HELP! Electric Trailer Brake Issue

[mrnecsteve]

Originally Posted by choupique108

if you use the battery and make them lock up you should be able to go to the tires and hear the magnets on the brakes humming

If you do a direct battery hookup..I suspect the magnets will not hum.

[mhazelton]

Originally Posted by 2000 7.3 6speed

On my trailer 6 of my 8 breaks stopped working and i pulled the hubs and there was a plastic connector that the wires pass through to get to the magnet and some how the wires just broke off

Looks like I am pulling hubs. Need to do it anyway, should repack bearings.

I will start that in the morning and post back findings.

If anyone else has similar experiences, I would like to hear them. May be helpful in case I can't see anything obvious.


Thanks to all in advanved.

[mhazelton]

Originally Posted by mrnecsteve

If you do a direct battery hookup..I suspect the magnets will not hum.

With a marine battery hooked directly up, I am assuming the brakes should lock, or at least hold the truck back. My question is, does a controller do anything other than regulate voltage to the brakes? In other words, is there a difference from the controller feeding the brakes and a direct battery connection to the brakes?

[mrnecsteve]

I believe there is a differance
I would have to get out the oscilloscope to answer your question with absolute certainty....but if I were the designing engineer, I would used a pulsed DC signal in a brake controller. Brake intensity would be controlled by pulse length...not pulse amplitude. Its much simpler and far less expensive from a component perspective.(many years ago I worked as an electronic tech...it was the standard method for controlling DC servo's and motors using silicon controlled rectifiers) It also allows for matching of controller to brakes without complicated impedance matching.
A straight dc signal could activate the magnets....but I dont believe they will hum. AC based magnets or pulsed magnets hum.

[mhazelton]

Well, I got a chance to remove the hubs today and found all sorts of issues. First off, the wiring looked like my 9 year old son wired it and when I started stripping the wires that go to the magnet, they are black. When I cut into the wires, I see very little to no copper. The wires are like this up to the magnet and the magnet looks like it has chew marks on the front end. From the look of the pads and drums, it seems the brakes and magnet have not been in contact with the drum for some time. It looks like the best option is 4 new brake assemblies complete with pads and magnet for me. The bearings and drum seem to be in decent shape. I am going to a local trailer shop to confirm, but I think I found my problem (Hopefuly, hehehe). Knowing my luck, I will replace these and have the same problem. I will post once I replace. Thanks to all.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by mrnecsteve

I believe there is a differance
I would have to get out the oscilloscope to answer your question with absolute certainty....but if I were the designing engineer, I would used a pulsed DC signal in a brake controller. Brake intensity would be controlled by pulse length...not pulse amplitude. Its much simpler and far less expensive from a component perspective.(many years ago I worked as an electronic tech...it was the standard method for controlling DC servo's and motors using silicon controlled rectifiers) It also allows for matching of controller to brakes without complicated impedance matching.
A straight dc signal could activate the magnets....but I dont believe they will hum. AC based magnets or pulsed magnets hum.

Trailer brakes will activate and him with straight battery current. I test em that way all the time