RoyB wrote:
Each brake magnet only draws 3AMPS at full voltage setting of 12VDC. I doubt if it would make any difference.
Bad corroded connections would be something to repair however...
Having said that I did rewire all of wiring under my OFF-ROAD trailer to get all of the wiring inside protective flex PVC conduit. I got into some brush on one occasion and ripped out some wiring so now all trailer wiring is now secure.
Roy Ken
Roy,
ASSUMING that it is a perfect world then yes the magnets would get 12V and draw 3A.
In the REAL WORLD this often does not happen.
What happens is RESISTANCE of the wiring eats up a lot of the voltage which in turn reduces the current that can flow through the magnets.
In practice typically trailer manufacturers use 14 gauge wire, while that is perfectly acceptable current wise (14ga can handle 15A of current) it presents too much voltage loss.
Take into consideration a 20 ft trailer will have 15ft of wire ONE way(you need to double this since the ground returns must go back up to the tongue). So you have 30 ft of wire not to mention the wire which runs across the axles so add in 16ft for each axle.
So for two axles and a 20 ft TT you will have 62 FT of wire. This wire will drop 2 volts or more and with 12V that is a huge deal.
I ran two sets of 10 ga wire for mine, REALLY makes a huge difference in the brakes. It is a well worth it upgrade.
Even works great with my 2013 F25 with IBC, so far I only need to set my IBC to 4.5 gain out of a 10 max, it is that good.
An additional upgrade is to SKIP the wires that go inside the axle tubes, many manufacturers run the wires inside the tubes and after a while the insulation gets chaffed and causes intermittent shorts. It is better to run the wire on the OUTSIDE of the axles tubes, just wire tie it to the top or sides of the tubing and never ever have an intermittent short again.
