Pull trailer w-out marine battery?

[EllenT]

Hi, hoping ya’ll can help. We need to bring our Jay Feather in for maintenance and our marine battery is dead. Is it possible to tow without the battery? When connected to the car the lights and brakes will work right? I think that’s all we’d need. TIA!

[SkyBound]

It is possible to tow it without a battery, or with a dead battery (same thing) but some would argue not safe. Once the trailer is hooked up to the tow vehicle, it gets its 12V power through the wiring plug connection, so lights etc. will work. The battery is there mainly for the brakes - if the trailer somehow came unhitched, the breakaway pin would pull out and the trailer battery would apply power to the trailer brakes causing it to come to a stop. Without a battery, you will not have this safety feature. The tow vehicle may or may not provide enough 12V power for normal operation of the brakes, too.

[us71na]

It may be illegal to tow your brake equipped trailer without the battery installed.

[Camper_bob]

It is likely illegal to tow without a battery. I've done it a few times though. ONLY when transporting my trailer home from storage though (about 7 miles on well known, easy roads). And usually it's because I keep my battery in the garage on a float charger and forgot to throw it in the truck before I went to pick up the trailer, or it was an "impromptu" pickup on the way home from work that I wasn't planning on.

Your lights will still work, and your brakes will still work, but if your trailer becomes detached from your tow vehicle, the brakes will not engage which can cause a VERY unsafe situation.

Bottom line I would say is don't make a habit out of it, and if you're going to do it, be extra cautious. A better option would be to take your "dead" battery to a parts house and have them see if they can put a charge on it. If they can, great; you're all set. If they can't, just go ahead and pick up a new battery right then since you'll need one anyway.

[CampNow]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

It is possible to tow it without a battery, or with a dead battery (same thing) but some would argue not safe. Once the trailer is hooked up to the tow vehicle, it gets its 12V power through the wiring plug connection, so lights etc. will work. The battery is there mainly for the brakes - if the trailer somehow came unhitched, the breakaway pin would pull out and the trailer battery would apply power to the trailer brakes causing it to come to a stop. Without a battery, you will not have this safety feature. The tow vehicle may or may not provide enough 12V power for normal operation of the brakes, too.

Typically, the trailer's emergency break-away brake circuit and the tow vehicle's brake controller circuit work independently of each other. If the trailer's battery is dead or disconnected, it should not have any effect on the tow vehicle brake controller's ability to provide the necessary voltage/current to the trailer's brakes (as long as the trailer remains attached to the tow vehicle). However, as previously mentioned, if the trailer's battery is dead or disconnected, the trailer's emergency brake-away brake circuit will not operate (i.e., brakes will not be activated in the event the trailer becomes detached from the tow vehicle).

[WeRJuliian]

To provide power for a possible emergency stop, any old 12v battery will do.
If you happen to have a regular car battery, lawn mower battery.. pretty much anything is fine, for the very short time it will actually be in use.

.. and certainly better than the risky, and illegal, alternative.

[GrumpyDad]

Towing without a battery is possible as other above have mentioned but for sure not the "right" was to do things.
Options that are preferred are to use any 12v battery for that one trip, or to do your best to charge that dead battery up for the trip as well.

If for any reason you do end up towing with no battery, double and triple check your connection to the tow vehicle and don't crash. That's what I've done in that same situation.

Stay safe friends.

[norty1]

And make sure your Liability insurance is current!

[ALJO]

It is illegal to tow without a backup battery in any state or province. And since electric brakes are required in 'most' states and provinces above 700 kg (1500 lbs.). So think about this liability when the trailer brakes loose from the TV. Not to long a go it happen to a member on this forum......he was lucky to get of with a little damage.

[Atlee]

Can you? Yes. Is it legal, probably not since the electric brakes require the battery to activate in and emergency such as the trailer disconnecting from your TV.

All that said, it's certainly possible I might chance it if I were just going from home to he RV repair center which is a bout 4 miles from home, and the max speed would be 45 mph.

I'd never consider moving the trailer any where else without a battery.

[WeRJuliian]

Originally Posted by norty1

And make sure your Liability insurance is current!

It's likely that, if you had deliberately disabled your emergency brakes (which is what you're doing here)... your insurance company would laugh in your face and point to the, "You're on your own!", clause at the bottom of page 97.

[repacs0103]

Lol, I’ve never seen more worrisome, government fearing, lawsuit freaked people than on this forum. I have 11 electric brake trailers at work. A total of 2 of them have charged batteries only because they’re dump trailers that utilize the deep cycle for the breakaway switch.

If your trailer disconnects going down the road the presence of a charged battery isn’t going to have a whole lot of impact on the situation... it’s catastrophic either way.


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[EllenT]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I’ll go ahead and replace the battery * before* taking it in 👍🏻

[ALJO]

repacs0103 Quote:
[Lol, I’ve never seen more worrisome, government fearing, lawsuit freaked people than on this forum. I have 11 electric brake trailers at work. A total of 2 of them have charged batteries only because they’re dump trailers that utilize the deep cycle for the breakaway switch.]


Yes and then you have; People with attitudes, Bullies, People who don't care about the Law and do what ever they want, they steal, murder and go on. Lucky there are only a few bad apples (but it seems we getting more and more)

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by repacs0103

Lol, I’ve never seen more worrisome, government fearing, lawsuit freaked people than on this forum. I have 11 electric brake trailers at work. A total of 2 of them have charged batteries only because they’re dump trailers that utilize the deep cycle for the breakaway switch.

If your trailer disconnects going down the road the presence of a charged battery isn’t going to have a whole lot of impact on the situation... it’s catastrophic either way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Would I tow 100 miles to the dealer w/o a battery connected? Probably not, but all this noise about "liability" is in my opinion way over blown. If I had to do it I would just leave the discharged battery connected and tell anyone who ask that ??? it had a charge when I pulled out.

I had a problem with my pigtail / 7-pin truck connection. The power to the trailer TT would work and then not work. I would stop asap and reconnect the plug in the socket and all was good. At the outset of a 900 mile tow south in January the problem occurred again just 2 miles from my home. I stopped at a local "GM" dealer and with their help it was discovered that the outlet on the truck had water damage allowing one or more of the pins to lose connection due to vibration. They had one and 45 minutes later after an $85 bill, I was on my way and the problem solved.

My point is I wasn't going to risk a long drive with a recurring problem but I didn't pull over and wait for a tow to get the final 9 miles to the dealer. Liability was there, but I made a calculated decision.

[RichR]

You probably know that there is a battery kit made for trailers that is for the emergency brake only. It's a small gel cell that mounts on the A-frame. Tekonsha makes them.
Tekonsha - Breakaway System

[GrumpyDad]

I'd say all the facts of the "could you" and "would you" questions are really well covered in this thread. The opinions of "should you" are pretty well represented here too. Doubt anyone is going to change anyone else's mind, but it's fun to discuss.