Electric Brake equipped Axle & E brake

[TheJosh]

I have a Dexstar axle with electric brakes on my 416. Now when power is applied the brakes close and lock the hub so logic would conclude for me that if I want to have a E brake set up I can just wire I switch in parralel of the circuit and when I'm camped for the night I can flip the switch to apply the brakes?


Please help me understand why or why not this will work?

I called a local trailer place and the guy told me you can't do that because the "magnets" will burn the wires. Which does not make sense at all because on all other trailer applications that are tandem axles with trailer brakes they are equipped with a breakaway box which if the trailer breaks away from the tow vehicle it will pull a pin and activate the trailer brakes powered by a onboard motorcycle battery (I have the same setup on a 18ft trailer) and another feature is when you are parked ams disconnected you pull the pin and the brake locks so I don't see how this would not work for my m416

 

[TheJosh]

I have the largest deep cycle diehard platinum battery one board with 1140cca. I'm sure of it handle the load

 

[TheJosh]

My little motorcycle battery can handle the load for a week before dying on my 18ft trailer

 

[TheJosh]

No one has any input?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[VDBAZFJ]

I suspect...that while your battery could easily handle the load, the magnets and such in the electric brakes could not. They are not designed for a long continuous cycle. the break away is just that...get the trailer stopped in an emergency.

I plan to get the brakes that have the park feature. It may be that you can add this feature to yours but without seeing them side by side, I don't know what is different.

Wish you the best!

 

[VDBAZFJ]

Read first page of this:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/27666-Electric-brake-E-brake-options?highlight=K23-087

 

[VDBAZFJ]

Some more good info here:
http://dexteraxle.com/i/u/6149609/f/600-8K_Cat_1-12/10_Inch_Brakes_1-12.pdf

 

[Flashole]

Read first page of this:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/27666-Electric-brake-E-brake-options?highlight=K23-087

Don't stop after the first page. That whole thread is fascinating

I have no idea about the electric brakes. Why not just haul along a couple of those plastic wheel chalks? That's what I plan to do.

 

[TheJosh]

I suspect...that while your battery could easily handle the load, the magnets and such in the electric brakes could not. They are not designed for a long continuous cycle. the break away is just that...get the trailer stopped in an emergency.

I plan to get the brakes that have the park feature. It may be that you can add this feature to yours but without seeing them side by side, I don't know what is different.

Wish you the best!

On my 18ft trailer with a break away system I pull the plug and use the system as a parking brake all the time and it seems to be fine

 

[VDBAZFJ]

Did you ever try to move the trailer with them on to see if they were in fact holding? An 18' trailer is pretty heavy already so unless it was on a incline, it might not have even rolled without the brakes. All I can say is try it. Worse that can happen is the wires burn. Add a fuse just for safety sake maybe. Let us know how it works out?

 

[Pikeman]

The Josh, I would swap out your backing plate for one with the parking brake feature and add a handbrake lever. This will have an initial cost(Guessing $100-$150) involved but in the long run be your best bet. You would also be able to switch to one with matching lug pattern at the same time. That is the way I went when I ordered the axle for my trailer.

 

[John E Davies]

Each magnet draws nearly 3 amps at full voltage. That will drain any battery pretty rapidly. When the battery goes flat, the brakes release and then something bad may happen.

Semis use air operated brakes. Heavy springs hold the brake shoes engaged with the drums, and the cylinders, when pressurized, retract the shoes. If an air hose fails or the trailer comes disconnected, the brakes apply fully by themselves. It's a very different system from recreational trailer brakes.

Chocks or a mechanical (cable operated) parking brake backing plate assembly is the correct answer!

 

[TheJosh]

I asked the question to Etrailer and they were nice enough to answer it

http://www.etrailer.com/question-57321.html?fb=yes

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Also, understand that if you power the brakes on the trailer while you're plugged into your brake controller, there is a good chance the controller will no longer work. My Prodigy and a previous model that based power on time had a specific statements saying that back-feeding current will destroy the controller and void all warranties. I've done it for short time-frames, but I don't think it's the right way for long periods of time. Even the large battery you have will start to reduce braking ability pretty quickly as voltage drops. It's not an on-off type of thing. Also, since the magnate doesn't actually actuate the brake pads, you have the possibility to get a fair amount of movement (3-4" with larger tires) on the trailer even with full power going to the brakes.

Don

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[VanIsle_Greg]

Pretty cool that ETrailer responded, good answer too. I have the parking brake on my M101 CDN2 and have not yet put in electric brakes because I love that feature. I did read a post somewhere (maybe here maybe on IH8MUD) about someone who successfully used the stock hand brake on a M101 CDN2 or possibly an M416 with replacement backing plates and electric brakes. I'll be darned if I can find that again?

I would say, lets do some more research...find that guys post and all do the same mod! Great feature and I love the parking brake!!