Popped the trailer emergency brake – what now?

[JoZ]

I have the emergency stop mechanism on my bumper pull trailer that has a wire connected to a pin in the brake. The other end of the wire clips to my truck underbody. Well, today when I disconnected the trailer I apparently forgot to unclip it. A friend noticed the wire dangling behind my truck.

What has this done to the brakes on my trailer? Is it as simple as pushing the pin back into the brake, and all is well again? If it will need a professional, can I tow my trailer or are the brakes set irreversibly? What a dumb and annoying thing to have done!

[moving_to_dc]

On all of the E-brake systems I have, I simply push the pin back in. No big deal…

We did have one system that drained it’s battery because the pin was left out for months.

[AKB]

With mine, you just pop it back in. Most of us have pulled it out at least once while unhooking the trailer.

[jawa]

Yes, just push the pin back in. If you get an error code on your brake box, it may mean that the battery needs to be replaced. This happened to me once when the farm owner was cutting grass and caught the wire with some part of the mower and pulled the pin loose. It was several days before I noticed the problem. The original battery hadn’t been changed in probably 10 years, so it was something that needed tending to anyway.

[DHCarrotfeeder]

It is that easy. Just take care if you’ve dragged the rig to a stop, to inspect the tires for flat spots. I’ll pretend I haven’t learned that from experience.

[hosspuller]

Unless you replaced the e-brake pin within minutes, you’ll have to charge the battery. Do it sooner rather than later. A dead battery is likely to stay dead the longer it is left discharged.