This story begins after i offered to haul my friend's Aerostar van for him. He lives at the top of an exceptionally steep gravel hill.
We drove the van on your trailer, strapped it down tight, set the weight distributing hitch yet i headed down from the side hill. It was all going well until I hit the brakes.
Basically there was none. Only the fronts on the Suburban were locking. I pushed the important red button on our handmade trailer brake controller giving them the full 13.7 volts but nothing. Well dirt cheap. I had been still taking place way a lot faster then I wanted to!
The trailer brakes need to have locked up solid whenever the red button is pushed making everything at the very least slide straight - as an alternative the trailer working to pass the Suburban. Talk about the cart until the horse!
How load was pushing around that Suburban, I have been really glad I had not made their attempts to tow with little Jeep Cherokee.
Once that job has been done I backed the trailer into the shop to move my first investigate those trailer brakes. We have owned this trailer for nearly twenty-five years and I've never seen contained in the brake drums there. I suppose it was about time.
My inspection of the first drum showed me a little about how precisely electric trailer brakes work. There exists an electromagnet that pulls the actual around the drum. The friction of your magnet on the drum moves one shoe that in turn moves the other shoe which has a cam action.
Pretty simple. But I hasn't see anything wrong. The shoes looked fine, the drum was fine apart from some scoring where the magnet rubbed. I loaded power towards the magnet and it also seem to pull OK. But, the friction of many magnet against the drum was obviously insufficient to function the shoes.
Which i could not figure out the way a magnet could go bad, but that is what it seemed. Time for some Internet research.
I ultimately found a service on the other hand magnet failure was common on electric trailer brakes. And so i went buying trailer brake magnets. Most places wanted a lot more for the magnet than I can buy the whole backing assembly for. To obtain one on a local parts store I usually be required to pay greater than I really could buy two backing assemblies for. And new magnets are included in the backing plate assemblies.
Just when I was ready to give up ask for new assemblies, I began to use Auto Safety House. They could dip into the stash work on their web site, however have affordable prices.
I found a pair of new drums on e bay yet i was the only person who bid and so i got both for the price of the. Later the look ahead to Danny - my UPS driver - of bringing them to me. Naturally the drums and magnets arrived on different days so he need to visit having dog Smash twice.
Upon closer inspection of the trailer brakes, I discovered which i still have not learn how they worked. Something just hasn't look right relating to the way the cams worked. It sure seemed like they will not be stronger in reverse. And such trailer has always been challenging to make a copy when the brakes are performing right.
An immediate look at the Dexter Brakes blog confirmed my suspicions. The rear axle on our trailer was installed backwards.
I decided the bearings did not really care if and when they were spinning backwards, so I elected to easily swap the brake assemblies left to right.
Having them off made installing the magnets and routing the not really little green wires somewhat easier. I found that some lubricant made getting them throughout the grommets a whole lot easier.
Dexter Magnets are identified from the wire color. The appropirate one for my 3500lb axles would be the green wire. Nice they haven t changed that in 25 years.
The magnets are held in by spring clips that are really difficult for getting off. I used a screwdriver and a pry bar and bent them slightly for getting them off. The brand new magnets came with new clips anyway.
I loaded the new bearings with axle grease and installed the brand new brake drums. They are not Dexter brand however the fit alright.
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The wiring is was pretty electric trailer brakes simple to reconnect since there is no polarity at the magnets. Just connect one wire into the brake controller power lead one to ground. Dexter recommends powered by separate ground wire however i just grounded it into the trailer frame like it had been electric trailer brakes done before.
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