Upgrade override brakes to electric on camper

Hi Ian,

I have a Challenge camper trailer that originally had override brakes. However, I was fortunate that I knew someone with a "spare" electric brake axle set from a caravan, which I swapped for some stuff I no longer needed. All I had to do was adjust the track (cut, shut and reinforce the axle) and buy matching u-bolts. The job itself wasn't too difficult.

A couple of advantages of electric brakes I have found are that you don't have to worry about flipping the latch in place when reversing, which can be a pain if you need to reverse back down a sand hill after getting stuck. The other advantage is steep forward descents where you are able to feather the trailer brakes while crawling down in first low using engine braking. This helps to keep the trailer in line - used this a couple of times on the OTT earlier this year on our way to the tip and certainly made a difference.

Sorry I can't give you an idea on costs, but I'm sure someone here can.

Cheers
Gerry

Check out this link:

Electric Brake Sets - Trailer Warehouse


Cost depends on the stud pattern
At the trailer warehouse the price for a 10" set of hubs range from $550 upwards.
Fitting costs extra of course.

Ian,

I don't know what you will be towing the camper with and that will have some bearing on the answer to the second part of your question.

I have been towing a Trak Shak for 13 years and it still has the override brakes, drums.

In all honesty they hardly work these days. There are a number of reasons and I have spoken to many trailer manufacturers and repairers about the problem but it has not caused any problems. The Patrol is heavy enough and has good enough brakes to pull it all up pretty well. The Trak Shak only weighs in at about 660kg empty it is not hard to stop.

Even when the brakes were working well they presented few problems. I certainly never had an issue backing down sand hills or any other hill for that matter. The only time when the override brakes needed the latch in was backing into the parking spot at home. To get into the spot I had to back up a kerb where there was no driveway ramp and the brakes would lock on at the step.

I have had my TS in the Vic HC a number of times. It is a delight to tow off road, it follows like a faithful pup and I have literally never backed away from a hill, up or down, because the TS was hooked on the back.

Hope this helps
Duncs

we have a trailer repair bloke locally south of perth and from previous discussion i believe you will pay approx $1000 per axle for this conversion. Not including the controller in the vehicle

Had our complete campsite converted by pro axle at narellan for about $800 back in 2008. Worth every cent as we were never completely happy with the original over-ride system .

Hi, we got a quote today, for about $1300. But the man made it clear we could do it ourselves cheaply and easily.

Have found many DIY kits today, just sorting out which ones would be good and which one not, or if there's any difference!

Hi Ian

I am in Cent Qld and have just got a quote of $250 per wheel to do my Trackabout.

Cheers

Howard.

Thanks guys for the info

Looks like we could head down the path of override brakes and then upgrade to electric at a later date, but need to take this into accout wrt how much we originally pay.