Electric Brakes On Trailer Question

plazaman

A few weeks back i unplugged my trailer from my truck where the wires came off the connectors ( i guess i pulled on the wire instead of the connector)

So the following day, i opened the connector and attached all the wires back and plug in again.

3 miles down the road... all my brakes are smoking! i guess something was wired wrong and all the brakes locked up on me.


Question,


I have no clue about trailer braking & axles, but do I have brake pads on my brakes? I havent even open the wheel to check for damages yet. Whats the worse that can happen?

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Dustball

Yes, drum brake shoes. If you left them engaged while driving, eventually the heat will build up and result in warped drums or possibly a fire. It's just like driving with your parking brakes left engaged.

Vinny

There are typicaly drum type brakes on trailer with electric brakes. If the trailers not that old and you didnt go to far I would think thier probably ok but open them up to make sure.

I suspect you hooked up the lead power for the electric brake magnet to the tail lights and since all the new trucks and cars have thier tail lights and head lights on all the time as soon as you started the truck the brakes came on.

The worst that could have happened in that amount of running it like that is maybe worn shoes but I doubt that.

I dont know what you haul in this thing but I am going to make a suggestion here. In Connecticut we can have hydraulic surge brakes on any trailer up to a 4 ton gvw, more if your hauling a boat but I doubt thats what you haul to work. The reson I mention this is because for years we had all electric brakes on our roller trailers and electric brakes are the most unreliable chassis system out there. With the hydraulic surge brake you can hook up to any vehicle even if it doesnt have a brake controler and you will have brakes as soon as you slow the pulling vehicle.

The system is generally sold complete from a parts place like a "fleet pride" and costs around 6 or 7 hundered dollars and a half a$$ mechanic should be able to install it. You continue to use the plug for lights but thats it.

But if thats not woth your while you'll just have to deal with the eklectric brakes. Do you know how to open a wheel up? If not I can explain, its easy but a little messy. No real crazy tools.

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tgeb

The first thing you need to do is figure out the issue with the plug so you can get going again.

My first thought is that you switched the Blue (which is always the brake) and the Black (which is often the battery or auxiliary).

You can use a test light to check which connector is "hot" on the truck and make sure that you do not have the brake wire to that connector on the plug, or what I would do is just switch the blue and black and see what happens.


Trailer wiring is very simple but can be confusing due to the color coding which is counter to what most people think, for instance; White is usually ground, Black is usually Battery/positive feed. Blue is always brakes.

Most people would think that black = ground and white is=?

If you want to give a little more info on the plug type, as in 6 pole or 7 pole, and the vehicle your towing with, I can get some diagrams to help you out.

It is not too likely that you have done any major damage to the brake system if you didn't go too far while making a smoke screen.

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Tom

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plazaman

I have an 06 ram 2500 diesel The connector on the truck has the diagram on the flap. The problem is that the trailer mfger. didnt color code their wiring.

1 trailer retailer told my hydraulic brakes are illegal in the state of NY, not sure how true it is. I dont think i want to change anything though.

I want to inspect the drum for damages, is there a part that needs to be replaced?

i dont think i ever opened a brake before, could you explain?

I was hauling my soda blasting equipment,.

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tgeb

In fact your trailer dealer may have been correct, the Fed's have only recently approved the use of surge brakes commercially. They have been allowed for recreational use for quite some time, (boat trailers and RV's).

http://www.forconstructionpros.com/p...Legal/5FCP6408

You will have to use a test light to get you wires figured out, and maybe a battery charger with some test leads to energize the circuit you are trying to identify.

As far as getting into the brakes,

http://dexteraxle.com/i/u/1080235/f/...-05_80_res.pdf

This document has some blown up diagrams that can help you understand how these things are assembled. But if you are not familiar with maintenance practices for electric brakes, I don't recommend that you try to tackle this on your own.

If you do have to replace the brake linings I would recommend that you purchase the backing plate kits, these come with the shoes, springs and magnets already mounted to the backing plate. It is less expensive than replacing the parts individually and much less work to assemble.

Again I can't stress enough that you should have someone who knows this type of brake system look at this for you. You can't be too careful.

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