NeilandRaine wrote:

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This subject has probably been covered before seeing as the law was changed sometime ago, never the less I just found out about it today.

The law in NSW says you have to have a breakaway monitor in the cabin of your tug. I have a tekonsha breakaway switch but having trouble finding a monitor for it.

Q 1. Anyone know where to get one?

Q 2. Will one make work with another, it is more a monitor of the battery condition.

Q 3 maybe I should just change breakaway switch

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

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 Unless the law has been changed very recently, you don't have to have the monitor in the cabin of the tow vehicle it just has to be visible and or audible from the driver's position. This means that you could logically position the monitor on the front of the van where it is visible in the rear view mirror.

Brakesafe were the only ones making one last time I heard, and it was only compatible with their devices.

I will ring the RTA tomorrow for clarification. All the info, not very much, I can find says the monitor must be in the car.
Thanks for your help and I will let you know the outcome.

Here's the NSW info,,, it follows on from the Federal VSB1 for small trailers.

 

Vehicle Standards Information No. 22

 

for Vehicle Owners & Operators in New South Wales Issued April 1998

 

Introduction

 

All trailers with a Gross Trailer Mass (GTM) exceeding 750kg and first registered after 30 June 1990

 

are required to be fitted with an efficient braking system. For trailers with a GTM of up to 2 tonnes,

 

this braking system can be either an overrun sysytem or one that is operated from the driver's seat.

 

For trailers with a GTM exceeding 2 tonnes, the braking system must be capable of being applied from

 

the drivers seat -

overrun brakes are not acceptable. In addition, the braking system must be such

that if the trailer accidentally breaks away (from the towing vehicle), the trailer brakes will apply

 

automatically and remain applied for at least 15 minutes.

 

It should be noted that the brakes must operate on ALL WHEELS (exceptions are trailers not over 2

 

tonnes Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM) and trailers manufactured prior to ADR 38/--. Their service

 

brakes must operate on all wheels on at least one axle).

 

Installation of Equipment

 

To ensure the safe towing of trailers equipped with electric brakes, it is necessary that:

 

1. a breakaway switch is fitted to the trailer and its point of attachment is compatible with the

 

towing vehicle;

 

2. the trailer is equipped with its own battery (of sufficient capacity to maintain the brakes in the

 

applied position for at least 15 minutes);

 

3. the towing vehicle is equipped with an electrical circuit which will automatically maintain

 

the trailer battery in a fully charged condition and is capable of warning the driver if the

 

condition of the trailer battery is such that it may not be capable of meeting the above

 

requirements;

 

4. earthing or grounding systems for the trailer brake units is specifically and individually

 

wired (i.e. one earth wire to each brake unit) and not via the trailer suspension

 

components, wheel bearings or tow couplings;

 

5. the trailer is fitted with a readily visible label stating that the towing vehicle must be

 

equipped with a compatible control, charging and warning system.

 

 

 

Assuming this is still current maybe check. YEP still curent found it on their website OK,,, rms bulletins..We went through all this last year and I can't find the damn thread.

 

Cheers Baz

-- Edited by Baz421 on Sunday 16th of February 2014 09:48:33 PM

Here's the link to the Vehicle Standards in NSW. See No22

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/registration/downloads/vsi/vsi_dl1.html

 

Are you permitted to design and build your own? Is the breakaway switch just a simple SPST switch, and would the monitor just be detecting whether the switch is open or closed?

On a related note, about 20 years ago I was asked to repair a Tekonsha electric brake controller. I reverse engineered the entire circuit (I probably still have it somewhere) and was appalled at the almost toy-like construction of the "accelerometer". IIRC, it consisted of a swinging arm that interrupted a light sensor. In those days you could buy instrumentation quality accelerometers, but I expect that the price would have been high. I would hope that today's controllers are just a little more sophisticated.

FYI, the Tekonsha brake controller worked by detecting the deceleration force via variations in light intensity from the sensor, and then modulating the power to the brakes under PWM control. That is, under full deceleration the brakes would get the full 12V unmodulated supply voltage. Under partial deceleration the power to the brakes would be switched on and off with a duty cycle that was commensurate with the required braking force.

 

-- Edited by dorian on Monday 17th of February 2014 07:37:16 AM

Does this apply to vans registered in other Australian States? Mine is registered in Victoria and does not have a monitor in the tow vehicle. What is the situation with a van being registered in Victoria and travelling through NSW? What would be the situation if I were pulled up for a roadside check by the NSW authorities and the monitor was not present (in the van registered in another State)?

All heavy vehicle and combinations over 3 tonnes from sometime this year are subject to jurisdiction by the federal transport department and all vehicle coming within that category, will be subject to federal law no matter which state it is registered.

In Tas we are registered as a private non passenger carrying bus and regularly receive notifications from the feds, even though they have logged it as motor home, for some reason their xp computer system won't recognise any new definitions so they do them by hand and the computer system does it own thing and they can't change it. They have told us to ignore them, must be costing a fortune in waste, postage, paper and time.

All my truckie friends have received the notifications and from some time this year, have to adhere to federal requirements as well as state. Not sure when but in the next couple of years, they will also have to have GPS loggers, which have to be submitted when ever the department chooses.

looking for the 'Like' button, NeilandRaine, you may well be right there!

Baz421 wrote:

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native pepper wrote:

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All heavy vehicle and combinations over 3 tonnes from sometime this year are subject to jurisdiction by the federal transport department and all vehicle coming within that category, will be subject to federal law no matter which state it is registered.

In Tas we are registered as a private non passenger carrying bus and regularly receive notifications from the feds, even though they have logged it as motor home, for some reason their xp computer system won't recognise any new definitions so they do them by hand and the computer system does it own thing and they can't change it. They have told us to ignore them, must be costing a fortune in waste, postage, paper and time.

All my truckie friends have received the notifications and from some time this year, have to adhere to federal requirements as well as state. Not sure when but in the next couple of years, they will also have to have GPS loggers, which have to be submitted when ever the department chooses.

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 Everyone is subject to Federal Legislation,, especially heavy vehicles over 4.5 and interstare trucks,, have been for years,,, so are trailers hence VSB1 has been adopted by all,, because they had to.

The Federal Government reduces funding if states/territories don't comply,,, heaps of examples. I was working on this Federal/State stuff (standardisation) in the early 90's,, don't hold your breath.

Never heard of it applying down to 3 tonnes ( 3 tonnes is not an ADR cut off point to my knowledge) ,,, this would effect my LC79 cruiser ute,,, what other info do you have please?

Rumours abound about these things and the reason you would receive Federal info on your bus is its ADR category and/or GVM.

-- Edited by Baz421 on Monday 17th of February 2014 11:11:25 PM

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 Only going on what we have received and the trucking blokes I know and work for. It appears to only effect vehicles which are interstate or intrastate long haul and not urban vehicles. Like most idiotic things bureaucrats do, who knows how it will turn out, or how they will police and enforce it. One bloke I know was part of the federal transport industry advisory committee and he says what pollies and bureaucrats put up is so hilarious, unenforceable, expensive and in many cases dangerous. But they push them through no matter what the bulk of the committee's with extensive experience say. So the federal and state libs disbanded it late last year, now it's duties are divided between state and federal transport departments. They have also set up and independent moderator, who just happens to be a senior bureaucrat, who's also head of another federal department.

Don't be surprised if one of the bureaucratic recommendations they were pushing pops up this year. That's everyone towing anything over 1.5tonne, will require a special articulated federal licence and state endorsement. From what I've been told, they see large dollar signs and bonuses in the future and want on increase regulation and inspection requirements for all articulated/towing combinations and over 3 tonne rigid.

-- Edited by native pepper on Tuesday 18th of February 2014 11:47:24 AM

This is how it started

In July 2009 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed that a single national heavy vehicle regulatory regime be established by January 2013 to cover all vehicles over 4.5 gross tonnes. COAG agreed that the national regime include a single national regulator to administer a single set of national heavy vehicle laws replacing the separate and at times conflicting regulatory requirements on the heavy vehicle industry between States and Territories.

COAG's decision followed a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) process that investigated a framework for a single national system for heavy vehicle regulation. The RIS process included public consultation from December 2008 to February 2009 and again in April 2009. You can use the following links to find out more about the issues raised in the public consultation sessions and written submissions.

I don't understand why a brake monitor needs to matched to a particular brake controller. ISTM that the two should work independently of each other.

Anyway $330 dollars later all done and installed.

Off topic sorry,,,

Dorian help please, these IR thermometers are they accurate????

http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Why-non-contact-laser-infrared-thermometer-is-inaccurate-/10000000177588188/g.html

 http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/infrared-thermometer

Any help appreciated.  Baz

-- Edited by Baz421 on Thursday 20th of February 2014 09:05:36 PM