There's a scenario nobody wants to picture, and it's the one a breakaway system exists for: your trailer coming loose from the tow vehicle while you're moving. Coupler failure, a hitch that wasn't latched properly, a ball that sheared — however it happens, you suddenly have a loaded trailer rolling free behind you with nothing controlling it. The breakaway system is the small, cheap device that turns that catastrophe into a controlled stop.
It works simply and brilliantly. A pin sits in a switch on the trailer, held there by a cable — the lanyard — that's attached to your tow vehicle. If the trailer separates and rolls away, the cable pulls the pin, the switch closes, and the trailer's own brakes lock on hard from its battery, bringing the runaway to a halt instead of letting it careen into traffic.
It is, in most places, a legal requirement on trailers above a certain weight, and it's simply good sense on any trailer with electric brakes. It's also one of the cheapest pieces of safety equipment you'll ever buy, and one of the most important. The pin, the switch, the cable and the battery are all that stand between a coupler failure and a disaster.
This roundup covers the breakaway switches, cables and complete systems, across the brands that make them — US Gear, Fastway, Roadmaster, Tekonsha and Blue Ox — so you can protect your trailer or your towed vehicle properly.
Best for: A complete, everything-included breakaway system for a trailer that needs one
The Tekonsha 2028 Breakaway System is a complete kit designed, in the maker's own words, to protect you from the unthinkable — making certain your trailer stops if it separates from the tow vehicle.
The word complete is the important one, and it's why this leads the list. A breakaway system has several parts that all have to work together — the switch, a battery to power the brakes when the trailer is disconnected from the vehicle, and a charger to keep that battery topped up. This kit brings all of them together, so you're not assembling a system from separate pieces and hoping they're compatible.
The battery is the part people forget, and it's the part that matters most in the moment of failure. When the trailer separates, it's disconnected from the tow vehicle's power — so the only thing that can apply its brakes is its own onboard breakaway battery. A system without a charged battery is no system at all, which is exactly why a complete kit with the battery and charger included is the sound choice.
Tekonsha is one of the most respected names in trailer braking, and a complete kit from them takes the guesswork out of doing this properly. If you're fitting breakaway protection from scratch, starting with a complete kit is the straightforward path to getting it right.
Buy Tekonsha 2028 Breakaway System Complete Kit
Best for: Replacing a breakaway switch, or where a longer lanyard is needed
The US Gear Breakaway Switch with 72-inch Lanyard closes the circuit that automatically sets the trailer brakes if your trailer unintentionally separates from the towing vehicle.
This is the heart of any breakaway system — the switch and its lanyard — and it's what you need when you're replacing a failed or corroded switch rather than fitting a whole new system. The switch is the component that actually does the work: the pin held in by the lanyard, ready to be pulled if the worst happens.
The 72-inch lanyard is the notable feature here, and length matters more than you'd think. The lanyard has to be long enough to reach comfortably from the switch on the trailer to a solid anchor point on the tow vehicle, but not so long that it drags. On some hitching arrangements — a long tongue, a weight-distribution setup, an extended coupler — a standard lanyard is too short, and the 72-inch version gives you the reach.
It's worth stressing where the lanyard attaches: to the tow vehicle, not to the safety chains or the hitch itself. If you clip it to something that leaves with the trailer, it can't pull the pin when the trailer departs. It must attach to the vehicle that stays behind.
Buy US Gear Breakaway Switch
Best for: Keeping the breakaway cable tidy and up off the ground
The Fastway Zip 6-foot Breakaway Cable is a safety cable that coils up out of the way when it's not in use and stays up off the ground while you're towing.
This solves a genuine, everyday annoyance with breakaway cables: the standard ones dangle. A loose cable drags near the road, gets dirty, can snag, and generally looks untidy — and a cable that's dragging is a cable that's wearing and getting damaged where you can't see it. The Fastway Zip coils like a telephone cord, staying up off the ground and out of trouble.
That's not just tidiness. A breakaway cable is safety equipment, and safety equipment that's frayed from dragging on the tarmac isn't doing its job reliably. A coiled cable that stays clear of the road stays in good condition, which means it's actually able to pull the pin when it's called upon — which, after all, is the entire point of it.
At six feet coiled it gives good reach while staying manageable. If your current breakaway cable is a tired, dragging thing that's seen better days, this is a simple upgrade that keeps the whole system in the condition it needs to be in.
Buy Fastway Zip 6' Trailer Breakaway Cable
Best for: Roadmaster BrakeMaster, Even Brake or InvisiBrake supplemental braking systems
The Roadmaster Breakaway Switch is designed specifically for Roadmaster BrakeMaster, Even Brake and InvisiBrake supplemental braking systems, and includes the pin.
This one is aimed at a specific and important audience: people flat-towing a car behind a motorhome using a Roadmaster braking system. Towed-vehicle braking is a different world from trailer braking, and the breakaway switch has to work with the particular supplemental brake system fitted in the car.
If you run a Roadmaster BrakeMaster, Even Brake or InvisiBrake, this is the matched breakaway switch for that system — and matching matters, because these switches are designed to trigger the specific braking system they're paired with. A generic trailer breakaway switch isn't the right part for a Roadmaster-equipped toad.
The breakaway function on a flat-towed vehicle is exactly as critical as on a trailer, arguably more so, because a car that comes loose behind a motorhome is a substantial, fast-moving hazard. This switch makes sure the car's supplemental brakes lock on if it ever separates, and the included pin means it arrives ready to fit.
Buy Roadmaster Breakaway Switch for Supplemental Braking
Best for: Campers who tow more than one vehicle and need breakaway protection for the second
The Blue Ox BRK2505 Patriot Breakaway Switch acts as an add-on breakaway switch for a second towed vehicle, made for campers who tow more than one.
This is a niche product that's exactly right for the people who need it. Some setups tow more than one thing — or swap between towed vehicles — and each needs its own breakaway protection. The Patriot add-on switch lets you extend breakaway coverage to a second vehicle without duplicating the entire braking system.
It's designed to work with the Blue Ox Patriot braking system, which is one of the popular choices for flat-towing, so it's a matched component for that ecosystem. As with the Roadmaster switch above, the point is compatibility — a breakaway switch has to trigger the specific braking system it's paired with, and this is the Patriot's matched part for a second vehicle.
If you're a two-vehicle towing household running Blue Ox Patriot brakes, this is how you make sure the second vehicle is as protected as the first. It's the kind of specific solution that only exists because someone at Blue Ox recognised that not everyone tows just one thing.
Buy Blue Ox BRK2505 Patriot Second Vehicle Breakaway Switch
There are really two distinct worlds in this roundup, and it's worth separating them because the products aren't interchangeable.
Trailer breakaway is the classic case: a trailer with its own electric brakes, where the breakaway switch triggers those brakes directly from a battery on the trailer. The Tekonsha kit and the US Gear switches serve this world. If the trailer comes loose, the pin pulls, and the trailer's brakes lock on from its own battery. Straightforward, and the standard setup for conventional trailers.
Towed-vehicle breakaway is the flat-towing case: a car being towed behind a motorhome, with a supplemental braking system fitted inside the car. Here the breakaway switch has to trigger that specific supplemental system, which is why the Roadmaster and Blue Ox switches are matched to their particular braking systems. You can't use a generic trailer switch, because there are no trailer-style electric brakes to trigger — there's a proprietary braking system in the car instead.
Knowing which world you're in is the first decision. A trailer with electric brakes takes a trailer breakaway switch and battery. A flat-towed car takes the breakaway switch matched to its supplemental braking system. Get that distinction right and the rest of the choice falls into place.
It's worth being clear about the parts, because a breakaway system only works if all of them are present and functioning.
The switch is the trigger — the pin-and-lanyard mechanism that closes the circuit when the trailer separates. The lanyard connects that pin to the tow vehicle, so that separation pulls the pin. The battery powers the trailer's brakes at the moment of separation, when the trailer has lost its connection to the tow vehicle's electrical system. And a charger keeps that battery ready, because a flat breakaway battery means brakes that can't apply.
The complete kits, like the Tekonsha above, bring all of these together. The individual switches and cables are for replacing a specific failed component in a system that's otherwise sound. Knowing which you need — a whole system or a single part — is the first decision, and it comes down to what you already have fitted.
A breakaway system is unusual among the things you fit to a trailer, because you hope it never operates — and that's exactly why it needs testing rather than trusting.
The battery is the weak link. It sits there doing nothing for months, and a battery that's been quietly discharging is a battery that won't apply your brakes when the pin pulls. Check that the breakaway battery holds a charge, and check it periodically, not just once. A charger that keeps it topped from the tow vehicle is how the complete systems address this, but even then, verify it.
You can test the system by pulling the pin with the trailer connected and the wheels chocked — the brakes should lock on hard. If they don't, something in the chain has failed: the switch, the battery, or the wiring. Far better to discover that in your driveway than to discover it when a coupler lets go on the highway.
A breakaway system is the cheapest serious safety device on your trailer, and the one you most hope never to need. For the price of a nice dinner, it turns a separated, runaway trailer from a catastrophe into a controlled stop, and in most places it's a legal requirement above a certain weight anyway.
Work out whether you need a complete system or just a replacement part. Match specialised switches — the Roadmaster and Blue Ox ones — to the supplemental braking system they're built for. Choose the lanyard length that suits your hitching arrangement, and keep the cable up off the ground so it stays in good condition.
And then test it. The battery is the part that quietly fails, and a breakaway system with a dead battery is no protection at all. Fit it properly, keep it charged, test it periodically, and it'll be there in the one moment you ever need it — which is the only moment that counts.
I’m Bill Rowell, the founder of RVupgrades.com. In 2002, I launched the business to help fellow RV enthusiasts find unique and hard-to-find products. Over the years, it’s grown to offer more than 15,000 items, with a warehouse in Eastlake, Ohio. Having owned and repaired nearly every type of RV, I bring over two decades of hands-on experience to the table. For me, this isn’t just a business – it’s a passion and a way of life that I love sharing with the RV community.
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