How to Brake While Towing

Most drivers hate to admit it, but eventually it happens to almost everyone. A quick glance away from the road as you adjust the radio controls, or maybe you're entering a new destination into an electronic navigation system. Perhaps you're fumbling to find a pen that just dropped out of your coat pocket and onto the car floor. Whatever the situation and regardless of your speed, you weren't paying attention to the road. Finally, you shift your focus back to the traffic around you, but much to your surprise, everything has changed.

The car in front of you, the one that was moving along at the same pace as you were just moments ago, is now stopped. If you're lucky, you have just enough time to react. You jab hard at the brake pedal with your right foot -- much harder than usual -- causing the nose of your car to dive toward the pavement. Your tires smoke and squeal as the brakes quickly bring your vehicle to a halt. You're thankful that you've avoided a collision, but you also realize that you're mere inches away from the bumper of the car in front of you. That was a close call.

But what if you were approaching the exact same stop with an extra three or four thousand pounds (1,360 to 2721 kilograms) of trailer weight behind you? Obviously, the results would have been much different, and it wouldn't have been a very pleasant experience for anyone involved. If you don't already know this from firsthand experience, then let us tell you -- braking in everyday traffic and braking while towing a trailer are two entirely different situations. It's all because of inertia, or the tendency for objects to resist changes in the way they are (or aren't) moving. The more mass an object has, the more it resists change -- all that added mass from a trailer makes it a lot harder to slow down.

It doesn't matter if you're driving a huge recreational vehicle pulling the family boat, a pickup truck towing a trailer full of firewood or a minivan pulling a pop-up camper. The same basic safety principles apply. Understanding basic towing and braking safety rules could mean the difference between getting to the boat launch safely and on time and spending the weekend filling out accident reports at the local police station.

So what's arguably the most important brake-related safety tip to keep in mind while towing a trailer? Read the next page to find out.