Re-Wiring the brakes.

RCMAN46 wrote:
If you are going to go to the trouble of running new wire I would run a separate wires to each side. 12 ga would be OK.

The reason I would do this it would be easy and the hard work done in case you would decide to use the Tuson sway control device in the future. Right now the device is not available to the general public. But if the device does as advertised and goes on the market it should be on all trailers.

A good controller does not really care if there is some voltage drop. The controller should raise the voltage as necessary as required. This assumes the controller can be set at a gain setting less than maximum.

Umm.. brake controllers do not "compensate" for any resistance which causes a voltage loss over the length of the wiring.

To have a controller to do that WOULD require some sort of feedback wire from the brake magnets all the way up front that the controller would be able to determine the amount of voltage lost.

Brake controllers are basically zombies, they only output the MAX that you set it to. The absolute max output voltage will be the battery voltage of approx 14V while driving..

Add a few tenths of a volt drop from the vehicle to the brake magnets and you will lose considerable amount of braking power. Brake controllers are not able to sense the losses and you can only compensate so far by taking the gain to max..

Not much difference in cost from 12Ga wire to 10Ga wire but the result will be overall much better brakes.

I have made this the very first upgrade to do on new to me trailers and it really makes a difference..

My 2013 F250 I only set the brake controller to a max of 3.5 out of 10 for output and the trailer brakes are strong enough to be felt engaging before the vehicle brakes on my current setup with two pairs of 10ga wire.

If you going to all the work to replace the wire you may as well make the improvement worth while. 12 ga to me is simply not much of a step up from the OEM 14ga..

10ga is like making a 30ft trailer as if it is only about 12ft long.. two pairs of 10ga will make it as if a 30ft trailer is 6ft long (in other words as if the trailer axles are only a couple of feet from your vehicle bumper..

Small wires = higher resistance = more waste = less brakes

LARGE wires = Less resistance = less waste = MORE BRAKES

While the Tuson device sounds promising, folks need to understand that it may take a long time to get to the market and even if it does how long will it stay on the market and not to mention what happens when the device FAILS and if it fails during a sway event??

First order of business is to setup your braking system correctly so sway is handled easily and swiftly by your brake controller manual override.. Bad, poor, shoddy wiring makes hopes of recovering from a sway event hard to impossible..