Broken trailer :( gutted

[juliecwuk]

Soooo I have been using my trailer loads since buying it a couple of months ago I had noticed occasional 'thudding' from the trailer into my car if anything other than gentle slowing, so I rang the trailer guy a few days back and he thinks there's something wrong with the 'piston' but can't fit me in for about 3 weeks, he said carry on as usual on small journeys for the time being.

Took a friend to a comp this eve, on the way back my car started smelling, it felt laboured etc.

I am worried that the brakes came on as such and made the car have to work harder...(although if this was the case surely u would have really known it?!?) or my car is broken - which is worse as it will be more expensive to fix

Am gutted though as we had planned for months to go to a specific funride on sun, but no-one else has a 510 sized trailer on the yard

No point to the thread, just moaning

[domane]

Oh poo! By "piston" does he mean that joint that moves behind the tow-ball connector? If it has seized on, then I guess it would mean that the brakes are working permanently. Can you not give the area a good spray with WD40 in the meantime to see if that free's it up a bit?

Or mebbe try to find another trailer fixer who can do the work sooner?

[juliecwuk]

yeh that 'piston' - not sure what its actually called....

tbh i am not too keen on using it until its repaired as i know it was dodgy before last night....i doubt i will be able to get someone out to look at it before the weekend and i dont want to tow it anywhere because if the brakes are on then they are screwed now (boo hoo more money to repair). will have a ring around though!

would i not really really know if they were on though? it wasnt like i was having to really really put my foot down to get anywhere - and there was no noise?

[domane]

If they are "on" permanently, surely it's just because the piston has pushed them on, so once that is released, all should be fine again with the actual brakes themselves.... unless you have managed to wear them all out from driving with them on.... but I'd find that hard to believe in one session.

Try not to worry until you know what's wrong.... you can buy spare parts so you won't necessarily need a whole new coupling unit...

http://www.barlowtrailer.co.uk/PDF/C..._couplings.pdf