Brake away cable

[FrintonMike]

Just purchased a new breakaway cable.
It is the red cable with a hook at one end to attach to the brake and a clip at the other end to attach to the tow ball but what is the piece that looks like a key ring..
I have looked on the on the internet and no one seems to know with comments such as "it fits without the key ring so throw it away." This seems to be what most people have done.
If it is supplied it must have a purpose but what is it ?

 

[otherclive]

Someone once told me the key ring was used for lightweight trailer hitches. Don't know whether that's true as I have never needed to change one. Regarding the spring clip attached to the towball bracket I don't use mine. I prefer to loop the cable back on itself but rather than looping around the towball I have a test certified carabineer which I fix to the bracket on the towbar then loop the cable back through thecarabinier.

 

[Sproket]

Just purchased a new breakaway cable.
It is the red cable with a hook at one end to attach to the brake and a clip at the other end to attach to the tow ball but what is the piece that looks like a key ring..
I have looked on the on the internet and no one seems to know with comments such as "it fits without the key ring so throw it away." This seems to be what most people have done.
If it is supplied it must have a purpose but what is it ?

It's to attach the cable to the bottom of the handbrake lever....
But depending on how the bottom of your handbrake looks as there are variations ....

 

[FrintonMike]

Thanks Sproket. The old cable did not have the key ring and just hooked on as in your third photo, so I think I can do away with the key ring part and close the hook when fitted.

 

[Ian4624]

Curiously, I was just thinking about break away cables this afternoon whilst walking our dog. I've no idea why,other than I had just been to the storage site to give our van it's weekly check and my sub concious must have still been contemplating what needs to be checked /done before the season starts again. Which part of the break away cable actually "gives way" after operating the van brake if the van detaches itself from the tow ball. I've only ever had it happen once and that was due to my neglect when I was at a weigh bridge and I unhitched the van on the bridge and drove the car off the bridge and forgot to unhitch the break away cable. It certainly pulled the van handbrake on and detached itself from the handbrake. A loop had been formed in the handbrake end of the cable which passed through a hole in the hand brake. The loop was formed by turning the cable end back on itself and clamping it with a small U clamp. The cable end had pulled through the clamp so permitting the cable to detach itself from the hand brake. I replaced the cable by using a new U clamp. I don't know if that was standard at the time, but that is how it was. My present van has the cable attached to the hand brake by the "key ring". Is the "key ring" designed to fail and detach from the hand brake?

 

[Woody3]

The 'key ring,' not being solid, should be strong enough to apply the brake, but if the load still exists (car still attached by cable and moving - caravan stopped) the ring will stretch open and break the connection. Per another comment about looping the cable back round the ball, in some European countries, notably the Netherlands, this is no longer acceptable - the cable must be physically attached to the towcar usually by a pigtail loop that is part of the towing bracket assembly. It is well known for the Dutch police, if bored, to sit aoutside the dock entrance in Rotterdam just after a ferry from the UK has arrived and pull UK vehicles for a check with an immediate fine if non-compliant. Now longer is it accepted that if it meets the home market legal requirements then it is acceptable across the EU it seems.

 

[MichaelE]

Im like many others on this forum who do not have a dedicated hooking point on their car so i have no alternative than to hook around the towball (Alko recommend this anyway) so it could be a very interesting conversation?
On a visit to a dealer once a guy was advised by the salesman that looping around the towball was illegal so he clipped it to the spare wheel carrier as he had no dedicated fixing points.
He didnt listen to me and continued on his merry way!

 

[TD42]

Im like many others on this forum who do not have a dedicated hooking point on their car so i have no alternative than to hook around the towball (Alko recommend this anyway) so it could be a very interesting conversation?
On a visit to a dealer once a guy was advised by the salesman that looping around the towball was illegal so he clipped it to the spare wheel carrier as he had no dedicated fixing points.
He didnt listen to me and continued on his merry way!

There are 2 types of breakaway cables, The type with a SPRING STEEL clip gate MUST be looped round & clipped back on its self & not clipped directly to a fixed point. The type fitted with a SOLID gate like a caribiner should /can be fitted direct to a fixing point. The reason being that it is possible for the spring steel typeclip to move round & the gate rest against the fixed fixing & if the van comes off the spring steel gate gives way before the brakes are pulled on.Having had this happen I can vouch for the reasoning