Electric trailer brakes and adjusting

[Diamondpilot]

Thinks Bird.

I could not think of the word for the life of me. I usually find a way to mess things up when I open my mouth.

Chris

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I took some pictures underneath the trailer and will try to post them tomorrow. The axle tubes didn't appear to have grommets to route the wires through them. I found where one of the leaf springs had pinched one of the brake wires. So basically it left one tire to do any braking. What I think that I will do is route the wire harness through a Pvc tube that is mounted up to the bottom side of the deck. Inspection of all of the shoes showed basically no wear on them. This trailer wasn't put together with a lot of thought about the wiring it seems. While I am at it I am considering rotating the axles around to raise the trailer. Right now it is about 8" above the road. I could drive right on to the trailer. Rotating the axles will give me another 4" of clearance. That might make a difference when going up a steep driveway or road with the trailer. The pictures will make more sense when I post them.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Not that it does much for you all but here are some of the pictures from underneath the trailer. Today I will continue connecting th brakes. And as mentioned will probably enclose the wires in a tube and use romex clamps to secure it under the deck to cross over from the left side to the right side. The question also is if I loosen the U-bolts on the axles can I rotate the axle around to swing the hubs down? Would I run the risk of those trying to "toggle" back around sort of like a torsion bar or pendulum? That would give me more clear on the trailer deck above the road.

 

[drtydeed]

Tree,

I don't think I would try rotating the axle for the reason you describe. However, you may want to try mounting the axle UNDER the spring. That would give you 4-5" more lift. Or you could try larger wheels/tires and/or axle lift blocks.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Great idea to move the axles to the other side of the leaves. It would be my luck to have the axles swing around into each other and lock up the tires against each other. That could bring me to a screeching halt in a hurry

 

[Diamondpilot]

I don't think that will work either. Most axles, and I say most, have the spring perches welded on. No that being said you could cut off the perches and re-weld but this takes some time and patients to get things lined up properly.

Chris

 

[Treemonkey1000]

If you look at the pictures it doesn't look like they are welded at all. Just loosen the U-bolts or even the pin bolts for the leaves and swap them to the other side of the axle. A liberal dousing of penetrant oil prior would make that a little easier.

 

[Bird]

I would not try to rotate the axle around to raise the height of the trailer. However, as you can see in the pictures, the springs are currently under the axle, and I think it's relatively common to take them loose and put the springs on top of the axle. That will give you a significant addition to the height.

 

[GaryBDavis]

This is a classic 4" drop tandem axle setup. If you want more clearance, I'd pull the drop axles and swap them for straight axles. You can reuse the brake hubs, so it won't be that expensive.

Moving a drop axle under the spring to gain back clearance would be like taking two steps forward and two steps back. You end up at the same place you would with a straight axle setup placed in the correct position - that is with the axle is on top of the springs.

Placing an axle underneath the springs is common alright - a common mistake that is. Folks do it to gain clearance, but that doesn't make it right. It's a weaker configuration and I've never seen an axle manufacture recommend it.

Also, if you remove the nuts for the u-bolts that hold together the springs and axle, you should replace at least the nuts and maybe the u-bolts. The nuts have indentions pressed on the outside that slightly alters the alignment of the threads. This keeps the nuts from loosening up and coming off altogether. Once you take them off, they will no longer hold as good. They are considered to be one time use components. You will need a good impact to do this.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Finally got all of the brakes wired up and working. Now I will dial them in with the brake controller. That will have to wait for few days. We loaded up the tractor to see how it sits on the trailer. The bottom of the trailer is about 6" off the ground which concerns me if I start to go up a hill and drag it. Hence the efforts to move the axles. The U brackets are welded to the tube. Then as pointed out if I move the Axles to the bottom of the leaves that could cause a problem especially if there was a failure. The axle wouldn't be supported and come out from underneath the trailer. We got to looking at the tires. Well Duh! they are 205/60D15's I could see about taller tires that are actually trailer tires. These look like lower profile car tires..This would also help hitching and unhitching the tow vehicle because the tongue jack doesn't go up inside high enough to spin it out of the way sometimes. I may be slow but I am learning.