[ron skeen]

Sounds like the dakota rolled up on the motorcycle because your brake assist (brake buddy) is not working as it should. you said that it has never been activated, yet anytime you are driving and brake the coach it should be activated to the same degree. It is not just for emergency breakaway. It is designed to work in concert with your coach brake system, unless brake buddy makes a very different product than I know of. Overloading and wrong tow height are the 2 main reasons for bar failure and you seem to have stated that you are guilty of these towing a tow sins, but unfortunatley you have paid a high price for it. i have seen pickup trucks with no supplemental brake perched in an engine compartment twice in the past 10 years and those weren't covered by insurance because the supplemental brakes were not hooked up. anything over 2500 pounds in almost all States requires a brake assist.

The Brake Buddy was hook up and working. This happen at less than 5 MPH. I was going downhill in front of my house. For the last 10 years I have always unhook at the top of the hill but was going to unhook at the bottom to back into my driveway. The front wheels came completely off the ground. This happen so fast the BB never had time to react. The pendulum that swing to activate the BB never felt stopping. This was not a sudden stop and I was barely moving. The main cause was the attachment of the tow bar to the coach was TOO LOW. I got away with not paying enough attention to the tow bar position for 11 years. I have been fortunate to have had the rack on the back of the coach. If something happen to the tow bar usually the BB dose not activate until the vehicle has done it damage to the back of the coach. The breakaway switch protect other property if the tow vehicle detracted from the coach. I hope this keep someone else from thinking just because I never had problem I won't! This could have been prevented shame on me!