tow around 1500lbs.
A V6 AWD Edge or Escape or Flex is only rated for 3500lbs.
A Toyota FJcruiser or Ford Explorer is rated for about 7700lbs.
A 1/2 ton truck like an F150 or Ram/Silverado 1500 will tow 7000lbs -10,000lbs.
So to start with, the tow vehicle was already towing more than it was probably rated for.
Second of all, Look at that BEAST of a trailer. The deck is so high, sitting ABOVE the wheels. SOOOO top heavy.
Accident waiting to happen!
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