Re-Wiring the brakes.
My 35' ~10,000 lb GVWR trailer brakes were wired with 14 gauge wire and very poor crimps. All the crimps on that I've seen so far are pretty bad... I'm going to redo it with a quality crimp tool ...
Forum Discussion
I'm working up a parts list now....
Right now there's a 4" galvanized box on the tongue. It's a standard "in the wall" electrical box. At some point that box will have to go, but I'm going to leave it for the time being. I plan to terminate everything into that box.
So the work in that box will be:
1) Convert everything to ring terminals
2) Remove the two 6 gauge wires and twist nuts and replace with 10 gauge and ring terminals
3) replace the 1 14 gauge pair for the brakes with 4 14 gauge pairs.
4) Add terminal blocks for the ring terminals.
My current thought is to get a few 65Amp terminal blocks. The only reason for the 65 amp version is that they have #10 screws vs #8 so I can torque them down tighter. I have to get 4 circuit versions in order for them to fit in the box. I'm hoping that 4 will fit reasonably well - 2 on the back an one on the top and one on the bottom.
All the wires will get marine grade (heat shrink with glue) #10 ring terminals.
BenK wrote:
I'd get a NEMA 4 junction box with a 30amp minimum terminal block mounted on the
inside. That TB needs to have 'U' jumpers to tie several terminals to become the
hot and ground...plus the control lines for the rest of the trailer
Right now there's a 4" galvanized box on the tongue. It's a standard "in the wall" electrical box. At some point that box will have to go, but I'm going to leave it for the time being. I plan to terminate everything into that box.
So the work in that box will be:
1) Convert everything to ring terminals
2) Remove the two 6 gauge wires and twist nuts and replace with 10 gauge and ring terminals
3) replace the 1 14 gauge pair for the brakes with 4 14 gauge pairs.
4) Add terminal blocks for the ring terminals.
My current thought is to get a few 65Amp terminal blocks. The only reason for the 65 amp version is that they have #10 screws vs #8 so I can torque them down tighter. I have to get 4 circuit versions in order for them to fit in the box. I'm hoping that 4 will fit reasonably well - 2 on the back an one on the top and one on the bottom.
All the wires will get marine grade (heat shrink with glue) #10 ring terminals.
