somebody placed a "stopper" on the surge brake

[brianradomski]

A  long  time  ago  on  what  is  NOW  my  MXL!  The assembly is  of  course  the  ball  housing  with  a  square  "axel"  behind  it  on  that  'axel' is  the  spring  connected  to  the  cylinder  AND  the  shock  absorber  for  the  brakes.
      Well  who  ever it  was  the  person  really  got  IT  in  there:  a little  piece  of  angled aluminum laying  on the  entire  length  of  the  shock absorber's  rod  and  held  there  with  a plastic  tie. I cut  the  tie  off  poked  at the angle piece  till  it  fell  out  indeed yay! The  ball  housing  assembly  now travels  inward  toward  the  box. I  suppose  i'll have  to  get  the  tires  off  the  ground  to  see  if  NOW  it  has  working brakes. OR  i'll  just  lock  up  the  brakes  again:  I  successfully  towed  a 15ish foot 68  scotty  camper  with  a  dodge  van (with  a  slant  6)   AND  I  KNOW    that  camper  didnt  even  have  surge  brakes, it  had  NO  brakes  and  i  stopped  fine  I'm  sure, I'm  still  here  Ah HAAA!! Sighhhh  I  know  I'm  cutting  corners  but  I  gotta   get  going  with  this  camper.  The  year  is  getting  old/late  campgrounds  will  be  closing  and  I  have  about  3 weeks  vacation!
       Amazing  to  think  that  the  ball  housing  on  the  camper  can  be  "pushed"  inward, tilting  the  ball  housing  on  an  angle  and  it  does  not  fall  or  pull  off  the  towing  BALL!

[mike4947]

Hang on to it. WHen backing up if the ground has the slightest grade the brakes will lock up. You use the piece of metal to stop the brakes from working in reverse.
 
First time I used a PU with surge brakes of course the site had a driveway about 30 degrees. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't back up the slope. Finally we unhooked and pushed the trailer up onto the site. Needless to say PU's were quite a bit lighter back in the early 70's.
Finally got around to reading the directions. Doooooh!
 
Newer versions have a little switch you throw to lock out the brakes in reverse and it trips when you pull foward so even if you forget you still have brakes when you drive away.