RV Brakes

Trailer Brakes and Wiring Installation

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 couple of things you want to look out for before you start. You want to step behind your trailer, and look behind 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 you are pretty much home free. This size flange has four bolts. 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 axle, 2,000 pounds, you probably 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 is all in one piece. It is not like the automotive application. You have to take off the old hub, discard it, and start off fresh.

This Old Trailer: Electric Trailer Brake Installation Part 1

Alright, today on This Old Trailer, what we are going to do is install electric brakes. Right now this trailer does not have any brakes on it whatsoever, so it has two drag axles. So the first thing that we need to do is go ahead and take off the rear wheels. And then we will go ahead and take off the hubs. At this point we will take off the dust cap on our axle. And basically what you want to do is on this particular unit we have an E-Z Lube cap, so it fits kind of tight. It is a good idea to go ahead and rotate the hub and lightly strike it and then I will just back it off with a screw driver behind the flange. And then pry it off. Alright, let us wipe off the excess grease on the end of the spindle here and we will get to our tang washer. And we will release it so we can back off the castle nut. Alright, we have it cleaned up a little bit. Now right here, this is the tab I was talking about. That is our tang washer. Take this. Push it down flat to the flat spot on our spindle and then you can take the castle nut off. 1:07

Bleeding Brakes Demonstration

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.

Changing Brakes Demonstration

All right today we are going to show you a typical brake inspection. Basically what we are going to do is take off the brake hub here and we are going to inspect the brakes, 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.

This Old Trailer: Changing Hydraulic Trailer Brake to Electric

Today on This Old Trailer we are going to replace hydraulic brakes with electric brakes. Basically it is going to be a matter of taking off the tires, removing the hubs, go ahead and removing the backing plates and drain the hydraulic lines of fluid, and then going ahead and bolting on the new brakes. We will start off, obviously, by taking the wheels off. OK, go ahead and remove the dust cover here. It is an E-Z Lube spindle so this has a tang washer that we need to bush back down so we can unlock the castle nut right here. Just push it back down. Now we should be able to take the hub right off. The next task is to go ahead and disconnect the hydraulic lines. We have that disconnected. Now we need to pull the clip out so we can release this part here. And that is just a little piece of metal right here that you can just pry out. Alright, now we can unbolt this at the back of the hydraulic backing plate. Alright, now we can unbolt the backing plate from the flange on the axle. Now we are down to our bare axle. We will clean it up a little bit and then reinstall the brakes. 1:24

Kodiak Disc Brake Kit Installation - 2014 Heartland RV Bighorn Fifth Wheel

Speaker 1: Today on our 2014 Heartland Bighorn, we're gonna be installing Kodiak's disc brake kit. Part number K2HR89D. Your disc brake set up does not include bearings or grease seals. You can pick up bearings here at etrailer.com with part number 02475-02475. And part number 25580-25580 for the inner bearing. And grease seals to seal it all up with part number RG06-070.These disc brakes can be used as a replacement or like we're using them today, to convert from electric to electric over hydraulic brakes.The brackets fit 8,000 pound Dexter axles and 16 inch and larger wheels.The 13 inch rotor features an eight on six and a half inch bolt pattern.We've already got our passenger side installed.

Kodiak Trailer Brakes K2R858DS Review

Speaker 1: Today we're going to be taking a look at the Kodiak disk brake kit. These are 13 inch rotors with an 8 on 6 1/2 bolt pattern. These are stainless steel with 5/8 inch bolts and are used with 8,000 pound Dexter axles.The nicest thing about this kit is that it's going to easily allow you to convert your trailer from either brakes to disk brakes. Those are going to be a lot of benefits including that they're going to be better braking with more consistent stopping even at highway speeds. And it's going to dramatically reduce the stopping distance.It's a pretty simple process to do. You just take off your old brakes and put on the new mounting brackets.

Kodiak Disc Brake Kit Review

Speaker 1: Today we're going to be taking a look at the Kodiak line of Disc Brake Kits. Now, these kits are available in multiple configurations to fit multiple size axles. They're also available in several different finishes.A disc brake kit like this one from Kodiak is an excellent solution to give us good braking force. Typically, for this kit anyway, you're looking at like a 3500-pound axle. A lot of boat applications, you're hauling a boat sometimes miles and miles and miles, and without brakes on your trailer, you put a lot of unnecessary stress and strain on your truck. A braking kit like this allows us to take the stress, the strain off the braking system on our truck but also gives us a safer ride.In this application we've got a surge coupler at the front of the trailer, so as the truck slows it applies the hydraulic fluid pressure, squeezing our caliper together giving us excellent stopping abilities.

Dexter Nev-R-Adjust Electric Trailer Brake Kit Installation

Speaker 1: Today we're going to be taking a look at the 10 inch Dexter Never Adjust electric trailer brake kit, for 3,500 pound axle, for the left and right hand side. It's going to be part number 23-468-469. It's also available individually for the left hand side using part number 23-468, and the right hand side, using part number 23-469. So here's what our brakes are going to look like once we have them installed. Now these are going to be a 10 inch diameter brake and be about 2-1/4 inches deep.Now one of the nicest things about these brakes is the fact that we're not going to have to adjust them, maybe the initial adjustment up front, but after that, they're going to be self adjusting. So wherever the brakes start wearing down, they're going to automatically adjust out, so they're at the right pressure.

etrailer Uni-Servo Free Backing Hydraulic Brake Kit Installation

Speaker 1: Today we're gonna be taking a look at the hydraulic brake kit U-Servo 00:00:02 free backing 12 inch left and right hand brake assemblies for five and a half thousand to seven thousand pounds. That's gonna be part number AKFBBRK-7.So here's what our brake assembly's gonna look like. The biggest benefit to our brake assembly here is that it is an entire assembly. We're not gonna have to worry about getting the hardware kit, a wheel cylinder, or anything else. As well as putting on the pads, they are hydraulic brake assemblies, which means they're gonna work with surge-type brake actuators.What's nice about these assemblies is that they have a free backing design. And what that means is, it's gonna let you back up without engaging the brakes, even if the actuator is activated.The fall-away brake shoe is only gonna anchor on the drum when the brakes are engaged, as the trailer is moving forward.The pads are gonna be fully bonded into the shoes and not riveted, which means that they're gonna give it a longer life and more of a bite on those brakes.The tapered edge at the bottom of our pad is gonna help prevent any kind of cracking and crumbling that can lead to a mechanical lock-up.Our brake assemblies are gonna have a fine tooth adjustment gear, and that's gonna allow us to fine tune our brakes, but it is a manual adjustment, so we are gonna have to check our brakes and adjust them periodically.There is gonna be a plug on the back that's gonna help keep out all the dirt and debris from getting inside, and this is right where we're gonna make our adjustments at.Now, the mounting flange bolt pattern is gonna be a five bolt, and it's gonna fit wheels 14 1/2, 15, 16, and 16 1/2 inch.Our brake assembly is gonna work with axles that are rated at 5,200, 6,000, and 7,000 pounds.Now, this is gonna include the left and right hand assemblies, so to start out, we're gonna go ahead and remove our drums so we can pull off this cap.

Tuson RV Brakes Brake Controller 335ABS-DLNE-1000 Review

Speaker 1: Today we're taking a look at the Tuson 4 Channel Towable ABS Setup for Hydraulic Drum Brakes. Now if you're looking for a system that'll allow you to have full access and control of your braking system, then this is definitely something to consider.It offers the most in-depth data and diagnostics available on the market. It's a very smart system. It not only allows you to monitor the actuator performance, but allows you to monitor vehicle performance as well since the brake controller plugs directly into the vehicle's computer system through the OBD 2 port.Now the Acculink Electric Hydraulic Anti-Lock Braking System is designed to really improve vehicle stability during braking by maintaining high levels of rolling resistance braking and preventing tire lock up. Now this is especially true on wet pavement when tire lock up can easily occur. When trailer tires lock up, the trailer can easily slide to the side.

Tuson RV Brakes Brake Controller 335ABS-DLNE-1600 Review

Speaker 1: Today we're taking a look at the Tuson 4 channel towable ABS set up for hydraulic disc brakes. The Tuson Acculink Electric Hydraulic Anti-lock Braking System is designed to greatly improve vehicle stability during braking by maintaining high levels of rolling resistance braking and preventing tire lock up. Now this kit includes everything that you see here on this table. What I mentioned is especially true on wet pavement when tire lock up can easily occur. When trailer tires lock up, the trailer can easily slide to the side. The ABS module keeps the trailer tracking straight behind the towed vehicle at all times.

Kodiak Trailer Brakes K2R858DD Review

Speaker 1: Today, we're going to take a look at the Kodiak Dacromet disc brake kit with the 13-inch rotors, eight on six and a half inch bolt pattern for 8000 pound Dexter axles.Now, these brake assemblies will make it easy to upgrade from drum brakes to disc brakes for better performance. Disc brakes will deliver better performance than drum brakes because it'll give you more consistent stopping, even at highway speeds, and dramatically shorter stopping distances. Also, the maintenance costs are lower than for drum brakes because you have fewer moving parts to maintain, repair, replace.This kit will include everything here on the table. Includes two full brake assemblies. You get two of the Dacromet-plated, cast iron rotors, two of the Dacromet-plated, cast iron calipers, and four of the stainless steel caliper mounting bolts, and then two of the Dacromet-plated, ductile iron caliper-mounting brackets. Now, the Dacromet coating on these parts provides superior corrosion resistance for freshwater or saltwater use.

Kodiak Trailer Brakes K2R89DD Review

Speaker 1: Today, we're gonna take a look at the Kodiak Dacromet disc brake kit with the 13" rotor, 8 on 6 1/2" bolt pattern for 8,000 pounds Dexter axles. Now these brake assemblies will make it easy to upgrade from drum brakes to disc brakes for better performance. Disc brakes will deliver better performance than drum brakes because it will give you more consistent stopping, even at highway speeds and dramatically shorter stopping distances. Also, the maintenance cost will be lower than for drum brakes because you have fewer moving parts to maintain, repair or replace. This kit will include everything here on the table. It includes two full brake assemblies.