Trailers and Towing - Texas Online Drivers Ed Video Lecture | Drivers Education of America: Overview - Personal Skills

when choosing to use your car or truck
as a towing vehicle for a trailer there
are two ways you can connect that
trailer to your vehicle there's a bumper
pull where the trailer mounts directly
to a all that's mounted to your bumper
and there's the gooseneck or fifth wheel
method where the trailer mounts in the
bed of a pickup truck in connecting this
the first thing you do if your trailer
has electric brakes is to put the
electric brake cable around the ball of
the connection the reason this is so
important is because the biggest fear of
pulling a trailer is that it becomes
disconnected then the second thing we
want to do is connect the safety chains
to the vehicle which will limit the
movement of the trailer if it were to
become disconnected from that ball and
then finally the last thing we're going
to do is connect the electric cord to
the vehicle by connecting this electric
cord it coordinates our brake lights
with the brake lights on your trailer
and those brake lights on the trailer
are mandatory so we're turn signals and
by connecting this cable you'll get all
that coordinated and working now this
cable will also help activate the
electric brakes on your trailer if
indeed you do have electric brakes on
that trailer so with that said safe
trailering
you