Electric brakes

[greg755]

How hard is it to put electric brakes on a trailer?

Do you have to switch out the whole axle or do the sell a kit to just switch out the drums and hubs?
Thanks
G

[Mini Renegade]

wish I could help but all we have over here are over-run (surge brakes) sorry.

[emiller]

what type of axle do you have. Most 3500# axles have a flange for brakes, some 2000# axles have them also. I don't think the small Harbor Freight has them.
http://www.accessconnect.com/brake_control_install.htm
http://www.championtrailers.com/brkart. ... ric_brakes
http://electric-trailer-brakes.com/

[greg755]

I have no clue what type axle I have...

My car already has an electric brake control in it, hooked into the 7 round connection) I just need info on how to put a brake system onto the existing axle or do I need to install a whole new axle.

Thanks for the links, that will get me going in the right direction...

[brian_bp]

Regardless of the type (beam axle on leaf springs, or ndependent arms in rubber) and the brand, just about any trailer axle could be equipped with brakes, but those flanges are the problem. The brake backing plate, which carries all of the hardware, bolts to a flange which is welded to (or formed as part of) the beam axle or suspension arm. Usually, an axle ordered without brakes will not have the flanges, so there is no way to attach the brake hardware and a new beam or axle assembly is required. Occasionally, a manufacturer will order the axle without brakes but with the flanges... but that's rare.

The flange is usually easy to spot... sitting out in the open behind the hub, it's a plate with four holes surrounding the spindle waiting to have something attached.

Even if the axle has flanges, it seems that it usually costs little more to buy a whole new axle than to buy all of the brake hardware, in part because the drums are usually part of the hubs, so you're replacing the hubs as well. That's even before allowing for some cost recovery by selling the original no-brakes axle... I doubt anyone is going to buy just the hubs leftover from a conversion. In the case of the rubber torsion axles, you also get new springs (rubber) by replacing the whole axle.

[greg755]

Thanks