Trailer brake question

[21avery]

I am going to put brakes on my two axel trailer, but only on one axel , my question is will it be better on the front axel or the back one ? thanks Scott

[BRIAN GUEX]

I Would Recomend The Rear Axle. My Trailer I Bought Has It On The Rear Axle. Most Of The Weight Is On The Rear Axle.

[tb2040g]

Hello ,Some states require the brakes to be placed on the front axle.This is because if the trailer becomes seperated from the truck the front will fall down picking up the rear axle. Most new trailers have a breakaway device to automatically apply the brakes after seperation.If you pull much weight,or do it with a small truck put brakes on both axles. Thanks

[KeithW]

I would recommend both axles. I've got electric brakes on my big two axle trailer. Sometimes after driving over dirt roads rocks have knocked some of the wires loose, usually at the wheel. Being down to two out of four is bad enough. I'd hate to be down to zero out of two. On the Ajax trailer I have brakes on both axles and have run the wires in conduit.

keithw

[BDMelon]

Put brakes on both axles, your truck will thank you, & so will your automotive shop tech Trust ME, better to have too much brakes, than not enough ,, & wish you did both later, after the fact

[Mike Monnier]

Front axle for the reasons mentioned above. After my experience this season I would recommend both axles. My engine trailer weighs around 4k pounds loaded with brakes on only one axle. The brakes get the job done and I don't feel unsafe pulling it. Then I pulled my uncle's trailer with his oil field engine. It weighs around 8k pounds and has brakes on both axles. I had to turn my brake controller WAY down because the trailer was trying to jerk the truck to a stop. It was amazing how much better the braking was even with twice the payload out back! Go for it if you can swing adding brakes to both axles. I would also install a break away switch just for piece of mind.

[Lcjudge]

Many states now require brakes on both axles as well as the breakaway lockdown for the brakes should it separate from the tow vehicle. I don't think enforcement has been too stiff thus far but will be in the future. If you can put brakes on both axles, thats the way to go. Also, I have a trailer with surge hydraulic brakes on it. They are legal in only a handful of states and I understand there is a bit of a crackdown on them by enforcement officers. I don't pull mine now too far from home.

[BRIAN GUEX]

I guess I was wrong, on only rear.

[ListerDiesel]

I don't think we are allowed to have one braked and one unbraked axle on twin-axle trailers here in the UK, and as you are only allowed up to 3/4 ton gross weight on unbraked trailers, you need to have twin axle for anything decent.

We are just replacing our own unit, the new one will be very similar, twin axle, overrun (surge) cable brakes, 2.6tonnes gross, carrying capacxity 2 tonnes net. (1 tonne = 1000kg or 2200 lbs)

Once you get over 3.5 tonnes trailer gross weight you need to have powered brakes, usually air operated, we don't have electric brakes at all here.

Peter

[pegasuspinto]

both! from what i remember, assumeing your axles have the mounting flange, it's about 200 an axle to add all new brakes

adjust the brakes as tight as you can without dragging. the correct way is to tighten the brake up till it's snug, then back it off one notch at a time till the brake has no drag. if you get a situation where a couple of notches frees it up, but it takes 4 and 5 more to get rid of a tight spot in rotation, you need the drums turned. the tighter you can get it, the smoother the action and feathering of the brakes can be! keep them tight, trailer brakes have no automatic adjustment, easy to forget in modern times when you can ignore car and truck brakes till they grind.

the new controllers work great, stay away from the old style that needs to tap into the brake line to read pressure.

make the electrics robust! my trailers have a power and ground path that's constant, the ground wire goes all the way back to the plug and to the truck. grounding through the ball, and grounding the brakes to the frame (the connection is all too often on the bottom of the trailer and gets wet and dirty) will leave you with no brakes.

electric trailer brakes are, IMHO, a pain in the rear to keep adjusted and maintained, right untill you're finding yourself able to stop when the idiots in front of you are all stopping in the middle of the freeway.

Rob

[Walt Roys]

It is best to have brakes on both axils without a doubt. If you are locked in to only haveing it on one , put it on the front. When you apply the brake hard, the front of the trailer will want to drop. If the brake is on the front. this action will tend to put more weight on the front axil where the brake is, thus giveing better contact with the road and therefore better brakeing without slideing the wheel.
Walt

[Mike Cannon]

When you come to Pennsylvania they will be looking for brakes on both axles and the breakaway switch system. I agree that the more braking surfaces we have to call upon, the better we all will be in these speedy times. Regards

[KeithW]

I've got break away batteries on both of my trailers. I got tired of trying to remember to charge the batteries every once and a while. I picked up a couple little 2 watt solar panels and installed them on the trailers to keep them topped off.

keithw

[LeRoy IHC]

In Pa. don't even think about brakes on just one axle. You must have brakes on all axles with a break away switch. If they pull you over and you don't have everything operational, they will deadline the trailer right on the spot. You can't pull it down the road to a garage or anything it stays parked right where you are until it's fixed. If you can't fix it at the location you have been pulled over you must call a wrecker to come get it. I went through it up on the turnpike. Got a $100 fine and the cop gave me a choice I had 15 minutes to to see if I could find the problem why the break away switch wasn't working or he'd order it to be towed. I found the broken wire spliced it he inspected the brakes to make sure they all worked and left me go. So I only had to pay the fine, if I couldn't have fixed it I would have, had to pay a wrecker. End of Story. I have been told that Pa. will no longer allow home made trailers to be titled because of legal libility. All trailers now must be factory built, if you have one that was built years ago and has a title you're OK as long as it passes the yearly state inspection.