I’ve never heard the term “overrun brakes” (TIL!) before. I’ve always called them surge brakes, and they are widespread in the U.S. on the majority of boat trailers.
That’s actually the most reasonable explanation I’ve seen so far, and it helps explain a bunch (one small correction: most states have a towing speed limit of either 55 or 65 mph, so just about the same or slower than in Europe. Canada is even worse with most provinces limiting highway towing speed to 80-90kmh).
That said, it still doesn’t make any sense that our tow rating does not take into account the presence of a brake controller (that is to say, the stated towing capacity does not list braked and unbraked separately in most cars except trucks).
My bad, that was a typo - I mean our tow rating. Most vehicles (except for trucks) don’t list the tow rating with a brake controller installed and the only way to get one is to have your vehicle rated and tested individually.
![[image] Since many people seem to believe you can't tow with cars, here's roughly what dutch people end up doing on vacation.](https://feddit.de/pictrs/image/ea1db421-ccea-4e3d-af37-aec9b3e62de4.jpeg){kind=link}
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I’ve never heard the term “overrun brakes” (TIL!) before. I’ve always called them surge brakes, and they are widespread in the U.S. on the majority of boat trailers.
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You are 100% correct. I had to search overrun brakes online, and from what I found it seems to be a regional language variation.
That’s actually the most reasonable explanation I’ve seen so far, and it helps explain a bunch (one small correction: most states have a towing speed limit of either 55 or 65 mph, so just about the same or slower than in Europe. Canada is even worse with most provinces limiting highway towing speed to 80-90kmh). That said, it still doesn’t make any sense that our tow rating does not take into account the presence of a brake controller (that is to say, the stated towing capacity does not list braked and unbraked separately in most cars except trucks).
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My bad, that was a typo - I mean our tow rating. Most vehicles (except for trucks) don’t list the tow rating with a brake controller installed and the only way to get one is to have your vehicle rated and tested individually.