Disc brake conversion
Just finished a disc brake conversion on my fiver this week. The August issue of Trailer Life has a fairly good article on a similar conversion. But when it comes to bleeding the brakes, the article missed the obvious solution. It talks about needed two people, cell phone communications and running the pump for ‘x’ seconds. But the pump is electric, so 20 ft of wire, a switch (in my case a spare residential switch in a single gang box) and alligator clips and you can control the pump remotely at any wheel position. I still had to keep the fluid reservoir full, but once most of the air was out of the furthest caliper, it didn’t take much effort to finish the job. Hit the switch for maybe 1 second and wait for most of the air bubbles to escape, then repeat. Much less wasted brake fluid than trying to communicate with a 2nd person.
I installed the Titan pump at the front of the street side compartment and it takes up very little space. Also ez to check brake fluid level. With the battery just the other side of the bulkhead, getting power was ez. I was also able to cut the two wires for the electric brakes behind the battery and re-route them to the pump. One lead remains the brake controller input to the pump and the other wire was repurposed as the breakaway switch input. A 40 amp circuit breaker and the adaptor for the factory brake controller are mounted on the bulkhead above the pump.
I used steel brake lines (except for the rubber hoses to the calipers) and attached them along the bottom inside edge of the I-beams. That way, the hose clamps and fittings could use the existing screws that attach the underbelly fabric to the frame and I only needed to add a single new screw location for one fitting. The crossover line was attached to the propane line that running to the curb side, eTrailer sells a 66” length of line designed to match the I-beam spacing and it worked perfectly. I used 30” lines between the axles and while that is less than the axle spacing, the flex hoses made up the difference. The main line to the pump is just 10 ft and most of that is somewhat protected by the main propane line.
The disc are Kodiak 6K units and were an ez install except for the upper caliper bolt. Extension on the leaf spring U-bolt brackets resulted in too little clearance for a wrench to tighten the bolt, so a little trimming on the bracket was necessary. So far with limited towing, the system works great, I can’t detect any ‘lag‘ with the Titan pump. I did initially have two leaks out of 20 connections but they have been fixed.
I installed the Titan pump at the front of the street side compartment and it takes up very little space. Also ez to check brake fluid level. With the battery just the other side of the bulkhead, getting power was ez. I was also able to cut the two wires for the electric brakes behind the battery and re-route them to the pump. One lead remains the brake controller input to the pump and the other wire was repurposed as the breakaway switch input. A 40 amp circuit breaker and the adaptor for the factory brake controller are mounted on the bulkhead above the pump.
I used steel brake lines (except for the rubber hoses to the calipers) and attached them along the bottom inside edge of the I-beams. That way, the hose clamps and fittings could use the existing screws that attach the underbelly fabric to the frame and I only needed to add a single new screw location for one fitting. The crossover line was attached to the propane line that running to the curb side, eTrailer sells a 66” length of line designed to match the I-beam spacing and it worked perfectly. I used 30” lines between the axles and while that is less than the axle spacing, the flex hoses made up the difference. The main line to the pump is just 10 ft and most of that is somewhat protected by the main propane line.
The disc are Kodiak 6K units and were an ez install except for the upper caliper bolt. Extension on the leaf spring U-bolt brackets resulted in too little clearance for a wrench to tighten the bolt, so a little trimming on the bracket was necessary. So far with limited towing, the system works great, I can’t detect any ‘lag‘ with the Titan pump. I did initially have two leaks out of 20 connections but they have been fixed.
