Electric trailer brakes

[BrianF]

Looking for any opinions on replacing the electric brakes on my 2001 Trailswest 5 horse. The last year or so the brakes have been weak, so I cleaned up some of the connections/grounds, which did help some. I went and removed one of the hubs to inspect. The bearings were great and the inside of the drums were actually quite decent. Now one of the shoes completely delaminated and the magnet was well past the wear indicators.

So new brakes it is. For the ones who have mess with this before, do you recommend just doing magnets/shoes or get the complete assembled backing plates. I will keep the drums and bearings for now.

What brands does one look for?

Now for the guys who live in Sask and Alberta, what trailer shops do you prefer? Any in North Battleford, Lloydminster or Saskatoon?

Thanks for any tips/advice.

 

[OneEyeJack]

My horse trailer has Dexter axles. The drums are 10" and the shoes are 2.25" wide. I bought new backing plates and complete assemblies from a truck parts place. The price was about the same as chasing individual pieces and reusing the old backing plate. Replacing everything was easy. It's a job you can do in your driveway. For me I would not mess with replacing just some of the parts. Just be careful pulling the seals so that you can read the part numbers. Make sure everything is clean when you put it all back together and you follow the instructions.

 

[64bawagon]

Nobody around here even stocks the individual parts, its just not worth it. Buy the complete assembly and get the Dexter seals while you are at it.

 

[tom slick]

I'd buy the backing plate assembly, on some axles they are cheaper than the individual parts. The drums might be inexpensive also.

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
My horse trailer has Dexter axles. The drums are 10" and the shoes are 2.25" wide. I bought new backing plates and complete assemblies from a truck parts place. The price was about the same as chasing individual pieces and reusing the old backing plate.


Same here. Lloyd Trailer Company in Waco will sell the individual parts (for the odd one time failure), but it's cheaper & easier to just buy the whole backing plate assembly. Most everything they sell is genuine Dexter and at prices I can't beat anywhere.

 

[CKN]

You really should look at the whole assembly. On places that specialize in trailer parts they are very inexpensive-and facilitate the repair.

 

[BrianF]

Just an update. I finally got around to getting all the parts. For the folks kicking around the Prairies and looking at the same options as I: Princess Auto had American Rockwell 12x2 backing plates for 130+ tax. The stores in Lloyd and Saskatoon had next to nothing in stock. Fort Garry Industries in north Stoon was out of stock, priced the 7k 12x2 plates for about 110+ tax. They wanted 196+ tax for 6k 12x2 plates! Napa in north Stoon carried the 7k plates for 107+ tax and out of stock for the 6k. The girl working the desk must have fancied me some and I got the 7K plates at 98+ tax a piece. They are Dexter brand. As you guys stated the complete backing plats were roughly the same cost, if not a touch cheaper than buying the magnet and shoes separately. So glad I listened.

Due to my work schedule and the weather I managed to get one installed today. The wheel I chose definitely needed it as both pads were delaminated and one was completely missing. Word of advice: The 5 backing bolts had a decent amount of corrosion and like a dummy I just hit them with the impact. Well that caused me a pile of aggravation as they spun the friction fit clean out and I had to resort to some ingenuity to get the bolts/nuts free. The others got a liberal dose of WD40 and I used a ratchet to slowly back the nuts off. Sometimes a guy just needs to go on feel alone.

Other than that it was smooth. Cleaned the pads with brake clean and continued on. For the wiring I used double butt connectors with heat shrink and then had that all covered with heat shrink as well. It came out very clean looking. I hit the star wheel for a touch and they were set!

I reused the drums as they were in great shape, the seals and bearings were in excellent shape as well. No dicking around, set a touch of preload and then backed the castle nut off until it felt "Right." I have messed around with enough bearings in my time to get somewhat of a feel for them.

I love it when a plan comes together.