Converting surge breaks into electric. Cost?

Excellent post, spike99.

.

Hi rivertrails,

Since your trailer is 3,000 lbs, assume your trailer has 3200, 3500 or 3600 lbs axle under it. Also assume your trailer also has HD 13" tires/Rims or 14" tires. To see if existing axle has the brake flange, simply crawl on hands and knees and look under the trailer. At one wheel, get down and look across to the back side of the opposite wheel. Look for the steel plate like - click here -

Note: If NO steel plate, I'd recommend replacing the axle with a new axle that has this steel plate. If wondering, a very good welding shop can weld new plates on end of existing axle. Since alignment must be "perfect", many welding shops won't do it. Thus, its much easier to replace with new axle (that is complete with electric bakes/hubs or has this steel plate).

Assume steel plate (aka: brake mounting plate) does exist on existing axle, then simply buy Left brake assembly kit, Right brake assembly kit and 2 x hubs for electric brakes. When buying each, always best to buy both sides from same company. re: Either All Dexter or ALL Quality parts.

Note: Before buying wheel hubs, double/triple check bolt patterns as well. Most existing rims are 5 - 4.5 and some rims are 5 - 5.5 bolt patterns. To confirm existing bolt pattern of existing rims, download, print and hold the template against the exiting hubs. re: - click here -

To install electric brakes on a trailer, a good training video at - Click Here -

If needing to buy a new axle with steel plates, its much less costly to buy an axle with existing Brake Assemblies and wheel hubs. I bought a new axle with brakes for my one trailer and it simply bolted in. NO fussing around with kits. One only needs to bolt in, then add its STAR wiring. Do shop around because new axles prices do vary.

For wiring, I highly recommend STAR design "outside the axle" using thick 10 gauge wire. STAR is much better that minimum linear wiring inside the axles. For pictures of each, surf:
- Click Here -
- Click Here -
- Click Here -

Remember to buy the 7-lead wire down trailer tongue as well. re: - Click Here -

If wondering, I recently installed 10" electric brakes under my 17ft boat. From end/end (including 10 gauge wiring, PEX, connectors, etc. etc.), the estimate cost was $300. Money well spent.

For a few pictures, surf: - click here - - Click Here - - Click Here - - Click Here - - Click Here - - Click Here -

Long mumblings short, spending $300 or so to install electric brakes under a trailer is well worth it. Braking power before and after is amazing. Especially when using STAR wiring design and towing a 3,000 lbs trailer with a mid-size SUV &/or mini-van.

Hope this helps..

Brakes were offered as an option on lots of trailers back then, so chances are good there's a flange there. Also: If there's a flange, that MIGHT be a sign that the hub/drums already on the trailer will accept the addition of brakes. Many manufacturers used the same hub assembly whether the customer up-bought the brakes or not. Bad news is that after forty years the surfaces might not be good enough for the addition of the brakes.

But even if starting from scratch, I still think it's possible to do the job for a hundred dollars a wheel. My local autoparts store matches E-trailer's prices, and here are those for all parts to add 10" brakes to a light trailer:

Flange: less than ten dollars, but it must be welded on by someone that knows what they're doing. link.

Per other parts: A 10" brake assembly, and matching hub/drum total about $90.00.

Francesca Knowles wrote:
FYI:

If it has no brakes at all and never did, they can very easily be added to the existing wheels. A person with moderate mechanical skills and a place/tools to do it could accomplish the task in a few hours. Depending on wheel size, the parts should cost around a hundred dollars per wheel. Wiring is pretty simple but may also require a new pigtail if it's not already a seven-pin. I'd be surprised if it's not, frankly- the Bargman seven-pin round was pretty standard back then, and this trailer sounds big enough to have a battery which would need one spot on the plug.

Shouldn't set you back more than three hundred dollars for parts- not counting the brake controller for the tug which you'll have to buy anyway no matter what trailer you end up with. Unless of course you buy one with surge brakes.

Hate to disagree but..

Not ALL "tag" axles (these are axles which do not have brakes) have the MOUNTING plate to which the brake backing plate mounts to.

One MUST do some research before buying anything because of this.

First, the axles are supposed to have a metal tag attached to them, take a look on both sides of the axles, should find an aluminum tag which will have the manufacturers name and weight class of the axles.

Then while looking for this tag, look at towards the wheels and see if there is a square "plate" with four empty bolt holes. If that is not present then axle replacement will be required.

If you do have the plate with empty bolt holes then you will need the manufacturers data tag to determine what weight class the axle is.

If unable to determine the manufacturer of the axle it is better to replace the axle than to guess at what brakes and drums will fit.

As far as cost, well a pair of backing plates are going to be at least $100 and drums are going to be around $150 for a pair and if you are changing rims $40 each for plain painted steel.

A new axle with brakes most likely will be under $300 so really new drums and backing plates will not save much money..

FYI:

If it has no brakes at all and never did, they can very easily be added to the existing wheels. A person with moderate mechanical skills and a place/tools to do it could accomplish the task in a few hours. Depending on wheel size, the parts should cost around a hundred dollars per wheel. Wiring is pretty simple but may also require a new pigtail if it's not already a seven-pin. I'd be surprised if it's not, frankly- the Bargman seven-pin round was pretty standard back then, and this trailer sounds big enough to have a battery which would need one spot on the plug.

Shouldn't set you back more than three hundred dollars for parts- not counting the brake controller for the tug which you'll have to buy anyway no matter what trailer you end up with. Unless of course you buy one with surge brakes.

Ps . Its a single axle. And I couldn't find anything on star either. People here say its probably a company that didn't make many and then went out of business.

The picture of the camper is small. Hard to tell for sure but I don't think its big enough to be surge brakes.( thanks for the pic EldIr )After all my excitement I don't think I'm going to go look at it in less he will take it to be weighed.Its possible its 4500 pounds with stuff in it for all I know. I live 100 miles away and I am afraid it will be a wasted trip. he says it has NO brakes. A Friend thought that even if they had been electric brakes, If they aren't there to know which brakes to buy it could be a nightmare. Maybe couldn't do it. I can't afford all this on top of buying it. If I replaced the whole axle there is still the added charge of the mechanic replacing it on top of the parts cost.( Any one have any estimate guesses of mechanics fees to do this?) But I learned a lot from the posting.

It may well be that it never had any brakes at all- especially if the P.O. said so. Is this a single or double axle trailer? And is there anything more to the name? I can't find "Star" anywhere.

As you already observed, surge-type brakes should be ascertainable by looking at the coupler. Sounds like this trailer doesn't have the right profile for that.

One clue as to electric brakes being present would be the trailer pigtail- if it has more than the standard four flat connection it may have had a brake controller in the past. Also: if it has/had electric brakes, you should be able to see wires going into the wheelhub on the inside surface. Not necessary to remove wheel to see that.

By the way, trailers of this vintage don't/didn't have emergency breakaway switches on the tongue...

It's worth noting that even if the trailer does turn out to have electric brakes, they may not work after all these years of inactivity.

Easy to tell which a trailer has. Surge brakes coupler is much bigger.



That little knob in the slot is to lock out the brakes when backing the trailer up. Otherwise, pushing back on the coupler would engage the brakes just like under normal braking, the momentum of the trailer pushes into the coupler activating the brakes. Think of it as there being a brake pedal inside the coupler. When the tow vehicle slows, the weight of the trailer pushes (surges) forward on the pedal and engages the trailer brakes.

rivertrails wrote:
Oh. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I thought it was much higher priced to convert them than that. I'm going to look at the trailer tomorrow. He just said it doesn't have breaks.( I take it they just don't work) He doesn't know what kind was originally on there. How can I tell by looking with out pulling the tire if surge or electric brakes are on there now.(I'M a woman who unfortunately doesn't know much at all about mechanics. From the pic I can see it doesn't have the piston looking container on the tongue that surge brakes have, But if the brakes longer work it could have just been removed.

If surge brakes were originally installed, you should see hydraulic lines running from the tongue to each wheel. Electric brakes would have wires running to each wheel (possibly inside the axle tube for part of the run). Electric brakes would also have a break-away switch on the tongue (small black box with 2 wires out the back, and a plastic pin/lanyard out the front).

Cheers!
Mike