trailer brakes........ discs?

G'day Roach

Only prob as I see it is that you need very substantial pressure to make disc brakes work ... i.e. hydraulic ... so that means over-ride type application. Never been much of a fan of this as it means you have the trailer pushing up your blirter before anything braking happens.

Make sense ??? M/Cup an all ............. ;-))

Cheers cob

Gaday Roachie, have fitted a single pair of discs to a tandem trailer with hydraulics. As they are over ride they don't lock up but do their fair share of the brakeing. They seem to work better than drum over ride brakes I have used. I'm unaware of any electric opperated disc brakes. No maintenance on them yet as it would take years to wear a set of pads out.
Cheers Craig.............

Have had disc brakes on the trailer on our trailer sailor.
Last time we went over the weigh bridge, the boat and trailer were a few kilos under 2000kg.
Tandem axle with the discs fitted to the front axle.

Originally they were vacumn operated. Vacumn supplied from the manifold (petrol engined car), with adjustable brake controller on the dash. Worked well. Only hassle was that they were prone to rust, getting wet with salt water every time we pulled the boat out. Tried not to dunk them, but they got wet from waves. From memory, they used escort pads.

We swapped the system over to override so we could tow it with the pajero and other cars in the family. Still worked well. As good as the electric brakes on the van once adjusted. Just like overrider brakes on anything really.
The overrider operated on a hydraulic cylinder mounted just behind it on the draw bar. Local caravan place did the conversion for us.

I don't think you get as much variation in braking effort like electric brakes, which I have found sometimes to work a lot better when warm.
Also, like all disc brakes, they don't fade as easily as drum brakes if used a lot, or are affected with water/rain as drum brakes.

Like all disc brakes, you would need some where solid to mount the calipers. And it would mean a full hub conversion. Not sure if the trailer hand brake would work as well, since our handbrake just activated the hydraulics at the overrider.

I have discs on my Kimberley Kamper (standard) - We have done 1000,s kms around Australia and never had a problem - I am sure that has something to do with the towing vehicle also - The only advice I have it to disable the override (with the latch) when at low speed or eg in the Simpson going up and down dunes - so the trailer is not constantly pushing and pulling on the vehicle

hi Roachi
1) disc (on cables) over-rides or vacuum assist are normally pretty crap,(not all) but most. as they do not have the surface area & pressure to apply the breaks to a lock up in most cases. Normally used on boat trailers (not many moving parts to rust) i have found over the years most only wear out one side of the pads as well and are very hard to adjust & get them working correctly & any change of weight will affect them.
2) Disc (Hydraulic) normally work very well on over ride or vacuum assist & are great with the Electric over hydraulic system even has brake away, i have found i get a lot less problems due to the fact the disc do not hold crap in them (water,sand,rocks,dust) like drums & can & would highly recommend them but they are dearer to set up.
If your mate is setting up a std trailer with Holden/ford hubs give us an email & i can give you some tips that will save a lot of $$ & its not using Holden or ford parts & remember in some states you must still have a mechanical hand brake & if he likes them rusty i can give you heaps cable/hydraulic for free

Roachy

We put hydraulic disk brakes on a boat trailer a few months ago, easy as p#ss. Just worked out where to mount the bracket on the axel (we used 10mm plate) and welded it on, then drilled the holes and taped out the holes for the bolts and on went the callipers. Got all the disks and brake lines from a wreckers for under 100 bucks and ran them under the trailer.

Is as easy as that and they work well

Chose the disks (hq holden) thought they would be easier to maintain and cheaper and easier to fit

Cheers Luke

Roachie,

Here's some info off the Kimberley Karavan website about electro-hydraulic brakes.
You need a brake controller in the vehicle as well to operate them.

Can't comment on them cause the Karavan doesn't get here till next week.
But will give some feedback after some use.

Garth

Over-Ride Hydraulic Disc Brakes
Hydraulic ‘over-ride’ brakes are a totally (trailer) self-contained braking system, requiring no electrical, external hydraulic or other connection of brake sensing components to the tow vehicle for automatic operation of the trailer brakes. In a hydraulic ‘over-ride’ brake system, the inertial differential pressure developed between the tow vehicle and the trailer, during the braking process, creates a mechanical pressure which is applied to the push rod of the master cylinder in the hydraulic ‘over-ride’ brake coupler. This mechanical pressure is proportional to the difference in pressure between the two vehicles and therefore, the hydraulic output & resulting brake operation, is automatic, regulated, and proportional to the amount of braking being applied to the tow vehicle.

Why Disc Brakes and not Drum Brakes?

Simple, effective and a proven performer on thousands of trailers, this brake system has been the braking package of choice for most trailer owners for decades. The vast majority of trailer hydraulic ‘over-ride’ brake systems are package with drum brakes; however at Kimberley Kampers we use disc brakes.

Because brakes work by friction there is wear of shoes and drums. Most wear is directed at the shoes. These are lined with a high friction material to reduce their size. The drums and shoes must be heat resistant and dissipate the heat generated effectively. Generally brake effectiveness deteriorates as the brake mechanism heats up.

Disc Brakes use pads which clamp on either side of a ventilated disk (rotor). Disk brakes are usually better at dissipating heat, are self cleaning and lighter. Disk brakes are much lower in maintenance in dusty conditions and when traversing water crossings.

Electronic Disc Brakes
(Notice we don’t be calling them “electric brakes” as they do NOT use an electric magnet for activation – we call them “electronic” because of the controller)

This is the best of all brake systems with the convenience of Electronic brake control but with the high durability, high performance and low maintenance of hydraulic Disc brakes.

They are limited to 1200psi and provide evenly controlled braking performance.

A HydraStar™ actuator is fitted into the trailer drawbar. It is complete with hydraulic actuator but instead of a mechanical ‘over-ride’ coupling, it is connected to the vehicles electric brake actuator. Combined with the Disc brakes, it has faster response for reduced stopping distance.

The unit is a sealed unit - weather tight. This system eliminates the feel of being pushed by the trailer when traveling downhill, and eliminates the problems with backing a trailer uphill and brake drag.

For the parking brake, an auxiliary switch is fitted wired to the trailers on-board battery system. This activates the disc brakes which are held ‘on’ by a locking valve located beside the auxiliary switch. There is no need to exert force or take the strain compared to traditional mechanical parking brakes.

I had 4 wheel drum on my dual axle ski boat trailer. We bought the boat and trailer second hand so had to check brakes out before any towing done(safety). Boy did I get a shock when I removed the drums with a hammer mind you. All wheel cyclinders totally stuffed everything seized up in other words a full rebuild of brakes. bleep it all off put disc on front only with cable override and adjuted cable up nicely so that just the slightest pressure on my foot brake in the vehicle activated the trailer brakes. If I hit car brakes hard the trailer will lock up but this I have only had to do once and thank god they worked. Have had this set up for 5 years now and have some bearing buddies on there as well. Not a single problem best thing I did. I just give a good soaking of wd40 around moving parts only if been in salt water, Donot put on my pads as it will stuff them. Regards Steve M

Have a set of electronic disks on the Karavan mate. The disks are thick ones that are clamped by electronic over hydraulic contriolled from the cabin via the el-cheapo Tekonsha Voyager controller. Have been impressed so far at the controllability of them. Not sure you could lock them up as it is fitted with 285/75x16 Coopers so a pretty firm grip of the road.