Trailer break problem. I need help, I;='m Stumped

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Hmm, are your grease seals seeping?

(only thing I could think of that hasn't been mentioned....)

There all new, and the old ones were not leaking ether, even though i had them off several times when i was cheeking things.

I always put new seals in, there so cheap it doesn't make since not to.
 
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What flipped me out is when the breaks were applied the rear breaks will lock up at low speed under 20-30 mph the front axles would come up off the ground and only the rear axle was doing the stopping.
I’ve never seen a trailer do that. That had to be the reversed shackles, because when I flipped them back like there supposed to be it quit doing that. I think the torque of the rear breaks were making the equalizers torque and make the front axle rotate up.

At least I have some breaks now even though there not the best, so a little is better then nothing.
They did seem to get a little better the more I used them. So maybe they just need to get set in and seat themselves to the drums.
I may just try hauling a few more loads and see if they improve. And re adjusts them in a week or two.
The reason it took 2 hours to test everything is because we were bull####ting and working at the same time and it was raining so we weren't in any hurry.

The odd thing is when I went to my friends to test my trailer on his truck; he was doing a break job on his trailer as well. His works fine when we were done with his break job.
 
What flipped me out is when the breaks were applied the rear breaks will lock up at low speed under 20-30 mph the front axles would come up off the ground and only the rear axle was doing the stopping.
I’ve never seen a trailer do that. That had to be the reversed shackles, because when I flipped them back like there supposed to be it quit doing that. I think the torque of the rear breaks were makinThe tg the equalizers torque and make the front axle rotate up.

At least I have some breaks now even though there not the best, so a little is better then nothing.
They did seem to get a little better the more I used them. So maybe they just need to get set in and seat themselves to the drums.
I may just try hauling a few more loads and see if they improve. And re adjusts them in a week or two.
The reason it took 2 hours to test everything is because we were bull####ting and working at the same time and it was raining so we weren't in any hurry.

The odd thing is when I went to my friends to test my trailer on his truck; he was doing a break job on his trailer as well. His works fine when we were done with his break job.

As far as brakes or no brakes, the most important thing is the ground. I had a trailer business for 11 years and the ground was the achilles heal. If you have power and the ground is good, when the brakes is applied by hand, you should be able to hear the magnet engage the side of the drum. How hard it is applied is of course the control. The problem I've had most of the time is the brakes locking up on and empty trailer. So in that case I have a switch for breaking the ground.

If the know the correct power is going to the trailer, and the magnet is not activating, then if everything inside the drum is in place, all that's left to complete the circuit is the ground.

I have a trailer I traded for that was a mess. But with this one I had a different deal. The brakes would not do anything but lock up. The man I traded with didn't even attempt to use the brakes. After crawling under trailer and having a look see, I found the brake axle to be on backwards. It took me a while but I turned the axle around, rewired everything with a new 7 blade plug and it works like a charm.

Good luck. Has anyone mentioned to check the ground? :laugh:
 
The best thing I ever did with the basic small box trailer I bought, 7' x 4', was to rewire it.

It had the cheapest nastiest Chinese 5 core wire, barely insulated, and connections that were only twisted together and taped - not even crimped, let alone soldered.


Yup, that's the first step to every trailer I owned...check the wiring, and solder all the connections.

The one thing that has given me the biggest fits in trailer wiring are scotch-loc connectors...those things should be outlawed. I have a 5vr that lost its brakes, and I had voltage to the wheels. Turned out to be corrosion at no less than five manufacturer installed scotch-locs. I've also had lighting issues caused by them too. I hate them.
 
As far as brakes or no brakes, the most important thing is the ground. I had a trailer business for 11 years and the ground was the achilles heal. If you have power and the ground is good, when the brakes is applied by hand, you should be able to hear the magnet engage the side of the drum. How hard it is applied is of course the control. The problem I've had most of the time is the brakes locking up on and empty trailer. So in that case I have a switch for breaking the ground.

If the know the correct power is going to the trailer, and the magnet is not activating, then if everything inside the drum is in place, all that's left to complete the circuit is the ground.

I have a trailer I traded for that was a mess. But with this one I had a different deal. The brakes would not do anything but lock up. The man I traded with didn't even attempt to use the brakes. After crawling under trailer and having a look see, I found the brake axle to be on backwards. It took me a while but I turned the axle around, rewired everything with a new 7 blade plug and it works like a charm.

Good luck. Has anyone mentioned to check the ground? :laugh:
=========

How did you determind the axle was on backward????
 
electric brakes

Boy this system seems a pain in the a--e, over here we use hydraulic override brakes and discs. no electrics, just a pump built into tow coupling

Kodiak 1500kg Disc Brakes 1500kg=3350lbs
 
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Boy this system seems a pain in the a--e, over here we use hydraulic override brakes and discs. no electrics, just a pump built into tow coupling

Kodiak 1500kg Disc Brakes 1500kg=3350lbs
We call those surge brakes here, DOT only allows up to 10,000 lbs trailer and then they must be electric, also we must have brakes on both axles. A break away on all electric brakes. And they must lock up when manually activated.
BBB
 
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How did you determind the axle was on backward????

If you look inside of the drum the shoes are positioned high and low. The low shoe is forward, plus the wire for the brake is pulled out of the axle and hub to run up the left side of the trailer. Mine was on the right side which led me to pull the hubs and verify it was backwards. With the rear shoe on the forward side the brake would chatter very fast and lockup. Maybe not all would react like mine, but this is what happened in my case. Reversed everything and it's working like a charm. I think this is the reason I got the trailer for what I did. The precious owner thought he was shafting me. He didn't know and that's to my good.
 
Boy this system seems a pain in the a--e, over here we use hydraulic override brakes and discs. no electrics, just a pump built into tow coupling

Kodiak 1500kg Disc Brakes 1500kg=3350lbs


And those tend to suck if the trailer is loaded the least big tail heavy or if the tow vehicle or trailer looses traction...the former will cause an oscillation that you cannot slow by manually engaging the brakes, the later will cause the brakes to not engage or limits you from having the chance to control the trailer sliding with manual brake engagement.
 
I’ve just never ever seen a front axel come off the ground when the breaks are applied.
The bottoms of the front tires came off the ground a good 6” and once the breaks were realest the axel dropped back down again.

We tried it several times with the same results. It had the fornt the shackles being upside down on one axel and the other way on the other. Don’t have any ideas how they got that way, because they weren’t like that before.

Only thing I can figure is I had a heavy load and I went through a rather steep ditch and that may have flipped it when I did that.


I’m going to get a 7 way for the truck so both trailers have the same connections and the will be new. I’m also going to rewire the controller to the 7 way plug with all new wiring.

And I’ going to add a 10 gage detected ground wire from the truck to the trailer.
, along with a good ground on the plug itself.

The trailer is about ready for a new floor so I ;m just replace that and while I have the wood off I’ll rewire the whole trailer.

I’m giving myself some time to let go of all the tension and work on it later.
Only thing it’s getting hot, upper 90’s today.
I smell a sweet fest coming on.lol


I’m just going to redo it all with new everything. Then maybe I can get another 8 care free years out of it again.

I wish I had a dump trailer, I’ve been wanting one for ages, sure would cut down on a lot of work.

Trouble is used trailers are as much as new ones are, at least the ones in good shape are.
Hell I’ve seen some pretty crappy old rusted buckets where there asking new prices for.
 
i can get heat shrink tubing a Fry’s to seal all the connections. But at the truck yard that heat shrink that had hot glue on the inside coating of the tubing. That way when you shrieked it into place the heat glue would seal the connection, making it almost impossible for moister to get to the connectors.

Any idea where to get that kind of heat shrink tubing?
 
i can get heat shrink tubing a Fry’s to seal all the connections. But at the truck yard that heat shrink that had hot glue on the inside coating of the tubing. That way when you shrieked it into place the heat glue would seal the connection, making it almost impossible for moister to get to the connectors.

Any idea where to get that kind of heat shrink tubing?



You can purchase that kind of heat shrink tubing splicing kits from a plumbing supply shop
that sells deep well pumps.
 
Boy this system seems a pain in the a--e, over here we use hydraulic override brakes and discs. no electrics, just a pump built into tow coupling

Kodiak 1500kg Disc Brakes 1500kg=3350lbs

Actually the override brakes like that in Aus can only be used up to 2000kg , above that and it's electric, and brakes on both axles.

And you have no ability to vary the braking like electric. But they do require tow vehicle wiring unlike that system.

Biggest issue IMO is you give away load capacity.
 
When you rewire the trailer add an extra white wire from the trailer plug to the brakes and lights. Depending on how the trailer wiring is routed a dedicated white ground wire from the plug up both sides of the trailer or a loop around the perimeter of the trailer from the plug to all electric devices and back to the plug.

Since going to this wiring method my trailer electric problems reduced to a bulb replacement.
 
i can get heat shrink tubing a Fry’s to seal all the connections. But at the truck yard that heat shrink that had hot glue on the inside coating of the tubing. That way when you shrieked it into place the heat glue would seal the connection, making it almost impossible for moister to get to the connectors.

Any idea where to get that kind of heat shrink tubing?



Del City has it, they are a great company to deal with.

Del City - Wiring Products and Professional Electrical Supplies
 
When you rewire the trailer add an extra white wire from the trailer plug to the brakes and lights. Depending on how the trailer wiring is routed a dedicated white ground wire from the plug up both sides of the trailer or a loop around the perimeter of the trailer from the plug to all electric devices and back to the plug.

Since going to this wiring method my trailer electric problems reduced to a bulb replacement.

This is good advice. I too run two wires dedicated for the trailer brakes. The trailer light's I still ground to the trailer frame. I've seen folks try to ground through the hitch ball. Now that's down right silly. I do run a ground from my battery to the truck frame, but the trailer lights is grounded to a ground wire to trailer. That gives me a plug to blade connection from truck to trailer. This has worked very well for me.

I was in a campground some years ago when an older couple pulled in with their motor home and dinghy. The man was so frustrated he was about to cry. He could not get the lights on the toad to work right. Sometimes he had light, some he had very dim light. I walk over and ask what the problem was. He told me and I said, let's run a new dedicated ground. We did and the light were spot on. I've never seen such relief on a person face. Of course he demanded he pay me and I couldn't let that happen. I told just a fellow traveler helping out. I know he slept well that night.
 
This is good advice. I too run two wires dedicated for the trailer brakes. The trailer light's I still ground to the trailer frame. I've seen folks try to ground through the hitch ball. Now that's down right silly. I do run a ground from my battery to the truck frame, but the trailer lights is grounded to a ground wire to trailer. That gives me a plug to blade connection from truck to trailer. This has worked very well for me.

I was in a campground some years ago when an older couple pulled in with their motor home and dinghy. The man was so frustrated he was about to cry. He could not get the lights on the toad to work right. Sometimes he had light, some he had very dim light. I walk over and ask what the problem was. He told me and I said, let's run a new dedicated ground. We did and the light were spot on. I've never seen such relief on a person face. Of course he demanded he pay me and I couldn't let that happen. I told just a fellow traveler helping out. I know he slept well that night.

The ball hitch is not a continues true ground, the movement and play in the hitch can change the amount of Entergy that is being returned to the battery. So therefore it’s not reliable.
 
True, but I've still seen folks rely on that for their ground.


Yup...or just not run any lights at all...

I have only ever seen brake wiring with twin lead brake cable (looks almost like stranded Romex) with a dedicated pos/neg. Good wire, with lowly Scotch-loc connectors...

I run a ground to the frame, usually corrosion proof it somehow. Do the same with the lights. I also add grease to the bulb sockets to prevent corrosion there too.
 

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