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
joshuajim wrote:
I'm not opposed to upgrading the trailer wire as I have done it myself, but unfortunately the TV manufacturer in most cases has run a single 12GA wire to the 7way. No trailer wiring changes will change the losses to that point.
A valid point BUT the idea is to CUT AS MUCH of the "loss" as possible.
Keep in mind, on the TV side they are grounding at the REAR of said vehicle basically cutting out a lot of wire loss (the vehicle does not have a ground return line directly to the brake controller).
Failure to use a common ground at the front of said trailer can result in what is known as ground loops. Ground loops cause slight variations in voltage between devices on the ground side. This can cause a lot of brake faults detected by modern controllers (in the audio world the result is a background hum or buzz).
The trailer side however per the axle manufacturers ALL the ground returns for the brakes MUST be terminated at the FRONT of said trailer. In other words the grounds must not be terminated at the axles to the frame.
This means you are doubling the distance of the wire which doubles the resistance which doubles the voltage loss by the time it gets to the brakes.
Bumping up a few sizes in the wire ga effectively reduces the resistance and reduces the voltage loss on the trailer side.
