Electric Trailer Brakes

Rus
Thanks for the expanation , I have copied/pasted it to a wordpad , I have towed the Van from Maryborough to Brisbane, to Mt Isa, to Alice Springs and band back to Mt Isa without the brakes working and I adjust my driving to suit in towns, soon will be heading to Perth and would be better if they were working, I will try doing a wire up as you explained and see what happens.
Thanks

Doug

Quote
"I have towed the Van from Maryborough to Brisbane, to Mt Isa, to Alice Springs and band back to Mt Isa without the brakes working"

GROSS IIRRESPONSIBILITY

I could think of a lot of other names but they get bleeped.

What are you going to feel like when the day comes that you can not stop in time and maybe take out somebodys child.

Get it fixed or get off the road.

Bob
seems your an expert , I did not ask for expert advice , I can remember only too well Bob on the 27th August 1988 at 1:49 pm near Calliope I was involved in an accident which took the life of a 21 y/o young lady , she drove her car straight out from the intersection in front of the truck I was driving , Trailer Brakes had just 2 weeks prior all been re-shod , all P/M were fully adjusted , good brakes did'nt save her. Don't tell me whats GROSS IIRRESPONSIBILITY and what's not , I have over the years taught myself to drive to road and vehicle conditions ,One thing you don't do is go like hell through towns,It also teaches you to be very very careful, and of course I would not dare ask you to do same as I know you could'nt , and would'nt, Road trains for instance many many years ago with 5 trailers had no trailer brakes . I also remember a time when I had to bring a 42 tonne truck down Cunningham Gap without trailer brakes , Common sense prevails Bob

Oh Bob, you are precious

I had an inherent problem with the cable brakes on my 27ft Viscount and gave up trying to rectify the problem. I towed it for around 200,000km without brakes without any incident whatsoever. As Doug says, you adjust your driving. I used the gears on the 4by to slow down, even in traffic and never had an issue.

Thank you Willem ,.......needed some help on that one , my van is 7ft shorter than yours

Oh Doug, Never admit your's is smaller than Willem's. It goes to his head....

:o)

Dave

Ray
thanks for your input also, yeh i forgot about the pendulum which would swing forward when braking, I actually had both R/H side wheels of to re-grease the bearings and noticed that , all wiring is there ok , just a matter of connecting it up right because the seller did'nt, Ray i seen on the wiring diagram when I just bought a new 7 pin plug and the blue wire on the van goes to interior lights, Van is a 1987 model so wiring is codes are out of date i reackon , I will keep your post as well , thanks

Doug

correct ... 5 and 2 is ok except as i said the blue on the van is interior lights and I have 2 thick reds from the brake drums and of course one is earth .

Doug

Derek
yeh ...ok thanks a lot, ya better keep out of the way too. and bout time you showed up . I just fitted a new plug on the van and a socket on the car , I got all the lights working ok , Truckies learn all that stuff ok but truckies don't have electic brakes , might have to convert to full air brakes ....lol.
This system on the van was ok before i bought it and must been ok , just that the dealer done some mods and stuffed it and now i have to sort it out ,If only i was closer to the Sunshine Coast eh

Dereck, I agree, but
Trailer mounted controllers SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.
What's the point of brakes which only go on at a preset level, which is usually adjusted very low to avoid harshness whenever the brakes are applied.
They are not much better than no brakes at all, and there is also no provision to apply trailer brakes on their own.
Even over-ride brakes are MUCH better.
And Doug, PLEASE get them fixed properly before venturing any further on the road..

Yeh your right on that one, I think i have already used reverse light pin as an accessory pin/or should I say Brake Servo pin

Reiner
Thanks mate but one thing i won't be doing is going back to the dealer at 1700 Ks, as for colors that don't worry me i can sort out that

Oldplodder
there is such a thing in 7 pin plugs , check out this web site
www.campertrailers.org/tech_tips.htm

Charlie
Thanks mate for your concern. I think the wire that is already there is quite thick , must be 10amp .I was interupted today because i had to go get my replacement phone in car kit , the other one died so been installing that and it works ok so tomorrow will tackle the brakes , I see in one of the answers someone said take it for a test and do a crash stop, yeh good idea , all the CDs and DVDs , dishes, TV, computer go spilling everywhere so I might just give that a miss, It's a blooody Caravan not a box trailer, anyhow you have a good evening

Doug, I measured the current the electromagnets take, its 4 amps each wheel when fully on. So, for a dual axle job, your wire and connectors have to pass 16A comfortably or you loose some braking power.

Also, Ray mentioned above that electric brakes do not work when stationary or in reverse. NOT true, the electromagnet activates the brake shoes in both cases. When stationary, the wheel might have to rotate 1/2 turn before the brakes lock up - and they WILL stay locked as long as there is sufficient current to the electromagnets.
Of course, your hand brake is usually NOT wired in to activate the trailer brakes but that could be done as most handbrakes have a switch that illuminateds a light on the dash.
What might not work in reverse is the controller, if its ONLY pendulum activated. I'm sure there is some way to override that on modern controllers ( I'm using a home built controller). Perhaps some early controllers only had a pendulum, where the not working in reverse myth originated. Having only a pendulum activation is a bad idea as the trailer brakes then could never come on before the car starts to slow down. On wet roads you really want the trailer to slow down first or you could just as well forget about electric brakes and install a simple override brake system.

You ought to, before embarking on a long trip, jack up each trailer wheel in turn and give it a spin after which somebody steps on the brake pedal. You should hear a 'click' and the wheel locking up instantly. Try that also in reverse, just to prove my point above. You hear another 'click' when the pedal is released, there is no 'hum' as somebody had suggested. I would not be happy with a controller that does not pass this test.
BTW, here in WA electric trailer brakes have to be controllable from the driver while underway, which means the control box needs to be on or near the dash somewhere. It is beyond me why somebody would want to install it elsewhere.
Klaus

Our Jaydo brakes "hum" if applied when stopped. It is how I do my hookup check before driving off. They probably hum when applied underway, but I'm not hanging off the van to find out!

Pete

disco1942
Peter
How in the hell can you see the thread reading as [ It does not have a brake controller] when I clearly stated in my original Post that there IS a brake controller on the Van ,Damn it man it is on the A frame , I ask a question if anybody knows about electric brakes on a trailer, all I needed was for someone to tell me White wire for this,red wire for that, blue wire for that, Ive had people say I have to but this and have to buy that brand and I still have not got the bloody brakes to work so I will have to take it to an Auto Electrician and get the job done , maybe a new controller might be better, I checked the internet about the subject and seems all the parts for electric braking systems are reasonably cheap.
sorry Peter I am not blaming you ,I guess you were trying to help but all the suggestions are getting no where so end of story,

Doug