Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer
installation instructions and specs for complete information.
The Break-Away system is designed to bring trailers safely to a stop by activating electric brakes should a trailer be disconnected while driving. This type of safety system is required in most states on trailers rated over 3,000 GVW.
Kit Includes:
20001 Brake Master Break-Away Kit with Charger by Hopkins Manufacturing
Video of Hopkins Trailer Break-Away Kit with Charger
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer
installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today on This Old Trailer, we are going to install part number HM20001 from Hopkins. This is their break-away kit with charger. The first thing we need to do is go ahead and find a place to install the actual battery box itself. When we mount the battery box, we want to keep it close to the front of the trailer as best as possible but also in a good spot where we can have easy access to it in case we need to do some maintenance. We will probably just clamp it in place and mount it right here. Double check the length of our wires. We should be good. Our blue wire will go to the break-away switch. So we will just go ahead and run it up towards the front. And these two wires here, the black and the white, will be run to the wire harness on the trailer. Alright, we are going to use the fasteners that come with the kit. We are just going to drill it straight in to the frame. Now this head on here is actually a 10 millimeter, so you want to have something you can attach it to and then run it to your drill. 0:56
Once we have the hardware installed, it would be a good idea to run over them again and just snug them down. Next we will go ahead and install our break-away switch. We will put it right in the center. That way the trailer has plenty of room to move around without pulling the safety cable. Alright, at this point we can go ahead and start connecting our wires. What we are going to do is take the blue wire from the battery box and we will run it out to the pin box and run that to the blue wire on the break-away switch. You can use any kind of connector you want, but we are going to be using butt connectors. Alright, let us go ahead and strip our wires back. We will take our black wire that is coming out of the break-away switch, this is going to be connected back to a trailer harness to the wire that handles electric brakes. Use a separate piece of short wire to go ahead and extend our black wire off the switch. 1:56
Continue to run our wire towards the back. We will go ahead and open up the sheath on our wire harness here. And we will go ahead and connect this back to the blue wire. Alright, now we did some prior testing on our trailer and we know that the brake wire is going to be blue. Let us go ahead and separate that out. So what we are going to do is cut our wire in half. We are actually going to use a butt connector to make our connections. Run these two in to one side and then it will go back in to our blue wire. OK, next we will deal with the two other wires that are coming out of the battery box. We have a white wire and another black wire. Now this smaller gage black wire is going to connect up to the 12 volt power supply that is provided in the wire harness. So this truck has a 12 volt power supply that is ran to black already because we checked that as well. And we will just do the same thing once again. We will just cut it and splice in to it. 3:05
Alright, we will add a ring terminal to our white wire and we will run that straight to the frame for ground. Run it straight to ground. And we will use another self-tapping screw to do that. We will be using a number 14. Alright, everything is installed now. The last thing we need to do is go ahead and tape everything up to make the wires nice and neat. OK, with that our install is finished. And there you have it for part number HM20001 from Hopkins.
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Replacement parts available for this product
Average Customer Rating: 
4.3 out of 5 stars (4 Customer Reviews)
by: SF09/13/2009
Is this review helpful?
Easy to Install Instructions are easy to read. Hardware that comes with unit is sufficient to install in most cases...2396
by: Kevin L01/12/2012
Is this review helpful?
Excellant product and you can't beat the price offered here.29580
by: T.Poindexter12/12/2011
Is this review helpful?
$5 cheaper than the local trailer place. Looks to be ok time will tail.27981
by: JB08/28/2011
Is this review helpful?
good price, matched origonial, good delivery time22961
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