This story begins when I offered to haul my friend's Aerostar van for my son. He lives skillful in an incredibly steep gravel hill.
We drove the van at the trailer, strapped it down tight, set the mass distributing hitch and that i headed through hill. Previously it was all going well until I hit the brakes.
Basically there was none. Only the fronts in the Suburban were locking. I pushed the best red button given on my home made trailer brake controller opening up enough 13.7 volts but nothing. Well less than you think. I was still going down way outtrace I attempted to!
The trailer brakes needs to have locked up solid in the event the red button is pushed making everything a minimum of slide straight - compared to the trailer aiming to pass the Suburban. Discussion about the cart prior to the horse!
The method the load was pushing around that Suburban, I d been really glad I'd not made an attempt to tow with little Jeep Cherokee.
Once that job was finished I backed the trailer directly into shop to chose my first look into those trailer brakes. I even have owned this trailer for nearly twenty five a number of I have never seen inside the brake drums on it. I guess previously it was about time.
My inspection of the earliest drum showed me somewhat about how precisely electric trailer brakes work. There exists an electromagnet that pulls the actual inside of the drum. The friction of the magnet against the drum moves one shoe that in turn moves the other shoe which has a cam action.
Pretty simple. I have not see anything wrong. The shoes looked fine, the drum was fine aside from some scoring where the magnet rubbed. I put power into the magnet also it seemed to pull OK. But, the friction of your magnet contrary to the drum was obviously insufficient amounts of to work the shoes.
I could'nt work out how a magnet could go bad, but thats what it seemed. How about some Internet research.
I eventually found an internet site that said magnet failure was common on electric trailer brakes. I really went buying for trailer brake magnets. Most places wanted more often for the magnet than I possibly could buy the whole backing assembly for. To get one at a local parts store I'd need to pay in excess of I could buy two backing assemblies for. And new magnets are part of the backing plate assemblies.
Just once i was about to surrender and order new assemblies, I stumbled upon Auto Safety House. They may also use some try their web site, but they have great prices.
I have found the new drums on e bay and I was the only real one that bid i really got both for the price value of 1. Then an await Danny - my UPS driver - to convey each of them me. Naturally the drums and magnets arrived on different days so he ought to visit with my dog Smash twice.
Upon closer inspection of the trailer brakes, I found that we still did not understand how they worked. Something just didn't look right in regards to the way the cams worked. It sure appeared like they might be stronger in reverse. So that trailer has always been tough to copy whenever the brakes are functioning right.
A fast consider the Dexter Brakes website confirmed my suspicions. The rear axle for my trailer was installed backwards.
I chose the bearings have not really care in the event that they were spinning backwards, therefore i elected to simply swap the brake assemblies left to right.
Having them off made installing the magnets and routing the not so little green wires somewhat easier. I have found that a few lubricant made getting them in the grommets lots easier.
Dexter Magnets are identified by way of the wire color. An appropriate one for my 3500lb axles will probably be the green wire. Nice they have not changed that in 25 years.
The magnets are held in by spring clips which can be pretty hard to have off. I used a little screwdriver plus a pry bar and bent them slightly to have them off. The latest magnets had new clips anyway.
I loaded fresh bearings with axle grease and installed the latest brake drums. They aren't Dexter brand but the fit okay.
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The wiring is was pretty electric trailer brakes an easy task to reconnect as there is no polarity in the magnets. Just connect one wire towards the brake controller power lead and 1 to ground. Dexter recommends operating a separate ground wire i just grounded this maker to the trailer frame find it irresistible were electric trailer brakes done before.
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