Replacing Trailer brakes - which manufactures to stay away from?

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JayArr

JayArr

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Location
Mission British Columbia Canada
Hi All

I'm going to replace the brakes on the trailer this year and I'm looking for recommendations or horror stories to help me decide which ones to buy.

DATA:

Hayes Axels, 3500 lbs
Tandem axels
Electric brakes
10" x 2 1/4"
I don't know that I need auto adjust. Comments?

The three manufacturers I've seen repeatedly are Dexter, TruRyde and Lippert.

Amazon has Huskey, SCITOO, Auto Express, M-Parts and Southwest Wheel.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has replaced their own brakes, what did you buy, did it fit or require "finesse" was it good quality - Made in the USA?

Brakes are not a good place to save $50 by buying Chinese knockoff parts so I want to do my diligence.
 
Brakes are brakes. If you buy the assembly complete they will simply bolt on. Then all you will need is new inner seals, and bearings. If you want the absolute best convert to disc brakes.
 
The brake specialty shop near me strongly recommended buying the entire package, backing plate with brake already assembled, i.e. just mount it and connect the wires. They claimed too much trouble trying to match components piecemeal. These guys do dozens of brake jobs every day, trailers and big commercial vehicles as well as cars. Even air brakes.

Would you convert to disc brakes? If changing them out, seems like a good opportunity. https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Brakes/Kodiak/K2HR35D.html

I see that etrailer.com has their own brand now, plus a lot of Dexter and some brands for disc & hydraulic that I'm not familiar with. https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Trailer_Brakes.aspx
 
The complete brake assembly is the backing plate, magnet assembly and shoes. 4 or 5 bolts and 2 wires is all. In my case I bought self adjusting as I am not likely to manually adjust in any case.
The tech that did mine used HF heat shrink crimps for the wires.
 
Thanks Gary

I plan to buy the assembly as a kit and just bolt the backing plate onto the axel as they recommend.

Disc brakes are more costly than I want to spend. The drum brakes have been adequate for the last 30 years so I don't see a reason to spend $3000 converting to electric-hydraulic.

I'm not sure I'd trust a eTrailer "house brand". To me that just screams cheap chinese knockoff.

That said... if someone here has actually purchased it and can reccomend it I'd change my mind. That's sort of why I started this thread, I'm looking for hands on experience.

Jeff
 
Dexter is also made in China. Yes, they do make their axles here, but virtually everything used in the axles and other components are China made. Lippert and Dexter, in the sizes you are talking (same as mine) are interchangeable from what I have been able to tell. I suspect the Hayes axles are dimensionally the same as the others, but no way to tell until you try them.

One firm, Dexter Parts, Dexter Axles | Dexter Brakes | Dexter Parts | Torflex Axles (not affiliated with Dexter Axle) and SOUTHWEST WHEEL® are big enough to tell you what fits or doesn't fit your axles.

Charles
 
I just replaced all four brakes with the complete kits from ETrailer this week. All new components from the backing plate out and a very easy swap. My issue now is that the drums all have scoring on the surface the magnets contact to actuate the brakes so even though all the components are new, I’m still not getting good stopping power. And yes, I’ve adjusted the shoes and checked voltage at the truck as well as the wheels. So, I would suggest that you go ahead and spring for new drums as well, as I have to do now, so you can change everything out at one time.
 
I never cared for self adjusting brakes. They rarely seemed to work all that well. A manual brake adjustment once a year after lubing the bearings & checking seals worked best for me.

If I had a towable now I'd want discs.
 
i
Patnsuzanne said:
I just replaced all four brakes with the complete kits from ETrailer this week. All new components from the backing plate out and a very easy swap. My issue now is that the drums all have scoring on the surface the magnets contact to actuate the brakes so even though all the components are new, I’m still not getting good stopping power. And yes, I’ve adjusted the shoes and checked voltage at the truck as well as the wheels. So, I would suggest that you go ahead and spring for new drums as well, as I have to do now, so you can change everything out at one time.
Click to expand...
I found that even with new drums, it took about 150 miles of use for the brakes to start having a good effect.
 
Patnsuzanne said:
I just replaced all four brakes with the complete kits from ETrailer this week. All new components from the backing plate out and a very easy swap. My issue now is that the drums all have scoring on the surface the magnets contact to actuate the brakes so even though all the components are new, I’m still not getting good stopping power. And yes, I’ve adjusted the shoes and checked voltage at the truck as well as the wheels. So, I would suggest that you go ahead and spring for new drums as well, as I have to do now, so you can change everything out at one time.
Click to expand...
Dexter says the break in procedure for new shoes is to apply the brakes 20 to 30 times, beginning at 40 mph and slowing to 20 mph. Unless your drums are horrible, I doubt that some scoring on the magnetic surface is, by itself, causing the issues you are experiencing.

Charles
 
Last edited:
I had to replace mine as the inner bearing grease seals on 3 had leaked & the other one was badly scored.
I got some braking after a few stops but dramatic improvement after 100+ miles.
 
I didn’t mean to hijack the thread, but thanks for the advice on my comments. I’m on board with a break in period, but since the breaks wouldn’t even lock up on the sandy dirt road out to the highway, I need to do a little more work before we go out in traffic with it! New drums coming on Monday.
 
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