TT brake performance after rewiring + shoe/drum replacement

Question

I reported in June here what I found the brake wiring to be like as the couple of examples in the photos below. Shockingly terrible factory splices and the OEM wire was only #18. I re-wired all of the brake wiring on all 4 wheels from magnets up to the A-frame with #12 awg where it's spliced to the umbilical cord.

When I went to do a bearing repack, I found the shoes and drum on one wheel were in really bad shape - Al-ko made in China parts. The shoes on the other end of the axle were in bad shape too. I installed two new Dexter backing plate assemblies and one new Dexter drum. I could have saved a few $$ by buying offshore parts, but no thanks.

WOW! The braking improvement is a night and day difference. Every time I touch the brakes, I can definitely feel them kick in. It's almost as if the old brakes never worked, which is after 5+ seasons on them. When I first did the work, I couldn't see a big improvement but now after 600+ miles, the shoes/drums are burnished/seated and working like they should. I have the gain on the P3 brake controller adjusted down too now and the boost at B1. I last had the drums off 3 seasons ago and the shoes and drum deteriorated over around 15K miles and lots of towing in the mountains.

I highly recommend to everyone with trailer brakes to do a regular inspection on them and not assume they're fine. It always surprises me how many whine & complain about blowouts on their Chinese tires but don't give their brake wiring and Chinese brakes a 2nd thought. You definitely don't want poorly working brakes when you may need them the most or cause the TV to do more of the braking.

path1 · Answer

Thanks for posting. If I remember right you are into electric type stuff. For me elec sometimes a mystery. I'm going to do mine soon I hope. Your upgraded wire size, how did you determine the size? And what connections did you go with? (I was thinking of Soderling and shrink tube.

Thanks

jaxdad · Answer

There was a recent thread on the “Canada” section about the Ontario government backing off on the requirement that “commercial” vehicles used only for personal use now being exempt from the required annual safety inspection.

I pointed out how I felt it was extremely unfair, two identical trucks being treated differently based purely on who owned it.

One of the items that came up was that RV’s, boat trailers, etc., were also exempt, but even a little 4’ x 8’ box trailer was not if towed by a “commercial” truck.

While I have NO doubt you, and the rest of us too, maintain your RV properly, this is a PERFECT example of what I was talking about.

Forcing people to pull the wheels and check everything over once a year just keeps us all honest. No different than forcing food producers and restaurants to post the calories in the food they offer.

myredracer · Answer

path1 wrote:Thanks for posting.  If I remember right you are into electric type stuff.  For me elec sometimes a mystery.  I'm going to do mine soon I hope.  Your upgraded wire size, how did you determine the size? And what connections did you go with?  (I was thinking of Soderling and shrink tube.  ThanksDexter has the wire gauge table below.  I didn't know it existed until someone posted in my earlier thread.  I used automotive brake cable and the only place I could find #12 was at the local hitch shop.  Not the most elegant method, but I tie wrapped it to the axle tubes and the propane pipe.  The cable was way too large to pull into the axle tubes and I didn't want to pull down the coroplast.  For splices, I soldered them and used shrink wrap and then tape over that.  I also securely tie-wrapped the splices at the backing plates so they wouldn't get damaged from vibration.  I'd rather see the backing plates designed so that the splices are inside the drum instead.

time2roll · Answer

Good to hear you will be running safe again with proper braking ability.Never ignore poor braking performance.

groover · Answer

JaxDad wrote:There was a recent thread on the “Canada” section about the Ontario government backing off on the requirement that “commercial” vehicles used only for personal use now being exempt from the required annual safety inspection.I pointed out how I felt it was extremely unfair, two identical trucks being treated differently based purely on who owned it.One of the items that came up was that RV’s, boat trailers, etc., were also exempt, but even a little 4’ x 8’ box trailer was not if towed by a “commercial” truck. While I have NO doubt you, and the rest of us too, maintain your RV properly, this is a PERFECT example of what I was talking about. Forcing people to pull the wheels and check everything over once a year just keeps us all honest. No different than forcing food producers and restaurants to post the calories in the food they offer.Rants like this come up from time to time but laws should be made to solve real problems, not hypothetical ones or just to harass some people to make others feel better.  The bottom line is that most non-commercial drivers have a vested interest in safety and are not in as big of hurry so they end up with pretty good safety records.  If the data starts showing too non-commercial drivers having accidents then we should consider tightening up the rules for them, not before.

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TT brake performance after rewiring + shoe/drum replacement

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