Break away switch box for electric brakes

Kevin & Kelly

Kevin & Kelly

Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Posts
27
Location
Franklin, OH
Has anyone had problems with their electric brakes break away switch box? We were supposed to leave yesterday on our maiden voyage with our brand new Solitude 325X and low and behold our electric brake break away switch box failed and let the cable pop out going down the road. Our electric brakes kicked in and caught fire! We were able to nurse it home after the fire went out and the brakes cooled. Now I am out the money for our Pigeon Forge campground reservations, a break away switch box, brakes, probably tires and the rims are most likely are all damaged. Freaking unbelievable luck we have been having with a brand new camper.

My dealership is booked into June and the appointment I have to get the slides fixed on that date may not even hold up. Just keep getting told you can drop it off, but they don't know when they will get to it. Get to it when they can. What use it making the appointments then? Sorry about being argumentative but just aggravated and venting a little.
 
I have seen the cable get caught in the slide tubes on a Superglide hitch...

Do you happen to have the cable shortened, or is it the original length? You can shorten it down to just the length to get it to where you need to clip it, as it doesn't need to move with the pin being secured.

I have seen this happen a couple times already....look for a pinch spot in the cable.
 
There did appear to be a pinched spot in the cable. I thought this could have been what happened, but the cable fell out out of the box on the king pin just sitting in my driveway also. The wind blew it out yesterday and it was not that windy. Grand Design has already called me and are sending out a new brake control box for me. Hopefully this will fix that problem so I can get it to the dealership to inspect or replace the brakes. Hopefully the wheels and tires are ok. Afraid they will have to be replaced as well. There was a lot of flames coming out from under it.

I already have a couple ideas in mind to fix the length of the cable or run it up and over the top of the king pin and attach the binder to the passenger side of the hitch or run it through a farm clevis in one of the extra bolt holes on the king pin frame. At least I was stopped and close to home when this happened. I don't know how this would have ended if I would have been traveling down the highway or coming down Jelico Mountain on I 75 in Tennessee.
 
This is what I use.....
 

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Kevin & Kelly--where did you hook the brake cable loop on to ? We have a 16k Super Glide and hook it to the hitch pin release pull handle--it is away from the tubes and works great.

Dan
 
I did have it looped around the release handle and the clasp was in the hole on the hitch. I made a left turn which I believe put enough slack in the cable to loop off of the handle and when I turned the hard right the slider hitch caught the excess cable and pulled it free. Not sure about all of this though.
 
Interesting--we will look more closely at ours but so far not even close to being a problem with pinching in the slider tube or any where else regardless of turn severity.

Dan
 
huntr70--where are they hooking it to causing the lock up ?

Dan


huntr70 said:
I have seen the cable get caught in the slide tubes on a Superglide hitch...

Do you happen to have the cable shortened, or is it the original length? You can shorten it down to just the length to get it to where you need to clip it, as it doesn't need to move with the pin being secured.

I have seen this happen a couple times already....look for a pinch spot in the cable.
Click to expand...
 
Most are using the hole that is in the hitch head on the back side of the pin.

Some were using the handle and clipping it above the handle in the hole to prevent the handle from being lifted.
 
Kevin and Kelly -
We had this exact incident happen to us on Memorial Day weekend. Simply driving down a two lane country road and felt a "chug". We thought something slipped with the transmission. Then it felt fine. Continued down the road for several miles before a car passing by noticed the brakes smoking and told us to pull over. Same mystery... cable popped out and engaged the brakes. Our Reflection is now currently at the service center getting new brakes. Burned them both out. Service center called GD to see of covered under warranty - they said no. Service center recommended I call GD myself to voice my "opinion" that it better be covered. I am so glad I found this forum today !!. Will let you know our outcome. Had our Reflection for 9 months and have had multiple other issues too. Not happy campers right now.!!
 
Well I got word today that our brakes will not be covered under warranty. I figured as much. It just doesn't make since that Grand Design tried to right the wrong by sending us a new break away switch box but will not cover at least some of the expense to repair and or replace the brakes. I have also heard of another victim that had the exact same problem. Going down the road and their cable also pulled out of the box. I would understand this happening in a turn if it gets caught in the hitch or something, but going straight down the road at 55 mph and it falling out I don't. Of course the brakes started to work, but at that speed and a diesel, the brakes are just no match and quickly went up and flames. The drag from it only lasted a second or 2 and stopped. There was no other way to tell the brakes came on until we were flagged down and told about the fire under our rig. I will try to find the other person that told me about their same situation and post here as well. This sucks. Probably going to cost me thousands.
 
tether.jpg
huntr70 said:
This is what I use.....
Click to expand...

Same here, huntr70. I had the old dangling cable wrap around the release handle on my Husky hitch and pull out during a sharp turn. Once is enough for me. 1 hour later, I had this type of tether cable. I encourage everyone to replace the old style with this type.
 
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