Trailer brakes

[Glenn Basore]

Well I finally got my trailer brakes installed on my Eclipse "performance trailer".

As some of you may remember I changed my wheels from the 10" to 14 inches wheels so I had no problems adding the 10" disc brakes to my trailer.

I did have a lot of help from a neighbor (big rig Mechanic by trade)

He pointed out to me a crack in my trailer frame at the first gusset location on the starboard side which I need to get wedled. he also thinks there is too much tongue weight based upon how much flexing of the trailer which was a concern of mine on an earlier post "trailer flexing".

I'm going to the scales to have some weight measurements taken next week and get the crack welded and possibly some stiffeners added to the trailer.

based upon the scale information, I might be moving my axle forward a bit.

Thanks to all of you who gave me such good advice on adding the brakes and the links to get just what I needed. every thing I ordered was perfect!

[Craig Weis]

Glenn, remember that the trailer welding is going to be over galvanised hot dipped rails. So the welder just might refuse to weld the trailer because of arsenic fumes concern.
Might want to grind the area to remove the hot dip galvanize before welding.

I felt I needed more tongue weight so I slid the axle astern. Need about 200 lb at the 2" ball for my CP-19. Since I can't pick up the tongue, I figure that's enough weight. Such a weakling I am.
I don't think I'd second guess the flex. I don't think there is a lot to be done about that. Not enough room to build a stiffening bridge. But if the weld cracked it's not stress so much as a cold weld. I'll bet the little Mexican kid who welded it for Performance, welded the weld too fast. They ran out of money and went belly-up I heard.

Apply the following: The ultimate strength of steel is 10,000 lb times the thickness of the metal divided by 4 to = the safe working load. And half the load is on each side of the trailer.

Here is where an improvement is needed. Look at the axle assembly. It is mounted on an angle bar piece of steel about 26" long. Use that length to stiffen the rail since it is only clamped onto the trailer rails where the four U-bolts are.

Above the axle looking down at the trailer rail, you may see the top-o-the-axle-angle pulled away from the trailer rail and may notice a slight gap.

To get rid of the gap and stiffen the trailer rail, loosen the lug nuts then jack up the trailer and remove a road wheel.
Then drill a hole through the axle angle and through the trailer rail above the axle to pull the two surfaces together with the bolt. That will make that 26 inches of the frame rail stiff as a wedding cock.

I used an 'Elevator Bolt' that has no head on the inside of the tire. The bolts come from Ace Hardware. That takes some flex out of the trailer and locks down the axle assembly to the rail in addition to the U-bolts.

Going from 10 inch to 14 inch is fine. Do the two load ratings for the two different rubber tires match and/or exceed the original 10 inch tire? The 10 inch are fine for the little bit of load from an Eclipse. A 10 inch is small but mighty.

Now we are cooking!! Happy trailering. skip.

[CaptRon28]

Glenn -

You can use a bathroom scale and some 2x4's to measure the actual tongue weight. If you think it's over 300 pounds, a 2 or 3 foot 2x4 becomes a balance beam with the scale at one end and some spacer at the other. Lower the tongue onto some short spacers in the center of the beam and divide by 2.

When you weigh the boat and trailer (truck scale ??) and then add the measured tongue weight to that, the tongue weight should be about 8 to 11 percent of the total number. My Horizon came in at around 4200 pounds with 410 on the tongue. Just about perfect for what I'm pulling it with.

[Craig Weis]

CaptRon28 says: "When you weigh the boat and trailer (truck scale ??) and then add the measured tongue weight to that, the tongue weight should be about 8 to 11 percent of the total number. My Horizon came in at around 4200 pounds with 410 on the tongue. Just about perfect for what I'm pulling it with."

OOOOOOOPS! Ya see I did not follow directions. Corrected Ball Hitch weight is about: 300 lb.

OK so I have 5700 truck. A 2400 boat and a 870 trailer. A little fudge factor for all the stuff on board.
Or, 8970 lb. So say 9.5% is 852 lb tongue weight.?
If this is right then I'm a little lite. But I can't move the rear axle back any further.
It's fine where it is and I guess I could drag out a scale and put the jack wheel on it for poops and grins.

I welded this trailer up out of free scrap steel about 24 years ago. Cost me about $50 for the fenders, and $100 for the 2" x 8" x 16 foot treated wood, new.
Once I loaded a two door batch oven [ a give a way from the blackest part of Detroit] onto this trailer, spanned the rail with about 6~4x4's and with two forklifts holding the oven up I backed under the load and lowered the batch oven down on the cross pieces. Strapped her down and drove back to Sylvania, Ohio. NO TRAILER BRAKES, and 14,000 lb.
A few weeks later she was cleaned up with new duckwork and refurbished controls, gas train, and burner, explosion relief door latches and sold for $42,000 [under the table] buckaroos to a guy in Cleveland, Ohio. I love my trailer. She'll haul anything you can get on her.

My buddy only had a cradle and no trailer so we did this to haul his boat..

Here is the boat hauled on my trailer. A 26 foot Coronado. Again no brakes.

skip.

[Salty19]

Skip--Are you for real?    You're not supposed to add the tow vehicle weight to the hitch weight calculation!

Take the boat, accessories and trailer weight then multiply by 10%.

Now put that axle back before you have an accident...

[nies]

You only add tow vehicle weight when cal. wt. for size of engine to pull with,................Phil

[brackish]

Skip said:

Glenn, remember that the trailer welding is going to be over galvanised hot dipped rails. So the welder just might refuse to weld the trailer because of arsenic fumes concern.
Might want to grind the area to remove the hot dip galvanize before welding.

Skip is right, however, if you don't grind it the welder will.  I used to be a welder, worked on offshore oil production platforms, often had to weld galvanized material.  After the welding is done, have the welder use a melt off galvanized bar on the weld site, much better than any paint at recreating the original hot dipped galvanized condition.  You melt it on with a torch, I think it is called galvalume.

Salty 19 said:

Skip--Are you for real?    You're not supposed to add the tow vehicle weight to the hitch weight calculation!

That's right, there are two ratings for your vehicle and you should stay under each.  The first is the tow rating the weight of the trailer load, the second is the gross combined, the weight of everything.