Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi,

New member here.

Didn't know whether to post this in the trailer/chassis section or general construction section, but here goes:

I'm having a teardrop built and it won't be the lightest one around.

I am thinking about the trailer, detached from the tow vehicle, on enough of an incline to either start rolling like a shopping cart in the parking lot, or
just being difficult to easily stop when I am rolling it around by hand.

I am curious as to how many of you with small trailers (doesn't have to be a teardrop) also have handbrakes or parking brakes on your trailer.

Mine will have electric brakes, able to be controlled from the tow vehicle with an electric brake controller wired into the umbilical between vehicle and trailer.
I've only seen mention of hand brakes maybe two or three times on various forums and the thread never went into detail on the setup or activation.

I got the impression that most were like traditional car parking brakes, a mechanical system controlled by a cable going to a set of brake shoes inside the trailer wheel(s).

I started thinking about whether an electric setup might work using the same sort of variable voltage signal that comes from the tow vehicle, only actuated by a switch or potentiometer located in a handy position in the tongue area. Thought is to parallel the brake signal wire from the tow vehicle connection with a spiral cord (like an old telephone cord; remember those?) and have a connector in the tongue box (where the rest of the batteries and power system resides) that I could plug into when manually moving the trailer and be able to "step" on the brakes with a hand control. Might this possibly work? Don't know the current required by the electric brakes, but the wires are not huge.

If anyone has pictures of their hand brake setup, please post them if not too much of an imposition

Much appreciated in advance,

Dave

We don't use electric brakes here in Holland, so i cant help you with that, what i do know is that airbrakes on trailers work opposite from your idea, not connected, is brakes on. This is so that when the connection breaks, or in your case the battery runs flat, the brakes still hold, otherwise you might find your trailer at the bottom af a canyon some day :-)

Yea I've got mechanical disc's and a handbreak
You can get electric brakes with mechanical hand brakes to my knowledge but I'm sure you could do it electric too

Most people just place chocks of some kind behind the wheels. Much easier and cheaper than an elaborate brake system. Trailers that have electric brakes can have the brakes set with the "break-away" switch, but I don't know how long the battery would last.

<Chas>

I do not know about the battery life either, but your comment makes me think it is a quick brake action should the trailer start to get away from you as you are moving it.

You could run a small 12v gel cell battery when parked.
I think most electric breaks are not powered up in brake mode though art they?
As in the electromagnets hold the shoes in not out

I believe Camp Inn offers that as an option on their trailers.

By law, one must have chains attached that are supposed to keep the trailer attached to the tow vehicle, should the hitch come undone. These are supposed to give you enough time to slow and stop at the side of the road to fix the problem. When I'm moving my trailer manually, I keep a wheel chock at the ready, on the tongue. That way, I can grab it and put it under the front wheelie jack, where I am maneuvering it. I also keep one ready to set on one of the trailer wheels. Knock on wood, that's worked for me so far. Also, adjusting the height of one end of the trailer via the wheelie jack can give one extra advantage when moving a trailer manually. Example, if you are backing/pushing your trailer up a slope, you raise the front of the trailer up a little higher than the back to shift some of the weight off the front and onto the back. Thanks to Danny for that tip.

Another thing that you can do is put a log or thick board across the down slope, sort of close to your trailer to hopefully slow or stop a possible runaway trailer. (Thank goodness I've never seen a runaway and hope I never see/hear of one!)

If you have electric brakes and need a parking brake, you can use brake away switch for about 15 to 20 min before battery fades and goes below voltage where it will hold trailer.....

IF you want a "a controller" (hand held) for maneuvering you can wire a push button across breakaway switch to operate brakes while maneuvering.... Either press button to apply brakes, or dead man style keep buttoned pressed to release brakes (again there is time element) ....

But there is nothing with electric brakes for long term parking unless you want to hook them up to large power source which is not really practical....

I have seen in past 1 or 2 trailers with mechanical parking brakes, but they have been somewhat of a rarity And that is all whey were was a parkging brake, no road warrior braking features......

NOTHING beats a 4x4 inch block of wood (wheel chock) for long term parking....

Then there is...

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Brakes/ ... 3-112.html

http://www.etrailer.com/question-57321.html

Dale

Have you ever noticed that if you send your post in at about the same time as someone else does, that your posts gets trumped and just disappears. At least it has happened to me several times.

Anyway, I will try again.
I do not think I would ever disconnect my chains if I think there is a chance my CT could coast back. It is just too heavy to hold back on my own on a even on a slightly sloped spot. I too like Cindy, typically put a chock behind/ahead of the wheels if the spot has a slight incline. It is just the safe thing to do. But knowing that you could energize the break away system with electric brakes is another tool that one can use if things get out of hand . Things (nice word) happens sometimes.

I didn't do a great job of laying out my question in my original post creating this thread.
Even though it was wordy, it wasn't clear to everyone. I guess I mis-used the term parking brake.
I don't plan on leaving the brakes engaged for any length of time. Just a momentary "step on the brake pedal"
to stop the teardrop from rolling more than I want it to while I'm moving it manually.

I guess I had multiple questions within the text:

1) I asked about hand brakes and assumed most were mechanical in nature. Interested in pictures & descriptions.

2) I also brought up the possibility of using the teardrop's existing signal path from the tow vehicle's electronic brake controller to parallel
a simple circuit up to a female socket connector in the tongue box and when I wanted to move the teardrop manually,
I'd open the tongue box, plug in a spiral cord (of adequate awg for the circuit) reaching to my hand with a hand-held switch to activate the brakes.
I don't see a significant power draw from the batteries while doing this.

Note: there is no "break away" switch on the trailer, just chains as a backup when towing. Hence my thought about
using the same signal circuit as the tow vehicle's brake controller.

Hope this clarifies what I was asking about.
Thanks for all the feedback.

If I am reading you right, that you want to use the battery power from your trailer to engage your trailer brakes when you press or flip a switch in your tongue box after connecting your trailer male plug to a female receptacle on your tongue, (whew...) then I do not think I see a problem with that. I am surprised that if you have electric brakes, that you do not have a break away switch. I guess all areas have different road rules.

I think the rules for "brakeaway switch" differ from state to state... In Calif its if trailer is #1500 or more its required....

As to original question, I think I addresses it with hand held switch in my original response, just assumed you had brake away switch, but if not any 12 volt source will work if you just develop a way to connect power to brakes with some sort of hand held switch ( and/or toggle switch) .... Electric brakes draw about 3-4 amps per wheel so consider that in what ever you do...

As "Holmes" would say, "It's elemental my dear Watson".....

Dale

Heck use 2 push to engage spring loaded switches and send current separately to left and right brakes and you could "steer" the trailer.

To keep the tongue jack wheel in place lower it into one of those real nice stainless dog bowls with the anti-scoot rubber rim on the bottom that will keep it from wandering around also.

That leaves me with the vision of a "pusher" chasing his trailer down the hill, yelling, "left, no right, no left....".