Changing Brakes Demonstration - Video

All right today we are going to show you a typical break inspection. Basically what we are going to do is take off the brake hub here and we are going to inspect the breaks, the linings, the springs, and the display cylinder inside. First off we will go ahead and take off the dust cap. In this case it is a bearing buddy. Next, is taking out the locking pin. There is either a cotter pin that goes in the center here but once you get that lock washer off you have to go ahead and just take off the nut and pull your whole hub off. First thing you want to check for is grease on the linings, and sure enough we have got grease all over these linings here. Also on this side here and probably smeared around over to the other side as you can tell. more

Watch Video

Posted: 8/25/2009 3:36:20 PM

Replacing A Hydraulic Coupler Demonstration - Video

Today we are going to show you how to replace a hydraulic coupler. In this case this one is damaged and is going to get replaced by a totally different model. First thing we are going to do is actually drain all the fluid from the master cylinder. And what we are actually going to do is open up one of the wheel cylinders and pump our fluid out and into a holding container. All right we will go to the wheel cylinder now and attach a rubber line to the bleeder valve and get our container ready. What we will do is take the cover off our bleeder valve here and we will go ahead and open it up. Okay, here we just take a rubber hose and just slide it on to the bleeder valve itself. All right and then we will just run the other half of the hose into an empty container here and start draining the fluid out of the master cylinder. more

Watch Video

Posted: 8/25/2009 2:00:30 PM

Bleeding Brakes Demonstration - Video

All right today we are going to show you how to bleed hydraulic brakes on a trailer. First off you want to top off your master cylinder, with appropriate fluid. To pump the fluid from the master cylinder out, there is a couple of different ways of doing it. Sometimes it will have the emergency lever the and the safety chain will pull. Okay what you can do is unbolt the plate that holds the lever in place and then use that lever to actuate the master cylinder and force the fluid through. Some of them, you are going to have to go where the ball goes and manually activate it. Pull it in and out. Or like on this model here there might be a little lever underneath here that you could use. more

Watch Video

Posted: 8/25/2009 3:06:34 PM

Repack Trailer Hub Bearings Demonstration - Video

Removing the Trailer Hub: What we are going to do is take off this hub and repack the bearings in this axle. First off, we will take off the hub, then take off the nut on the inside, and we will pop the whole hub off and take it to the workbench and clean it up from there. You can see there is a lot of rust in there, there is a lot of condensation. Basically water got in there through either condensation or a seal leak. We definitely need to take it apart and clean it up. This has whats called a tang washer. Instead of a regular cotter pin that goes up and down, it has a little piece of metal that goes between the notches here and you have to push this back, flat, so you can take off the nut. And the whole thing just slides off. Sometimes if it gets caught on the hub here you can beat it to get it to come loose. You can see where you got a little bit of rust and possibly two different types of grease in there. The two greases dont mix, so it does not work as good, you get condensation and rust starting on the outside here. Also of note this is what is called an EZ lube spindle, there is a little zerk fitting here. You take the grease gun and squirt it in here and it comes out the back, in this groove right here actually, so in between packings, you can grease it, and the grease actually goes through this bearing here, through here, and out this bearing here. So theoretically, you can repack your bearings by just squeezing it in here. But since it is rusted out you have to do it the hard way. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/24/2008 10:51:51 AM

Trailer Leaf Spring Replacement Demonstration - Video

Today were going to show you how to install a typical leaf spring onto a trailer. What we have here is a typical 4 leaf spring on a 3500 pound axle. The first step involved is loosening this bolt here and this bolt here on the bottom and this top one we dont have to worry about for now. The next thing we have to do is loosen these U-bolts here. The nuts are on the bottom, so we loosen these out so we can get our axle away from the spring. What were going to do first is take off this bolt and then well come around and do this one. Were going to let this spring down and our axle is going to hang down a little bit. What we did was keep the axle tight on the other side so it will come down some but it will take off most of the weight so that way we can do one at a time. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 8:55:59 AM

Trailer Wiring and Light Replacement Demonstration - Video

Today were going to be replacing the wiring on this trailer. Well be replacing a 4 pole flat, as you can tell this one is pretty beat up and worn, so it has to be replaced. Were going to cut this wire off and were going to replace this brown wire also. Were going to cut this loose and pull the rest of our wire through, on this trailer here its pretty open so we can reach the wiring. Just in case though, if your wiring was run in conduit and youre replacing it, dont pull all of this out yet. Well actually tie on the new wires and use these wires to pull them through. Were going to cut off all of this old wire here, and were going to take off this old light too. I would like to point something out on this 4 pole flat, youll notice theres actually 5 wires coming out of it. Whats happening is on the inside of this pin, which is for the running lights, has two wires coming out. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 8:59:26 AM

Inspecting and Packing Trailer Bearings with Grease Demonstration - Video

We will go ahead and get the bearing out and wipe it down real fast. Makes it a little bit easier to see, rotate the bearing cage, look for anything that bounces up and down too much. This is almost a continuous line so I think the cage is pretty good on this one. So we will just keep cleaning it up until it spins freely. Im looking for little nicks or stuff like that. Sometimes you can see a little bit of wear, it is like a dark band here, light band here, dark band here. For the most part that is kind of acceptable, it is not perfect, but in this case I think it will be fine. If its really dark you definitely want to change it out because that part of the bearing, this actual roller got overheated, but this one looks pretty darn good. We will pack this side and then flip it over and then pack the other side. Get a good gob, and put a light coating on the race itself. Actually, it doesnt take much, you dont have to pack it full. Because a lot of it doesnt get really used. In a marine application like this, you want to go ahead and get the grease gun out and use it since we have the special spindles. Go ahead and fill the cavity that way, but for most land trailers this is pretty much enough as it is. Grab your new bearing here, and all you have to do is work it inside of here a little bit at a time. Keep going around, flip it over and we want to get inside it here. Just get inside, so when the bearing starts spinning, it gets all worked up in there. Give it a couple of spins maybe before you pop it in there. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 12:19:54 PM

Remove, Inspect, and Reinstall Trailer Bearings, Race, and Seals Demonstration - Video

This seal has to come out. Every time you pack the bearings you have to destroy a seal and put a new one in, its just the way works. There are actually two different ways of doing it, I know that there is a special tool for it, I dont have it, most people dont. What I like to do is take a punch and push this in a little bit, or actually make a hole in it, so it pulls the seal away from the edge where you can stick a screwdriver in there, tap it in a few times and pop it out. It is a little bit less stressful on the bearing. The other way of doing it, if you dont have that, is to take a wooden stake or something like the handle of this and go in though there and beat it out that way. It puts a lot of wear and tear on the bearing, but its another way of doing it. I dont know if you can see there or not how I punched it in and it brought the seal away from the edge. And that is where we will try to work in our screwdriver. There we go. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/24/2008 10:48:49 AM

Remove and Reinstall a Trailer Hub Review - Video

First off, we will take off the hub, then take off the nut on the inside, and we will pop the whole hub off and take it to the workbench and clean it up from there. You can see there is a lot of rust in there, there is a lot of condensation. Basically water got in there through either condensation or a seal leak. We definitely need to take it apart and clean it up. This has whats called a tang washer. Instead of a regular cotter pin that goes up and down, it has a little piece of metal that goes between the notches here and you have to push this back, flat, so you can take off the nut. And the whole thing just slides off. Sometimes if it gets caught on the hub here you can beat it to get it to come loose. We will go ahead and clean this spindle off here, and then we will put our hub back on. Give it a test fit first to make sure it all slides on pretty good and then go ahead and take it back off. What is good is to take a thin layer, it doesnt have to be much just a little bit, to kind of help the parts slide on a little bit more than they used to. more

Watch Video

Posted: 8/7/2008 5:20:07 PM

Packing Trailer Bearing Demonstration - Video

Do not put off checking and repacking your bearings as it will save you a lot of trouble down the road. It may be messy but is well worth it, time well spent. Joe spells it out for you step by step making it all very easy. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 8:52:04 AM

Trailer Hub Inspection Demonstration - Video

We get many many questions on how to make sure trailer hubs and brakes are safe for travel. Here Joe addresses some of those questions demonstrating how to thoroughly inspect the hubs, breaks and bearings. I know many of us take the performance of these assemblies for granted but if you are planning a long trip or just make short trips around town you should be aware of their condition. I like to say it is time well spent when it avoids break downs on the side of the highway. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 8:54:13 AM

Removing and Replacing Trailer Brake Shoes Review - Video

Today we are going to show how to remove the break shoes on a typical electric break axle, this one in particular is a twelve inch drum. We are using that one because it is large and easy to see. This applies to virtually all electric brakes from this size on up and down to the smaller sizes. We will go over how it comes apart and the tools you will need to do it with. more

Watch Video

Posted: 3/13/2009 3:00:39 PM

Trailer Hub Brake Magnet Replacement Demonstration - Video

When one wheel does not seem to be stopping as quick as the others it may be because the brake magnet needs to be replaced. We put together a short video to help you recognize this problem and to show you how easy it is to fix it. Keep your trailer safe for yourself and others on the road by checking and replacing parts like the brake magnet when needed. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/23/2008 8:55:04 AM

Trailer Brakes and Wiring Installation - Video

Today we are going to show you how to install brakes on a trailer that does not have existing brakes. It is actually pretty easy to do it is just very time consuming. There are a few things you want to look out for before you start. One of those things is look being the existing hub you have. Make sure you have a flange like this on the axle. It is this 4 bolt flange on here if you have that on your axle your pretty much home free. You will see it on 3,500 pound axles like we have here. You also see it on 2,000 pound axles. On a 3,500 pound one you would probably use a 10 inch drum and on a lighter 2000 pounds, you would use a 7 inch size. Also you notice we have the hub missing. We have to take that off because the hub and drum assembly it is all in one piece. You have to take off the old hub get rid of it and start off fresh. more

Watch Video

Posted: 7/22/2008 10:53:10 PM