Troubleshooting Tow Max Tow Dolly Brakes Locking Up While Towing in the Mountains
Updated 10/31/2025 | Published 10/28/2025
Question:
Just bought a Tow Max Dolly with the Demco Hydraulic Brake Actuator - Drum - Zinc - 2 Ball - 7,000 lbs. First trip out going thru the mountians of TN was fine until the end, and brakes seem to lock up and started to buck the RV as I applied brakes. Everything fine until applying brakes, then the awful noise and had to unload the Dolly. Any ideas on what could cause this? Aprreciate any help. USA trailer will not get back to me. Thanks.
asked by: Randall H
Expert Reply:
Hey Randall, thanks for reaching out!
Towing a trailer in the mountains is not for the faint of heart, so I'm glad you were able to make it home safely, even if you had a rough time towards the end.
First thing to do is inspect the whole braking system for any points of failure or where there is potential for something to get messed up (any places where the brake lines might look a little weird, for example). If everything checks out, then the problem is most likely the brakes on the Tow Max dolly just not being sufficient for mountains. Braking on mountains is ROUGH on the brakes in a hydraulic situation because the brakes will constantly be applied while going downhill.
The power of hydraulic brakes is great, but for mountain towing electric brakes have an edge because you can get a controller like the Redarc Tow-Pro Elite # RED46CR so the trailer brakes can be feathered by hand (in user-control mode) and they aren't constantly being applied.
Let me know if you find anything going on with the brakes on your tow dolly. If you don't and you'd like to convert to electric brakes (if you plan on towing in the mountains regularly) then let me know that as well and I'd be more than happy to help you get setup!
The MOST important thing about towing is safety, so let's get you back up and running safely for your sake and the sake of the people around you on the road.
